![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocusFunny that ages ago I wrote a drabble with the title Eleventh Hour dealing with Ten's regeneration into Eleven. Anyway, I've watched the new episode Saturday on my own and then again on Sunday with the whole family and despite some very obvious flaws I liked it a great deal. It smacks a bit more of Old Who than New Who and despite the special effects budget, it really seemed as if the aliens were far more cheesy than anything I've seen since Old Who. I'm very curious as to who these jailers were if their space ship has a giant human eyeball on it. Why not an alien looking eyeball? Unless somehow or other the Atraxi are humans and then even threatening to incinerate Earth would be stupid. I don't know, I have issues with weird things like science and sensibility and continuity that obviously the writers and developers of Who have never had.
In a lot of ways I felt like this episode had been written for David Tennant and not for Matt Smith. You could have taken Matt out and plopped David in and there wouldn't have been any difference. I don't think it was the acting that was at issue, I think MS was simply acting to the script and the script was written with Ten still firmly in SM's mind. I did find the constant stealing from SM's previous plots annoying on both watchings. Even the Doctor saying he had a craving harkened back to Nine and The Empty Child where he's looking for Rose and says he was looking for a specific blonde and didn't just wake up with a craving. It was a bit jarring to see that coming out of Eleven's mouth. That was the first thing that made me twinge a little. Not the last. Of course I see some parallels with Girl in the Fireplace, but that was really the least of things, that he bounced into and out of Amy's life a few times. Also the crash landing was pretty much exactly like the one in TCI only with the TARDIS landing on her back.
There was one point where MS jumped over something and if it hadn't been for the face I would have sworn it was David. The body action was exactly the same. I mean exactly. Maybe it's just that Matt is tall and gangly too, but again, it jarred me out of the show for a second. It didn't help in distinguishing Ten from Eleven that they left him in David's clothes for so long. I also didn't really like him tasting the shed to determine how old it was. True he didn't do the whole big long lick thing that Ten was famous for, but I don't recall Nine ever tasting anything like that, nor any of the other Doctors, so it felt like a specific to Ten thing showing up in Eleven and it felt wrong. Add to that the cowboys speech almost identical to the GiTF cowboy speech, and all the comatose patients suddenly talking in unison like all of the gas mask zombies in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, and a speech pattern that is recognizably Ten's and I got yanked out of the plot far more often than I liked. Using a phone to save the world harkens back to what Ten did in Rise of the Cybermen (and I don't think that was even one of Moff's episodes) and the images of all the Doctors was lifted from the episode The Next Doctor. I liked it, especially Eleven walking through the final image, but it still felt like a copy not an original bit of writing.
All of the spitting out of food was pretty irritating after the first couple gags and not because it was childish and gross but because for a children's show and as a parent I found it pretty irresponsible to show someone just throwing out so much food. The world's in a recession/depression right now, but let's just throw out enough food to feed a family for a couple of days because it tastes bad to one person? Gee, someone else in that house might have eaten it. Ever hear of Tupperware and the fridge, Doc? Ah, maybe not. Also, asking a seven year old to fry you up something on the stove? Very, very irresponsible for a 900 year old alien who's had children of his own! I don't know if Moff has kids or not, but I'm doubting it after that bit of writing.
I did like the frisbee bread and plate thing, but again, throwing away a plate because you don't like the food on it? Yeah. Maybe it's just the mother in me, but I can't see that going over well if one of my kids did that after seeing it on DW. And the Doctor just dumping water on the floor so he could use the glass to listen to the crack in the wall? There wasn't that much in there, he could have just drank it. All in all, the whole food and water thing showed massive disrespect to other people's property and possessions. I know the Doctor can be self-centered but he's usually a bit more respectful. I mean, Ten at least realized when he stuck his fingers in someone else's marmalade and Rose gave him a look that hey, maybe that was a faux pas. I also absolutely hated the finger snapping to open the TARDIS. I always have. I laughed at the remote beep like a car to open it that David did because it would make sense he might actually do something like that and it was cute, but the finger snapping that started with Forest of the Dead has always, always smacked of extreme arrogance to me and I did not want to see that sort of arrogance in Eleven.
