The Eleventh Doctor
Jun. 24th, 2010 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterLike all Doctor Who watchers I’m currently on tenterhooks between the final two episodes. (We love Steven Moffat, don’t we?) Which means that it’s a good moment to mention in this LJ that yes, I’m watching Doctor Who now.
As usual, it’s all![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fyrie’s fault. She mentioned the floppy hair, the quirkiness and the SF, and I was hooked from the first episode on. I also inhaled the backlog of the new series from Nine onwards over something like a month, but more on that on a different occasion.
For now, Eleven.
5x01: The Eleventh Hour
This is the episodefyrie hooked me with. The pace was what got me – the pace and the quirkiness and OMGBowTie. I recently rewatched it with Mother and only now was I able to appreciate all the little things that tie into the subsequent episodes. It’s a celebration of Doctor Who, and an astoundingly smooth introduction for anyone who’s never watched any (like me – I’d only seen Eight before). It’s also so immensely quoteable. “You lot. Back here. NOW!”
5x02: The Beast Below
Liz Ten. How much do we love Liz Ten? The visual concept alone, with her cloak, hair, lair, is breathtaking. This episode was a shameless visual romp, and very free with the references, what with being Star Wars meets V for Vendetta meets a shabby Brighton amusement arcade. And that’s not a bad thing – this is the one that sold me on the Doctor Who aesthetic, rubber and repurposed props and everything else.
The plot works best when treated as a fairytale, I think – here’s the run-down kingdom, the dark magic monsters, the good wizard who makes the wise queen see the truth.
Or in this case, the good wizard’s plucky companion. More about individual characters later, but I love Amy.
5x03: Victory of the Daleks
This one didn’t work for me. Part of it was that I was not invested in Daleks (later remedied by the aforementioned inhaling of Nine and Ten’s entire opus), but most of all I wasn’t able to enjoy the Spitfires in Space due to the shameless Churchill fanboying.
This is not at all a slight on the actor. It’s a slight on the historical character, if anything. You say Churchill, and I don’t see a hero. Chalk it up to being Polish. Chalk it up to Yalta and Katyn and the Warsaw Uprising and not paying attention to genocide until it was politically expedient to do so.
(What did work for me was the Dalek thing. Matt sold it beautifully, conveying just how awful they were. Jammy dodger had me falling off my seat, too. Just – not Churchill.)
5x04: The Time of Angels and 5x05: Flesh and Stone
By this time I was well into the Nine-Ten rewatch and yes, I’d seen both Blink and Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead. I’d recommend watching both before this episode, because that makes it so much more scary. However, I was watching the first part in a hotel room in Edinburgh and it was my mother’s first Doctor Who episode – and she was instantly hooked :-)
Again it’s the concepts that sell it for me. River vs Eleven vs Amy is such a lovely dynamic with the almost-niece sniggering at the Doctor’s attempts not to be impressed by his future something-or-other. The militant clerics – it was such a thin line, but the script walked it beautifully, expressing how they were true believers and presenting it with respect. And the angels. I love the angels to pieces. Especially the idea that if you look into the eyes of an angel, the image of an angel is an angel, and it’s now in your brain...
(Steven Moffat episodes are best watched from behind the sofa.)
5x06: The Vampires of Venice
The magic V-word... but I’m afraid it’s another episode that wasn’t 100% strong for me. Needs more male vampires ;-) Still, I loved the Countess, and the way she and Eleven played off each other during their confrontation. The relationship between the Countess and her son is also a very interesting concept that’s going into my repertoire.
Of the controversial parts, I didn’t like the sudden action ending, but I did love the father – he was presented as proactive, caring, and positively Shakespearian.
5x07: Amy’s Choice
Canon Alternate Universe ♥ I love this episode for the character work, but most of all for the classic-sf feel of it. I was raised on Asimov and Simak and Herbert and all the others, so it’s a superb treat to have a high-concept story that works just as well as any of theirs.
And to drive home – subtly – just how screwed up Eleven is.
5x08: The Hungry Earth and 5x09: Cold Blood
The writing in this two-parter felt a little clunky at times, but it’s rescued by Silurians (my first encounter, and I love the new costumes) and Nasreen, who is awesome. At times it was a bit too much of stumbling in the dark, especially in the first episode, but by the end it came together. A little too neatly, maybe, because there was a distinct feeling that everything after Alaya’s death happened because the script asked for it, not because it was the logical conclusion of the characters’ actions.
5x10: Vincent and the Doctor
I don’t cry often. Not at fiction, definitely. But this one had me in tears, big time, all the way from the Starry Night to the end of the episode.
Part of this is Richard Curtis, of course, who is to melodrama what Steven Moffat is to sf horror. But the majority of it is Tony Curran. If there’s any award for Best Guest Star in a Television Series, he should get the lot. With bells on.
