Bowties Are Cool! (ELEVENTH HOUR SPOILERS!!)

[jjpor]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ELEVENTH HOUR - DON'T READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET SPOILED!!

Okay, so after the third watch of The Eleventh Hour (yeah, that's right), I've managed to scrape together some semi-coherent thoughts on this. Don't expect anything other people haven't already observed, probably more eloquently, but here goes:

Normally when I squee over NuWho (which I have occasionally been known to do, believe it or not), it's usually over the oldWho fanwank that they manage to shoehorn in. I love that stuff - Doctor montages, random continuity references etc - it makes me feel validated or something. Or something. And I'll admit I did squee fairly hard over the little multi-Doctor sequence towards the end of this, and possibly even harder over the oldschool Sontaran and Sea Devil in the little monster montage just before it. Yep, my old buddy Linx demonstrating that Moffat, at least, isn't scared to remind us that Sontarans weren't always so convincing looking, or indeed so bright blue.

That shouldn't surprise people who've ever read any posts I've ever made about Doctor Who. What is perhaps slightly more noteworthy is that the wank wasn't the thing that made me squee hardest in this episode. Yes, that's right - Eleven is, as he will never tell us again, Da Man. Not as much Da Man as Clyde in SJA, of course (silly!), but certainly coming in a distant second. ;D

Okay, because I'm rapidly turning into the sort of old curmudgeon who derives pleasure from complaining about things, a couple of things I wasn't so keen on to begin with. Everybody's been bashing the title sequence/theme tune, and I'd like to stand out from the crowd on that point, but I really can't. I mean, it's not as if I loved the existing opening titles that much to begin with, so I'm not saying the new green/fiery/lightningy time tunnel is a step down - it just doesn't do much for me. The new theme tune...well, I'll be honest, I've never liked NuWho's theme tunes, going back to 2005 - I don't like the TVM theme either, for that matter. Something about bombastic, orchestral arrangements of the Who theme just rubs me up the wrong way (insert Harkness-esque double entendre here). I was hoping for something more stripped-down and aggressively electronic and weird-sounding. FWIW, I did like it better than the previous tune...when it eventually kicked in, but the extended intro left me cold a bit. Sorry, but if you can't hear the du-dum du-dum, du-dum du-dum like Simm!Master's worst ever hangover, then it just isn't the proper Doctor Who tune.

Which brings me to my next point. Murray Gold - why?! Just why?! He was positively restrained by his own standards, but there were a couple of points (notably that bit with the duck pond for some reason) where he made me think I was watching some sort of gung-ho Michael Bay action movie. I almost expected Eleven and Amy to start walking slowly towards the camera in Team Torchwood arrow formation as big, shiny, phallic fighter planes soared overhead...

Ahem. Anyway, now that I sound like the kind of cranky old duffer who complains about overloud incidental music on TV (I am - see above!), and I've made you think I maybe didn't like it by pouring my bile all over the place, on with the stuff I did like...

ALL OF THE REST OF IT!!! XD XD

Er, short reaction post, eh? Seriously, to elaborate; I loved this episode. I was sort of looking for faults with it when I first watched it, out of some misguided subconscious idea that that's what us oldschoolers are supposed to to, but it's won me over on the subsequent viewings. Seduced me, if you will. Ahem. I loved it, I confess. And I haven't said that about a Who episode since, oh...probably The Unicorn and the Wasp. I liked and admired Waters of Mars, Midnight, Turn Left and Forest of the Dead in between, but I didn't watch them with a big, stupid, squeeful grin on my face.

Unicorn and the Wasp??!!! I hear you say. Okay, it wasn't an all-time classic of Who, and neither to be fair was The Eleventh Hour. But they were FUN! They gripped me and entertained me and made me laugh and didn't annoy the hell out of me even once, and where NuWho's concerned that's a rare achievement indeed. In fact, this might be Moffat's weakest story to date (might!), but to say that suggests that it wasn't good, or enjoyable, or clever, and it was all of those things in its own way.

I think I said in my first brief reaction that this was no great shakes story-wise, as indeed it was not. As a lot of people have pointed out though, this wasn't supposed to impress us with it's dramatic strength or the cleverness of its plotting or even a genius high concept (all things Moffat's become known for); it was supposed to introduce Eleven and his new companion Amy Pond and also make us laugh and scare us a little along the way, and it did this admirably.

To be fair, the story itself was something of a Steven Moffat's Greatest Hits. The whole concept of the Doctor leaping forward through Amy's life was very Girl in the Fireplace (my least favourite Moffat story, believe it or not!), the corner-of-the eye thing and the emphasis on childhood fears was very Blink. The coma patients (a coma ward in a little country hospital?!) were like the patients in The Empty Child. The Doctor scaring off the alien threat purely on the strength of his reputation was very similar to the moment in Forest of the Dead (but very differently played!). And so forth. I don't think that was really important in this introductory piece where the plotty alien-invasion stuff wasn't really the main emphasis. I'll be expecting more in the other eps, though - okay Steve?

