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Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour (2010)

A promising opening

The secret of Doctor Who's longevity is his ability to regenerate. It's also the secret of the programme's longevity. Every few years there's the chance to reset everything, tweak the format, fix what needs fixing. The challenge for the production team is not to lose what was working.

So. With "The Eleventh Hour", Steven Moffat takes over as show-runner, and with it comes a new Doctor, new companion, new TARDIS, even a new arrangement of the theme tune. At the same time, he's inherited a show that's in pretty good shape, despite a few obvious flaws.

Russell T. Davies resurrected a cult programme, made it essential family viewing, and attracted top quality production and performing talent. But his version was a bit prone to grandstanding when understatement would have been better (let's face it, all his dials went up to 11, and most of them only went down to 8); it was good at setup but more interested in the character relationships than resolving its plots in a coherent manner; and the attempts at setting up a series-long story arc were pretty ham-fisted. Oh, and the arrangement of the theme music lacked otherworldliness. It may sound like a small point, but Dr Who has one of the great TV themes and it deserves to be handled properly.

So as an episode, this one has a lot to do, and for the most part it delivers.

The plot, without giving too much away, isn't up there with Moffat's (and by extension, Who's) best like "Blink", but provides a strong enough framework for everything else that needs to happen. The basic premise is creepy, and opens up to provide both small scale and large scale jeopardy for the Doctor and Earth. More importantly, it packs a lot of character development into a single episode in an unforced manner and tees up a lot of layers to explore in the rest of the series. The way the Doctor overcomes the threat is tidy and functional. One element requires a little suspension of disbelief but there was a sense of logic and conviction that a lot of RTD-era episodes lacked. We also got some hints as to the plot arc for the series, properly built into the script and not tacked on as, say, random Ood prophecies.

It's very early days for Matt Smith, but the Doctor's Gallifreyan mantle sits easily on his shoulders and he delivered his lines with a confidence that belies both his age and his experience in the role. Actually, delivered is a bit harsh. Nailed would be more like it. You knew by the end of "The Christmas Invasion" that David Tennant would make a good Doctor. It took Smith perhaps two scenes. Encouragingly, his instinct seems to be to underplay when the easy option would be to go loud. The role would appear to be in good hands.

Karen Gillan had less scope in her first episode as new companion Amy Pond, but there was enough there to suggest that both the actress and the character will be able to keep pace with Smith. The plot neatly sets up a lot of questions about how the Doctor affects the lives of the people he meets, which will no doubt be a big source of character drama later in the season. And she looks great.

The script was another cause for encouragement. In previous seasons, the dialogue has delivered the character beats, but often relied on the acting talent to carry them off. Moffat is an accomplished sitcom writer (the original, UK version of Coupling was a real gem), and it shows here. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the quality and quantity of good lines seems to help the cast to handle them deftly.

Overall, the changes were subtle, but almost all in the right direction. An opening episode has a lot to do, and this one made good use of its hour without quite being top drawer. But it feels like there's a lot of powder being kept dry for the rest of the season, and the fuse has been lit.

I have only one gripe: the remix of the theme tune. When will someone see sense and ask Radiohead to do a proper job?