Eleven so far . . .

[dbskyler]

Time to do a reaction post. This contains spoilers for "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Beast Below." (Those are the only episodes I've seen so far; please don't give away spoilers for later episodes!)



On the whole, I like the Eleventh Doctor. I like that he's "a madman with a box," I like that he's less emo than Ten, and I like that he's still very definitely the Doctor. That said, while I didn't miss Tennant at all in "Eleventh Hour," there were some moments in "Beast Below" where I thought he would've done a better job than Smith did. That might just be the normal process of getting used to a new Doctor, though.

I thought "Eleventh Hour" was a great piece of television. I thought "Beast Below" was a lousy piece of television. Oh well, at least now I know that when Steven Moffat writes things that make no sense, it annoys me just as much as when RTD does it.

I guess we have another "arc" thing going throughout the series, ending up with silence falling or something. I'd just as soon do without the series-long arcs, but I'm willing to go along for the ride and see where it takes us. I have to admit that I didn't even catch the crack on the TARDIS monitor or on Starship UK until I read other people's reaction posts, but I guess it will be showing up again. Here's the question, though -- is the crack following them, did it just happen to show up where they've been (or possibly was there before they arrived)? Is there a connection between the crack and Amy, considering that it was on her bedroom wall? Could she even be the cause of the crack?

Also, I wonder if the Doctor's trouble getting the TARDIS to the right time in "Eleventh Hour" was actually due to the crack as opposed to the Doctor's lack of steering ability.

(Speculation in comments is welcome, but no spoilers please.)

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

We should be finding out more about the crack in episode 5, if the 'next time' trailer on the end of episode 4 is an indication (otherwise, your guess is as good as anyone's!)

I enjoyed quite a lot of The Beast Below - but it would've benefitted from being a two parter and therefore less rushed (and had more time to explore certain things).

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

For me, it wasn't that "Beast" was rushed, it was that things didn't make sense. Feeding low-performing children to the whale didn't make sense -- or at least, it wasn't supported at all in the "reveal" at the end; there was no reason for it given (not even a "we have to feed the whale something" reason as the whale doesn't eat the children and the government knows that). Getting rid of people who vote the wrong way didn't quite work with the reveal moment either. There should have been some sort of remorse expressed for killing off the dissidents, but we didn't get it. Although I personally think it would've worked better if it turned out that no one had ever voted to "protest" and therefore no one had ever been fed to the whale. Also, the whole need to enslave the whale in the first place wasn't supported -- if every other nation managed to successfully build a starship (including Scotland), why couldn't the (rest of the) UK? The bit with Amy seeing the Doctor as kind and old didn't work for me either; it felt pasted on rather than something that arose out of what happened in the episode. How does she know that he's old, anyway? I guess you can argue she saw all those versions of him on the roof with the Atraxi, but a line or two about it would've helped. But then, how does she know that the whale is old? I also didn't like the "no interference except when children are crying" bit. Since we know the Doctor always interferes whether or not there are children around, I didn't understand why he would say that to Amy, and I needed that explained somehow. Then her subsequent "insight" that the Doctor is kind for the children and therefore the whale must be the same didn't work for me because she's wrong, there's not some big exception he makes for children. In fact the whole ending felt artificial, like it was a destination Moffat was going for, didn't quite get to in the script but magically arrived at anyway.

Well, maybe you're right, maybe the ultimate issue was lack of time to build the support for all these things, but it just didn't work for me at all.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Sigh - I really hope the crack has nothing to do with Amy. I don't want her to be the plot!

...Also, have you noticed one of the last shots of the Eleventh Hour, with little Amelia waiting outside and hearing the Tardis?....

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I did notice that, and I wondered if it was significant or not. Any theories?

[pitry.livejournal.com]

well it did make me wonder whether they're sort of on a wrong timeline, possible something to do with the cracks - he did get back to her on time, and then something went off with time and he didn't. That her timeline is wrong or something... and I shall say no more. :)

BTW - about what you said above about the "never interfere". My interpretation of that was that it's a part of the ambivalent way he's treating Amy, that it's supposed to be some resolutions of his as a result of Waters of Mars and End of Time... but if this is the case I think they're not giving this arc enough attention, but rather throw these little hints and that's it. :((

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I can go along with it as a change in attitude due to regeneration (one that we know is doomed), or else a deliberate misleading of Amy for some as-yet-unrevealed-reason -- but don't make the resolution of the episode hinge on it! Because Amy is wrong, it's not about the children. And anyway, wouldn't a truly kind being care about saving a starship full of people even if no children were crying at all? It just felt artificial and forced to me.

Oooh, Amy's timeline is wrong, that's an interesting idea. I also saw people posting about the fact that Rory's badge said it was issued in 1990, which was also very suggestive. I don't think that was a mistake.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Rory's badge is one of the reasons I think that, evne though the Moff said it's just a mistake... I suspect he's taken a leaf out of RTD's book and is lying though - it's an extremely weird mistake to make. And they zoom in on it. 0_0

Don't get me started on the whole resolution. That was handled pretty badly, what with Amy repeated the same line three times and all! It made no sense whatsoever, and I really did feel they made the Doctor dumber in that one in order to have Amy save the day... Which is stupid cos she was damn cool the whole episode, she would have still be cool without psychic powers!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't heard that Moffat said the badge date was a mistake. Hmm. I'm not sure if I believe him either.

Don't get me started on the whole resolution. That was handled pretty badly, what with Amy repeated the same line three times and all! It made no sense whatsoever, and I really did feel they made the Doctor dumber in that one in order to have Amy save the day... Which is stupid cos she was damn cool the whole episode

Yes, exactly. Handled badly, made no sense, made the Doctor look stupid . . . yep, yep, yep. I agree there was no need for it to make Amy look good, too.