So how do you follow an act like David Tennant?For five years, Tennant was Doctor Who - a role he'd scrunched up, shoved into his pocket and made his own.
Hilarious, dynamic, romantic and witty, Tennant was magnificent as the century-swapping Time Lord. When he finally said goodbye to the role - at the start of this year - I wasn't alone in thinking that the reboot of my favorite TV series was doomed to failure.
Happily, I was wrong.
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and some lax copyright enforcement by the BBC, I managed to catch the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who and it blew me away.
Kicking off with an amazing action sequence - which saw the TARDIS hurtle through the atmosphere above London - the script soon shifted gear as the newly regenerated Doctor Who found himself stranded in a country village with a very serious little redheaded girl to worry about.
A very serious little girl...This was where the new Doctor, Matt Smith, got the chance to sink his teeth into the role - literally.
Munching his way through apples, bacon and fish fingers in custard, it quickly became apparent that the eleventh Doctor was going to be every bit as entertaining, engaging and exciting as David Tennant was.
Writer-turned-producer Stephen Moffat then demonstrated how capable he was in the Who driving seat, giving us a cute little time-travel dilemma that saw the Doctor's maiden jaunt take a little longer than anticipated; with our hero returning to the little girl he'd left 'just for five minutes' over a decade later.
She's all grown up now...Behold the new 'companion' - sassy Scotswoman Amy Pond.
The majority of this episode is dedicated to the electric chemistry between these two new leading cast members. Don't get me wrong - there is a sci-fi plot buried in there somewhere, but it's entirely incidental to what's really important.
Even the Doctor can't get reception out in the countryside.This episode certainly bodes well for the next generation of Doctor Who adventures. Smith has already eclipsed Tennant in my eyes - and that's not something I ever thought would happen.
If Moffat can keep the energy and enthusiasm of the new series running, I think us Who fans are in for a real treat this year.
1 comment:
I just finished watching the first and second episodes of the new series.
I have to say, it's incredible how easy the transition between Doctors has been. I think the thing about Doctor Who is that continuity stays around mostly - so we don't have to pick between Tennant and Smith. They're both the Doctor, as was Eccleston before them. And that's really cool.
I have a bit more trouble when watching the real early Doctor Who episodes. The first Doctor tended to get people into trouble as much as he got them out - so it's hard to put him into continuity.
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