In which Matt Smith falls out of the sky into mine and a lot of other people’s hearts…
I have spoken at length about my love of The Eleventh Hour – you can listen to my thoughts here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1T71sVPJiujVrUmFB8ODcz?si=7055448c7ac3446e
But if you don’t want to hear me rabbit on – or sing Murray Gold’s music almost as much as I did Dudley’s in Ambassadors of Death – then I’ll try and summarise here.
Come 2010 it was all change in the world of Doctor Who. RTD and David Tennant had made the show as popular as it’s ever been in it’s (now) 60 year span. But as they do, all good things come to an end, and first Tennant and then Rusty announced they were leaving. I’ll not lie, I was quite ready for RTD to go, and had been since the end of Series 3: I thought that he was starting to run out of ideas, that the show was becoming tired & formulaic. Nothing in Series 4 changed my view of that (despite the high points that I have already discussed), and so when Steven Moffat was announced as the new showrunner – the guy who had written hands down the best episodes of the first three series – I was fully on board & thrilled to see what fresh new treats this next era would bring with them.
David Tennant, however, was a different story. I loved his Doctor. I loved his energy but also how he still had a damaged, haunted side to him in amongst all the running round & silly phrases. I was not ready for him to go, and so when he delivered those final lines on 1st January 2010 I was in complete agreement. What about his replacement though? Well, that was uncharted territory. I remember watching the Confidential in which Matt Smith was announced, being hyped up by RTD, Moffat & many others, before coming to the big reveal and thinking “Who…?!?” For the first time in my life I had no idea what to think about the new Doctor: having been introduced to Who by Sylvester McCoy, I knew Messrs McGann, Eccleston & Tennant from their previous works, but had no idea about Smith. Bar a brief role in one of the BBC’s Sally Lockheart1 adaptations which didn’t leave an impression on me, and in the pre iPlayer age where I had no way of going back to check, I had nothing to hang my hat on with regards to how I thought he would be in the role. Even his short scene at the end of The End of Time gave little away.
And so I went into that fateful Easter Saturday of 2010 will little to no expectations, other than “This guy can’t possibly be as good as the old one…”
It took him fully 9 minutes to not only win me over, but to become my new favourite Doctor.
Tom Baker would have been my favourite if you’d asked me before this aired2 but by the time the credits rolled here I was smitten. From the first scene where he climbs out the TARDIS you could tell there was something special about him. It’s hard to describe the quality that he brings to his performance other than “Doctorish” but that’s exactly what he is: he’s The Doctor, straight away. There’s no post-regeneration pissing about here, no amnesia or settling into the role; he is who he is as soon even before his feet touch the ground. And he sparkles!
From the crash landing in the garden he heads into Amelia’s kitchen, where we have a beautifully played out slapstick scene of the Doctor trying different foods. “You’re Scottish, fry something” is still one of my all time favourite lines in all of Doctor Who, but it really soars due to the way Smith plays it. The Eleventh Doctor works incredibly well with children, and part of thar reason is that he’s just a big child himself: there’s a naivety that Smith brings to his portrayal, as well as a touch of sulkiness and the feeling that he’s the most important person in the room. I hope I’m describing someone else’s 5 year old and not just my own… But this Doctor also knows how to talk to children. He speaks to them as equals, deals with them on the same level. This Doctor is probably the most empathetic we’ve ever had, certainly since the 2nd, and we’ll see that throughout his reign.
Following the silliness, The Doctor & Amelia sit down to fish custard – and this is the point that won me over. As The Doctor stops to question Amelia about her home life and the crack in her wall, the child falls away and the centuries old TimeLord comes out. It’s similar to my favourite scene in The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe in the way that Smith just pivots his performance on a sixpence. I might not have realised at the time, but that was the moment he became my new favourite. 9 minutes in, the previous 47 years of Doctor Who has been blown away.
I don’t think I realised initially because I was swept along by the rest of the episode. It almost plays out in real time – in fact it probably does from The Doctor’s point of view – as we’re reintroduced to Amy, the Atraxi come to visit, and The Doctor has 20 minutes to save the world. Simples! Well, actually, yes it is – for all the time hopping that’s going on, this is a relatively straight forward story, with a simple enough alien that needs stopping. Of course, this is Moffat, and say what you want about him but when he’s on form he’s an amazing writer. Here his alien is still given plenty of scares (who else counted the rooms in their house after this?) and the resolution is simple but oh so clever, with director Adam Smith breaking out some very Sherlock style tricks to sell the mystery. Moffat then gives his new Doctor his first hero moment as he brings the Atraxi back and tells them to basically, run.
Murray Gold gets some more plaudits here: having become overblown in Series 3 & 4 – fantastic though his work in 3 is – there’s a sense of reinvention and renewal in the score here too. I Am The Doctor is Gold’s best work. It’s dynamic, forceful, exciting and endlessly enjoyable. It is The Doctor, and I quite often listen to it for pleasure while driving home, doing the dishes, walking the dog etc.
This story does what the series has done since it was deemed to be a failure in 1996, and introduces our Doctor to us through the eyes of the companion, albeit in the most Moffaty way possible, with Amelia coming before Amy. You could see Reinette from my previous Top 60 Story as the prototype here, but Amy gets to hang around so there’s more time to play with the idea. Caitlin Blackwood will be back as Amelia more than once, which is always fantastic to see; however, as much as this story is Matt Smith’s introduction, it is also Karen Gillan’s. Amy Pond is a breath of fresh air: after half a decade of companions who are all strong, independent women who have an influence over The Doctor but are nonetheless still under his thrall, it’s great to have one that isn’t playing second fiddle and is very much in control of the situation. Amy is bold, brilliant and bombastic – again, shades of Madame de Pompadour but turned fittingly up to Eleven; the next two stories have Amy saving the day. Gillan comes in to the role nailing the part straight away, and only continues to get better. The chemistry between her & Smith could fill a PhD course, and with Arthur Darvill introduced here & given more prominence later, we have the start of a tremendously good TARDIS team.
Again, there’s a great deal of character work going on here. Whereas RTD likes to dump his companion’s backstories on you in the first few minutes of their introduction, Moffat drip feeds us info her. We gradually learn about Amy through her interactions with the rest of Leadworth; we hear about her counselling after everyone thought The Doctor was imaginary, and learn about her relationship with Rory. It’s subtle exposition, possibly one of the reasons people feel it isn’t there. But it all is – this is a fully rounded character, who’s clues about her upbringing will become very important as the series draws to a close…
End of the day, though, this is Matt Smith’s story. Sure, the superb script helps him a lot, but how do you know he’s been such a success straight away? Because when you get to the back end of the story & Prisoner Zero takes on his form and his reply is “Who’s that supposed to be?” for a second or two you are as confused as he is. Because you’ve totally forgotten by now that he’s new to the role, that this is his first outing; after 40 minutes or less you are totally sold, and it feels like he has been the Doctor for 40 years instead.
As the credits rolled on first transmission and my wife asked me what I thought of the new Doctor, I was amazed that my reply was “I think he’s my new favourite…” but it’s so easy to see why. It’s a powerhouse performance in an amazing story; one that I’ve probably watched more than any other. It’s fresh, exciting, entertaining and accessible. It’s the perfect introduction to a new Doctor, who just so happens to be the best one yet.
COMING TOMORROW: It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for….
Skies Full of Diamonds 