I think it was Sydney Newman when recasting the Doctor in 1966 began along creating the look of that famous markedly different look came about, that said, “Hey Fellas, what are you doing to this guy? […] For Chrissake, flop his hair […] Make him a cosmic hobo!” The cosmic hobo characteristic would stay with the character for over 50-years, as did the regeneration of new Doctors. However, audiences sat and watched with confusion as the old man they let into their homes fade, his hair turned black, and form crumpled to a smaller man. Some would let that confusion turn to a bit of passionate derision of difference.

Doctor Who changed that day in late October 1966. The second serial of the fourth season would close with the lead character not only changing out for another actor, but changing the character’s personality too, something I don’t believe had been done before. The rest of the season would carry on with a man named Patrick Troughton taking up the role of the Doctor, the cosmic hobo, for a further three years of the show’s history. The next regeneration would come at the end of the 50th story, “The War Games,” turning the cosmic hobo from the flute carrying, hat-wearing, first TV incarnation of Robin Hood into a white-haired comedian with a yellow car and close association with intelligence agencies.

Why does all that matter now with an episode from April 3rd, 2010? Well, much like those audiences in 1966, I had grown-up with a man that was tall, dark, and a little bit handsome. I had, of course, experienced the 9th Doctor’s regeneration and was happy to see his short-lived story close. Though, all the same, the 10th Doctor felt like something special when I was younger. Call it a weird sense of nationalism, knowing that “my Doctor” was Scottish and had just turned back into a weird young English man I didn’t initially like anyway. Or you could call it something else, all I know is, I didn’t like the new one at first and stopped watching for a while.

See, this is where I get to call myself stupid. Kids always are, but I wasn’t really letting the show sink-in as I have in more recent years. You’ll still have Americans and idiots who cling to Classic-Who, as if it was considerably better, telling you that the 10th Doctor is “the best.” Now, with retrospective and a wider understanding of the show (and other bits), I can honestly say the 10th Doctor isn’t the best. Objectively, that’s the 9th Doctor, who very rarely had a dud episode in his run of ten stories. He is closely followed by the 11th; then I need 10, 13, and 7 all to have a bit of a fight, but I’m sure Chibnall will make 13 use Nazis… again. Let’s ignore that.

2010 was an entirely new era of Who, with production staff moving on and leaving the show to be headed by Steven Moffat, who is previously best-known for Coupling. I say that’s his best-known previous work, but he is the mad fool that wrote three of my favorite episode of the last four series: “The Empty Child” / “The Doctor Dances,” “The Girl in the Fireplace,” and “Blink;” though he also did “Silence in the Library” / “Forest of the Dead.” He was not only bringing his madcap ideas to the front-of-house, but he’d also be bringing this bloke he’d later state looking as if, “It is like a young man built by old men from memory.” Matt Smith, the 26-year-old that looks like he’s older than time itself.

There is a reason that in six-hundred odd words I’ve not actually spoken about “The Eleventh Hour.” It is not that great of an introduction to the character of the Doctor or the companion. I’ll always hold this aloft, but until you better “Smith and Jones;” your opening episode as the new Doctor and companion is not that great. That’s not to say “The Eleventh Hour” is bad, it is just somewhere in between being very energetic, and Moffat’s style of needlessly snappy dialogue that doesn’t really get you anywhere. Nevertheless, without the rose-tinted glasses of love for the 10th Doctor, that’s what Smith is great at, delivering those one-in-one-thousand lines that just hits you.

In fact i’m getting ahead of myself a little bit here, I am not all that keen on Moffat’s opening two episodes as showrunner. Neither making a big impact on me as a fan initially. We’ll eventually get to talking about really liking that episode with Churchill, even if people want to call him a racist and whatever (sure, whatever floats your boat). That’s the episode that stands out the most in this early portion of Moffat and Smith’s heading of Who. Though, through all of this, I haven’t spoken about one-person, Rory!

Ok, no. We’ll get to him in a minute, but I’m of course talking about the Ginge: Karen Gillian. Though instead, I think we should talk about her cousin, not in that Mean Girls-style rumor way. Instead of our first encounter with Amelia Pond being with Gillian, we get a look at the life of a small Scottish child in an English village in Gloucestershire. Little Amelia and her Raggedy Man, easily one of the saving graces’ of the episode, as the monster or anything else is quite standard sci-fi.