Okay, so what did I like? Well, quite a lot actually. Matt Smith can act. The kid has mad skills. But I knew this from seeing him in the two Sally Lockhart movies with Billie Piper. And Party Animals. I'm not sure I really call what he did in SDoaCG acting, but he was charming in it anyway. I don't think the role is going to be too big for him at all, but I certainly hope he makes it his own pretty quickly. Despite all the recycled plot bits that kept jarring me out of the show, Matt was able to bring me right back into it again with his acting and that's quite a tribute to his skills. I loved the grappling hook to climb out of the TARDIS after he crash landed. It made sense. Also loved that the swimming pool was now in the library because of the crash. I hope that means we'll actually see something outside of the console room this time around.
The child playing Amelia was brilliant. She kept up with him and her facial expressions were fantastic and very realistic. I've seen them on my kids' faces plenty of times.
Karen Gillan can also act her socks off. Her character is perky and funny and tough yet very feminine and sexy. A really good mix in both a woman and a companion. I have no doubt she'll be a beloved companion for the audience and I may end up liking Amy more than Eleven. Much as I love the Doctor, I love Rose more and I can very easily see this happening with Amy, too. Amy reminds me of what Donna might have been as a young woman. Tough, ballsy, and stuck in a dead end job and maybe not seeing any way out but using her assets to get the most out of life that she can. I also loved that she didn't do what she was told and that she had to see things for herself and make up her own mind. That bodes well for the whole wandering off thing. And I don't think she screamed once. At least I don't remember it, even when she saw the multi-form and all its teeth.
I don't know which other people will be reoccuring characters or if Moff even plans visits home like Rose had with RTD. If they do, though, I hope to not see a rehash of the Rose/Mickey situation. Yes, Amy ran off the night before her wedding without a word to her fiance which is a lot worse than what Rose did because at least she said good-bye to Mickey and he knew she was going. There was an extreme lack of respect there, but I would argue that going with a man the night before your wedding when you know his timing is rubbish and not calling your fiance to let him know is much worse than that.
I don't want to see a bunch of posturing about it when she doesn't get back in time between Eleven and her fiance. I don't buy for a minute that Eleven has more than child-like affection for her (child-like because he met her when she was a child, not that he's child-like) at this point so a jealousy thing would feel false. And I don't know whether that fiance is Rory or possibly Jeff, because Eleven told Jeff he could write his own ticket after this basically and so after two years if he became important and successful he could be the fiance although I hope not because internet porn boy seemed sort of useless and at least Rory was smart and thinking and knowing stuff was going on that shouldn't be. And also Rory was a nurse and I liked that. A man who is confident to have a career in a field normally dominated by women is awesome, and a tiny bit shocking coming from SM. I wonder if we might see two companions on the TARDIS. I'd like that. I miss the days of two or three companions on the TARDIS.
Speaking of the TARDIS, I love the new interior. Well, most of it. I didn't care for the typewriter on the console, but other than that I love it. I've seen some better photos of it in some magazine scans than what they showed in the episode which was mostly just the console. The time rotor was a huge surprise and I didn't even notice it until the second watching. I like it, though it reminds me a bit of Lux's bong lamp on Life Unexpected. Still, it's neat. The inside is very orange though. It reminds me of the incubation light the ducks and chicks are under, but other than that it's really a pretty orange glow. The console looks a bit steampunk and fantastic but I do have to wonder (again the mother in me) about fingerprints on all that glass or persplex. They're gonna be cleaning that floor all the time, which tells you there probably wasn't a woman in on the redesign.
I actually liked the plot a lot and the action sequences and the fact that Eleven stole a firetruck and texted Amy to duck at just the right moment. I liked that the alien monster had trouble getting the voices right when he made the man with the dog bark or the child speak with the grownups' voice and vice versa. That was a nice bit of character development for the alien. I liked that the Doctor told Amy to look in the mirror when she wasn't sure how she was going to clear the building because it was a nice common sense moment and there aren't always that many of them on Who.
I went into this series with high hopes and I still have them. They weren't crushed by the Moff and they weren't crushed by the acting. I can see Matt becoming the Doctor if they take the writing further away from Ten. I hope they do. He's a good enough actor he doesn't deserve to be saddled with bad character development and bad writing. I had enough of the underwritten and wrongly written character with what they did to poor Martha. She could have been so much more as they proved on Torchwood when they finally let her awesome show through completely, instead of writing her as a lovesick, mopey Rose replacement. She didn't get to shine until the end of season three. I want Matt to shine now, not towards the end of the season.
