The general consensus, having monitored Whovian tweets (Doctor Who has a massive Twitter following, evidenced by the fact it was a global trending topic on Saturday), critical reviews and general opinions... seems to be that it was perceived largely positively. Some of the effects were criticised, especially the titles sequence and the new interpretation of the theme. Importantly though... most people are "getting" Matt Smith.
And we all love Amy Pond... well except for the Daily Mail and their core readership who think her skirt is to short and she is slutty.... oh pulllllease! Go away grandmas, it was hardly a belt!!!
I blogged on the episode (minor spoilers). There's one scene I'm particularly quite fond of... it contains an arty shot that is slightly slowed down and has a glow about it, when the Doctor appeals to Amy to trust him for 20 minutes.
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We live for The One, we die for The One
"We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
I was really rather wary about this. I didn't much care for the actual regeneration bit in the end of the last season, and in the only thing I've seen Matt Smith in before (The Ruby in the Smoke), he left a rather forgettable & annoying impression. And he's no Jon Pertwee. ;-)
So... well, I was very positively surprised. The plot of the episode wasn't much to write home about, but as a post-regeneration, new doctor, new companion episode, it worked quite well. And more importantly, I now have a much better feeling about Eleven - hard to get the whole idea yet from a regeneration episode, but I quite liked him. And I rather liked Amy, too.
(I didn't much care for the new title sequence and theme, but I'll get used to those. And there have been worse ones: 1980s versions, I'm looking at you. I did like the TARDIS interior changes though.)
So I'm a whole lot more hopeful about the new season now than I was after the casting had been announced. I'm already liking Eleven more than I did Ten for his first year.
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“I don't show off. I merely demonstrate my abilities at opportune times.” - Skulduggery Pleasant.
I loved it, it was fun, with humor and gentle moments and was a bit less bombastic than the final RTD stuff.
I'm feeling quite enthusiatic about the whole thing. I really loved the glowing alien eye. Matt Smith was great fun, after seeing him on various chatshows I was not sure, but obviously his time spent at the formidable and excellent University of East Anglia put him in good-stead.
I personally felt the time travel elements of him appearing in her life had a Dougals Adams feel to it, that Who begun to loose when Adams left the show.
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"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative."
- Kurt Vonnegut
"There's no point debating anything online. It provides scant room for debate and infinite opportunities for fruitless point-scoring: the heady combination of perceived anonymity, gestated responses, random heckling and a notional "live audience" quickly conspire to create a "perfect storm" of perpetual bickering."
- Charlie Brooker
And we all love Amy Pond... well except for the Daily Mail and their core readership who think her skirt is to short and she is slutty.... oh pulllllease! Go away grandmas, it was hardly a belt!!!
Daily Mail readers tend to be women from the 1970s i.e. the ones who wore trousers when the mini-skirt went out of fashion. They are just being jealous.
Saw the Eleventh Hour, and I agree, Matt Smith did a great job with his first episode, no fears here for the role. Also watched the trailer for the remainder of the Series and looks like there's some good stuff coming up.
Spoiler for Spoiler from Trailer:
I see River Song is in the trailer, and she appears to be flying across space, without a helmet, from one ship to another. I Silence of the Library 2 parter, she appeared to be an actual lover/wife of the Doctor's, but, I'm wondering if she might be his daughter? Certainly something is up with her to fly through space without air? Confusing thing though, is I believe River Song implied when she knew the Doctor he wasn't so "young and Innocent", this would make sense considering the rest of David Tennant's run after those two episodes, but, Matt Smith the actor is younger than Tennant and appears to be playing the doctor as more young and carefree?
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One Day I hope to be the man my Cat thinks I am
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain
One word of caution though... the dalek episode wasn't great. It was definitely the weakest of the three. Smith does nothing wrong but the episodes writers paced it poorly and were a bit slapdash with some plot elements.
Don't like the new fatty daleks. The angles are all wrong and they are too colourful. They look like they've been crossbred with a smart car.
Somebody made this funny comparison.
__________________
We live for The One, we die for The One
"We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
I've found two of the three episodes so far pretty weak (there were bits of the second one that I truly enjoyed, but so much about that episode just did not make any kind of sense), but I'm surprised by how much I'm liking 11.
I have yet to hear from anyone that liked the new pregnant, hump-backed rainbow daleks. The WWII tea-serving Daleks were so much cooler! I was hoping that episode would deal more with WWII (like that it'd turn out that the Germans had Daleks too - woo, evil Nazi Swastika Daleks!), but instead it turned out to mostly be an introductory episode for the new Daleks.
The rubbish, rubbish, rubbish new Daleks.
Next week looking nice, though (well, so did this week :P ) .. with Moffat, at least the dialogue should be good even if the story is sub-par.
Don't like the new fatty daleks. The angles are all wrong and they are too colourful. They look like they've been crossbred with a smart car.
Somebody made this funny comparison.
I was making jokes about the Daleks "coming out of the closet".
... Aside from the premiere, I've been underwhelmed this season, neither "The Beast Below" or "Victory of the Daleks" have really impressed me. And ironically, I think it's the writing that has been the weak link, I like Amy and Eleven, but the episodes have had such a poor pacing to them.
__________________ Sure as I know anything, I know this. I aim to misbehave. - Captain Malcolm Reynolds
I've found two of the three episodes so far pretty weak (there were bits of the second one that I truly enjoyed, but so much about that episode just did not make any kind of sense), but I'm surprised by how much I'm liking 11.
I have yet to hear from anyone that liked the new pregnant, hump-backed rainbow daleks. The WWII tea-serving Daleks were so much cooler! I was hoping that episode would deal more with WWII (like that it'd turn out that the Germans had Daleks too - woo, evil Nazi Swastika Daleks!), but instead it turned out to mostly be an introductory episode for the new Daleks.
The rubbish, rubbish, rubbish new Daleks.
Next week looking nice, though (well, so did this week :P ) .. with Moffat, at least the dialogue should be good even if the story is sub-par.
Even with the technicolour dream club Pie loving Daleks, I'm still liking this over most of the RTD stuff. The Daleks offering tea and generally being creepy were enough to make the episode. I really liked the spitfires in space.
Basically, the new design needs to loose the hump back, then it would work. The bigger more imposing size is great, as is the updated look. I'll miss the old ones, but we will probably see them in some sort of Dalek civil war next season, so no worries. The pacing may seem a little off, but TRD hyped tension to ridiculous levels and used a useless Deus Ex Machina every other week int he last five minutes.
Meanwhile, If you really want to see a cool Dalek, check this out:
Matt Smith continues to impress and entertain. Karen Gillingham is pure sex on camera and happens to be a great actress. And yes, the dialogue is noticeably better. The show has a new-found sense of whimsy, really invoking City of Death and all the old Douglas Adams stories.
__________________
"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative."
- Kurt Vonnegut
"There's no point debating anything online. It provides scant room for debate and infinite opportunities for fruitless point-scoring: the heady combination of perceived anonymity, gestated responses, random heckling and a notional "live audience" quickly conspire to create a "perfect storm" of perpetual bickering."
- Charlie Brooker
Last edited by darth_librarian; April 19th 10 at 22:44.