After a fast-paced season opener introducing Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillian as Amy Pond, his latest companion, we settle immediately into a typical Doctor Who episode, set on a space ship -- space ships and rocky planets, because one can be shot in a studio with minimal set dressing and the other in a stone quarry.
But, despite the introduction, we don't know who either of these people really is, so we have to go through a lot of character exposition. This tends to cut down on the plot and calls for a lot of words, which Matt Smith is able to get out at a fast clip with amusing emphasis. Perhaps one of the trips back in time in future episodes will have him meeting Gilbert & Sullivan and filling in for George Grossmith for a patter song or two. Karen Gillian shows that Amy Pond is a budding control freak, willing to make big mistakes that will put her in peril. However, the character exposition needed to tell us who these two are interferes with the speed of the plot.
It's a fairly typical Moffat plot, with a number of mysteries to be unraveled. Who is Liz Ten? Why does the Doctor keep placing glasses of water on the floor? How does Starship UK move through space and what is it that everyone keeps forgetting?
Unhappily, despite this sounding just like Moffat's meat, this is just an average WHO script. Perhaps the strain of letting us know who these people really are is what is telling on it. Still, it is decent, if not remarkable, and the opening sequence with another of Moffat's typical commonplace terrors, the image of Amy Pond, floating in space in her nightie and Matt Smith's engaging performance offers us some hope.