Posts Tagged ‘Matt Smith’

Who Review: Let’s Kill Hitler

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

The Time Lord(s) returned to television last night in the first episode of the second half of the sixth series (phew). Having finally dropped the bombshell of the identity of River Song, now Steven Moffat gets to have some fun with the character. Oh, and Hitler’s there too.

First, let’s talk about Hitler. His fleeting cameo appearance was a mixed blessing. On one hand, it was good that they didn’t try and make an entire story out of it, having him in a 45-minute episode simply as puppy-stomping evil would’ve been boring, and if you try and show any character development you risk appearing to redeem Hitler. On the other hand, what an idea for a story! Though, as much as I would’ve liked to see a full story made out of this, and kudos to Moffat for taking the risk, it would’ve managed to piss somebody off, so better leave it alone.

On the Eleventh Doctor’s sudden attainment of the greatcoat, it’ll probably grow on me in the end but I don’t like it at the moment. Long, sweeping coats are a heroic staple as we’ve seen with Neo (of ‘The Matrix’), the latest incarnation of Sherlock Holmes (a character at present owned and operated by Moffat), Captain Jack Harkness and the Tenth Doctor; but the point is that they’ve been done to death by Doctor Who. When we saw that Matt Smith’s costume consisted simply of a tweed suit jacket, I thought that’d be a great chance to redefine some of the hero stereotypes. After all, how many superheroes do you know wear tweed jackets and bow-ties? Rather than going along with the trends, Doctor Who should be showing us why it’s been so influential and set the trends. Sherlock Holmes suits the coat, as does The Doctor, but since Moffat’s other show, Sherlock, uses it you would think that he’d noticed the recurring heroic themes. But that’s my only real qualm with the coat, I’ll probably get used to it and eventually want my own soon enough. Nerds, like Facebook users, quickly grow accustomed to change (sometimes).

The ongoing saga of River Song is, I have to admit, shattering my expectations. I certainly never expected they would show the regeneration of Melody Pond into the ‘River Song’ incarnation. But the idea that an earlier incarnation of Melody Pond knocked around with Amy for her entire life, going to school and hearing stories about The Doctor, seemed odd to me. Why would a child who was trained and raised to kill The Doctor, be content to spend 20 or so years with her mother at a young age rather than actively seeking out The Doctor. I suppose you could argue that regenerating into a young kid (evidently human/time-lord hybrids age normally) meant she was at a disadvantage, but that’s not just being a sleeper agent, that’s downright lazy.

Though I like seeing the story of River Song unfold, at the same time the limitations of telling an story onscreen will always be poignant. It’s the same reason why Doctor Who should never show the events of the Time War, because for all it’s glory and scale and tragedy, it could never live up to the expectations we have with the limitations of a special effects budget. If it’s going to be chronicled anywhere, it should be in spin-off novels where the imagination of the writer and the reader are unbound. So too should it be with the story of River Song, at least as far as origins.

I do, however, hope that we see earlier versions of Melody, possibly as the little girl seen in earlier episodes, as some sort of sinister antagonist who is shown to repeatedly try and kill The Doctor, whereas the older Melody is the River Song we know, I thought this would be a good way to seperate out the two personas. However, given that “Mels” met The Doctor for the first time here, it wouldn’t be possible within continuity, but there are ways around that.

Oh yeah! I mentioned in my series break review that The Silence turning out to be a species was disappointing, and that the only way it could be threatening would be if we were shown an identifiable villain. Now we learn that The Silence is actually a religious order out to take out The Doctor, and with that the mystery is restored. I love it!

Other than that, the story was a beautifully paced, competently acted and massively enjoyable story. Showing the Amy/Rory thing where she thought he was gay before they got together was a cute moment, and showed how influential Melody had actually been in their lives. But I do hope that Amy doesn’t take the whole “maternal like relationship with a schoolfriend who it turns out to be your daughter” thing as a good enough replacement for actually raising her daughter. I suppose the timelines now effectively forbid it, but still. Maybe when Karen Gillan finally elects to leave Doctor Who, there’ll be some massive deus ex machina that will rewrite history and allow Amy to be reunited with her infant daughter to live a normal life, maybe serving as a good exit for River Song also.

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Doctor Who-The-Fuck?

