New New Who

It's not often that I find myself writing reviews these days. This is partly because I just don't watch as much stuff as I used to, but mainly because very few films or shows excite me enough that I want to spend the time writing about them. It doesn't mean everything I've watched lately has been rubbish or boring - quite the opposite - but something has to be profoundly original, or momentously awful for me to feel that urge to start tapping away after the credits have rolled (let's face it - it has to be nothing short of a revelation). Another deterrent comes from watching a lot of episodic television: do I try and review every single episode, or try and encapsulate all the highs and lows of an entire series in a single review? Either way, it's a fool's errand if you ask me.

That said, here I am, about to start writing about a single episode of Doctor Who, one of the longest-running series' on television - but what an episode: one that boldly changes everything, while ensuring that everything remains just the way it should be.

Now, where was I?

I've been an enormous fan of Doctor Who from a very young age, and I've been an equally enormous fan of the revived show. It's fair to say, nevertheless, that I've also been pretty critical of the Russell T Davies era: while Davies did a pitch-perfect job of retooling the series for modern TV audiences, his own scripts often got mired in an overexcited mess of poor logic and wishful thinking. Sometimes this extended to the series overall, for instance having two consecutive companions falling in love with the Doctor. At other times, certain episodes reached such depths (gadget, gadget!) that I wondered if we'd all been collectively brainwashed into our  general enthusiasm for Who.

(Sidenote: having read Davies' book, The Writer's Tale, I learned that he really does question every beat of his scripts, but I also see how his writing-by-the-seat-of-your-pants method resulted in such bollocks as Last Of The Time Lords and Journey's End. Either way, The Writer's Tale is a terrific read, whether you're a fan, or a writer, or both.)

Of course, there were also plenty of things about 'new Who' that worked. David Tennant brought the classic mix of dark and light back to the character and, perhaps more than anyone, ensured that Doctor Who remained essential Saturday afternoon viewing for new generations. The show was also more grounded than it ever was: for the first time we believed these were real people flying in the TARDIS and the emotional journey of the characters has now become a key element of each series. Also, the occasional poor episodes were more than balanced out with a handful of truly great stories. While Davies wrote several of these highlights, it was Steven Moffat who consistently turned out excellent Who scripts. I think it's safe to say, therefore, that the announcement of Moffat as Davies' successor in the showrunner's seat was met with a universal sense of 'Squeee!'

article continues...

Who was that strange little man?

However, even with 'squeee' there's still room for nervousness. Being a show-runner presents a vastly different set of responsibilities from those of a contributing script-writer, but Moffat can claim key positions behind several successful series' (Press Gang, Coupling and Jekyll). Furthermore, you have to reason that the BBC would hardly hand over one of their crown jewels to someone if they weren't absolutely certain they knew what they were doing.

We also had a new Doctor to look forward to. With Tennant having firmly claimed the role as his own, even in the wake of a relative heavyweight such as Christopher Ecclestone, it seemed almost inconceivable that we might have Doctor Who without him in the title role. I recall watching his regeneration at the climax of The End Of Time with a genuine sense of heading into the unknown. We knew who the new Doctor was, his name had been announced almost a year earlier, but hardly any of us had any clue who he was.

Several familiar names, whether truthfully or not, had been connected to the title role in the wake of Tennant's departure, but the casting of Matt Smith was something that pretty much no one would have predicted. Personally I was excited by the news, apprehensive to be sure, but really intrigued by the prospect of seeing someone of whom I had absolutely no preconceptions playing this character that's been a part of my life (on and off) for more than thirty years.

I usually do my best to retain an open mind when any new casting is announced for Who (I hated Catherine Tate in The Runaway Bride, but was prepared to give her a second chance in Series 4, and I'm glad I did) and if I had any concerns about Smith they were almost entirely blown away by his post-regeneration scene. In fact, between January and April of this year only one thing gave me any cause for concern and that was the 3d trailer released in February. I won't say much about it because it's clearly not representative of the series we're about to enjoy, but it certainly seemed alarmingly bland and tacky at the time. To a lesser degree the 'half-finished/primary-school-font' look of the new website didn't seem exactly encouraging either. But these are minor niggles.

article continues...

