If you have not yet watched "The Eleventh Hour", please go watch it. It's available on Youtube now (HERE is one link), so many thanks to our friends across the pond for not making us wait two more weeks!
Okay, so I'm too tired (it's late at night here) to write a full review, and anyways I don't see what the point of that would be. So to sum up: "The Eleventh Hour" is fantastic. The alien spaceship was pretty cheap and not very impressive, but I didn't care because of the following:
1) The Doctor. Matt Smith is BRILLIANT, as I had expected and hoped him to be, but it's still a relief that he WAS. He is already joining my favorite Doctors pantheon (that means he's joining 2, 5, and 10, in case you were wondering, haha), and it's only his first outing. I thought the episode would, at least on some level, be sad to watch. But to be quite honest . . . I did not miss Tennant. Which is a relief. I was afraid that I'd watch scenes and wonder how he would have played them, but Smith plays them so well, I simply relax and enjoy his performance and don't think about other things. So huzzah for the Eleventh Doctor, and I can't wait until next Saturday!
2) Amy Pond. Another Scottish accent! Anyway, I loved her character too; she's very real but very entertaining to watch, and her character is fleshed out and has depth already, even though it's only the first episode! She also works very well with Smith; their interactions were great. This is definitely a winning TARDIS team, and a companion who's story and welfare I can care about.
3) The music. It's different, but I really enjoy it. Apart from the opening theme, which I'm not so keen on . . . it's not horrible, really, but it's not good. The new opening visuals however are much more enjoyable than I had anticipated.
4) The story. It was not an amazing story, but was elevated by the quality of the actors' performances. The time travel plot within the story (without giving too much away) added the depth to the story that was needed, so the aliens were really only background to me against which I could watch and judge my first impressions of the Eleventh Doctor and Amy. And the story wasn't bad anyway--it was clever, and had satisfying moments of creepiness.
5) Nods to previous Doctors/episodes. Nothing really blatant. But they were there, subtlely enough to be entertaining for Classic Who fans. At the moment when video footage showing brief glimpses of each past Doctor flashed on the screen, that in combination with the awesome music and the context literally made me jump up and cheer, which was pretty much my reaction to the whole episode. I had the somewhat surreal experience of watching "The Waters of Mars" right after I finished watching "The Eleventh Hour" (there was a "Doctor Who" marathon showing all the DT specials on the telly); it's one of my favorite "Doctor Who" episodes. It was interesting; watching it I instantly identify with Ten, but coming back to Eleven, I instantly recognize Eleven as the Doctor too. Not a continuation of Ten, but a continuation of the Doctor. Smith's portrayal is natural, not an aping of Ten, for which I am relieved. It shows that the character is still in good hands, evolving and yet staying the same for yet another regeneration.
6) Script. There were some madly funny moments, some powerful moments, some poignant moments, and even some shivers-down-your-spine moments. So that's all in good hands.
The verdict: I am thoroughly pleased with this new era of "Who" as based upon what I saw in this one episode. The Doctor and Amy Pond are just about perfect. So go run off and watch it if you have not already, and then let me know what you think!
And so much for writing only a short review. Oops.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I was thrilled when it was posted, and absolutely loved Matt Smith as the Doctor!
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