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

Well, despite my last blog post the rapture didn’t occur, so I can only assume that, as predicted, Harold Camping is full of shit.

Moving on, the first half of the sixth series of Doctor Who came to a shuddering conclusion last night, and as the purveyor of all things Who and the self-appointed authority on the show, I would be remiss not to comment. This review will contain spoilers abound, so if you had the poor judgement to read a blog post on a topic that you didn’t want to have spoilt for you then…you’re a fucking idiot, you might as well carry on reading because the spoilers will be lost on you anyway.

River Song

In my stupidity, I heard a spoiler about River Song’s identity being the daughter, in some manner or other, of Amy Pond. When I heard it, however, I dismissed it as outlandish and inaccurate because I honestly didn’t think they were going to do that. I don’t know why, but I think that the mystery that has surrounded River Song for nearly four years was a bit of a damp squib. Sure, it’s a sensational twist that I adore, but I was expecting the identity of River to have some massive personal impact on The Doctor, the protagonist of almost 50 years. Instead, it was more of an impact on Amy and Rory and a bit of an ineffectual moment for everyone else, even The Doctor (when he realised) seemed to show relatively little reaction besides finding it a bit bemusing and then buggering off in the TARDIS. The whole thing, in my humble opinion, fell a bit flat in terms of dramatic tension; but in terms of plot it’s a fantastic twist that I think will give us a lot in character development in the coming series. That is, assuming the burdens of motherhood permit Mrs. Pond to remain aboard the TARDIS.

The Cliffhanger

I take issue with the series cliffhanger, because Moffat has spent ages telling us that the cliffhanger at the end of the series, which was the reveal of River Song’s identity, would be a total game-changer that would have us begging for the next half of the series. Now, I certainly can see how it would be a game-changer, but it’s hardly a nailbiting conclusion to the series; the cliffhanger of the previous episode, The Almost People, was a bigger cliffhanger than tonight’s episode. I almost feel like having Amy melt at the end of the episode, revealed as a Ganger copy held hostage in a birthing chamber, would’ve been a good place to close the series. Then have River’s reveal at the start of the second half and let the series carry on from there.

A cliffhanger is so-called because the episode should generally end with some immediate danger that seems inescapable, the resolution of it coming at the start of the next series. A narrative secret finally revealed can work as the end of the series, but it’s far divorced from a cliffhanger; especially seeing as the last we heard of The Doctor was him saying that he’s worked out how to save the baby, with such brazen casualness he might as well have been saying he was nipping off to buy teabags.

Amy and Rory

Moffat blatantly reads this blog, because I wrote in a post ages ago that Amy needs to stop having this flirtatious back and forth with The Doctor whilst Rory just stares blankly at it all like the bland demographic filler that he was last series. This series, I’ve been pleased to see that, with self-referential humour, Moffat has both ceased and actively desisted; I speak, of course, of all the times that we’ve heard Amy say something that we originally thinks refers to The Doctor, and it turns out to be about Rory. Amy, besides spending the entire series as an unwitting Time Lord oven, has done very little this series of note, besides serving to deliver a vague allegory about identity when faced with clones. Not even Rory has done a great deal worth a damn, besides the fairly predictable show of heroics and general badassery when Amy is taken, as we see the Cyberman ship blow up expensively behind him. Cool guys don’t look at explosions.

Best Episode

They were all very good this series, it’s very rare that I enjoy the “filler” episodes like The Curse of the Black Spot and the Rebel Flesh saga, but they were very well written and felt much like early Doctor Who, with the simple concept of a time travelling alien in a blue box. The continuity-heavy episodes were just as good, with a particular mention for The Doctor’s Wife for it’s superb writing courtesy of Neil Gaiman and it’s contribution to the mythos. The opening two-parter was fun, but became a little too confusing for my taste, and of course we have the series closer which, despite not having an actual cliffhanger, was a fun “let’s bring back a fuck-ton of stuff from the current era and mash it randomly into one episode” type of deal, serving only really as a vehicle for the River Song reveal.

What’s to come?