Am I people? Do I even look like people?

So, finally, it's April 4. With apologies to Moffat et al, let's face it: I'm not going to wait two weeks to watch Doctor Who 'legally' on ABC, I'm going to watch it as soon as I can, and so are thousands of other fans around the world.

Where do I start?

How about at the beginning. The teaser sequence was nothing remarkable, but still a perfect bridge between the old and the new, following directly from the End Of Time, and setting up the episode to come. There's very little there to alienate brand new fans (a strange man, spaceship crashing - plenty of other sci-fi stories have started exactly the same way), while new fans will know exactly where they are. It's exactly what it needs to be.

Opening Titles

Now we go directly to pretty much the only black mark of the new series: the awful new title music. I'll say right up, I love the title graphics - they lack the epic feel of the previous graphics, but I always expected the new sequence to reflect the classic Tom Baker time tunnel and they do exactly that, with added creepiness and claustrophobia. And lightning! And fire!

But, oh dear, the music. If it hadn't been for the versions used during the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy eras I'd have thought it impossible to screw up the Doctor Who theme. Nevertheless, it seemed to get worse and worse with each year of Davies's tenure. While Murray Gold's original version was almost perfect, the 'drum'n'bass' spruce up used for the last couple of years was a terrible misstep. I'd really hoped that the promised new version of the theme would lose the drums, but it seems to be the one thing they kept! The weediness of the main refrain brings to mind the McCoy theme and, perhaps worst of all for such a musical signature, comes across as something of a damp squib amid the rest of the mix.

While I've only watched the episode in full once, I've watched the title sequence at least a dozen times - on each pass the music has grown on me a little bit, to the point where I quite like what Gold is trying to do but have ultimately settled at point where I can merely tolerate the new version of the theme. I'll make no bones about it, though, I will always think of this as one of the worst versions yet (and since just about the only constant criticism of the new series has been the theme I know I'm not alone).

Smith

Arguably the most important aspect of the new series is how Matt Smith would handle the title role. We'd heard from Steven Moffat and various others how brilliant Smith was, we'd gotten a taste of his performance in The End Of Time, but beyond that The Eleventh Hour was going to be the real proving ground.

It's a no brainer: he was brilliant. I'd been thinking what an overwhelming task Smith was facing - not only carrying one of the BBC's most popular shows, but taking over from one of the most popular Doctors. Most of us would have crumpled into a heap in the corner, but Smith opted to show us that one of the oldest shows on television can be brand new yet again. Many people have been saying that Smith 'is' the Doctor, and it's not really hyperbole: he's managed to encapsulate the energy, unpredictability, genius, compassion, irritability, comedy, mystery, and everything else that has come to make the Doctor what he is over the years.

In a strange way he's also done David Tennant something of a favour. While I've been trying to imagine what Tennant must be feeling, seeing a new person take over his former role, hearing people saying how brilliant the new guy is, I actually think he should be relieved. There's always a risk of typecasting with Who, especially when someone becomes so closely identified with the role as Tennant did, but everyone will now absolutely be seeing Matt Smith as the Doctor - he's taken the role over so confidently that there's barely even room for comparison with his predecessor - leaving Tennant largely free to carve a new post-Who career for himself.

The TARDIS

I don't have much to say about the new TARDIS. Although I like it and I'm pleased we once again get to see it as the central hub in a much larger ship,  I do get the feeling that it looks like a bit like a gameshow set. Having glimpsed some of the other proposed designs (courtesy of Doctor Who Confidential) I think a few of the alternatives looked much more interesting, but I'll be happy enough to see the design they eventually used on a weekly basis.

article continues...

Moffat

For me what Moffat did with the new series, both as writer of the opening episode and as showrunner, is the real meat of the matter. Let's sum up: what did he have to do with The Eleventh Hour, the first episode of the new series?

