Doctor Who The Matt Smith era review

There are spoilers in this review

At the end of the End of Time, the Doctor regenerated

This is my thoughts on the first series of the Matt Smith/David Moffatt era

Matt’s Smith doctor took a while to get used to. They always do. I do like Matt’s Doctor. Its more Alien. Matts Doctor is more like the genius stoner, than David Ts. David T’s Doctor was somewhat the cool school teacher David T’s Doctor quoted the Lion King, a few minutes, after regenerating Christopher Eccleson. Matt Smith’s is more unearthly. He hands James Corden, a bag full of cash and assumes it a lot. He doesn’t ask for chips, or an orange or a cup of tea.

That’s not a bad thing. A lot of the Audience for Doctor are now teenage girls, and their mothers. This is one of the triumphs of the Russell T Davis era. Russell managed to get the show a large female audience. This is not unusual in SF, going back to Star Trek had a large female audience. It is just not be fashionable to point it out, the most obsessive fans are male, but that’s a truism affecting everything from telegraph poles to the Polish Telegraph.

So Matt’s Smith Doctor, makes sense. A lot of the viewers are probably dating their first boyfriend. Rose and the Doctor, and Rose and Mickey, and Martha and the Doctor, were all studies in unrequited love. Or even courtly love, lots of sighing. Amy is confident enough to try and take matters in to her own hand

The show seems to be mindful of becoming a franchise. The episode where, the Doctor and Amy episode London travel to London during the Blitz, and meets Winston Churchill, screams American audience. The new technicolor Daleks are clearly going to be in the stores by Christmas. The short skirts of Amy, all are a nod to the money men, and the markets. It is curious to note that in the final episode. The lone Dalek adversary is a more classic design

Amy is lovely, one of those tall Scottish girls who will break your heart, and take your breath away like my friend Susanne

Karen walker is a really beautiful woman. I did wonder about her, at first. She seemed somewhat a Scottish sterotype. One of the Doctor’s first words to her, where to ask her to fry something! Red headed and aggressive, she stubbornly kept her accent. Amy lived in a middle English village rather than a South London estate, or surburbia.

I am not that keen on River song. I like Alex Kingston, something about River song, that turns me off. I can see why you would want her as a writer. She flips the script for the doctor. When facing River the Doctor does not have all the answers. River is letting on less that she knows

It could be, I am ashamed to say it, it could be Alex’s age. I worry about how old she will look in five years. I do wonder if she is prepared to commit to the role. If it was Trek or Stargate I would not worry, but I would like Doctor Who, to be around in another thirty years, and River Song may just be too big a character.

That said the scene where River kills the Dalek, and tortures it. (Remember this is a family show) Promises a lot from Ms River in the future, I will wait

There was a cute little dig at Richard Dawkins.

I worry about the plots. I have seen a lot of this before. The last words of Matt’s Smith Doctor before he heads off at the end of the series, is the Orient express in space. Oh you mean like the Titanic Christmas special. Matt Smith and Amy need something more to work with. The best story was written by Simon Nye. Moffatt is a good hard SF writer, but he needs a bit more heart in the story.

Also the Doctor is left of the hook, several times. Under Russell T Davis, the aftermath of the Doctors adventures were shown. Such as in the Long Game, where the Doctors good deed, had terrible results, or Harriet Jones ordering Torchwood to fire, in the Christmas invasion.

There was one sublime piece of television. Vincent and the Doctor. The Doctor meets Vincent Van Gogh. One of the few times, I have seen a piece of TV, that was actually uplifting, that will send smart children, to their search engines. The BBC, lived up to their charter in that one

A good start, but I want you to try much harder next term