Well, the title of the next episode Let’s Kill Hitler makes me wonder if Quentin Tarantino has been bought into write an episode, but it also seems to imply that, unless the next half of the series is going to be a six-part chase after the stolen child, the missing baby deal will be wrapped up rather quickly. I hope, and expect, the former; and I also wonder if this episode will see a return of Ian McNeice’s Winston Churchill. I also anticipate there will be some emotional back-and-forth scene between River Song and Amy. Other than that, I have nothing to offer in terms of predictions, the latter half of the series is still in production, and I’m desperately avoiding spoilers between now and then.

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What Doctor Who MUST do in 2011 to not be shit

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

I had high hopes for Doctor Who going into 2010. New head-writer Steven Moffat, who has penned such classics as The Empty Child and Blink, was set to kick off a golden era of the show and cheeky, elbow-headed Matt Smith was to be the fresh face of it. Coming from the Tennant era with a superb actor and enjoyable, if a bit oversensationalised, stories from the Who Godfather Russell T Davies, was going to be interesting but we had high hopes.

The team

What we got was not quite that. Granted, Matt Smith is a fantastic Doctor (he’s no David Tennant, but he was superb all the same), and we had some crackers in the last series, but there was a few things missing that was disappointing to an overly critical super-scrutiniser like myself. The sixth series (Eleven’s second) is already well into production and will undoubtedly have all the stories needed for filming locked down; but if Moffat wants to make sure that the hardcore Whovians aren’t beating him to death with a space-whale (seriously, wtf was that!) then here’s some tips.

1. Cut out the Amy-Rory-Doctor bullshit.

The whole back-and-forth in the last series about Amy having to choose between The Doctor and Rory was tedious and unrealistic. The Doctor’s an alien, you can understand him being oblivious to it but Rory clearly wasn’t and yet he stuck around for however-many episodes being a gormless, ineffectual moron about it. Oh yes, it was all part of his ‘character development’. Fine. But how did he manage to persuade anyone to marry him in the first place if he started off that spineless? Still, now that Amy’s had her epiphany, made her choice and they’re now married maybe it’ll stop, but it has to be complete stop. No more hints from Amy, either she stops flirting with The Doctor or Rory leaves the TARDIS, anything other than that would look stupid.

2. Put some thought into the ending of the episode

The last series had stories that were truly inspired as their premise, but it felt constantly as though the writer had only really thought through the premise and not the conclusion. Far too often did The Doctor flick a switch and the whole threat, forty-odd minutes of build-up, was completely neutralised and everything returned to normal; this is what’s known in Who-geek terms as a “fucking cop-out”. ‘The Vampires of Venice’, for example, has The Doctor effortlessly scaling a clocktower and flicking a switch, suddenly the tidal waves that threatened to flood the city were no longer an issue. There was never any feeling of danger, the little issue of height could’ve been a great source of peril but instead it felt like a minor inconvenience; they might’ve well put the switch at the top of a gentle incline and the audience would’ve felt less underwhelmed.

3. Use classic-series monsters…in moderation

Moffat always protests that he doesn’t like using the old series monsters, yet he’s guilty of doing so more than his predecessor (who was reknowned for it) in a quarter of the time. Just look at the penultimate episode of the series, not even past the first series and it looked like a Doctor Who convention on the planet ‘Cliché’. Nevertheless, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use old series monsters, it’s been done since…well, the old series…and they’re the reasons why Who is so recognisable and it’s always fun to see the reinvention of something that before would’ve been papier-mache and foam rubber. The thing that’s important to remember is that Doctor Who thrives on new ideas: use the classics, but give the lion’s share of the time to the inception of new monsters to try and create the classic-monsters of the future.

Oh and if you’re looking to save effects and costume budgets when using the Sontarans, just hire Eric Pickles.

Perfect!

4. Be scary, for fuck’s sake!

Look, Doctor Who has a reputation for being “hide behind the sofa” scary, but it hasn’t actually been that scary since 1984! Maybe I’m not in a position to comment here because, arguably, it’s a kids show (or at least a show that’s enjoyed by and is accessible to children) and I started liking Who when I was 14, but the scary-reputation and the scary-reality seem massively at variance. In the old days I guess children were made of stronger stuff, because a lot of it was scary, nightmare-inducing stuff. I agree that the source of fear should be psychological rather than simply buttering the screen with blood and gore, and the show in it’s modern guise does do that, but they’re so concious of censors, their timeslot and demographic that they intentionally tone down this horror and, as a result, create this generation protected from, and thus oversensitive to, fear. Nightmares are good, fear is fun, make the most of it!

