NuWho Rewatch: The Eleventh Hour

[purplecat]

It was very interesting watching NLSS Child watch this. Like seeing a succession of buttons being pressed.

I recall not being quite sure what to make of this when it first aired. I suspect that wasn't helped by watching it in a hotel room with Tame Layman, and the lovely and ever lady-like fredbassett and lukadreaming who all immediately looked to me to pronounce on both Moffat and the 11th Doctor.

In retrospect it is easy to see Moffat setting out his wares here for the "Doctor Who as fairytale" a trope. I don't think he has successfully managed to follow through on this, outside a few specific examples such as Into the Forest of the Night which, note, was equally successful with NLSS Child. It was interesting here to watch her anticipating each turn just ahead of it happening, what would the Doctor like to eat? would the Doctor come back later than 5 minutes? how much longer than 5 minutes had it actually taken him? how long had it taken him this time? was that Amy's wedding dress? would he really be back in time for tomorrow morning?

It was also interesting that she was much more clued into the incidental music than I am. She has, intermittently (and abetted by YouTube) commented on "Martha's Theme" and "Rose's Theme" but here she instantly identified the 11th Doctor's theme and noted how good it was (and it is because I recognised it too).

The central story in The Eleventh Hour is rather slight but the framing story that introduces Amy and Rory is, actually, rather good. It is a shame, in some ways, that Moffat hasn't quite been able to sustain the Doctor as fairy tale motif.

NLSS Child reports that she likes the 11th Doctor, we'll see if that continues.

Comments

[arcanetrivia]

Eleventh Hour for me was an interesting, and relieving, example of what it can be like to experience the transition between Doctors. There's this almost nailbiting moment of "am I going to like this guy? Is he going to get it right?" and then Matt Smith's head pops up out of his crashed TARDIS and I was like, "what on earth was I worried about? this is totally the Doctor!" and there I went on new-relationship-energy with our favorite Time Lord all over again.

[purplecat]

NLSS Child seemed to warm to him a lot quicker than she did to Ten.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember watching it and then demanding your words of wisdom as our Who and deconstruction expert!

I'm rather AWOL on LJ at the moment because of RL crap. But I'm enjoying your rewatch accounts.

[purplecat]

I do get the impression there are a lot more people reading than commenting :)

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I agree about the fairy tale element.

I didn't much like this on first broadcast. I saw far too much in common with what had immediately gone before. Watching it on DVD after the whole series had aired and I had been won over to Moffat's style, suddenly the similarities to what came later seemed more important.

[purplecat]

It is quite odd to realise how total the break actually was between the two producers. River is about the only element that carries forward from Davies Who into Moffat Who and she's really just appearing early. At the time it wasn't really obvious how much of a change it was, and I suspect, it was constructed deliberately to obscure the differences.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I like this one - I remember being far more impressed by Smith and Gillan than I'd feared and was buoyed along by the sheer energy of everyone's performances and the snappy editing.

[purplecat]

Smith was remarkably successful as the Doctor, all things considered, and he had a hard act to follow.

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I adore this episode.

I had been gutted and I have to admit I cried a teeny bit when DT left. Then, within about five minutes of this episode, and seeing Matt Smith in the role, I was completely won over, to the extent that Matt Smith is currently in the running as possibly my favourite Doctor ever.

And I *love* the 'I am the Doctor' theme music. Series 5 was the first DW soundtrack I ever bought, and remains my favourite, and Eleven's theme is easily one of my favourite tracks on it.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Eleven does "alien" quite well, I have to say. There are certain social cues he really misses with humans, and it can be hilarious.

As for this episode, they really made a lot about Amy's being Scottish. The food scene was a bit fun; he was still "cooking." I do wonder if he still likes bananas, though. I could have told him not to eat an apple, because an apple a day keeps the Doctor away!

That five minutes/12 years thing was typical; for a Time Lord, the Doctor is quite rubbish with time.

Poor Time Lord was running around in a torn shirt and torn pinstripe pants, too. That kind of broke my heart, and I still can't look at that... his comment about the replication of him was spot on, though, for Ten and his vanity issues. He commented about how rubbish it was...

The end connected him to all of the other versions of himself, and that was nicely done, I thought.

I believe that Moffat wanted a clear break from the Davies era, often rewrote history, as it were, if it suited his needs.

Happy Easter/Passover/Spring to everyone!