by Andrew Reynolds

Created on: March 11, 2011

The trouble with serial drama is that every time you meet that character it has to be the worst moments of their life. Drama breeds with conflict. No one would sit down to watch a characters fourth worst day this month. It has to be now or never. And this is exactly what Matt Smith/ Steven Moffat’s debut thrives on.

The Tardis is ablaze, the sonic screwdriver is screwed and The Doctor himself is ‘still cooking’ just when a galactic warden threatens to incinerate the earth unless one of its prisoners is returned to them.

Coming off the lacklustre specials, the last hurrah of the Russell T. Davies era, Doctor Who was starting to rein on its promise of great peril and even greater escapes. The word ‘epic’ had lost all its power to impress, So it comes as quite a shock to find that the promise of a ‘fairytale’ is fulfilled.

The opening scenes are picture book spooky, homely and alien. Amelia praying to Santa is great touch as to is the crack in the wall. A common occurrence given a scary new shadow.

Caitlin Blackwood is magnificent nothing feels forced or prompted. She reacts to The Doctor as any child would (In the Writers Tale, is funny to note that Russell T. Davies praises Steven Moffat as writing the best children.)

The Doctor himself in the opening scenes plays it mostly for laughs. Trying all sorts of foods that taste wrong to his newly transformed taste buds. What impresses in these scenes is the little things Matt Smith does; the glancing around the room, the cheeky smile, the look he gives Amelia when he says how scary the crack is.

As the episode continues he grows in stature, becoming both a Doctor we all recognise from the various incarnations before him and something altogether new. A crazier, manic Doctor who may save the world but would also lose the keys to the Tardis.

In a spine tingling moment he literally stands amongst his predecessors as he forces the Atraxi, in the form of an impressive giant eye, that hangs over the Earth, looking for Prisoner Zero, the monster behind the crack in Amy’s wall, to realise who’s toes they are treading on.

Amy herself appears to be an abandoned child, her: ‘People always say that’ hints at a childhood spent alone which makes it all the more heart aching when she sits on her suitcase waiting for her new friend to return and fulfil his promise.

Karen Gillian is, though it may have escaped you, gorgeous and utterly brilliant as the girl who never grew up. Cynical and strong willed, she’s half in love with the Doctor and half in denial. It’s only later in the day that she decides to trust The Doctor completely and help him but even then, she won’t follow him undyingly, like Rose or Martha, to the end of the world.

She has a life of her own, she has a boyfriend, Rory, a long-suffering boyfriend who loves her dearly but has to face being the literal nurse to Matt Smiths Doctor.

The new titles are fabulous (no more bobbing Tardis, floating weightlessly in space) and the theme music is a blast but the biggest praise has to go to the Tardis itself. Multi-levelled and containing more bric-a-brac than your Nan’s loft it’s a truly beautiful thing to behold.

While the episode wasn’t perfect- the alien threat was too Douglas Adams and didn’t contain enough menace, there’s more than enough here to suggest that this Doctor will more than live up to his promises.

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