This is not necessarily Moffat’s fault, we know how the BBC doesn’t like to frighten the horses and, as it’s funded by the license fee, will have to deal with the inevitable complaints of mollycoddling mothers instead of the quiet grumble of disappointed fanboys and fear-junkies. But Moffat should be constantly pushing the BBC, pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable, pushing to expose children to more varied experiences than the banal, passive threats that it’s forced to do now; some of it will get through, and that will be the stuff that kids remember.

4. Stop ‘building up’ to things, because they’ll just disappoint.

I’m all for story-arcs, but they have a life-span. Russell T. Davies had a storyline that overarched the entire series, hints dropped here and there that The Doctor was usually completely blind to and were mainly for the benefit of the viewer; the smug feeling of noticing something that the Time Lord didn’t. The storyline has to come to a head at the end of the series and we have to learn most, if not all, of the detail behind it. If it’s dragged out over multiple series (as ‘The Silence’ storyline is) then, firstly, the viewer loses interest or forgets half of the details and, secondly, it seems bizarre to have The Doctor randomly knocking around the Universe being silly, like a great cosmic Harry Hill, as he (along with the viewer) learns increasingly more about what we can only presume is a massive, looming danger. If The Doctor doesn’t jump into action as soon as he knows something’s up (say, when he notices the cracks appearing in the whole fucking universe) then what’s the point of him?

Also, Whovians are fickle fellows; the fact that we practically worship a TV show should go some way to demonstrate the average attention span of us. Either the story-arc conclusion gets delivered fairly swiftly, or you make damned sure it’s worth the wait.

6. Keep it up

Ok, so I’ve been complaining but really the return of the show has been fantastic and massively enjoyable. The reimagining of it when Moffat took the rains was a well-timed reboot to keep the audience’s waning attention; I like Matt Smith and I like Steven Moffat. But I just think that these few little details could reign in the snobbish adults who dismiss it as “just a kids show” and turn it into a real phenomena.

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Doctor Who: Now Cracks A Noble Heart

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Well now, that was an adventure. The final episode of Doctor Who’s fifth, or thirty-first if you’re fussy, series and the very first with Messieurs Smith and Gillan at the helm, if indeed a flying box can have a helm, has now finished broadcast and it would be an immense folly of me not to comment in earnest.

The Doctor: Matt Smith has inhabited the role and I have no way of criticising him for it. He’s a damn fine actor who has successfully given us The Doctor as we know him with enough new traits to make him distinguishable. Is he as good as Tennant? No, I’m afraid he’s not been quite as awesome as good old Ten, but the predecessor had three (point five) series’ to make his mark and Smith has only just ended his first (reportedly, out of five) so I still consider it early days. He’s a fantastic Doctor, but had a hard act to follow.

Amy Pond: Little bit disappointed with how this companion worked out. It seemed early on that Amy would be a new angle on a companion but, for most of the series, that was forgotten and instead other writers used her in the capacity of standard companion acting as the voice of the audience and her “issues” only came up when needed during Moffat episodes. For Amy’s part, they could’ve done more to seed her significance into other episodes rather than using it to beat you over the head every third episode.

Rory Williams: Again, a touch disappointing. Rory was, undoubtedly, intended as the comic relief throughout the series but he was, in that respect, far too similar to Mickey Smith. Both began as the clumsy source of annoyance who, as the series developed, grew into a hero. He had his moments, but he was too much of a cookie-cutter companion.

River Song: I’m simulataneously infuriated by and enjoying the ongoing tale of River Song. Given that she’s meeting The Doctor out of sync she is in a unique position to keep giving prophetic insight into the future of the show, and it’s pretty clear that she’s going to turn out to be wildly significant in Who-fandom in the coming years. I imagine Alex Kingston’s been paid a hefty sum to commit to the series long-term so that these hints can be explained and I’m glad, because she’s an immensely enjoyable character (sort of like a female Captain Jack) to watch.

