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Wednesday 16 May 2012

Doctor Who - 5.1: "The Eleventh Hour" Review



The fifth season opens with the eleventh Doctor, crashing the TARDIS to find Amelia Pond; a girl with a crack in her wall. Then leaves her promising to return for her.  Just cos we're getting this again on TV.

Appropriately titled for the Eleventh Doctor in the form of Matt Smith, who explodes onto our screens! The scene opens with him clinging onto the TARDIS, flying over London and him narrowly missing Big Ben.   A girl speaks to Santa and talks about the crack in her wall, she can hear voices from it.   She asks him to send "someone to fix it."  Cue the Doctor and the TARDIS; well he crash lands on the shed. "Can I have an apple?" Are his first words, he's never had cravings before.   He's still "cooking" so he doesn't know who he is yet, but he still calls himself the Doctor.   He hates apples now and asks for other  food, "new mouth, new rules." He opts for fish fingers and custard.  her name is Amelia Pond (Caitlin Blackwood) and he calls it "a name in a fairytale."  She's not afraid of anything.

He examines the crack in her room to find a draught coming through it.   But the crack isn't in the wall.  It's "two parts of space and time that should never have touched." He also hears the voice: (David De Keyser) "Prisoner Zero has escaped."  He thinks it will snap shut.  Amelia letting a complete stranger into her house and feeding him too, even if she thinks he has been sent by Santa.   There's an eye in the crack and he can see something form the corner of his eye.   He needs five minutes to stabilize the TARDIS and then he'll return for her.  "Trust me, I'm the Doctor."  The Doctor returns for her later, he doesn't see Amelia but Prisoner Zero is here.  The creature turns into a man with his dog, but the man barks.  The Doctor realizes he's 12 years too late, not 6 months.  She's Amy (Karen Gillan) now and asks why he said he'd be back in 5 minutes.

T'he residence will be incinerated' message can be heard everywhere.   The Doctor loved the name Amelia Pond.   The message is being broadcast globally.   He's got  a new face and Gran says he's "the Raggedy Doctor" from  from the cartoons on TV.   He asserts the residence in the message refers to the entire planet.   Jeff (Tom Hopper) asks if he's the Doctor.   There are 20 minutes before the world ends.   The eleventh Doctor is still dressed in the tenth doctor's outfit (David Tennent) but he's no time to change yet, he's saving the world, he hasn't even seen his own face yet.   But he comments he has a new face.   There's a forcefield around the planet and people take videos on their video phones.

Patients in a coma in hospital call out for the Doctor and the nurse, Rory (Arthur Darvill) thinks they're asking for Dr Ramsden (Nina Wadia).   But it's the other Doctor they call out for.   We get grown up Amy in a sexy police woman's uniform.   He's 6 months late.  he asks her to count the rooms cos "it will change your life." He tells her to look in the corner of her eye and she counts 6 rooms.   Her house has a perception filter in it.   He asks for his screwdriver.   It's in the room and the creature appears behind her.   The Doctor warns her not to look at it.   The Doctor calls it a 'multi-form, "one creature disguised into two."  Amy's a kissogram, not a policewoman.   It was this or the French maid outfit as he broke into her house.

Amy asks who he really is and he gives her the apple with the smiley face she gave him as a girl.   He's real and she should "Believe me for 20 minutes."  He recalls Rory in his mind, photographing the man with the dog, since he's meant to be in a coma in the hospital.   Rory says it's him, the man in the story.   He's back.   The ship scans for non-terrestrial technology, i.e his screwdriver and then leaves.   The man and dog melt down the drain.   All this happened in only 3 minutes.   Prisoner Zero arrives at the hospital and the Doctor says it got a fix on him through the crack, but it took him 12 years to get here, arriving just as the Doctor returned.   The Doctor asks what his name was, "Not him, the good looking one."  Meaning Jeff, not Rory as he needs his laptop.   Amy even made Rory dress up as the Doctor.   (All will be revealed in the finale.)