In a lot of ways I felt like this episode had been written for David Tennant and not for Matt Smith. You could have taken Matt out and plopped David in and there wouldn't have been any difference. I don't think it was the acting that was at issue, I think MS was simply acting to the script and the script was written with Ten still firmly in SM's mind. I did find the constant stealing from SM's previous plots annoying on both watchings. Even the Doctor saying he had a craving harkened back to Nine and The Empty Child where he's looking for Rose and says he was looking for a specific blonde and didn't just wake up with a craving. It was a bit jarring to see that coming out of Eleven's mouth. That was the first thing that made me twinge a little. Not the last. Of course I see some parallels with Girl in the Fireplace, but that was really the least of things, that he bounced into and out of Amy's life a few times. Also the crash landing was pretty much exactly like the one in TCI only with the TARDIS landing on her back.
There was one point where MS jumped over something and if it hadn't been for the face I would have sworn it was David. The body action was exactly the same. I mean exactly. Maybe it's just that Matt is tall and gangly too, but again, it jarred me out of the show for a second. It didn't help in distinguishing Ten from Eleven that they left him in David's clothes for so long. I also didn't really like him tasting the shed to determine how old it was. True he didn't do the whole big long lick thing that Ten was famous for, but I don't recall Nine ever tasting anything like that, nor any of the other Doctors, so it felt like a specific to Ten thing showing up in Eleven and it felt wrong. Add to that the cowboys speech almost identical to the GiTF cowboy speech, and all the comatose patients suddenly talking in unison like all of the gas mask zombies in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, and a speech pattern that is recognizably Ten's and I got yanked out of the plot far more often than I liked. Using a phone to save the world harkens back to what Ten did in Rise of the Cybermen (and I don't think that was even one of Moff's episodes) and the images of all the Doctors was lifted from the episode The Next Doctor. I liked it, especially Eleven walking through the final image, but it still felt like a copy not an original bit of writing.
All of the spitting out of food was pretty irritating after the first couple gags and not because it was childish and gross but because for a children's show and as a parent I found it pretty irresponsible to show someone just throwing out so much food. The world's in a recession/depression right now, but let's just throw out enough food to feed a family for a couple of days because it tastes bad to one person? Gee, someone else in that house might have eaten it. Ever hear of Tupperware and the fridge, Doc? Ah, maybe not. Also, asking a seven year old to fry you up something on the stove? Very, very irresponsible for a 900 year old alien who's had children of his own! I don't know if Moff has kids or not, but I'm doubting it after that bit of writing.
I did like the frisbee bread and plate thing, but again, throwing away a plate because you don't like the food on it? Yeah. Maybe it's just the mother in me, but I can't see that going over well if one of my kids did that after seeing it on DW. And the Doctor just dumping water on the floor so he could use the glass to listen to the crack in the wall? There wasn't that much in there, he could have just drank it. All in all, the whole food and water thing showed massive disrespect to other people's property and possessions. I know the Doctor can be self-centered but he's usually a bit more respectful. I mean, Ten at least realized when he stuck his fingers in someone else's marmalade and Rose gave him a look that hey, maybe that was a faux pas. I also absolutely hated the finger snapping to open the TARDIS. I always have. I laughed at the remote beep like a car to open it that David did because it would make sense he might actually do something like that and it was cute, but the finger snapping that started with Forest of the Dead has always, always smacked of extreme arrogance to me and I did not want to see that sort of arrogance in Eleven.
Okay, so what did I like? Well, quite a lot actually. Matt Smith can act. The kid has mad skills. But I knew this from seeing him in the two Sally Lockhart movies with Billie Piper. And Party Animals. I'm not sure I really call what he did in SDoaCG acting, but he was charming in it anyway. I don't think the role is going to be too big for him at all, but I certainly hope he makes it his own pretty quickly. Despite all the recycled plot bits that kept jarring me out of the show, Matt was able to bring me right back into it again with his acting and that's quite a tribute to his skills. I loved the grappling hook to climb out of the TARDIS after he crash landed. It made sense. Also loved that the swimming pool was now in the library because of the crash. I hope that means we'll actually see something outside of the console room this time around.
The child playing Amelia was brilliant. She kept up with him and her facial expressions were fantastic and very realistic. I've seen them on my kids' faces plenty of times.
Karen Gillan can also act her socks off. Her character is perky and funny and tough yet very feminine and sexy. A really good mix in both a woman and a companion. I have no doubt she'll be a beloved companion for the audience and I may end up liking Amy more than Eleven. Much as I love the Doctor, I love Rose more and I can very easily see this happening with Amy, too. Amy reminds me of what Donna might have been as a young woman. Tough, ballsy, and stuck in a dead end job and maybe not seeing any way out but using her assets to get the most out of life that she can. I also loved that she didn't do what she was told and that she had to see things for herself and make up her own mind. That bodes well for the whole wandering off thing. And I don't think she screamed once. At least I don't remember it, even when she saw the multi-form and all its teeth.