Favourite Episode: Ooo, that’s tricky, but it’s probably either Victory of the Daleks or The Lodger. The former because of it’s historical references, continuity, geek factor and comedy, and the latter for it’s ball-scratching simplicty. The Dalek episode was part of the ongoing redevelopment of Doctor Who and so covered a lot of back-references, plus the relationship between The Doctor and Churchill (who had already met) was refreshing. The Lodger was a suprise considering it was the annual “cheap episode”, which have a history of sucking like a Henry Hoover on crack, and had a lot of appeal despite being a complete departure from the usual Who format with as much human drama, which would usually make me wince, as Sci-fi nerdgasm. I can’t continue without mentioning the fantastic Spitfire-Dalek Saucer dogfight in space, a completely ridiculous notion but fantastic all the same!

Worst Episode: I’m going to say The Beast Below which, on the surface, seemed like a chilling examination of nightmares but was actually a bit dull. It had a good story and morality tale, and I loved the introduction of Liz X and the twist at the end, but the threat of the baddie never really took given that they spent most of the story standing atop the whale and the smiler things never really seemed all that scary.

The Finale:

This entire series has felt like a massive build up, any stories with no references to the Cracks tended to be incredibly weak, and so you went into the last two episodes expecting a lot, and the penultimate episode “The Pandorica Opens”, at least, delivered. The appearance of so many aliens trapping The Doctor was a nice touch but, for both practical and time reasons, not one that would’ve been carried too far, given the intense amount of preparation that must’ve gone into the five minute sequence of trapping The Doctor in the Pandorica. Disappointingly, the entrapment in the Pandorica had to be resolved quickly, as an episode with The Doctor locked away would’ve been slow and tedious, but was done quite well using the viewer’s skewed perspective on time travel. Was there a better moment in that episode than the beaten up Doctor appearing with no warning from nowhere and, seemingly, dying. Although, giving The Doctor a Vortex Manipulator to jump around with helped the story along, but removed the impact of the TARDIS “exploding”.

There were obvious moments of science-fiction shruggery, again diluting the impact of Amy’s “death” using some bullshit explanation of the Pandorica being able to prevent death so the prisoner couldn’t escape, the Pandorica was that secure (though the Sonic was able to open it with relative ease), or the idea that The Pandorica light held a “restoration field”. As well as the ultimate closer of the episode where, after spending an emotive ten minutes explaining how the resetting of the universe came at the cost of his non-existence, The Doctor was able to be “remembered” back sat with me as the biggest cop-out imaginable. Ultimately, the story became a massive set up resolved by a reset button so big it could be seen from another galaxy, if they existed in that universe, and a massive retcon always feels like a cop-out. Then again, Doctor Who has a history of leaving things ambiguous (by which I mean the writers got a bit lazy and gave up), for example they’ve still never explained Colin Baker; what the hell was he?

Overall, a fun story with ongoing significance. The arc over this series appears relatively wrapped up but an ultimate arc, perhaps over the course of The Eleventh Doctor’s life, has been hinted at. We still need to learn the cause of the TARDIS explosion and the owner of the chain-smoker voice that echoed through the TARDIS. I also found it interesting that, once again, The Doctor is called into action, presumebly hinting at the Christmas Special. On one hand, it gives The Doctor a direction, of sorts, where instead of simply knocking around the universe and running into this stuff, he’s actively called to it, but on the other it gives The Doctor a musty, ninteen-seventies detective agency vibe which I dislike.

Of course, it doesn’t end here. Blood of the Cybermen is now available to download on the BBC Website.

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Computer Science is easy, fighting Daleks is hard

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Having saved the world from a shapeshifting snake, which could easily be mistaken for the male equivalent of vagina dentata, using little more than a Blackberry Storm, a porn-laden laptop and a ginger – all three otherwise useless objects – Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor has well and truly ingratiated himself into David Tennant’s vacant spot as the incumbent Doctor Who. The BBC has wasted no time in announcing a series of downloadable video games, Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, with voices provided by Smith and token ginger Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, materialising in June (possibly just as the current series ends).

The Doctor and Amy emerge from the TARDIS

From what the BBC has said, these are not video games as much as they are “interactive episodes” something which is not unheard of in Who-fandom since David Tennant presented the 2005 Red-Button game Attack of the Graske. The classic series also felt the lure of the polygon with their attempt to reignite interest in the show ahead of the TV Movie in the video game Destiny of the Doctors. By the sounds of it, however, the Beeb is keen to mention how this is to promote computer literacy among young children because, you know, once you’ve shot a Dalek with a Sonic Screwdriver using a keyboard, programming’s a snap.

