Review: Dr Who ‘The Eleventh Hour’

Doctor Who is a show that brings with it a lot of baggage. With 31 series, 757 episodes, 11 actors playing the protagonist, and 1 TV movie, it is impossible to approach Doctor Who in a way that will not draw comparisons. Both casual and dedicated fans have strong opinions on what Doctor Who means to them as the character has been a part of their collective conscious for almost fifty years. To say that the show carries baggage is an understatement.

The first episode of the new series of Doctor Who went to air today in the UK. With a new cast, new production team, and new approach to the show, Steven Moffats Doctor Who certainly is ambitious. The success of this latest incarnation of Doctor Who really is a matter of perspective.

To outlay my own history and viewpoint, I’m by no means a big Doctor Who fan. My first exposure to the character was from when the ABC first aired the Sylvester McCoy era. I found the show to be a little bit wonderful and strange, but it never inspired me to check out previous incarnations. I’ve still seen very few episodes pre-McCoy.

I came back on board when Russell T Davies re-launched the show with Christopher Eccleston. Eccleston, I thought, was wonderful as he was cast completely against type. The Davies revamp was rather well executed as it managed to update the show considerably, yet it still felt like it was a Doctor Who show. That said, there is something about the tone of Davies that I really don’t care for. And when Eccleston left, my interest dissipated dramatically. David Tennant has a lovely screen presence, but he just felt too much like the very epitome of who a Russel T Davies Doctor should be, causing the show and Tennants performance to feel a little bland for my liking.

When I discovered that Steven Moffat was to take over as showrunner of Doctor Who, I began to get very excited. Press Gang was responsible for establishing a lot of my love for television as a medium and I still feel it holds up today (well, most episodes). His work on Coupling was mighty entertaining, though it really spoke to the moment of its airdate, with episodes not holding up well after. While I didn’t care much for his Jekyll mini-series, his two part Christopher Eccleston era Doctor Who storyline “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” was by far the season highlight, and I hear great things about the 2007 episode ‘Blink’. Based on Moffats involvement alone, I went in to the new incarnation of Doctor Who with the expectation that I’ll probably rather like it. And I did, quite a bit.

For the inaugural Moffat/Matt Smith Doctor Who adventure, Moffat provides a large scale canvas to paint on with a creepy escaped alien prisoner causing havoc in a quaint English town, and issues relating to a lack of civility from aggressive intergalactic  forces potentially annihilating the Earth. The story, however, is kept at a street-level perspective, with the story starting simply with a young girl hearing voices from a crack in her bedroom wall and the Doctor later galvanising global support for his plan of action by getting online in a neighbours bedroom. The story is kept compelling and tangible.

Matt Smith completely owns the role of the Doctor. There was a great deal of vocal animosity from David Tennant fans online, suggesting that they wouldn’t support this new Doctor. It’s interesting that Moffat and his team of Producers opted to go with the current Doctor, of whom is not all that different from the previous incarnation. Smiths Doctor certainly is a lot younger and plays well to current trends and social movements. He maintains the same flippant humour and know it all arrogance of Tennant and Eccleston, yet maintains a certain twee inward essence that truly characterises his take on the character. Considering the take on the character and Smiths age, one could easily see this current Doctor settling back in his TARDIS late at night listening to the latest Belle & Sebastian album. Smith delivers an engaging and confident performance. Within this one episode, Smith takes complete ownership of the character.

No Doctor Who is complete with his Companion. Gone is the not nearly charming enough Billie Piper and the grating Catherine Tate. In her place is the rather lovely Karen Gillan. This first episode truly was the unveiling of Matt Smiths Doctor, leaving a great deal of characterisation stil needed for Gillan’s “Amy Pond” character. Pond certainly isn’t given a short shrift in the episode. Far from it, she is integral to the story, with an opportunity to display the vulnerability and humour of the character. It’s just that the character spends most of the episode reacting to her confusion (based on her almost life-long pain and betrayal). We’re yet to see Amy Pond serve as a fully formed character just yet, but based upon what we’ve seen so far, she’s set to be delightful.

The process of creating a new Companion for Doctor Who must be the most difficult aspect of running the show. The audience already love the central character and as long as a complete mistake isn’t made with that casting, it’s a relatively easy task. The Companion, however, needs to be almost as actively engaged with each story as the Doctor himself is, so if the writers aren’t creating a character from the get-go that the audiences will love, they’re in a world of trouble for the rest of the series.

I’m reminded of the Batman comic books when considering the construction of Doctor Who Companion characters. In the mid-80′s the Batman editors replaced the well-known Dick Grayson as Robin, introducing a new character named Jason Todd. As Dick Grayson fought on under a new superhero identity, Jason Todd was a street kid who Batman tried to shape into his new sidekick. Comic fans hated the new character, leading to the editors killing off the Jason Todd/Robin character. Just a few years later, a third Robin was introduced. The editors went to significant effort to construct the character in such a way as to appeal to fans of the original Robin, Dick Grayson. Tim Drakes Robin origin tale was tied in closely with that Dick Grayson, with his first storyline ending with Grayson giving the kid his stamp of approval. Immediately this new Robin had the readers support and, twenty years later, the character remains as a beloved addition to the Batman mythos.

Television works in a different manner from comic books (both narratively and as a business model), so a similar Companion generational technique can’t be implemented in the same way, however they’ve certainly done a lot to immediately garner the support of the audience for new Companion Amy Pond. Our first introduction to Karen Gillan on-screen has the character dressed in a highly sexed up Police woman outfit showcasing Gillans remarkable physical attributes. It was completely shameless, but I can attest that the group of lads I watched the premiere episode with were completely won over. It didn’t take much.

The new Doctor Who series is off to a very strong start indeed. The premiere episode script was tight any punchy, with some very charming performances put in by both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Finally, I think I am set to become a fan of Doctor Who.