Being at the In-Laws for Easter was a problem this year for my debut of Doctor Who, I wasn't able to see this till late last night! But always well worth the wait. A tradition since 2005's first debut of the new series and one that was upheld even during the 'off' year of 2009 with the one Special,
'Planet of the Dead'.
I love regeneration stories, always have. They're fun and fresh and interesting. My first being Tom Baker in
Robot and so on. Usually the incoming Doctor has four 22.5 minute episodes to get it right. But that changed with the new series being 45 minutes in length and the Eleventh Hour was over an hour this year. Paul McGann in the 1996 FOX tv movie also had an hour and a half to get it right. (Since Sylvester McCoy was the Doctor for the first half hour of the movie) And Matt Smith, well he was no different.
From the first moment we see him, struggling to hang onto the TARDIS as it crashes down towards Earth. To the very end as he's qouting Shadow Proclamation protocol to the Attraxi aliens, he truly became the Doctor.
He was missing one small detail as from any regeneration story... coming into his own as the character. For once, not since did Willaiman Hartnell first become Patrick Troughton in 1966, have we had a flawless transition without complication. The only amount of time spent on this was what we call 'New Mouth, New Rules'. I'm still a bit sickened by Fish Custard.
I will say, the connection the Doctor has with Amy Pond is new and fresh. Having met her as a six year old girl and then having his first adventure with her 12 years later and then traveling with her 2 years after that. Although, the Bride to be bit is a little over done.
But my money is the end... the Doctor dealing with the aliens (who the 8
th Doctor met in the novel 'Seeing I' before,) and he asks them about Earth... two small questions...
"Is this planet protected?" and a hologram shows all the Doctor aliens from the new series with some Classic scenes thrown in, like Sea Devils. And then he asks,
"Now ask yourself, what happened to them?" and we see all ten previous Doctors!
I squealed like a little girl at a Backstreet Boys concert!
Just check 3:20 into the video...