Details of the game themselves, written by current Who-writers Phil Ford (co-writer of The Waters of Mars) and James Moran (The Fires of Pompeii and various work on Torchwood) and developed by Sumo Digital and Broken Sword creator Charles Cecil, are relatively lacking. The nature of the games remains a complete mystery save a few choice action-shots of the CGI Doctor and Amy peering around a war-torn city and missing the point of black cabs…

The Doctor and Amy push a car - for some reason

…Here’s hoping that they’ll be on the same video-game worthy level as modern console releases rather than tedious puzzle games, though the indication that they’ll be downloadable (and most likely free) suggests that these will be far from big-bugdet productions.

If they’re just piss-easy puzzle games with a few seconds of flashy CGI – I want my license fee back.

Just to clarify, I won’t be posting a review of every episode of the Doctor Who series currently airing, unless there’s a really awesome episode, though I will likely write a series review once it’s over and I will, of course, review these games.

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REVIEW: Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Well, that was quite an episode. Lots to say so let’s start, as many things do, at the beginning.

Opening scene, always good to see a TARDIS crashing sequence, I’m glad that just because so much is changing they haven’t just cut off from the previous episode and continued straight on with the old interior exploding and back-references. I thought too much was made of The Doctor’s meeting with Amy as a child – that sequence could’ve been cut down a bit, allowing more time for action. The Doctor has a tendency to be inactive for a while after his regeneration, usually through him sleeping for most of an episode before having a heroic reappearance at the end, though this was not the case here, it was almost worse that our first real look at the Eleventh Doctor was of him sitting in a dowdy kitchen with a child trying different foods, I’d rather he were unconcious.

Opening sequence wasn’t what I expected, the thunder cuts into the theme tune which I dislike, it’s quite dark (which I suppose fits in with Moffat’s reimagining of the show but still) and I’d heard abundant rumours that we were going to see Smith’s face in the titles like in the days of old, but no. In all honesty, it really isn’t that different, which was a bit disappointing but only a minor detail so not a massive fault. Most of the first half hour was a bit boring really, it was quite predictable what was going to happen during that time, like The Doctor overshooting his return, the “policewoman” turning out to be Amy, etc. etc. What was up with that weird eye thing The Doctor did, good for the plot I suppose but I really hope it doesn’t become a staple feature, the sheer noise of it makes my ears ache.

Characters were a mixed bag, I don’t like that we’ve got yet another Mickey, in the form of Rory, playing the hapless comic relief boyfriend of the companion. Amy, perhaps the first character with father issues projected onto The Doctor, is a good change of pace from “fiesty Londoner” that every main companion since the revival has been. Other than that, a delightful cameo by Patrick Moore, a lot of funny characters but none that appear as though they will be influential to the show in any way. Matt Smith, as The Doctor, was absolutely sublime. He was a bit haggard at first by the slow-moving plot dealing with Amy’s issues, settling into his new body and so on, but when the “20 minutes” thing started, The Doctor, and I think Smith as an actor, was in his element and became a charismatic, witty blur of plan-making machine. There was something very Doctor about this sequence but also something different that Smith has bought to the role, I can’t quite put my finger on it (which is why I don’t try to make a career out of TV reviews), it was definetely The Doctor, just not as we know him.

I wish we’d seen more of the new Sonic Screwdriver, there was a lot of old Sonic action and we saw it blow up, but I wish we’d seen more of it. I’m also a bit annoyed that the TARDIS rebuilt itself rather than The Doctor repairing it, mostly because I would’ve loved to see a montage sequence of The Doctor building a new Sonic and then using it to repair the TARDIS. The interior was definitely NOT what I was expecting – it’s so much biggger and the console itself is quite a distance from the door that, compared to all previous interiors it was odd. I like that they’ve bought back the screen hanging from the ceiling of the TV Movie and just how intricate the console is, plus the layers and the prospect of seeing different rooms with the cavernous doors is appealing. My earlier mention of expecting it to be fairly similar, owing to how relatively seldom the set is used per episode has been completely thrown out judging by just how much money they must’ve spent on that (half of it looks CGI as it is) so I expect (and really hope) that there’s a lot of inner-TARDIS action.