I don't know which other people will be reoccuring characters or if Moff even plans visits home like Rose had with RTD. If they do, though, I hope to not see a rehash of the Rose/Mickey situation. Yes, Amy ran off the night before her wedding without a word to her fiance which is a lot worse than what Rose did because at least she said good-bye to Mickey and he knew she was going. There was an extreme lack of respect there, but I would argue that going with a man the night before your wedding when you know his timing is rubbish and not calling your fiance to let him know is much worse than that.
I don't want to see a bunch of posturing about it when she doesn't get back in time between Eleven and her fiance. I don't buy for a minute that Eleven has more than child-like affection for her (child-like because he met her when she was a child, not that he's child-like) at this point so a jealousy thing would feel false. And I don't know whether that fiance is Rory or possibly Jeff, because Eleven told Jeff he could write his own ticket after this basically and so after two years if he became important and successful he could be the fiance although I hope not because internet porn boy seemed sort of useless and at least Rory was smart and thinking and knowing stuff was going on that shouldn't be. And also Rory was a nurse and I liked that. A man who is confident to have a career in a field normally dominated by women is awesome, and a tiny bit shocking coming from SM. I wonder if we might see two companions on the TARDIS. I'd like that. I miss the days of two or three companions on the TARDIS.
Speaking of the TARDIS, I love the new interior. Well, most of it. I didn't care for the typewriter on the console, but other than that I love it. I've seen some better photos of it in some magazine scans than what they showed in the episode which was mostly just the console. The time rotor was a huge surprise and I didn't even notice it until the second watching. I like it, though it reminds me a bit of Lux's bong lamp on Life Unexpected. Still, it's neat. The inside is very orange though. It reminds me of the incubation light the ducks and chicks are under, but other than that it's really a pretty orange glow. The console looks a bit steampunk and fantastic but I do have to wonder (again the mother in me) about fingerprints on all that glass or persplex. They're gonna be cleaning that floor all the time, which tells you there probably wasn't a woman in on the redesign.
I actually liked the plot a lot and the action sequences and the fact that Eleven stole a firetruck and texted Amy to duck at just the right moment. I liked that the alien monster had trouble getting the voices right when he made the man with the dog bark or the child speak with the grownups' voice and vice versa. That was a nice bit of character development for the alien. I liked that the Doctor told Amy to look in the mirror when she wasn't sure how she was going to clear the building because it was a nice common sense moment and there aren't always that many of them on Who.
I went into this series with high hopes and I still have them. They weren't crushed by the Moff and they weren't crushed by the acting. I can see Matt becoming the Doctor if they take the writing further away from Ten. I hope they do. He's a good enough actor he doesn't deserve to be saddled with bad character development and bad writing. I had enough of the underwritten and wrongly written character with what they did to poor Martha. She could have been so much more as they proved on Torchwood when they finally let her awesome show through completely, instead of writing her as a lovesick, mopey Rose replacement. She didn't get to shine until the end of season three. I want Matt to shine now, not towards the end of the season.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 04:22 pm (UTC)Also agree that there were some disturbing themes in this episode - yeah, let's teach kids to invite strange men into their houses and cook for them, letting them tear apart your kitchen. Also, poor Amelia left on her own and then growing up to be a kissogram? Was the kissogram part necesary? I know he wanted to show she was messed up but...I dunno, I think there were plenty more subtle ways to do that in a kid's programme. And Moff has kids!
I think that's ultimately what the epside was lacking. Subtlety. There were some wonderful parts ofc, like the actual dialogue between Amelia/Amy and Eleven and the one-liners I've come to know and love Moff for, and I took the harks back to his previous episodes as homages, introducing the series again with something familiar to ease transition, but the design of the spaceship and the alien in it's true form were not well thought through and seemed obvious, sloppy and forgetful. Because really, they were secondary to an already thick plot surrounding Amy and Eleven's relationship.
Still, good episdoe all in all. I just hope either Moffat writes more 'Blinks' or at least matches RTD's greatness cos there are already too many fans that think RTD was TERRIBLE and the sun shines out of Moff's backside and I'd hate to see such fans rebel and be disappointed yet again...they can get vicious.