I’ve argued this several times with people around me, and I’d happily do it again here, but I already have. Well, slightly. I spoke about what each of the main New-Who companions (minus Rory) do for the Doctor, and I said that little Amelia Jessica Pond is very much Wendy Darling. I know, not the freshest of observations, but while most use that to tarnish Moffat’s writing and Gillian’s portrayal, I think of it as both good and bad. Yes, often she is the damsel in distress, but in equal measure, she’s the one bringing the energetic enigma of the Doctor to his fun and childish side. With those rose-tinted Tennant-shaped glasses removed from my younger self, I love Amy for that.

I said it towards the end of the run, but Tennant’s entire period is tainted with that whiff of a love for the rejuvenated nostalgia of older fans. Fans, much like Tennant, who had fallen in love with the 3rd or 4th Doctor and still hold those faded days aloft as the greatest Who had ever been, and (more damningly) could ever be. As I’ve already admitted, I was not liking the change that had taken place between the 1st of January and the 3rd of April, 2010. However, I am stupid and I’ve grown to understand why that was stupid; Calling a regeneration bad without giving either showrunner or actor the chance was unfair, not just to them but the show entirely.

You’ll notice I’m not mentioning Gillian when it comes to the derision I had. This is what gives me a suspect feeling of that so-called weird underlying sense of nativism I might have had. I’ve never grasped why I didn’t have the same reaction to Gillian and Amy as I did for Smith and this strange entity I knew wasn’t Russell T Davies. This is where nativism would be called into question, Moffat is Scottish. This is why it was stupid, as a kid you don’t know what a producer or showrunner is. This Steven Moffat could have been a Mondasian for all I knew or cared. All I knew was his name appeared as a writer’s credit and someone took over for Davies’.

As Steven Moffat’s run as showrunner winds down, I’ll start becoming more like those of Tumblr and decry the man a fool for his own nostalgia goggles. The problem is, everyone does it. Everyone that’s written fan-fiction, written proper episodes or the extended media, and even ran the show from his position has done it and would do it, consciously or not. I’ve done it with little bits that I’ve rattled out as ideas, little bits here and there. That’s what Doctor Who does to you once you’re in too deep: You want to create for it. It is very much like Star Trek, in many respects. Two totems of idealistic moralisms as displayed in shows about adventure and encountering strange worlds.

So to the episode itself, as I said, it isn’t bad there is just nothing standing out. Arguably, that’s what you want when introducing a new Doctor, companion, or monster, nothing to take away time needed establishing what is and what was to define that line between them. That said, the monster, or rather monsters, don’t actually bother me all that much. The bigger pressing threat with all this time between then and now is that of the crack in Amelia’s wall. The thing she asks Santa to deliver a “policeman” for her to deal with it in the middle of April. Sure enough, a modified 1960s Police Public Callbox crashes through the shed in the garden, and some bloke climbs out of his swimming pool/library. As you do.

I’ll never fault Smith’s energy and Moffat’s playful writing, but there is just something either from there on or later in the episode that is unconsciously falling flat for me, even now. Picking it out is strange, but I don’t want to say it is Moffat’s writing causing everyone to pull out their whiteboards and magnets, or corkboards and pins, some string, lots of pens, and photos of everything in the episode. While the series as a whole will require that conspiracy theorist mindset, the first episode isn’t one of those. I’d say it is one of Moffat’s tamest episodes, and that may well be what is bothersome in retrospect.

I say tame, he does have Gillian dressed up in a sexy police outfit and references her several other outfits: Nurse included. See, I like a majority of the episode. It is fun and energetic, but nevertheless, that monster and the giant eye that’s a cop just doesn’t do it for me. I like the special things, Sir Patrick Moore filtering with Annette Crosbie’s Mrs Angelo, I love it. That also means with both Crosbie and the fabulous Richard Wilson both being in Who, the two leads of the black comedy One Foot In The Grave appeared in the show, which I am happy about. Though I am sure someone expected my praise to come for Olivia Colman, who I’ve yet to see in anything but Hot Fuzz and Who; She’s alright, nothing special.

I think that’s the episode as a whole, alright but nothing special. The monster and its pursuer is nothing I can see having a great episode in the future, so I don’t want to see them back. The introduction of Amy is probably the best bit, only made better by the final moments of panning across her bedroom to find a long white dress hung up on her wardrobe. Though this reintroduction of the Doctor isn’t something that happens in this one episode, instead it seems to be spread across the series, wrapping up with the pandorica’s reveal.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Doctor Who "The Eleventh Hour" - Review

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• "You're Scottish, fry something."
• I love Amy Pond, she's great.
• Moffat knows perfectly how to write those one-in-one-thousand lines.
• "Get a girlfriend Jeff!"
• Fish fingers and custard.

Cons

• The villians are a bit naff.