Well I’m back after a fun (EXPENSIVE) trip to the city and its surrounding areas. I spent the day driving for hours, eating a ton of Easter food and downloading/watching the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who. I gotta say as much as I love pigging out on holidays the highlight of today was spending an hour with Matt Smith as the 11^th Doctor!

It seems like it’s been years since we’ve had a certain Time Lord in our lives but it’s only been about 4 months but however you slice it the wait has been painful and a little scary. Scary you say? Well who among us can say they weren’t (or still are) a little worried by the change in the talent involved in making Doctor Who, David Tennant especially. Thankfully all my fears seem to be not worth mentioning as I can honestly say the Matt Smith era is here and already I’m a believer.

David Who???

The Episode started with a literal BANG as the TARDIS was crashing down to earth following the end of The End of Time, the whole pre credit scene was classic crazy Doctor Who fun and then the changes begun. The new title sequence is in my opinion a much needed upgrade from the drab yellows of the 9^th/10^th Doctor eras. We get a slightly remixed theme song that while new sounding also had a bit of a retro feel that I for one really enjoyed. We also get a new “cloudy” Time Vortex with some nifty effects, all in all within the first three to four minutes I was already smiling and the grin just kept getting wider.

The New Intro

Without getting into Spoiler territory the story was a really good introductory tale, by that I mean Matt Smith and Karen Gillan both get a chance to shine, meeting Smith’s 11^th Doctor and Gillan’s Amy Pond came at the price of a some-what silly story. Steven Moffat had a lot of good story bits but I wasn’t a fan of the scale of the threat. I suppose throwing The Doctor into Earth threatening crisis so soon after his regeneration sounded neat but I think I would have preferred a more personal threat (Which was how the first third of the episode played out) that would let The Doctor and Amy shine even more. I really enjoy the dynamic of the Doctor/Companion relationship this time out, Tennant’s Doctor was always stuck with a companion who seemed more interested in getting into his pants then traveling in time and space and by the end of the new episode you understand that things are going to be different this time out (hopefully).

Smith and Gillan were both great and the rest of the support wasn’t too shabby either. The character of Rory (Amy’s friend) looks to be an expanding role. I also really liked all the towns’ people that The Doctor and Amy ran into, showing that everyone knew one another in Amy’s small town and everyone’s reaction to Amy’s “Scruffy” Doctor were fun.

As the episode goes on The Doctor slowly shakes off that freshly regenerated buzz and by the final stand-off is THE Doctor complete with a new costume (which still needs to grow on me), a new Sonic Screwdriver and a new TARDIS. I’ve read some other reviews that stated the episode seemed too long for its own good and while I can understand the criticism I for one enjoyed the extra 15 or so minutes hell I wish all the episodes were an hour.

I honestly think I'm in love

So the episode and first chapter of the Matt Smith era ended and we are ready to get the stories going now that all the intros are out of the way. We also get a pretty damn epic trailer for the rest of the series which won’t help the week to week waiting. To wrap things up I obviously highly recommend the episode and can’t say enough good things about Matt Smith. If you haven’t seen it yet prepare for a fantastic scene in Amy’s kitchen involving Fish Sticks and Custard…yup. Anyway HAPPY EASTER and long live The Doctor!

Final Verdict

8 out of 10