Eleventh Doctor Rewatch: The Eleventh Hour

With some free time on hand, and the new season of Doctor Who drawing ever closer, I thought it might be fun to do a re-watch of Doctor Who. Now that the Eleventh Doctor’s arc is completed, as far as we know for now, I thought it would be nice to start from the beginning and see if anything new or additional can be gained from the story. I will be posting a weekly re-watch update with a short review of each episode and a few notes on what’s memorable (which I call Fixed Points), what’s forgettable, and a few other things that may vary from week to week.

Of course we start with…

The Eleventh Hour

Overall Impressions: Matt Smith’s first adventure as the Doctor is actually quite great, and holds up well after a few years. Well, with the exception of Rory Williams explaining to his supervisor that his phone is also a camera. In his first few minutes on screen, Smith’s Doctor has a few habits leftover from Tennant, but he shakes those after a “Geronimo!” as he jumps into the TARDIS. Watching this episode now with the perspective of the entire arc of the 11th Doctor so many things make sense and do not seem as disjointed. Smith is fun and lovable, but we also see bits and pieces of the serious side that will eventually emerge.

Fixed Points: Smith really creates his identity as 11 in a scene towards the end of the episode, where he calls the Atraxi back and confronts them “under the Shadow Proclamation.” He calls them out, and tells them never to even think of coming close to Earth ever again. This scene reveals his new outfit.

Forgettable: There is a moment, after he confronts Prisoner Zero that the Doctor says “and the final score is; no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare, WHO DA MAN?” and opens his arms wide. It is an incredibly cringe worthy moment.

Wishlist: Nothing. This episode is fantastic, and sets a really great cornerstone for the entire 11th Doctor arc.

Meanwhile in the TARDIS 1

Picking up right after The Eleventh Hour (5×01) and leading straight into The Beast Below (5×02), this mini-episode shows the beginning of the friendship between Amy and The Doctor. She spends a lot of time asking questions, the questions fans have grown used to companions asking The Doctor.