• Introduce a brand new Doctor
• Introduce his own take on the series
• Introduce a new companion
• Re-establish Doctor Who, after a break for most of 2009, as regular Saturday afternoon viewing again
• Tell a great story worthy of Doctor Who
• Not fuck up any of the above

As far as I'm concerned Moffat has effectively handed us a new reboot of the show. For sure, it's something of a reboot every time you have a new Doctor but, with few exceptions, there's always some continuity with what's gone before (the same companions, for instance). Anyone could have missed the entire Davies era and still watch The Eleventh Hour and come away with a perfect understanding of what Doctor Who is all about. While Davies brought humanity to the show, I think Moffat has brought the magic back, and he did most of that in the first ten minutes of the episode.

It has to be mentioned that the opening of The Eleventh Hour borrows heavily from another Moffat script, The Girl In The Fireplace. In both stories you have the premise of a young girl meeting the Doctor fleetingly with his promised swift return not happening until years later. Instantly the Doctor inherits an almost legendary status (was he real or not?) entirely befitting the nature of a fictional character who has the whole of time as his playground. But why not steal such a perfect introduction? Doctor Who is essentially a children's show, so it's absolutely perfect that the first person the new Doctor meets is a child. It's also perfect that he crashes his TARDIS in the back garden in the middle of the night - what better introduction for such a haphazard cosmic wanderer than the strange man who appears from nowhere? We also see the same child praying for help to sort out a sinister crack in her bedroom wall - and who else should come to her rescure than the Doctor?

There's another side to this introduction, and I think all credit has to go to Moffat, Smith and the director for handling it so well. In almost any other scenario the prospect of a strange man entering a young girl's house, in the middle of the night, while the girl is clearly alone,could have the potential to be pretty disturbing. But not once is there even the occasion to think that there's anything untoward. The Doctor is, in many ways, a child at heart so he feels perfectly at ease with children and doesn't treat them any differently than he might an adult. Equally, the Doctor is a great protector, a saviour, so it's more important than anything for us to see that the child is not in the least bit threatened by him. These few early scenes do more than anything else to set up not only the key aspects of the Doctor's character, but to present the entire fairytale mythos of the show. Not only that but they're also some of the funniest moments Doctor Who has ever given us.

Moffat (with all due credit to the actors) continues the good work throughout the episode, not just with Smith's Doctor but with the new character of Amy Pond as well. Naturally, almost everyone else gets sidelined due to the need to establish the Doctor, but there's an interesting, new and different dynamic set up between Doctor and companion this time, and Karen Gillan does more than enough to show us that Amy Pond is going to be a hugely popular companion. Some people have criticized the monster of the week story, but I figured it provided the ideal mechanism for the real point of the story: show the Doctor saving the world, with no futuristic gizmos, in less than 20 minutes. As such, by the end of the episode we've seen everything the Doctor can do, but still can't wait to see more.

There's also a beautiful pay-off in the final scenes. The Doctor has saved the world, but we're still given plenty of time to spend with Amy Pond as her fairytale dream finally comes true when she, at last, gets to see what's through the TARDIS door. It brings the episode back again to the opening scenes: the Doctor saving the world is all in a day's work, but it's the journey that's the real delight. We start off wondering who this strange little man is, and by the end of the story we're about to head off into the wilderness with him. I have no doubt that Moffat wrote these scenes, being a fan himself, with every child's dream of travelling with the Doctor firmly in his mind. For a few moments there we are all Amy Pond.

Over the past few years I'd looked forward to each episode of Doctor Who with a mixed sense of anticipation. As a fan I'm unquestioningly excited by the prospect of a new episode of my favourite show. As a critical viewer, and a sometime writer myself, I'm all too aware of the moments when plots have simply not added up, where the attempts at comedy have just gotten embarassing, the way that none of the Christmas specials have really been that special, and so on. I carried some of this to The Eleventh Hour, but I can honestly say that my expectations of the next episode are now completely unclouded. Moffat has done a superlative job at the helm of Doctor Who, and I am, once again, the giddy fan boy I used to be.

article continues...