See? I told you. Just a couple of weeks.
And it seems not a moment too soon, as we are in the thick of the Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary! That's right, this show has existed for 60 years coming up in November in this, the year 2023! Needless to say, with it being my favorite TV show of all time, you know I have to celebrate! In fact, I've already started by penning Chalybe Panacea, a story in which the Ninth Doctor teams up with former companion Nyssa in order to save the universe from the 1980s Cybermen, and more stories will be following on from that. However, now that we've finally gotten Supernatural out of the way with Season 3, I think it's time to sink our teeth back into the journeys of a madman with a box.
So, with that said, let's get started!
We begin in space, pulling toward a model of the Earth in a way very similar to the openings of both Rose and Smith and Jones. Luckily, this is a better episode than either of those... mostly because Russell has just begun his thirteen year banishment from the showrunner position.
...yes, I know he's coming back now that Chibnall has gone. Not important now, although it makes my joyous "Frodo after the Ring has been destroyed" moment in my The End of Time review now more heartbreaking than triumphant. Speaking of The End of Time, when we last left the Doctor he'd just regenerated and was in a rapidly crashing TARDIS. We start here with much the same, the Doctor manically trying to get the TARDIS under control and narrowly avoiding hitting Big Ben before we get into the opening title sequence.
It, like the Eccleston and Tennant ones, is a time vortex one showcasing the TARDIS flying through it. Unlike the almost more mellow one of the previous four series, though, the one for Smith's feels alive. The time vortex isn't just a wormhole that the TARDIS travels through all willy-nilly, but is chaotic and alive, looking more like the Doctor is traveling through some kind of massive inferno (not that one) of fire and storms. I only bring this up because it's the first major change we've had to the sequence since the show came back. Matt Smith has at least one other sequence, which I actually prefer to this one, but we've got a while before that.
Alas, the Doctor's efforts are all for naught and the TARDIS crashes into the backyard of one young Amelia Pond. Amelia was praying to Santa for some help with a crack in her wall, one she hears voices from. Hearing the crash, Amelia thanks Santa before rushing outside. Out pops the Doctor, high on his own regeneration energy, and shenanigans follow. The Doctor introduces himself and puts the rules to Amelia that every companion very diligently follows:
1. Do everything I tell you.
2. Don't ask stupid questions.
3. Don't wander off.
He then proceeds to walk smack into a tree because even Reality itself couldn't stand that much denial in one go. However, the aforementioned shenanigans followed, with the Doctor eating and then refusing an apple, yogurt, bacon, beans, buttered bread (which he throws from the house), fish fingers (fish sticks for my fellow Americans) and custard (pudding).
This is very funny, but just wait... it's going to be heartbreaking in a bit.
Amelia introduces herself as well over ice cream and fish fingers and custard, and explains that she has no mother or father - just her aunt. The Doctor expresses some concern over Amelia having been left all alone, but Amelia retorts that she's not scared. The Doctor says she's right, given everything she's just experienced... so that must be a hell of a scary crack in her wall.
Upstairs, Amelia gives the Doctor an apple with a face carved into it, mentioning that her mother used to do that. The Doctor scans the crack and discovers that... it's a crack. It's not a crack in the wall, though. If the wall came down, it would still be there. It's a crack in the fabric of reality. After hearing a voice beyond the wall saying "Prisoner Zero has escaped", the Doctor invokes the later rule of "the Doctor lies" when he tells Amelia that everything's going to be fine and attempts to open the breach in order to close it. He does succeed in opening the way to reveal a prison of some kind... and a giant eyeball within, which shoots the Doctor with some kind of beam of some kind which gives him a message via the Psychic Paper: "Prisoner Zero has escaped".
The crack is closed, but the Doctor thinks they have more problems as he notices a door in one of the walls in the hallway that shouldn't be there... and then the Cloister Bell starts ringing and gets the Doctor's attention. He quickly moves to get the TARDIS stable, promising Amelia that he'll be back in five minutes, which Amelia says everyone says. However, with that damn charming smile, the Doctor reiterates his problem and hops into the TARDIS... which dematerializes. Exhilarated, Amelia quickly rushes upstairs to pack a suitcase... missing that the door the Doctor had noticed in her house has been cracked open...
This is the last time that little Amelia Pond will see the Doctor... maybe. We'll get to that later.
The TARDIS re-emerges and the Doctor breaks into Amelia's house to try to warn her about Prisoner Zero, having worked it all out... and he gets whacked in the head by a cricket bat for his trouble.
At the local hospital, a nurse named Rory tells a Doctor about a mysterious phenomenon among a bunch of coma patients - they all cried out for a "Doctor" all at once. Plus, Rory has seen these people out and about on the street... despite the fact that they're here in a coma.
When the Doctor awakens, a redheaded woman who is 800% legs in a policewoman uniform has handcuffed him to a radiator. The Doctor questions her about what happened to Amelia Pond, the policewoman telling him that Amelia hasn't lived here in six months. He doesn't get an answer about what happened to her. The Doctor asks the woman to count the rooms on the second floor, correcting her when she insists that there's only five rooms. The sixth room was hidden by a perception filter, the policewoman going to investigate while the Doctor protests and begs her to uncuff him from the radiator.