The Doctor takes Jeff's laptop and says he should get a girlfriend, cos of the adult stuff on there.   He types messages to NASA and other space centres, including one to Patrick Moore.   Gran likes him so he says he'll get his number for her.  He then writes a computer virus onto the phone and everyone needs to send this message to each other at a certain time.   Patrick asks about the lady friend with him.  He tells Jeff he'll be a legend in 10 minutes and he needs to make everyone trust him. "Today's the day you save the world." Then advises Jeff should delete his Internet history.

The man with the dog now becomes a woman (Olivia Coleman) with 2 children at the hospital.   But the girl sounds like a woman.   The Doctor commandeered a fire engine, as we know it's got a handy ladder on it.  Prisoner Zero watched Amy grow up.  3 minutes to go (the longest 3 minutes in TV time ever.)  It knows he's a Time Lord and the Atraxi (on board the ship) will kill it.   The crack didn't just open, "it's in the skin of the universe...the universe is cracked, the Pandorica will open; Silence will fall."  (All to come later.)   His team is spreading the word and the word is "Zero." The clock strikes zero.   The virus is in the phone so the ship finds them.   The phone contains photos of all its forms.  2 minutes left and the Doctor asks "Whodaman?"  To which no one replies so he won't say that again.

Amy is unconscious and Prisoner Zero takes Amelia's form as a child and then the Doctor's; who doesn't know what he looks like yet, it's been a busy day.   What in all the 12 years he wasn't around, he hasn't looked in a mirror, or in 6 months or 5 minutes or whatever the time was.   He tells Amy to dream about what she saw in the room inside her house, causing Prisoner Zero to impersonate itself as a snake-like creature.  It utters "Silence will fall." Leaving big clues behind as to what will come this season.  The Doctor quotes Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation saying the Atraxi were going to burn an established planet and calls them back here.

He needs a decent outfit to save the world.   The Doctor undresses and Amy stares at him instead of turning away!  Well someone enjoyed themselves.  He tells them the world is important and it's not a threat to the Atraxi.   Flashes to the Daleks, Cybermen and others, such as the Ood, Hath and Sea Devils; and to the past Doctors.   He asks what happened to all the enemies, replying, "Hello, I'm the Doctor basically. Run!" There's his customary bow tie.   Doctor: "Oh you sexy thing" to the TARDIS.

He leaves and arrives with Amelia waiting for him 12 years ago, then back to her older self.   He always comes back.   She comments on his bow tie. "Bow ties are cool."  She can come with him, anywhere she wants to go.   He's come back 2 years later, so he's been away for 14 years.  "The girl who waited, you waited long enough."  The new interior of the TARDIS is also revealed.  She's coming but needs to be back for tomorrow morning.   Tomorrow morning will take all of the season to arrive, practically.   He's lonely.   Doctor: "I am definitely a mad man with a box."  She should remember that as her life may depend on it one day.  

Inside Amelia's suitcase we see miniatures of the Doctor and other various sketches and dolls strewn across her drawer.  Some shows you can keep watching and this is one of them,  even if this review is of a repeat showing.   Great to see how it all began and how things happening from this season, continued on in season 6.   Also lots of clues here as to what will be happening in this season too.   Good continuity here as the first scene opens with the TARDIS still ablaze from the season 10 finale.  Amy has seen the Doctor starkers! She finds it difficult to trust him because when she was Amelia, the child, he said he'd come back for her, but he didn't, not straightaway after 5 minutes.   So she wasn't going to be so easily fooled this time.  Even though he had the same face and sported the same clothes, she still didn't trust him, until the apple.   Okay, he begged her to believe him for 20 minutes.

The outside of this new TARDIS also carries the St John's Ambulance logo.   When the Doctor tells Amelia "had some cowboys in here" that line was an allusion to the episode The Girl in the Fireplace.  Lots of humour in this episode and action-packed too.   Amelia is played by Caitlin Blackwood who is really Karen Gillan's cousin.

It was good to see Matt Smith bursting onto our screens as the new Doctor and how he's really made the character his own this season and in season 6.

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