"who da man?!"

[falulatonks]

Doctor Who premiere!! Very brief, non-spoilery thoughts -

1. I love Eleven already! I love that he's very, very Doctor-y, in that his gestures and ideas and speech patterns seem to be a recurring feature of all the Doctors that preceded him. He did have Ten-ish moments (which I'll credit to some kind of Ten residue - he's just regenerated, after all), but overall he was much more focused, I think, and not at all as manic. And I love how Matt Smith plays him - I don't know if I'm convinced of acting skillz or anything, but he's a fantastic Doctor.
   
   The best thing he's been doing so far is how he handles moments when Doctor is authoritative and stern - someone as young as him (or in the Doctor's case, someone who looks as young as he does) must be able to command the attention of the people around him without getting preachy or shrill or annoying, and Matt pulls that off really, really well. I like that a lot. I love the way he delivers his jokes, too - straight, light.


2. I like Amy Pond and the character she is! She's adorable! And the one who played her younger self was wonderful and perfect. I don't really like how Moffat writes his female characters, though, so I'm going to be cautious about her.


3. Adore Eleven with Amy. I kinda 'ship them? But also I love just watching their back-and-forth - there's something very old-timey about their chemistry, and I love it. It looks like the way they play off each other is going to be a big part of the charm of the new series, and I can't wait.


4. The plot sucked, but I guess it needed to be simple considering how much Moffat needed to introduce - a new Doctor, a new companion, a new background for the companion, a new TARDIS. It worked OK, I think. Thank goodness for Eleven, though.


5. The new theme is terrible! At least, I don't like it very much. The logo is cool-looking, but I don't like it very much yet.


6. The interior of the TARDIS is AWESOME. The typewriter made me happy.

Watch Matt Smith and Karen Gillian be cute here. They impersonate each other!

This new series is going to be gloriously fun. Bring it!

-- rachu

Comments

[darling-ashes.livejournal.com]

I actually completely agree with everything you said. I am loving Eleven, I accepted him much faster than I thought I would have, especially after having Ten for years.

I think I'll get use to the new intro (theme and logo wise), I think it just took me by surprise.

Plus, Amy Pond (both Police Amy and little Amy) is amazing!

[falulatonks]

I find Eleven so easy to love, it makes me happy. :D And he's pulled off the transition nicely, which I didn't expect at all!

Amy is pretty great, too. And she's gorgeous, oh man.

I can get used to the logo - I find it pretty cool, actually, and I understand the intention behind its creation - but the music is really don't nothing for me. :/ I hope I start feeling better about it soon!

[darling-ashes.livejournal.com]

I found that watching the new epiosde, I was more prepared for the music and I liked it better (although, the old score is still my favourite).

Eleven is awesome. I actually adore him. He's similar enough that it's not a shock to the system but different enough to be his own character and not Ten 2.0 (or 3.0 if you factor in the Ten clone).

Well done, Matt Smith.

[falulatonks]

Matt Smith is absolutely the driving force of this series so far, I think. I'm really, really pleased with what he's been doing! Amy/Karen Gillan is iffy, and the plots haven't worked for me yet, but Eleven is fantastic. And the writing for him is spot-on.

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

I loved the new episode. I was being cautiously optimistic, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was so nice returning to the "fun adventures with Doctor and companion" model. I liked both Eleven and Amy. Matt managed to infuse his portrayal with Doctor-y quirks without being too much like Ten. I'm digging Amy too. She's bold and brash without being stereotypically "girl power". They have really great chemistry.

I've heard that criticism of Moffat before and I find it kind of curious. Just out of curiosity what is it, exactly, about the way he writes female characters that you don't like?

[falulatonks]

The "fun adventures with Doctor and companion" model is really awesome! Feels like we're back to the essence of Who, without the overarching storylines and all that heartache, haha. I love Matt as Eleven a lot, surprisingly. He's doing a great job of becoming his own without being dictated too much by the slightly limiting writing, I think.

I just find his writing for female characters so...bland. Flat. You can tell he's writing them to be brave and strong and kickass, and that's appreciated, but I haven't truly been able to connect with any of the women he's created (Reinette, for example, and River Song). I loved Sally, but judging by his record I feel like the depth we see of her was much more because of the way Carey Mulligan played her? Even Donna, Martha and Rose in the episodes he's written come off as subordinate, mostly filler. And as cool as Amy looks right now, and as much fun as I'm having with her, I definitely don't feel attached to her the way I was rooting for pretty much all the other companions two episodes into their runs.

I'm cranky a lot these days so my thoughts about Who start getting nitpicky around two hours after I've finished watching the episodes! I'm enjoying so much about S5 so far, but I'm still cautious about Amy.

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

Ahh I see. I will say that when Moff was writing under RTD he did have a tendency to sideline the companions during his episodes (Rose during "Girl in the Fireplace" Martha during "Blink", and even Donna during "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" to some degree). But he also gave Rose pretty good stuff during "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances". I think part of it is that he enjoys writing his own characters more, which is why I have a bit more faith in him running his own series with his own creations.

I can sort of see what you mean about some of his female characters feeling one-note, although I did like Reinette if not River Song (but that was more because of her personality rather than any Ten/Rose-related feelings). RTD did have a better aptitude for creating one-shot characters that were compelling. I think some of Moff's characters take some warming up to. What did you think of Elizabeth X in "The Beast Below"? She was pretty interesting to me, but Sophie Okonedo is also fiiiiiierce.

[falulatonks]

The Empty Child two-parter is so fantastic that I forget it's Moffat, honestly. :P But you're right, that makes sense. I both love and dislike a lot of things about the first two episodes right now, but I've decided I'm going to stop judging his writing until the finale of this series, so I can look at it as a whole. And it must be difficult to revamp something that absolutely has to change but absolutely must stay the same, as well, starting from scratch with characters and everything.

Elizabeth X was awesome, but if you say the actress is awesome, then maybe it goes back to the Sally Sparrow/Carey Mulligan thing?