Inside, the policewoman discovers the sonic screwdriver... broken down and covered in slime. She picks it up as the Doctor yells for her to get out, the woman unaware of a gooey CGI snake darting to and fro behind her... until she does, running from there and getting the Doctor back his sonic. We get the reveal that she's not a policewoman... but a kissogram, so no backup is coming.
While one of Rory's patients spasms on their bed, the door to the sixth room is opened and out comes one of the patients... who has a rather snake-like mouth and a dog that seems very well trained. The voice from before, speaking of Prisoner Zero, is heard and claiming now that "the human residence is surrounded". On the run back to the TARDIS, finding it still locked up, the Doctor notices the shed that he destroyed is still standing and (tasting it) he determines that it hasn't been six months, it's been twelve years.
THE DOCTOR: You said six months. Why did you say six months?
AMY: We've got to go.
THE DOCTOR: This matters! This is important! Why did you say six months?
AMY: WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES?!
Yes, obviously, the policewoman is Amelia (now going by Amy) and she drags a shocked Doctor away. Amy apparently has had a bad time of it over the last four years, biting four psychiatrists because they told her the Doctor wasn't real. As they enter the village, they hear the Prisoner Zero message playing over basically everything with a speaker and - when they get into a house - on the television as well all across the world in every language. As they sift through that, we get the marvelous line from Matt Smith of "I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt!", which is something that I think doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves.
The Doctor works out that they have about twenty minutes before a spaceship arrives and incinerates the planet. The "human residence" doesn't just mean Amelia's house... it means the Earth. Also, a couple of people recognize the Doctor as Amelia's "Raggedy Doctor", which she regards with extreme embarrassment. A force field gets put over the planet, bringing Amy into a bit of a manic state as the sun temporarily gets blotted out and the Doctor notices Rory photographing not the sudden solar eclipse... but Rory photographing the man with the dog.
Amy has a bit of a manic episode, securing the Doctor into a car door via his tie. She thinks the entire thing is a wind up, but the Doctor gives Amelia the apple she gave him twelve years ago, still fresh, and implores her to let him go as they have only twenty minutes to save the Earth. She just needs to believe for twenty minutes, he says. With Amy convinced, the pair head off to Rory and the Doctor snags his phone from him. Rory is confused, but recognizes the Doctor from Amy's Raggedy Doctor games. The Doctor has worked out what Prisoner Zero is: a multiform that needs a living, but dormant mind to feed off of. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to try and get the attention of the aliens, but ends up overloading it and the aliens depart... as does Prisoner Zero via a drain.
The Doctor begins to work out a plan, getting Rory and Amy to get to the hospital cleared out while he goes and gets the laptop from their friend Jeff (the handsome one). After an obvious porn joke (Moffat, you horny dog!), the Doctor hacks into a video conference between a bunch of experts, getting their attention through fast talking par excellence. The Doctor creates a computer virus, sending it out across Earth to every computer, making every counter default to zero. He sets up Jeff to get an unprecedented windfall of a career path with a single motivational speech before leaving to link up with Amy and Rory.
He's stolen a fire truck, because he's the Doctor.
Amy and Rory find a woman and her two daughters... with one of the daughters talking in the mother's voice, revealing itself as Prisoner Zero. Trapped in the coma ward to try to keep it away, Prisoner Zero breaks in and taunts Amy about her faith in the Doctor, believing that the Doctor would come and save her... her faith being rewarded when the Doctor charges through the window via the fire truck ladder. The Doctor faces off against Prisoner Zero. The alien taunts him, asking him if he knows where the cracks in the skin of the universe come from.
The Pandorica will open and Silence will fall.
However, the Doctor's plan to end this episode takes precedence over foreshadowing of later episodes as he points out the clock has turned to all 0s. The word is quantumfast, with stock markets, projections, and all other forms of communication spreading 0 across the globe. This brings the attention of the aliens to the hospital, but not Prisoner Zero itself. The Doctor then sends out all the photographs Rory took of the supposed coma patients out in the village so that all of its forms are known to the Atraxi. Prisoner Zero fights back by linking with Amy's mind and taking the form of young Amelia Pond.
Prisoner Zero attempts to taunt the Doctor about his failure with Amelia, which ends up being its downfall as the Doctor realizes that Amy can hear him and encourages her to remember what she saw in the sixth room of her house, the snake-like creature. Prisoner Zero gets revealed and the Atraxi snatch it up. Nevertheless, before it vanishes, it promises the Doctor that "Silence will fall". The aliens are gone... and the day is saved... and the Doctor begins to dial on Rory's phone, calling up the Atraxi and making them come back to Earth immediately, much to the shock of Amy and Rory.
