“You know when grown-ups tell you everything’s going to be fine and you think they’re probably lying to make you feel better?”
“Yes…?”
“Everything’s going to be fine.”
Yesterday, I watched the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who. It’s an episode that introduces a whole lot of new elements — a new Doctor (Matt Smith), a new companion (Karen Gillan), and a new showrunner (Stephen Moffat), just for starters — but I think it’s also an episode that’s immediately accessible to anyone who’s never seen the show before, which is probably not something you could say about the last few episodes under Russell T. Davies’ aegis. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, and whatever worries I might have had going into it — and I’ll admit I had a couple — were squashed by just how delightful the whole thing turned out to be. From the slightly different look of the show and the madcap humor of the script, to the chemistry between the two leads and the winning performances from both, there was a lot to like, and the preview of things to come had me very excited.
So a few observations. Only mild spoilers follow, although there might be more in any of the links:
- I’m not sure I’m crazy about the changes they made to the theme music, even if there is something of a history of fiddling with it between incarnations of the Doctor. But, at the same time, I couldn’t help but think: well yes, absolutely, make this thing wholly your own, Mr. Moffat. If that means toying with the music, I think I’m okay with that. Certainly the heart of the score (which has still got to be one of the best television themes ever recorded) is still there.
- One thing I hope they don’t revisit, however, is that click-click-click tracking shot back through whatever the Doctor has recently seen, as if he’s a supercomputer and he’s slowing down or zooming in on the footage that computer has recorded. There were better (and simpler) ways to introduce that necessary eureka moment, and the effect just did not work at all.
- Caitlin Blackwood is really quite good as ten-year-old Amelia Pond. Apparently she and Karen Gillan are cousins (hence the resemblance), though they met for the first time on the set. Blackwood has fewer scenes than her older counterpart, but she hits every note of childhood wonder and fear just right.
- For a show whose central element is a time machine, Doctor Who has precious few real time travel stories — that is, stories that play with causation and paradox, rather than just land the TARDIS in ancient Rome or Victorian England or wherever. Moffat may be one of the few Doctor Who writers who actually play with this element of the show, makes it the central element of his stories. He has done in all of his episodes so far. That he seems to be bringing back both the Weeping Angels and River Song in this new series suggests that this kind of chronological peculiarity will be a running theme. Rarely is the gulf between the Doctor’s “present” and that of his companions more keenly felt than in Moffat’s stories.
- I think I like the new TARDIS interior. It’s a little more cluttered and makeshift, in a good way, but not so different as to be unrecognizable from the previous version. And there were hints — “When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library.” — that we may see more than that one room. (Or at least that the characters will.)
- I think the best description I’ve seen so far of Matt Smith’s winning performance was this one via Twitter: “The Doctor Is Tigger.”
- Dear lord, fish sticks and custard?
I think the real test of the new series will be future episodes, those not written by Moffat, and those with quieter moments. But this was a very strong start, a completely engaging hour (plus) of television, and I like the direction it seems to be headed.