I loved Vincent. I loved Starry Night. I loved the smelly godmother, and the fact the monster was as crippled as Vincent (and the opposite at the same time, blind where Vincent saw too much). I loved the bow ties, and the hugs, and I want an AU where Eleven and Amy come back for Vincent just before he dies, and he travels with them. (The other person I wish they’d go back for is Reinette, from Girl in the Fireplace. Who would be amazingly good for Vincent.)
5x11: The Lodger
Don’t tell me this wasn’t World Cup-timed :D I loved how giddily good Matt was on the field. I cared less for the Craig plot, mostly because I have a humiliation squick, but it was all about Eleven trying to be human in his own inimitable way. I like Eleven, as if you couldn’t tell. And Amy being a competent assistant didn’t hurt.
5x12: The Pandorica Opens
It’s been almost a week, and I’m still reeling. Everything with bells on, and while I expected the Doctor to be in the box, I wasn’t expecting this. I. Can’t. Wait. For. Season. Finale.
Oh, and the Cyberman thing? SO creepy. Yay the Moff for giving us something new to fear.
I’ve now seen four doctors (Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven), and while all have their good sides, it’s Eleven that I love to bits. I’m also seriously impressed by Matt Smith’s acting. He is old, a cranky old explorer who sometimes has flashbacks to his goofy youth rather than the other way around. What little I’ve seen of One is similar, so in-universe it makes sense that after the drama-queen heroic Ten he’d regress to the safety of a familiar modus operandi, with maybe a few circuits giving out
What I’m reminded of most is not so much an academic (bow tie nonwithstanding), but an old soldier – a colonial British officer, maybe, who saw too much, gave up his commission with a bang and a slap to his superiors’ faces, and now travels the world doing what he wants to do and only that. There’s that honour there, and that bitterness and strength,
Amy, on the other hand – she’s most definitely in control. I’m hoping that the season finale will give us information about her origin, but even now I like her for being so confident, so much herself. She doesn’t look to anyone else for validation, and I can respect that. She’s found her strength.
(To the comments about her skirt length, me and my necklines say PAH.)
I think I’d be less impressed by Rory if I hadn’t seen Mickey and knew how badly it can go. I’m very impressed by how tightly plotted his story was/is, bringing him in for only the necessary episodes, and for maximum emotional impact.
I think this is what impresses me so much about this season altogether. It feels like Season 2 or 3 of Babylon 5, only even tighter, even more intricate. No throwaway lines, no throwaway angles, all a solid whole.
I never expected to be a Doctor Who fan.
As usual, it’s all
fyrie’s fault. She mentioned the floppy hair, the quirkiness and the SF, and I was hooked from the first episode on. I also inhaled the backlog of the new series from Nine onwards over something like a month, but more on that on a different occasion. For now, Eleven.
5x01: The Eleventh Hour
This is the episode
fyrie hooked me with. The pace was what got me – the pace and the quirkiness and OMGBowTie. I recently rewatched it with Mother and only now was I able to appreciate all the little things that tie into the subsequent episodes. It’s a celebration of Doctor Who, and an astoundingly smooth introduction for anyone who’s never watched any (like me – I’d only seen Eight before). It’s also so immensely quoteable. “You lot. Back here. NOW!”5x02: The Beast Below
Liz Ten. How much do we love Liz Ten? The visual concept alone, with her cloak, hair, lair, is breathtaking. This episode was a shameless visual romp, and very free with the references, what with being Star Wars meets V for Vendetta meets a shabby Brighton amusement arcade. And that’s not a bad thing – this is the one that sold me on the Doctor Who aesthetic, rubber and repurposed props and everything else.
The plot works best when treated as a fairytale, I think – here’s the run-down kingdom, the dark magic monsters, the good wizard who makes the wise queen see the truth.
Or in this case, the good wizard’s plucky companion. More about individual characters later, but I love Amy.
5x03: Victory of the Daleks
This one didn’t work for me. Part of it was that I was not invested in Daleks (later remedied by the aforementioned inhaling of Nine and Ten’s entire opus), but most of all I wasn’t able to enjoy the Spitfires in Space due to the shameless Churchill fanboying.
This is not at all a slight on the actor. It’s a slight on the historical character, if anything. You say Churchill, and I don’t see a hero. Chalk it up to being Polish. Chalk it up to Yalta and Katyn and the Warsaw Uprising and not paying attention to genocide until it was politically expedient to do so.
(What did work for me was the Dalek thing. Matt sold it beautifully, conveying just how awful they were. Jammy dodger had me falling off my seat, too. Just – not Churchill.)
