Pieces of Life: Doctor Who The Eleventh Hour Review and a Muse’s Thoughts on Time Travelin’ with Matt Smith
10 minutes into The Eleventh Hour and I’ve watched more things fly out of Matt Smith’s mouth, both words and food, than I’m comfortable with.
Jump!
David Tennant whispered, “I don’t wanna go” is quite fitting as looks like he didn’t go very far as Matt Smith takes the 10th’s personality and incorporates it right into the 11th’s but with some majorly weird, ADD behavior that ventures well and beyond scary at times.
I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I was little girl and although a time or two things may have been confusing, nothing was as befuddling as Matt Smith running amok on my telly screen while having an almost one sided conversation with himself and a very young version of his future companion. Mind you, the Doctor has always liked the sound of his own voice but if this episode is anything to go by it looks like he’ll be having ALOT of blathering conversation that we will all have to listen to very closely less he quickly lose both our attention, our interest, and possibly our heads as we try to figure out what the hell he’s on about. Within 17 minutes I was completely clueless what he was talking about….although his very quirky, “You’re Scottish, fry me something!” was hilarious, hopefully young Amy Pond and the Scottish population weren’t too offended but I’m betting they laughed just as hard as I did. I think this is something we’ll come to expect from the 11th, alot of witty, silly lines that will make us burst out laughing at unexpected moments. When the 11th faces off with some sexified, nasty vampires in an upcoming episode he’ll proceed to run in the opposite direction while uttering, “This has been wonderful. Really. It’s like Christmas!” In some aspects the 10th had some incredibly funny lines but it seems the 11th will have ALOT more of them.
The entire episode ran away from me too quickly and I’m not quite sure what I think of Matt Smith as of yet aside from the fact that he’s incredibly coked up on Time and may have overdosed on fish sticks and custard to make him so hyper.
I didn’t LOVE the episode sadly but I took everything into account particularly the hints towards the season finale, yes there were hints in there already. Prisoner Zero whispers The Pandorica will open and silence will fall, one must wonder is the silence the same silence that was found in that library many moons ago. Mrs. Angelo also says she has seen the Doctor before which must surely mean he has traveled backwards in her time line already prior to this first meeting.� And of course, much of the interesting same brand name emblems in the Tardis, Bad Wolf anyone?
One thing I hated intensely was the lack of character introduction such as Jeff, Mrs Angelo, Etc….At first I got terribly confused and automatically assumed that Mrs Angelo was Amy’s missing Aunt and Jeff, who the hell was he? But turns out both are merely secondary characters, which I’m sure we’ll see again, in this tale. Strangely enough this “missing” aunt of Amy’s sounds like a mystery in itself.� The entire episode moved so incredibly quickly that it was really hard to grasp who was who and what was actually happening and why.
I must say that watching 70 minutes of a Doctor Who episode and proceeding to come out of it confused and not really knowing or relating to the characters was a disappointment. I’m ever so hopeful I’ll be attached to the characters a bit more in upcoming episodes because at this point everything was WAY to rushed for me to get a real feel for the 11th, a real feel for Amy, and just an overall feel for how this season will play out.
One thing I did notice, that was slightly upsetting, was Amy is already slightly in love with the Doctor. I do fear this will play out to another heart wrenching moment for our beloved Doctor.
Another thing that deserves word is the fact that the 10th’s heavy heart is quite gone. Erased. Completely disappeared. This new Doctor has none of the same reservations about taking on a new companion nor is he feeling any of the darkness or brokenheartedness that the 10th was experiencing. But as they say new regeneration, new likes, new feelings, new man. One thing that remains the same is that the 11th still carries the same love of Earth and fierce protection of her that he’s always had. He makes it his job to take care of mother Earth and her people, defending her with his very life. In many aspects our Timelord remembers the part of himself that’s not quite human in this aspect.
That bloody Tardis…
How is the Tardis can rebuild itself completely yet still not fix the blooming chameleon circuit which has left it locked in the shape of a 1950’s police call box for over 40 bloody years!
About Matt Smith….
Although things are a bit too rushed and you never get a true feel for how Matt will portray the Doctor you can’t deny he’s awful young in appearance, a true baby faced Doctor. David Tennant was 34 years old when he stepped into a pair of chucks and deemed himself the Doctor and the youngest of his time. Matt is 28 but acts every bit of his 907 year old character and has since trumped David as being the youngest Doctor in the history of Who. Although funny and quirky at best he still manages to give off an air of maturity as well which makes him solid TV gold. Now David Tennant was a cheeky, sexy as sin Doctor…let’s admit it, David’s a very sexy man and he brought that into the character. As geeky as Who is, David brought it to a different level when he brought a certain strange sensuality along for the geeky ride. Now Matt lacks sexuality of any kind as he comes across as a complete and utterly nutty professor type, this, is in fact, very refreshing as David could be very distracting at times as all you wanted to do in some episodes is lower the TV volume down and stare at his really good hair for 60 minutes, you won’t suffer the same fate when it comes to Matt, I promise you that. David took on the role of Timelord Victorious towards his demise but Matt somehow regained back the childlike innocence that David originally started with. Evidence of that is when Amy kindly points out, “I grew up” and the Doctor replies, “Don’t worry, I’ll soon fix that!” Matt shares some of David’s mannerisms but if you watch close enough Matt is never fully in control of his limbs. Where as David was very cool and collected in many scenes but still twitchy, Matt is all over the place and you’re never really sure if he’s going to take a tumble or trip over his own feet or god forbid go left and right at the same time, this goes beyond a case of being merely twitchy, this enters the realm of madness. His arms are flaying about, his legs are dancing about as if he has ants in his pants, and he’s just everywhere all at once, it’s all rather nerve wrecking and fascinating to watch, like a child who just can’t sit still for 5 minutes.
I tend to not like change but change is very much apart of Doctor Who, you can never get too attached to your favorite because he leaves sooner or later. Although I disliked The Eleventh Hour immensely I’m already getting a bit of a fever to see more of the 11th in action. Perhaps in the near future I’ll think him brilliant as at the moment he leans towards being worthy and that in itself is saying something. The British have already dubbed him one of the best Doctor’s to date in many reviews. Over 40 years of Doctor Who and after a few episodes Matt Smith is crowned king? Is this possible? I say nay, Tom Baker forever remains king as far as I am concerned but we shall see…we shall see.
So bring it on Moffat…show me what you got. My loyalties lay with no one but Tom Baker so anything new and refreshing you can bring to this era of Who, I can take it. I relish it.
Sometimes change can be good.
Show me how good.