The Eleventh Hour Dr. Who Review, April 15, 2010

(Warning slight spoilers ahead...)
The Doctor is back. This may seem rather obvious to fans of the long-running Dr. Who series, but those were the words pounding through my brain after I watched the sneak preview of the first ep in the new series, crammed in a theater full to the brim of fans who chanted and thrust two fingers in the air to symbolize the 11th Doctor prior to the screening.

There is a new Doctor, the charming and affable Matt Smith, and while I did have doubts about his ability to fill David Tennant’s sneakers, he makes a bloody, fun start in the first episode of the series. I don’t know that I’d say that the Doctor is better than ever, and it was still a bit jarring to see Smith in the eponymous role, but it is still the Doctor’s world to save and I for one am glad he is back. Smith said of his plans for his turn as the Doctor, “Everything is experimental.”

The first ep centers on young Amy Pond, who hears mysterious voices coming from a crack in her bedroom wall. The older version of Pond is played with feisty brilliance by Karen Gillan who said of her new role as companion, “She’s almost as mad as the Doctor.” While I did enjoy the return of the TARDIS, and the new Doctor and companion, I thought the first ep had a slightly obvious plot (a good way to introduce the new characters?), and was a little slow-moving at first. It also treaded familiar territory (alien life forms wanting to destroy the earth), but by the end I couldn’t wait to see where the TARDIS would go next (though I doubt Gillan took up one fan’s invite to sushi after the Q&A.)

During the first ep, the Doctor describes himself as “A mad man with a box,” which seems to me like an apt description of Stephen Moffat, lead writer and executive producer of the series, who advises fans eager for spoilers, “Oh watch the soddy thing.”

The first ep of the new series airs Saturday April 17th, on BBC America at 9 p.m.