5x04: The Time of Angels and 5x05: Flesh and Stone
By this time I was well into the Nine-Ten rewatch and yes, I’d seen both Blink and Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead. I’d recommend watching both before this episode, because that makes it so much more scary. However, I was watching the first part in a hotel room in Edinburgh and it was my mother’s first Doctor Who episode – and she was instantly hooked :-)
Again it’s the concepts that sell it for me. River vs Eleven vs Amy is such a lovely dynamic with the almost-niece sniggering at the Doctor’s attempts not to be impressed by his future something-or-other. The militant clerics – it was such a thin line, but the script walked it beautifully, expressing how they were true believers and presenting it with respect. And the angels. I love the angels to pieces. Especially the idea that if you look into the eyes of an angel, the image of an angel is an angel, and it’s now in your brain...
(Steven Moffat episodes are best watched from behind the sofa.)
5x06: The Vampires of Venice
The magic V-word... but I’m afraid it’s another episode that wasn’t 100% strong for me. Needs more male vampires ;-) Still, I loved the Countess, and the way she and Eleven played off each other during their confrontation. The relationship between the Countess and her son is also a very interesting concept that’s going into my repertoire.
Of the controversial parts, I didn’t like the sudden action ending, but I did love the father – he was presented as proactive, caring, and positively Shakespearian.
5x07: Amy’s Choice
Canon Alternate Universe ♥ I love this episode for the character work, but most of all for the classic-sf feel of it. I was raised on Asimov and Simak and Herbert and all the others, so it’s a superb treat to have a high-concept story that works just as well as any of theirs.
And to drive home – subtly – just how screwed up Eleven is.
5x08: The Hungry Earth and 5x09: Cold Blood
The writing in this two-parter felt a little clunky at times, but it’s rescued by Silurians (my first encounter, and I love the new costumes) and Nasreen, who is awesome. At times it was a bit too much of stumbling in the dark, especially in the first episode, but by the end it came together. A little too neatly, maybe, because there was a distinct feeling that everything after Alaya’s death happened because the script asked for it, not because it was the logical conclusion of the characters’ actions.
5x10: Vincent and the Doctor
I don’t cry often. Not at fiction, definitely. But this one had me in tears, big time, all the way from the Starry Night to the end of the episode.
Part of this is Richard Curtis, of course, who is to melodrama what Steven Moffat is to sf horror. But the majority of it is Tony Curran. If there’s any award for Best Guest Star in a Television Series, he should get the lot. With bells on.
I loved Vincent. I loved Starry Night. I loved the smelly godmother, and the fact the monster was as crippled as Vincent (and the opposite at the same time, blind where Vincent saw too much). I loved the bow ties, and the hugs, and I want an AU where Eleven and Amy come back for Vincent just before he dies, and he travels with them. (The other person I wish they’d go back for is Reinette, from Girl in the Fireplace. Who would be amazingly good for Vincent.)
5x11: The Lodger
Don’t tell me this wasn’t World Cup-timed :D I loved how giddily good Matt was on the field. I cared less for the Craig plot, mostly because I have a humiliation squick, but it was all about Eleven trying to be human in his own inimitable way. I like Eleven, as if you couldn’t tell. And Amy being a competent assistant didn’t hurt.
5x12: The Pandorica Opens
It’s been almost a week, and I’m still reeling. Everything with bells on, and while I expected the Doctor to be in the box, I wasn’t expecting this. I. Can’t. Wait. For. Season. Finale.
Oh, and the Cyberman thing? SO creepy. Yay the Moff for giving us something new to fear.
I’ve now seen four doctors (Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven), and while all have their good sides, it’s Eleven that I love to bits. I’m also seriously impressed by Matt Smith’s acting. He is old, a cranky old explorer who sometimes has flashbacks to his goofy youth rather than the other way around. What little I’ve seen of One is similar, so in-universe it makes sense that after the drama-queen heroic Ten he’d regress to the safety of a familiar modus operandi, with maybe a few circuits giving out
What I’m reminded of most is not so much an academic (bow tie nonwithstanding), but an old soldier – a colonial British officer, maybe, who saw too much, gave up his commission with a bang and a slap to his superiors’ faces, and now travels the world doing what he wants to do and only that. There’s that honour there, and that bitterness and strength,
Amy, on the other hand – she’s most definitely in control. I’m hoping that the season finale will give us information about her origin, but even now I like her for being so confident, so much herself. She doesn’t look to anyone else for validation, and I can respect that. She’s found her strength.
(To the comments about her skirt length, me and my necklines say PAH.)
I think I’d be less impressed by Rory if I hadn’t seen Mickey and knew how badly it can go. I’m very impressed by how tightly plotted his story was/is, bringing him in for only the necessary episodes, and for maximum emotional impact.
I think this is what impresses me so much about this season altogether. It feels like Season 2 or 3 of Babylon 5, only even tighter, even more intricate. No throwaway lines, no throwaway angles, all a solid whole.
I never expected to be a Doctor Who fan.