Monsters of Television

“I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everybody’s aunt.”

At the end of The End of Time, I cried like a little boy whose favorite toy had been taken away from him. I didn’t want to live in a universe where David Tennant wasn’t the Doctor. He was manic, but brilliant, with a zest for (and a love of) life motivated by the all the carnage and death he had rained down on not only his own people but on those around him. (“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” will never be the same.) And while I am happy to have Tennant stretch himself elsewhere, the 10th Doctor’s departure was one I simply didn’t want to see.

So poor Matt Smith had a great deal to live up to. Indeed, there was no pressure on Steven Moffat, his writing and creative chops having already been proven in previous episodes (if you haven’t watched “Silence in the Library” / “Forest of the Dead” two-parter for some reason, you need to go and do that). Indeed, the trailer following The End of Time did have the feel, as one of my friends put it, of being The Young Doctor Who Chronicles. Eventual trailers created sparks of hope about Smith’s ability to fill the role, but they’re trailers: they’re supposed to get you excited.

But after watching “The Eleventh Hour” (Get it?), I’m pretty much head over heels for this custard loving, bow-tie wearing, chronically late Doctor. And while I enjoyed the episode, after sitting on it for a bit, I’m iffy on a number of factors.

I admit that my knowledge of the series is limited to the relaunched series starting with Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor (though I have seen the 8th Doctor’s pretty lousy backdoor pilot (of which 11’s dash through the hospital to find clothes is a nice homage to)), so my sense of the show’s history is less than many many other people’s. The wonderful thing about Doctor Who, however, is that you don’t necessarily need that history to appreciate it. Does it enrich the show? Absolutely, but each Doctor is also his own entity and if you follow that Doctor, then you’re all set to enjoy the show.

I say this because perhaps for the first time since Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor has the series become a part of the American television landscape in a growing way. I do not mean to suggest that the series airing on Syfy wasn’t an important step in that progress, but I do think Doctor Who has the chance to break out with American audiences (how it will break out in other countries, I simply cannot say), and I think that Smith’s Doctor and the types of stories Moffat tell are just the ways for the show to do that.

Determining Moffat’s style as a showrunner and head writer can’t be totally clear yet. Like the Doctor himself in this episode, I imagine that Moffat isn’t done baking yet, isn’t done fully taking over the show. It still feels like a Davies episode (aliens invading Earth, bits of running around, techno gambit as the way out), but it also feels like something new. It’s a transitional episode in all sorts of ways, but it’s one that I think will be different from Davies’ run.

One thing I’m less than thrilled with is the arc buzzwords introduced into the series (“Silence will fall.”). I was hoping for essentially a stand alone series, no overriding sense of doom hovering over things. My interest, however, is in whether or not this was an idea hoisted upon the show by the BBC in an effort to motivate people to tune in on a more regular basis. This isn’t to suggest that the arc words were used like this during Davies’ run, but that they’ve become such a trope of the relaunched series that they have to be used.

It’s a bit too early to fully define who this Doctor is. One thing that is obvious is that this one seems unlikely to provide warnings to enemies, happy to just go ahead and do what needs to be done. The sense of justice that the 10th had carries through here, as well as a bit of the 10th’s arrogance (“Basically, run.”). It’ll be interesting to see what extremes he’ll go to when threatened. Especially for an incredibly nerdy Doctor. Between the tweed jacket, the suspenders, the slightly too short trousers, and the bow tie (“Bow ties are cool!”), this Doctor is aware that nerds are cool (as a colleague pointed out, it’ll probably make bow ties cool).

And then there’s Amy Pond. It certainly helps that she’s impossibly cute (and the kissogram cop outfit didn’t hurt matters any). However, I’m iffy on the character overall. One of the things I adored about Donna was the lack of romantic entanglements with the 10th. It was refreshing after the puppy dog sadness of Martha and the doe-eyed devotion of Rose. I worry about the move to have Amy skipping out on her wedding day to travel around with the Doctor and what this entails. She’s clearly a spunky (“Twelve years! Four psychiatrists!”) but proper young woman (adjusting her skirt), but she’s also clearly enamored with the 11th.

Those issues aside, I’m eager for the course of the series (if only for the return of the Weeping Angels), and to see what Moffat has in store.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Also less than excited about the boring people back on Earth. But they’re so dull that they don’t even warrant a full thought.
• While I’m watching these before they air stateside, I’m holding back on the entries until they air on BBC America. Part of it that it gives me time to write them, but another is that I like having time to sit on them for a bit, ponder and consider.