The Eleventh Hour

"To hell with the raggedy, time to put on a show."

Writer: Steven Moffat 

Format: TV

Broadcast: 3rd April 2010

Series: 5.01

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy

Synopsis 

The newly regenerated Doctor has twenty minutes to save the world - and only Amy Pond can help him. But she's been waiting a long time...

Verdict 

The Eleventh Hour is a brilliant episode of Doctor Who as it kicks off a number of things in style! This story really does introduce a lot of firsts with it being Matt Smith's first episode as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan's first appearance as new companion Amy and also the first story to be written under Steven Moffat's tenure as head writer. It also saw a new TARDIS console room, a new sonic screwdriver and even a brand new opening theme and sequence! It really was the beginning of a new era and I'm just glad that it started in style. We continue pretty much where The End of Time left off with the TARDIS in turmoil and we now see the newly regenerated Doctor hanging out of the TARDIS in an action packed first scene. The TARDIS eventually crashes into a shed in the back garden of Amelia Pond's house. It seems incredible to think that it's been well over six years since this story first broadcast but I remember that when I first watched, at just a mere thirteen years old, I never caught on to the fact that Amelia was a younger version of Amy, who had of course been announced as the companion well in advance of the story airing. When it finally struck me what had happened, I had a huge smile on my face so when I rewatch this episode I'm always reminded of my first viewing which I like. Ironically, this story completes my blogging of regular series Matt Smith episodes with just a couple of Christmas specials left to watch. I think I'm going to be careful as to when I watch them as I don't want to run out of Eleventh Doctor TV stories to watch! I've always said that I don't want to blog a story twice (excluding the latest series) until I've blogged every single TV story and whilst my Classic era viewing hasn't been huge, it has increased lately. With an ever decreasing number of stories from the new era to choose from, that can only increase. I loved the little relationship between the Doctor and Amelia and watching in hindsight, it's so brilliantly typical of the Eleventh Doctor to be eating fish fingers and custard. I enjoy both of those foods and I actually wouldn't be against combining the two, as weird as that may sound. Maybe it's the Welsh in me, I'm not sure. Amelia praying to Santa at Easter time was pretty humorous but I loved how much a girl could be scared by a crack in her wall, and the Doctor excellently noticed that. I liked how the post-regenerative effects of the Doctor were clearly noticeable but didn't play as large a role in incapacitating him as in previous stories such as Castrovalva and The Christmas Invasion. The premise of the story was certainly a good one and once the Doctor had gathered the information about Prisoner Zero and the incoming Atraxi, he had twenty minutes to save the world with barely any resources. No nuclear power station. No airport. Just a closed post office and a duck pond without any ducks. His introduction to Amy as we were going to know her was wonderful. Well, after she knocked the Doctor out with a cricket bat. I was surprised we didn't get a Fifth Doctor reference at that point but I was rather occupied by Karen Gillan's appearance in her kissogram outfit. She looked truly amazing I must say. Rory's reaction to seeing the raggedy Doctor was superb and I like how he became a bit of a legend to the people in Amy's life. The Atraxi being lured to Prisoner Zero by the Doctor resetting the clocks was magnificent but I just adored how he brought the Atraxi back to warn them that the Earth was protected. The scene was simply stunning and I liked how Classic era stories were also included in the flashbacks of the Doctor protecting Earth. The moment the Doctor stepped through the graphic of the Tenth Doctor was simply superb and is an image that has stuck with me for a long time. It was the perfect way to consolidate the introduction of a brand new Doctor, and that's something this episode does fantastically well. Overall, a great episode! 

Rating: 9/10