The Eleventh Hour

You're Scottish, fry something - The Doctor.

January First, many things occurred, and rather like the Tenth Doctor, we too were all dead in the morning. Step in Doctor Eleven and he's not the only new addition to the series.

After a few months and many teasers the Doctor finally returns with a bang. Indeed the first thing we are made to realise is the TARDIS is fucked. Gone shall be the green time rotor and the polystyrene... coral. But that's all to come.

After the storm clouds of the new title sequence (and a quite nicely pulled off third revamp of the theme tune courtesy of Murray Gold)we encounter a young girl praying to Father Christmas to pop down to Wickes for some Polycell and fix her wall, of course a police man will do. Sure enough only moments after a blue box with the illuminated letters "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" crashes into her garden shed and she goes to investigate.

Regeneration
This is where the first of Moffat's applause-worthy efforts comes in. Unlike Tennant, Smith doesn't take up the whole episode gripping over the fact he's just regenerated, indeed between ensuring his bollocks remain unspeared and inspecting cracked plaster, he's not had much time for it. All said it doesn't go unmentioned, on two occasions doubling over from post-explosion spasms and "Brand new me" being a catchphrase throughout. Smith wastes no time distancing himself from his predecessor with his truly insane dietary requirements, scorning bacon and frizbeeing a plate of bread and butter at a nearby tom cat before settling for fish fingers and custard.

Allons-y!

"Geronimo!" would now appear to be up there with "Fantastic" and ... well I've said it already. That said it appears to have attracted the ire of just about everyone. Personally, I found the previous Doctor's flimsy and excessive use of French far more grinding, whereas Geronimo lends itself better to the new Doctors insanity. That said, Tennant's Doctor was such a cardboard cut-out at times I doubt anything would have suited him as a favourite line.

"And stay out!"

Moffat's penchant with humour has been evident before, such as Rose and Jack ganging up on the Ninth Doctor's discussion about dancing. Indeed this is one of the lighter fares Steve has given us (though by no means lacking in sinisterness), with the humour throughout acting as a playful contrast to the previous war-torn tragedies and impending doom filled tropes. Such wonderful moments as Amy being patronized by the Doctor, ensuring her that multiform lifeforms from outer space do shit themselves at the sight of wood, and that Geoff badly needs to delete his internet history all play into an area of Moffat's script writing we've not been able to see in bulk before. Normally he's busy scaring us shitless.

"Brand new TARDIS, bit exciting".

Now I'm sure Steven thought Russel T. Davies did a good job, but at the same time thought everything he brought to the table would look better in the skip. Indeed Moffat and David Cameron would appear to have some similarities in that they both seem to want to change the fabric of the universe. With the new doctor comes a new sonic screwdriver (the old one bowing out gracefully after bringing havoc to Ledworth) and a new TARDIS after the Doctor's regeneration conveniently trashed the old one.
The new TARDIS sports a fresh lick of paint and restored is the St. John Ambulance badge. I will now quickly answer a question I've heard circulate far too often. The TARDIS has the badge because Police boxes used to contain first aid kits. Two seconds of Googling could tell you this. The new interior sees the return of a proper viewscreen for the TARDIS having been absent for 11 years. Gone is the battered beige walls from Eccleston's era, replaced with copper ensemble. Slightly unfortunately however the design team seem to have drawn inspiration for the new rotor on a bong and a dildo, creating a surreal hybrid.

On the subject of design I have seen nothing but praise heaped on the Atraxi spaceships. Perhaps they didn't have their glasses on. What in effect this is is a giant space faring eyeball glued to a massive warp capable snowflake. The design influence of the TARDIS rotor becoming more evident as we go along. I accept it may have been nicely rendered, but I maintain someone was high when they fired this one out.

"WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES?!"

On the note of acting it's obvious to anyone who watched Smith was an excellent choice for the Doctor, combining adventuring with near total insanity. Gillan who plays Amy proves she can put on a good southern voice when the need arises and plays up the characters exasperation to her imaginary friend with flair, delivering her carnivorous attitude to her psychiatrists with the tone we could all expect to give someone who promised they'd be back in five minutes, only to instead show up twelve years later. The real star as far as I was concerned though, was the surprisingly mature performance from Caitlin Blackwood, a relation to Karen Gillan who both play Amy. Caitlin plays her as a child (still called Amelia) and puts up with the Doctor spitting, cringing and hurling away her food supplies. I was even more impressed to learn this was her first foray into the world of acting. Her best moment was probably playing Prisoner Zero, criticizing the Doctor "what a disappointment you've been" with such cold tones it's no wonder the Doctor looked so crestfallen at it.

Overall an excellent start which bodes well to the future and proves Steven Moffat can do a less scary entry without losing the quality writing.