... pretty damn great.
Recent promos for the new season of Doctor Who had left me feeling very nervous about the prospects of Matt Smith and the coming year and I full confess that the first five minutes of the premiere episode did nothing to quell those concerns. A whole lot of banging and crashing for no purpose whatsoever, loads of dodgy special effects that came off looking both cheap and silly, an obvious - and failed - attempt to young up the title sequence, and a questionable child actor do not make for a strong beginning.
But then Matt Smith really got rolling and, happily, stepped completely out of the shadow of previous Doctors by doing his own thing and doing it pretty damn well. And then Steven Moffat's typically strong writing kicked in and reminded just how much energy had been lacking from Russell T Davies' work in recent years. And then Karen Gillan showed up and absolutely nailed the part of the Doctor's new companion.
It's early yet, obviously, but this episode shows far more promise than did the first Ecclestone outing and would rank comfortably in the top third or so of everything Tennant did, if not slightly higher. Big sigh of relief, here. Doctor Who is back and it's good.
Recent promos for the new season of Doctor Who had left me feeling very nervous about the prospects of Matt Smith and the coming year and I full confess that the first five minutes of the premiere episode did nothing to quell those concerns. A whole lot of banging and crashing for no purpose whatsoever, loads of dodgy special effects that came off looking both cheap and silly, an obvious - and failed - attempt to young up the title sequence, and a questionable child actor do not make for a strong beginning.
But then Matt Smith really got rolling and, happily, stepped completely out of the shadow of previous Doctors by doing his own thing and doing it pretty damn well. And then Steven Moffat's typically strong writing kicked in and reminded just how much energy had been lacking from Russell T Davies' work in recent years. And then Karen Gillan showed up and absolutely nailed the part of the Doctor's new companion.
It's early yet, obviously, but this episode shows far more promise than did the first Ecclestone outing and would rank comfortably in the top third or so of everything Tennant did, if not slightly higher. Big sigh of relief, here. Doctor Who is back and it's good.