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The Doctor Is In.

April 9, 2010 by Timothy Harvey

This is something that from time to time, no pun intended, Russell T. Davies, the producer of the first four seasons of the new series seemed to forget.  Based on the first episode of the new season of DOCTOR WHO, "The Eleventh Hour" starring Matt Smith as the new Doctor, new producer Steven Moffat is keenly aware of that.

This is a good thing.

What follows is a something of a review of that new episode, with some mild spoilers. You have been warned...

The reason I mention the alien aspect of the Doctor, is that throughout the history of the show, both original run and present, some of the most effective stories have emphasized the fact that while the Doctor looks like us, he is not like us. He travels in time and space, he lives for centuries, and when he is wounded beyond hope, he can be reborn. His mind works differently than ours, and his code of ethics and morals, while similar to ours, would reveal a sometimes frightening difference.

And when he angry, when he was pushed into rage... well.

And he is on our side. For all the alien-ness of the Doctor, there has been joy and wonder and laughter, and this time traveling force of nature comes back to our little blue planet because he LIKES us.

David Tennant's Tenth Doctor ended his run in rage and tears and one alien man weighed down by his years and his pain and his loneliness, and the sheer cost of what saving the universe means.

Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor begins his with these words:

"Can I have an apple?"

(Here there be something resembling spoilers...)

Young Amelia Pond, an orphaned Scottish girl transplanted to England has a crack in her bedroom wall. Voices come through it. This is a bit scary, as there isn't anyone on the other side of the wall. Well, not that she can see anyway.

And then there is the police box that has crashed into her garden, and a very strange man who comes out of it, soaking wet and asking for apples.

Our first glimpse of how Matt Smith will be playing the Doctor might actually be the best post regeneration scene yet, and I've seen every episode of both runs of the show, and listened to the audios of the missing episodes from back when the BBC didn't do such a good job of saving the old ones. Here is a Doctor adjusting to his new body, at once comically then painfully, curious about his new form yet more interested in putting some food into it. It's a very physical performance, and based on this, Smith is quite the physical comedian. He jerks, he sways, he twitches, he falls, he springs back up. As several of the Doctors before him did, he has something of the clown about him. And while Smith is, at 27, as much has been written about, the youngest actor to play the Doctor, he has a face that doesn't exactly read young, and a voice that can but often doesn't. He looks and sounds, well, alien. There's also something of the past Doctors there, with the humor and arrogance and the talking too fast that we've come to love about the character. And oddly enough, I see a hint of Monty Python in Smith's Doctor. And it works.

Because he is the Doctor, he sees that Amelia is frightened by the crack and the voices, and he sets out to see what he can do for her.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

The interaction between Smith and Caitlin Blackwood, the young Scots actress playing Amelia is charming and funny and in the end, a little sad. There is a moment, which will come back at the end of the episode, where you see that both of their characters are alone and far from home, and another where the simplest of hopes is dashed. Whether we are getting broad comedy with food, or the Doctor seriously explaining to a child about cracks in space and time, their interplay is beautiful.

But before the crack and what is on the other side can fully be dealt with, the broken TARDIS seems likely to explode and the Doctor tells Amelia that he'll deal with it and be back in five minutes.

"Trust me," he says. "I'm the Doctor."

When he gets back... well. The TARDIS has well established steering problems.

We will meet an older Amelia played by Karen Gillan, her boyfriend Rory, and a town that has watched Amelia grow up with her stories of her imaginary friend, the raggedy Doctor.

And the voices behind the wall are coming from everything that can broadcast: "Prisoner Zero will vacate the Human residence, or the Human residence will be incinerated."

Unfortunately the TARDIS has locked the Doctor out and his sonic screwdriver is on the fritz.

Oh, Prisoner Zero is on the loose and there are twenty minutes until its jailers will destroy the earth.

So much to say and trying so much to go light on the spoilers, but Gillan's Amelia plays off Smith's Doctor wonderfully, bringing the younger Amelia out when appropriate and being a Scottish spitfire the rest of the time. Their dynamic bodes very well for the new season, and like the best of the previous companions, she's not afraid to question the Doctor and stand up to him when he just assumes that she'll do what he says. She is smart and funny and has a sense of wonder that makes her what every companion really is... us.

Her boyfriend Rory, played by Arthur Darvill, is funny and capable and serves quite well as the one person asking quite reasonable questions in the midst of chaos.

Oh I can't resist... there is a moment, where the Doctor makes it quite clear why he is a force to reckon with. It's a great continuity moment and for that moment, every Doctor before him makes his presence known.

"Is this world protected? You're not the first lot to have come here, oh there have been SO many. And what you've got to ask yourself... what happened to them?"

Classic.

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STARRING
MATT SMITH
KAREN GILLAN