by Steven Moffat
Originally Broadcasted: April 3rd, 2010
The Doctor has just regenerated and the TARDIS is rapidly crashing to the Earth. The Doctor manages to somewhat safely land in the backyard of a young girl named Amelia Pond. Quickly a bond develops between the two of them, because it has to! Prisoner Zero has been hiding in her house for 12 years and the Atraxi will blow up the planet if they do not "vacate the human residence"...
Matt Smith and this episode had a tough task: To successfully win over a public in love with David Tennant as the Doctor. We'd seen a little bit of the Eleventh Doctor at the end of The End of Time for the regeneration, but The Eleventh Hour is Matt Smith's first proper appearance in the role. The story cotinues straight on from the regeneration, with the TARDIS shown crashing towards Earth. It lands in the back yard of a young girl named Amelia Pond, who of course would become the new companion. Here we get an absolutely magical scene between the new Doctor and the young Amelia, where the Doctor tries to figure out what he likes to eat and ends up at the most odd concoction ever: Fish fingers and custard! When the Doctor hops in the TARDIS again for what is supposed to be just a minute or two, he actually ends up taking 12 years. Our introduction to Amy as a grown woman is a daring one, as she's actually shown as a kissogram dressed up as a police woman. From the start, Amy is utterly like-able, albeit a bit feisty. We also get our introduction to Rory in this episode, although his part is really small. A bit like Mickey Smith before him, I didn't really like Rory here, but in later episodes where he was given more to do, he turned into a fantastic character and a great husband for Amy. Matt Smith is utterly manic and completely the Doctor from the very beginning. In post-regeneration state, we see Matt Smith running around in a tattered Tenth Doctor costume before he gets to choose (or steal) a new costume at the end of the story. Although, as he so eloquently puts it "Well I just saved the world, the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me! I kept the clothes." When the Doctor calls the Atraxi back to Earth to prove to them that the planet is protected, we then get short face clips of all the previous Doctors. A great way to show that this is still the same show, even though the main actor has changed again. Matt Smith had a hell of a task following on from David Tennant, who had rivaled Tom Baker's Doctor in popularity. But the man managed to win over the public, bringing a Doctor who is utterly the same, yet completely different at the same time. His Doctor is more manic, and more childlike than David Tennant's was, and yet you can still see the similarities in the performances. On top of that, Steven Moffat gave him a cracking first episode in The Eleventh Hour!
Luke's Rating: 8/10
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