As the Doctor's theme kicks in, the three head out for the Doctor to choose his new outfit, stealing from the hospital's lockers in a way reminiscent of the Third and Eighth Doctors. Amy also gets an eyeful of Matt Smith's butt, because Moffat's setting up a triangle. More on that later. On the roof, the Doctor faces off against the Atraxi, the giant eyeball from earlier. After it scans the Doctor and declares him not of this world and questions its importance, the Doctor puts three questions to them.
Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?
Are the people's of this world guilty of any crimes by the laws of the Atraxi?
The first two questions get a "No". The third?
Is this world protected? We see holograms showing us the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Ood, Sontarans, the Racnoss, and many others.
THE DOCTOR: You're not the first lot to have come here. Oh, there have been so many. And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?
The hologram shows the face of the Doctors from Hartnell all the way to Tennant, the Doctor stepping through to reveal himself in his new outfit.
THE DOCTOR: Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, run.
Needless to say, the Atraxi book it. The Doctor finds the TARDIS key glowing and rushes off to check it, leaving a confused Amy and Rory behind. We don't get to see the inside of the TARDIS quite yet, but whatever the Doctor sees he very much likes - calling the TARDIS a "sexy thing". He leaves just as Amy and Rory arrive, Amy heartbroken now for the second time as we flashback to young Amelia in her garden, sitting on her suitcase and looking despondent... until she hears a familiar wheezing noise.
Cut to Amy, jolting up in bed as she hears it in the real world, rushing out to find the TARDIS. Amy is shocked, teases him about the bow tie, and then reveals that everything that happened happened... two years ago. The Doctor decides that fourteen years is more than enough to wait and he offers Amelia a spot on the TARDIS. Amy is resistant, saying that she grew up. With the snap of his fingers, the Doctor fixes that and Amy enters through the opened door.
The first console room of the Matt Smith era is probably my second favorite. Given the constant years of repairs, it makes sense that a time machine as old as the TARDIS would eventually see the Doctor using whatever bits and pieces he could find to keep things running. It's kind of an evolution of the Eccleston and Tennant console room, but where the Corral theme of that made everything feel more cold and mechanical, the Smith's TARDIS console is even more hodgepodge and has a massive whimsical air about it. Overwhelmed, Amy asks the Doctor why her and the Doctor eventually admits that he's lonely... just before he turns off a monitor that shows the crack from Amelia's wall. Amy expresses surprise that all of the things the Doctor said were real.
AMY: I thought... well, I started to think that maybe you were just a madman with a box.
THE DOCTOR: Amy Pond, there's something you better understand about me and it's important and one day your life may depend on it! I am definitely a madman with a box!
The Doctor sets the TARDIS to send the pair off into time and space, and we get a look back inside Amy's room, panning over a serious of Raggedy Doctor memorabilia that she's created over the years... and a wedding dress hanging up in her closet.
...seriously, Doc, you're on a streak at this point.
 |
| "Hey, have we got something in our teeth?" |
So that was The Eleventh Hour, which is definitely a step up from The Christmas Invasion, largely because the Doctor is actually involved in the events instead of just being a static object for most of it and then a deus ex machima in the last part when the companion is out of their depth.
Yes, by the way, Amy is a far better companion than Rose. But, then, so was Adric... and Adric, despite his infamous place in the Doctor Who mythos, never gave me 10,111,272,620 reasons to hate him with the fiber of my and your being.
My completely rational and well-reasoned hatred for Saint Rose of Tyler aside, Amy is actually a really good companion. She proves in this episode that she's only willing to go with the Doctor's nonsense to a degree, and is resourceful and driven. We get more of that in the episodes to come, but she does quite well here.
Matt Smith almost immediately proves himself as the Doctor. Rather than Tennant's fast talking followed by sword-fighting and then dropping the Sycorax leader to his death, Smith just... is. It's Moffat's interpretation of the Doctor which I, for the most part, love. The Doctor is this epic, grandiose being with this ancient and unknowable power about him. Someone who has lived for so long that even the name of Doctor is one that evil knows to fear.
Mind you, Smith's Doctor is also one of the more comedic Doctors in that regard as well, making for an odd juxtaposition. It's as if Yoda screwing with Luke during his introduction in Empire Strikes Back and then revealing himself to be this ancient and powerful thing was an entire character.
...yeah, I'm basically saying Eleven is Yoda, minus the lightsaber fighting.
We also have Rory in for a bit, Arthur Davill playing him. He doesn't seem too important in this episode, but give him time.
The design of Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi are definitely unique. It's nice to see actual alien looking aliens in Doctor Who instead of a rubber forehead alien or the like.
Next time, we'll be having an episode with a bit of NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW EARTH Syndrome. It's the 29th century and the Doctor brings Amy to Starship UK. However, there's something sinister in the shadows. Water doesn't vibrate in glasses set against the deck plates, a masked woman is walking around speaking in a raspy voice, and children are being shoved below decks for making failing grades.
...it's also not an especially great episode, but it's early days yet.
Next time, expect no love from The Beast Below. Be there!
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