Doctor Who: Matt Smith's debut in The Eleventh Hour - the verdict

Doctor Who: series 31, episode one “I’m the Doctor, and I’m worse than anybody’s aunt!” He’s good isn’t he, this Rumplestiltskin Doctor? Tennant’s time in the Tardis now feels like it ended lot longer than three months ago. Smith inhabits the role from the moment he pops up asking young Amelia for an apple – and as fun as the kitchen scene is, the story wisely doesn’t waste too much time with an unstable regeneration. The crack in the wall needs dealing with right away, and with 20 minutes to save the world, he has just as long to work out who he is. Smith is a fan of Troughton, and he dances around the crotchety-loveable-mad axis from the off. Smith’s age also turns out not to be something of a non-issue. Moffat’s line is that although the Doctor uses 900 as his stage-age, he can’t have any idea how old he is: he’s a Timelord, these things are wibbly-wobbly. And Smith carries off the youthful vigour of a new body and the ancient professorial wisdom with easy panache. The much-heralded ‘recklessness’ is there as well, as the Doctor brings the departing Atraxi ship back just so he can have his “I’m back” moment. He also looks perfectly dashing in his tweed and bow-tie (a look that’s actually incredibly fashionable, whatever Amy Pond thinks). But I’m still not feeling the “Geronimo!” catchphrase. “Twelve years and four psychiatrists! I kept biting them. They said you weren’t real.” If you managed to avoid the spoiler that the Doctor was Amy’s imaginary friend, then well done you – although you’re clearly not very good at the internet. It’s a brilliant conceit that puts a new spin on a 50-year-old dynamic. There looks like being little Rose Tyler-style simpering here - Amy is another Moffat mad-women. ‘Fiesty’ is too easy a word for a woman who happens to have a personality – Amy is at once rather disturbed, gleefully impulsive and something of a bad girl. Now for the wibbley-wobbley bit. Is this supposed to be present day – which would date the opening sequence 1996? Only that’s clearly the o2 dome on the east London skyline, which wasn’t there until close to the turn of the century. So if that was the present, does the adult Amy leave in 2024? Is that a question we’re not supposed to ask? Or is it all mixed up with the crack-in-time business? More questions: What happened to Amy’s parents? Does she have any intention of returning for that wedding? And how many angry letters will be the BBC get about the fact she’s a kissogram? “Independence Day on the Village Green” Series openers have so much work to do that the actual storyline of the can seem rather underwhelming. The Eleventh Hour has the advantage of a 65-minute running time, but even so it’s an feels like an absolute triumph. A whole new world of regulars is seamlessly introduced, the story has both pace and complexity, and it’s refreshing not be in London again. The Atraxi eyeball-ship has to be one of the most beautiful design creations the Doctor Who teams have ever come up with. There’s also a spot of proper scariness from the possessed coma patients – and Moffat once again displays a mastery of childhood paranoias. “You’re Scottish, fry something!” Russell T Davies happened to sometimes write gay characters because there are gay people in the world which led various internet posters to decry some kind of a nefarious ‘gay agenda’. The Scottish Steven Moffat has written a Scottish companion because there are Scottish people in the world. There’s maybe two references to it in the episode. First person on here to decry a ‘Scottish agenda’ gets a Glasgow Kiss. “Silence will fall …” And so, the series story arc. Past series were far more oblique about the bigger story building throughout the episodes. Here we know from the off – thanks to the possessed mouth of Sophie from Peep Show – that something very bad is on its way. Any idea what? Invading Celebrities Impressive cameos in smallish parts: Nina Wadia, Annette Crosbie, Olivia Colman and Patrick Moore! • Daniel Martin will be blogging the new series of Doctor Who after the show every week. 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