The Eleventh Hour

Dear Gary—

I have to say that while David Tennant is probably the most entertaining of the Doctors Matt Smith is promising to be one of the most likeable based on this premier episode. Additionally I would like to put on record that I find this one of the best introductions of a new companion in the history of the series. The minute Matt Smith peeks out from the crashed TARDIS he inhabits the role of the Doctor, and his subsequent meeting with the fabulous Amelia Pond is charming. There is something very real about this fairy tale encounter. There is a tricky balance between reality and once-upon-a-time and The Eleventh Hour gets it right. It crawls inside a child’s mind and gets it right. It gets it “fish fingers and custard” right.

The make believe world Amelia creates out of this brief interlude with her “Raggedy Doctor” is sweet. The stories and pictures and play-acting are endearing and apparently well known to the residents of the story book village in which she dwells. We see none of this, but the few lines of exposition and the reactions by others tells us all we need to know.

Children grow up however and Amelia becomes Amy. Twelve years of lonely life berated by adults and assailed by psychiatrists and Amy’s illusions have been shattered. Now, twelve years later, Amy Pond is confronted by her imaginary friend come to life. Is it any wonder she whacks him with a cricket bat?

Amy Pond is hardened and cynical. She doesn’t doubt the Doctor because he is a fact before her, but she is not going to cut him any slack. She is not going to trust him with that childlike innocence that Amelia possessed. Even in the face of aliens and danger she is going to handcuff him to a radiator and slam his tie into a car door to pin him down and get answers. She is not going to let him duck into the TARDIS with a promise to return in five minutes only to have another twelve years go by. And she is not going to listen to him when he tells her not to go into that mysterious room. She is about proof; something tangible; no more fairy tales.

Amelia was not alone in her childhood whimsy, however. We never meet little Rory, only twelve-years-later Rory, but we know that Rory shared in Amelia’s fantasy world. Amelia knew the Doctor as a certainty; he was flesh and blood before her. It therefore is not as difficult for Amy to accept his authenticity once the evidence of the apple is presented. Rory, however, is befuddled by the Doctor; the Raggedy Doctor. “How can he be real?” It is the question continually on Rory’s mind because the Doctor dwells still in Rory’s imagination. He never had the flexibility of thought that characterizes childhood drilled out of him. It is this same open-mindedness that allows him to see the impossible; to see the coma patients wandering the streets; to take pictures of a man walking his dog when a giant spaceship is looming in the sky. He doesn’t understand; he is confused; but he doesn’t try to rationalize it away. He sees the Doctor; he talks to the Doctor; he knows that the Doctor is standing before him. The Doctor is a dream come to life; an impossible fact. Impossible facts ultimately are simply a matter of faith. All Rory can do is wonder and believe.

Personally I have no problem accepting this Raggedy Doctor. Matt Smith is the Doctor. He is young and fast talking, a perfect fit for the action packed and shorter episodes of New Who. Yet there is a call-back to Classic Who as well. I particularly like his three conditions for Amelia: “Do everything I tell you, don’t ask stupid questions, and don’t wander off.” It is very reminiscent of the ground rules the Fourth Doctor lays out for Romana in The Ribos Operation. The Eleventh Doctor might be out of little Amelia’s fantasy but he is not the dreamboat that Rose conjured up. Grown up Amy does not have stars in her eyes when she looks at the Doctor. Grown up Amy promises to be an old fashioned Doctor Who companion.

 The plot itself is appropriate for this new Doctor in the New Who. “Prisoner Zero has escaped” is a basic alien on Earth scenario. The crack in the wall, the room that no one dares notice, and things lurking out of the corner of one’s eye are elements taken straight from a child’s nightmare. It all comes together in a rapid fire adventure that is funny and scary and relatively simple. It is curious that Prisoner Zero takes up residence in Amy’s house and is content to hang out for twelve years until the Doctor’s return. However I suppose the Doctor’s explanation (“multiforms can live for millennia; twelve years is a pit-stop”) is as good an explanation as any. I also have to wonder how an advanced race of outer space police hunting down a multiform has no means of identification other than visual. However it fits nicely into the narrative and Rory’s picture taking.

The twenty minutes to save the world with no TARDIS and no sonic screwdriver is also a nice contrivance. This race against time is exciting and the Doctor’s usage of the people and resources on hand is clever. Hacking into the international power call and leaving the explanations to Jeff is amusing if unbelievable, and I have to ask where UNIT is and why the Doctor didn’t just use his UNIT credentials or even his psychic paper to convince the powers that be, but oh well. Taking the time during all this chaos to throw together his new outfit is another fantastic touch that dovetails beautifully with this Eleventh Doctor. His reaction to his new image (“Well that’s rubbish. Who’s that supposed to be?”) is classic and his explanation for not knowing what he looks like (“Busy day.”) is delightfully apt.

A new Doctor for this not so new anymore New Who. This episode is an adrenaline rush that restores my lagging faith in the show.

Until . . .

“I didn’t say you could go.”

Along with Rory I question: “Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?”

Now the effect of all those beloved faces of the Doctor ending with the Eleventh Doctor fully put together walking through the projection and stating, “Hello; I’m the Doctor,” is cool. As cool as his bow tie. I don’t deny that. It is a wonderful moment. One of those stand up and cheer moments. But it is marred. It is marred by the lecture. He saves the world from aliens (“actual aliens; deadly aliens; aliens of death”) and then calls them back to give them a stern talking to. This is his Principal Skinner moment.  Followed by his Reese Witherspoon ‘do you know who I am’ moment.

And then there is the crack that won’t go away and Prisoner Zero knowing far too much about it. “The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.” I don’t want to jump ahead, but how can I not? We just went through this whole dark and ominous fortune telling nonsense and here it crops up again. The Pandorica. The Silence. The cracked universe. The show invites us to look into its crystal ball.

For now I’ll just say that this crack is inconsistent. Here it allows people to jump back and forth between worlds and memories of lost loved ones (namely Amy’s mother) are intact. That’s all I want to say on the subject at this time. The show will force me to speak more as the season progresses.

I’ll end on a positive note because the episode does. “I’m in my nightie.” Amy in the TARDIS. It’s a wonderful scene as Amy signs up for a TARDIS run and the parting shot of her wedding dress hanging expectantly in the closet adds an unexpected element. But the best is a new yet old definition for the Doctor: “I am definitely a madman with a box.”

A new Doctor for this not so new anymore New Who.

And so I say, Gary, “Hello everything . . .”