The alien antagonist was a nifty, but I think a little bit underplayed villain. I suppose the focus of the episode really isn’t the villain during a story like this so I got the feeling that Moffat avoided putting in an alien that would take up too much of the plot. The CG was…interesting… and, particularly during shots where Amy came face to face with the snake thing, looked a bit poorly done – I know there were budget issues so that’s probably why the villain spent most of it’s time inhabiting other bodies. The teeth of this alien are a testament to the rest of the series, Moffat’s known for writing seemingly-standard “scary” stuff and making it actually chilling – sharp teeth on a vicious alien is nothing new, but only Steven Moffat can do it in a way that could unnerve even a very masculine 19-year-old man such as myself *cough*. Also, twins from The Shining………….WHAT?

There was the obligatory scene where The Doctor, now fully stabilised after his regeneration, having picked out a new costume (hospital locker room again, love it!) and saved the day, confronts the alien and scares them off. A projection showed previous monsters and clips from the new and classic series, and there was the shot of each incarnation of The Doctor, which Smith steps through after we see David Tennant and says “Hello, I’m The Doctor” undoubtedly more to the audience than the giant eyeball he’s facing. I’m pretty sure we saw something like that quite recentely and it screws up Moffat’s proclamation that this series wouldn’t be mythology-heavy, but for a regeneration episode it’s pretty permissable.

Overall, an up and down episode, but the up parts were a fantastic introduction for The Eleventh Doctor and, for the down parts, even Smith looked a little bit bored during those scenes so he was forgiven. It’s hard not to love this Doctor, he reminds me of Sylvester McCoy in an odd way, but hopefully without the sharp decline in ratings and eventual cancellation this time.

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Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour, literally! (Spoiler Free Pre-Speculation)

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Having exploded onto our screens, and managing to offend women, gingers and disabled people in the first two minutes, tonight we get to see the first full-length episode of Matt Smith in action as The Doctor in the latest episode, The Eleventh Hour (BBC One/HD).

The new TARDIS team 2010

I haven’t seen all that many preview clips (I generally try to avoid spoilers), but I maintain that Smith will play The Doctor very well. People often forget that most of the lines and direction come from the crew, the actors obviously have some input but it’s a bit unfair on Smith to have to take any and all heat if The Eleventh Doctor gets his arse handed to him by the fans, then again he’s likely to get most of the glory if all goes well. From what I gather the new Head Writer, Steven Moffat, is a hardcore old-Who fan so I imagine the new series will become a bit more classic Who but lacking the crappy Special Effects. Moffat’s predecessor, Russell T. Davies, is just as much of a Whovian but clearly had a very different direction he wanted to take the show than classic Who when he regenerated the show back in 2005. If my prediction is correct, then Moffat risks alienating new fans to the show unless the new interpretation is just as appealing as past five years – just as purist classic fans didn’t like the revival, some people are to accustomed to the show as we currently know it to accept an altered show.

Before he even appeared on the show, criticisms of Matt Smith have been of varying validity – firstly, his relatively unknown status means that most television fans have seen little of his acting ability, which is a foolish reason to condemn him prematurely. Secondly, his appearance (i.e. his self-proclaimed “face with elbows”) and the costume he is wearing is too much old-Doctors and not really as modern as his two predecessors – I think it’s a refreshing change of pace, particularly with such a young actor, to put The Doctor back into something older, retro is in these days. Personally, I think Matt Smith is a good choice and I like what I’ve seen of trailers and other preview clips – I reserve judgement either way until I’ve seen him on screen a bit more, but I’m optimistic (for once).

I like the new Sonic Screwdriver, and I haven’t seen the new TARDIS interior yet due to purposeful avoidance, but I don’t imagine it’s radically different, probably bordering between the classic and the previous appearance, for a set with a very clear purpose like that, being particularly different from how it’s been seems like superfluous given that for 80% of the series the set will be used to open an episode and not be used again until the end. There was recentely a competition to design a TARDIS console, the winner of which was announced in late January – suggesting that most, if not all, of the TARDIS interior scenes were done as pickups at the end of the shooting schedule – in which case we could have very little interaction with the TARDIS.

I’m procrastinating today, hence I was able to get these two posts out in the last hour, but I probably won’t have a review of the episode up until tomorrow – it’s Saturday night!

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