What was interesting were all of the little bits that were reminiscent of an RTD season opener/finisher, but done with a twist. If I was an unkind, fanatically RTD-bashing sort of person (me?), I might almost claim that Moffat was gently taking the piss out of the Eleven origin story Rusty would have written had he still been the showrunner. We had the bombastic opening sequence, which proved completely irrelevant to the rest of the story. We had the technobabble saving-the-world-by-laptop bit, and the celebrity cameo, and the big, grandstanding Doctor-faces-off-with-the-aliens finale. Except...the laptop plan actually kind of made sense, and relied for its success on Eleven actually being clever and resourceful rather than vigorous handwaving. And Patrick Moore was kind of funny. And Eleven confronted his foes with a smile and a bit of cocky swagger rather than Lonely God man-pain. And it all worked, and I didn't feel cheated by any of it. Not even once.

Which brings me to the man himself. The boy Smith. He was a bit good, wasn't he? Don't you think? ;D I'm not quite so far gone yet as to be inherently disturbed by the idea of the Doctor being played by and actor who's younger than me, but he was very much an unknown quantity going into this. I can't think of anything I'd seen him in before I heard of his casting. The spoiler clips did something to ease my uncertainty, but there was still that doubt going in. Silly me. He was great. He was the Doctor. That's all I can say really. I was a little bit reminded of the first time I saw Robot - the way Tom Baker just bounces in, firing on all cylinders from the get-go so that you're just forced to give in and stand back, dazed, basking in his self-evident awesomeness. Smith had that effect on me. No; I'm not saying he's the GREATEST DOCTOR EVAR! or anything silly like that, but he did have a hell of a good introduction. Walking straight through/obliterating Ten's image like that , though, was a bit harsh! Naughty Moff!

I also like the way Eleven is written. He is, as promised, bonkers, but he's also fun. No angst. Yet. He loves what he does - he knows he's good at it, as well, and loves that too. His arrogant swagger towards the end of the episode was just great - I like my Doctors to be aware of their own badassedness, provided they don't veer off into full-blown would-be-godhead as Ten seemed in danger of doing at times. And there's more to him than meets the eye. What did all of that business with the screen at the end mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but it's clear that Eleven is keeping something close to his chest, from the audience and also from Amy.

Ah, Amy. Karen Gillan was a bit good too, don't you reckon? I'm fascinated by her face. No, not like that! (although...) It always seems to be doing something. To pull another oldWho comparison out of the air, it reminds me of Mary Tamm - constantly moving and reacting, so that you can see her character's thoughts written there even when her mouth is saying something quite different. All of those little eye-rolls and frowns - very expressive and also quite hilarious at times (in a good way!) And heartbreaking in the bit towards the end when she thought the Doctor had left her again.

And Amy's an interesting character. As others have said, there's something not quite...normal about her, and that's partly down to her personal circumstances, I suspect, and also partly down to her childhood brush with Eleven. I like that everyone in her village knows her as a local "character", even if she is trying her best to be "grown up" ("I can fix that," says Eleven, in one of his best lines). And her feelings for the Doctor, kiss in the trailer aside, seem a little bit less conventional than the usual NuWho Doctor/companion thing as well. There's something a little bit obsessive and dysfunctional there, dare I say creepy. And they're both lying to each other already - this really could get interesting, you know.

And Little!Amy was great too. Child actors who can be convincing without being slightly scary are a rare thing. I felt for the poor little mite, with her dinky little wellies and suitcase and her "Can I come with you?" Awwwww...

Well, that was all a lot of pathetic gushing, wasn't it? You'll be thinking the Moff paid me to write some of that... It's how I'm feeling right now, though. I'm VERY VERY happy in a way I haven't been about NuWho in quite some time. Of course, the next twelve episodes might still kill my enthusiasm - there's always time for that - but, damn, I hope not.

Some mysteries to consider (no, I didn't notice all of these myself, and I don't think there are any other people haven't already mentioned, but they might be Clues):

So, what _did_ cause the cracks in the universe, then, Sophie From Peep Show?

"Silence will Fall" - this season's Bad Wolf, but hopefully with a better payoff?

Why was there an image of the crack from the beginning on the Doctor's screen? And why was he lying to Amy about his reasons for taking her with him?

Why was the issue date on Rory's badge 1990? He's not that old (although some people have suggested a kissogram is a bit of a 90s job too).

If it is the 90s, why does everyone have laptops and camera phones? And the London Eye/Millennium Dome for that matter???

What is it with the prominently displayed MYTH laptop??

And did anyone else think the bit with the duck pond (and the v v dramatic music!) was a bit of a non sequitir? Was it supposed to draw our attention to the fact that there might be something a bit mysterious going on involving a POND??!!

In that vein - what's the betting we're going to find out more about Amy's missing/deceased parents?

GOD, IT'S LIKE CURSE OF FENRIC ALL OVER AGAIN! ;D

So, yeah, I liked it. I liked it better the second and third times than I did on the first view. I am in fact a big, squeeing Eleven fanboy right now and hope Moffat doesn't manage to get me out of that state by the end of the series.