Is there a new Doctor in the house?
Why yes there is. While North America has to wait two more weeks to officially get their first taste of “Series 5” of the hit serial Doctor Who, those across the Atlantic got it on Easter Day. Not wanting to be left out, however, yours truly decided he wasn’t going to wait. So here are my, spoiler free (well assuming you have been tracking the series at ALL) impressions.
Now as you may or may not know, The Doctor is a member of an alien species called Galifreans but are better known as Time Lords. He is in fact the only remaining Time Lord (most of the time) after they were all lost during the “Time War”. He travels the universe in his ship, the Time And Relative Dimensions In Space or TARDIS. It too is the last of it’s kind as the ship is somewhat alive.
Series 5 picks up where 4 left off, The Doctor all regenerated and crashing. (Note: Time Lords have the ability to heal from lethal conditions via regeneration, a process by which their body completely changes into a new form with a corresponding change in personality.) The new actor, Matt Smith, jumps in full force working out the kinks of his new body and transitioning from the previous version personality and preferences to his own. In the meantime he only has 20 minutes to save the Earth from obliteration. All in a days work for the Doctor.
The new Doctor – Matt Smith
For each new Doctor there must also me a new companion (ok not always but work with me), and this one is Amy Pool played by the lovely Karen Gillan. Can’t really say much about her without episode spoilers except that she fits the role well. She is definitely the only companion that has come to the Doctor in this way, having this strange bond to him.
Amy Pond – The New Companion
This series also sees the first new TARDIS since the restart of the series. The TARDIS has evolved much over the lifetime of the show, but we have never really seen a reason for it before. This time it is revealed to us that when severely damaged, the TARDIS can also regenerate after a sort. It modified the outward appearance (odd how and when that Chameleon Circuit chooses to work) as well as reconfigured the console room and the entire interior. It hasn’t really been addressed recently, but the interior of the TARDIS is at least the size of a major city, and it just rearranged all the blocks. Anyway the control room has changed, not as drastically as we were initially led to believe, but it is larger, multi-leveled and the console looks less duct taped together. It is overall more flashy and clean looking than the previous, but I was personally hoping for a slightly more classic approach. As it is it seems to be a nice hybrid of the new and old, even if it does favor the new. Here is a video of some stills of the new control room. Not really good shots but it gives you a general idea.
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The show: well as kick offs go this was a pretty dang good one. Matt doesn’t even hesitate in making the role his own. He further takes the departure from the 9th Doctor’s moody depression that the 10th Doctor started. After the events of the end of the 10th Doctor’s run, he seems to finally be at peace with himself and his role in the universe. After some exposition we get to the main plot: suffering from a fresh regeneration, without TARDIS or sonic screwdriver the Doctor has less than 20 minutes to save the Earth from total destruction. OK so it’s not the most original plotline for a Doctor Who ep, but it is well done, and it gives us a sense for the style of this production team and this Doctor, and it is as good of a transition from the beloved Tennant as you could ask for.
The only thing I really didn’t like was this revision of the theme son:
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Here is a trailer for the upcoming episodes. This is a great jump on point if you have ever been interested. BBC America will start airing the season on the 17th.
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Overall I give the episode a 9/10. Didn’t set my world on fire, but definitely made the transition easy.
My wife (a giant Doctor fan) and I watched the first episode last night. We were origionally unsure of the new Doctor, but most of those fears have abated. Matt Smith is pretty darn good in the role, and I can’t wait to see how the season goes.
my doctor is cooler than yours :p lol
Hey Trial – Didn’t realize your wife was a Who fan. What did she think of the theme song remix? I’m still waiting for them to go back to putting the Doctor’s face in the intro making it kinda retro. Anyway I just don’t like how they messed with the theme. That’s kinda sacred territory for me.
Empress – you must be talking about:
Cause there ain’t no Doctor cooler than him! 😉
‘They’ always say: “you never forget your first doctor.” I think it’s true, while I love David Tennent as the tenth doctor, the ninth doctor is probably my favorite. Nomes loves the tenth doctor.
As for the theme, it was ‘different’. We were looking at the program restart as a whole, so it wasn’t that big of a change for us. We are still coming to terms with the fact that there will probably not be any previous companions in this season (minus River Song). We got so used to things overlapping, that the prospect of a completely new cast is kind of frightening, but as I said below, we really liked it.
She’s talking about Dr. Horrible.
Can’t say she’s wrong, either 🙂
ROFL – I just noticed she posted that. I just assumed it was Balth that did. Uhg, but she is wrong. 😉
My first Doctor was actually John Pertwee, but he’s not my favorite. I should actually go back and watch some of those eps to see them from adult eyes. It would be interesting to see how different they are from my memory. I actually like the clean cut. While companions often crossed the initial regen, they usually were replaced before long. Three regenerations left if we follow the old series. That could be another reason they picked a young actor. Course I am sure they will find a way around it. I’m guessing we are going to completely ignore the whole thing about the Doctor’s last incarnation being evil too.