Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour

[worldshown]

Didn't like the first five minutes or so (the hanging from the fingertips outside the TARDIS, theme tune, spitting out the food) but following that I quite enjoyed it.

Almost caught out by the "Call me" stuff until I realised he'd nicked Rory's mobile. Hopefully the magpie trait will be a feature of the character.

Liked the eyeball aliens, but the ones in "Shakara" are much better.

[vzzbux]

Much better. Thoroughly enjoyed this one Matt Smith fits straight into the role. I thought Tennent got a bit stagnant. Nice deft tough with the montage of previous.
I will get a proper analysis when I pick up my daughter tomorrow. (Who Mad).








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[vzzbux]

Double post.

Inside of the Tardis had a bit of a Jules Vern vibe to it.





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[TordelBack]

A very likeable new cast, some nice new visuals, but basically the same old overblown self-indulgent rubbish.   The plot was a slow-moving mash-up of Girl in the Fireplace and the Christmas Invasion with added food-spitting.  When Amelia said she had no parents my hope for a family-free companion soared, only to be dashed as a whole village of aunts, cousins neighbours and wimpy fiancés spilled out.  The montage sequence was nice, there were some funny lines, less shouting, and Amelia is stunningly gorgeous.

I wasn't impresssed, but it wasn't awful, and everyone involved is pretty enough to keep my interest for a few weeks more.

[House of Usher]

I liked it a lot. Definitely an improvement. Not perfect, by any means. I could point out all the things I didn't like (including a lot of irrelevant Heath Robinson clutter on the console), but it was just a lot better than what I've got used to seeing passed off as Doctor Who since its revival began. Lots of bits of it were marvellous. I would have been impressed if young Amelia had shrieked like Drew Barrymore at E.T. when Matt Smith first popped his head up, but you can't have everything.

Everyone in the house, including young nephews, got bored and fidgety when the Doctor started fiddling about with the laptop and uploading the clock-zeroing virus, and the summoning back and confrontation at the end was a bit unnecessary, so it has remained in keeping with the character of RTD's Doctor Who to some extent, but at least it went to some effort to rationalize the fantasy elements as falling naturally out of the sci-fi conceits rather than mere convenience.

[jamesedwards]

The big eye reminded me of the FBEye from an old John Smith Indigo Prime text story, which was nice.

The writer's got restraint, the actor's got charisma, it addresses the problems I used to have with it, those being sentimental fanwank crap destroying the narrative and Tenant playing a bit of a moody wet fuck.

The way it was shot and directed was quite a bit better, too. I think I'll enjoy this rather than be embarrased by it, which is what any given RTD script did to me.

[Richmond Clements]

Loved it.

"Basically... run."

[Robin Low]

Fucking up the title music was not a good start.

During the kitchen scene it felt like I was watching Mork and Mindy.

Much of the Doctor's dialogue might as well have come out of David Tennant's mouth as Matt Smith's - the writers have never got the hang of the idea that the Doctors are different people, albeit with the same core values.

Eyeball aliens - looked a bit silly to be honest.

Sonic bloody screwdriver - great to see it destroyed, but sad to see a new one.

Another global crisis - for fuck sake!

Yet again, the Doctor is portrayed as a godlike saviour/protector of Earth - getting very, very tiresome, guys.

Rather bland storyline, but was saved, I think, by the fairly neat method of contacting the aliens and the way prisoner 0 was eventually identified to them.

Had some time been taken to tell the story, it could have been a half decent Pertwee/Baker-era tale.

Regards

Robin

[Noisybast]

Sonic bloody screwdriver - great to see it destroyed, but sad to see a new one.

To be honest, I took the "No TARDIS, no screwdriver" thing to be some sort of statement of intent. Just watch me be proved wrong next week.

[Tiplodocus]

Thoroughly enjoyed that - especially liked the way it started off very small scale and genuinely funny ("You're scottish, fry me something").  Likeable Doctor and companion.

I don't think we'll be seeing much of Amy's extended family - I think they were just there to set the character for this episode.

Many holes could be picked:
Wonder what Prisoner Zero was doing for 12 years? Just wandering around the village dressed as coma patients?
How come everybody and there dog knows who The Doctor is thanks to RTDs tenure but nobody believes Amy when she says he came and visited?
Mechanical clocks being reset by a computer virus? Very clever indeed.

But fuck it, it was enjoyable, funny, scary, not too heavy, not too overblown had a charismatic lead and an attractive companion, aliens, spaceships and a tardis.  If that's not Doctor Who, I don't know what is.

[House of Usher]

Many holes could be picked:
Wonder what Prisoner Zero was doing for 12 years? Just wandering around the village dressed as coma patients?
How come everybody and there dog knows who The Doctor is thanks to RTDs tenure but nobody believes Amy when she says he came and visited?
Mechanical clocks being reset by a computer virus? Very clever indeed.

Prisoner 0 wasn't doing anything for 12 years. They rationalized that plot hole away. 12 years is merely a blink of an eye for that creature. It didn't really have time to do anything except, yes, wander around the village dressed as coma patients and watch Amelia grow up. Maybe it took 12 years for it to get round to properly establishing those psychic links?

I don't know that Amelia's family knew who the Doctor is thanks to RTD; they knew who he was thanks to Amelia's drawings and models, and that's why they were surprised to see him.

The mechanical clocks being reset by a computer virus? That was definitely a plot hole.

[Tiplodocus]

don't know that Amelia's family knew who the Doctor is thanks to RTD; they knew who he was thanks to Amelia's drawings and models, and that's why they were surprised to see him.

No, I got that bit - and very good it was too.

I meant everybody else in the world that knows about the Doctor because he waves at them from the Titanic as it's about to crash into Buckingham Palace etc.  I thought everybody on Earth knew we had The Doctor as a Protector and prayed to him every night etc. because, you know, he can be a bit like Jesus.

[Robin Low]

Sonic bloody screwdriver - great to see it destroyed, but sad to see a new one.

To be honest, I took the "No TARDIS, no screwdriver" thing to be some sort of statement of intent. Just watch me be proved wrong next week.

As a statement of intent it wouldn't be a bad one, but we'll see.

Regards

Robin

[House of Usher]

I meant everybody else in the world that knows about the Doctor because he waves at them from the Titanic as it's about to crash into Buckingham Palace etc.  I thought everybody on Earth knew we had The Doctor as a Protector and prayed to him every night etc. because, you know, he can be a bit like Jesus.

Yeah, I think they did cock up with that a bit. Maybe They've now decided none of that happened, and a bit like the Crisis on Infinite Earths, nobody remembers any of it properly apart from the Psycho-pirate, locked up in Arkham Asylum?

[vzzbux]

Probably some sort of psychic amnesia spray in the atmosphere.







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