26 Jun
2010
Right.
Craig and I will be doing a big proper review of the first Matt Smith season of Doctor Who on the next episode of The Thumbcast (and you can hear our thoughts on the first few episodes of the season on
Thumbcast 11).
But in advance of that, and because it's Craig's birthday this week so he'll either be drunk/hungover and make less/more sense than usual (depending on your perspective) I thought I'd nip in first just to say:
Pay attention Russell T Davies - that's how you fucking do epic.
When you cast your mind back to those opening moments of The Eleventh Hour, with the zoom into Earth, the TARDIS spinning out of control over London, the whacky comedy with Big Ben...
This could have been any RTD episode... and then the credits start and everything changes.
Visually, tonally, stylistically, this is such a different series. The talk has been about how Harry Potter-esque and children's story it is, and they weren't kidding. It's Doctor Who as a fairy tale - and like the best fairy tales it means just as much to grown ups as it does to kids.
This is the jump from Barry Letts and the cosy UNIT family to Philip Hinchcliffe and Saturday Night Gothic, for the 21st century.
Oh, and wasn't it nice to have a series arc that actually ends up making (mostly) sense and running properly through the series, and beyond, rather than a gratuitous reference feeling shoehorned in here or there to an eventual crunching payoff in the finale? This is a show that now demands you watch it more than once to get the most of it.
While I'm not sure I agree with Robert Florence in proclaiming it
the best series of Doctor Who ever, it has perhaps had the most consistent highs - certainly since Eccleston and RTD brought the show back five years ago. Misfires like the ill-conceived Victory of the Daleks, and Chris Chibnall's abortion of a Silurian episode are overshadowed by genuinely stand-out episodes like Eleventh Hour, Time of Angels and Amy's Choice. The show has brought in enough new blood in terms of writing, directing, producing and design to feel fresh and different.
This isn't just nu-Who. This is nu-nu-Who. And it's bloody wonderful.
Back last year when Matt Smith was announced in January 2009, I remember thinking 'Okay...'. Now it's practically impossible to imagine the show without him. Like Patrick Troughton - the actor he cites as being his Who inspiration - he doesn't so much inhabit the role as completely own it. He's obviously helped by having the best writer of dialogue for Doctor Who overseeing his season, but Smith's performance is just magical. In five years time, he's going to be a huge star. And deservedly so.
Christmas looks like a lot of fun already. But until then, why can't all TV be this good?
