C+Q - The Eleventh Hour (2010)

Along with Spearhead from Space and Rose, The Eleventh Hour is one of the biggest relaunches Doctor Who has ever attempted. In the space of 60 minutes, new showrunner Steven Moffat has to introduce a new Doctor, a new cast of companions, new recurring themes and plotlines, a new TARDIS, a new costume, a new monster, and get the new TARDIS crew off on their adventures through time and space. If this episode had been even somewhat decent to watch, it would've been a huge achievement. The fact that Moffat not only managed to pull it all off, but that the end result is actually still celebrated today as being one of the best episodes of 21st century Who is astounding.

From the moment the episode begins, it's clear there's been a major increase in visual quality. The shot immediately after the title sequence that moves through Amelia's garden and up to her bedroom window is absolutely gorgeous. Not only do the BBC's new HD cameras and Adam Smith's direction make this episode a thing of absolute beauty, but Series 5 of revived Who had probably the greatest musical score I've ever heard on television. Murray Gold knocks it out of the park with every track; from the haunting vocals of 'Little Amy', to the energetic strings of 'I am the Doctor', to the fairytale melody of 'The Mad Man With a Box', the music in this episode is bursting with life and emotion. There are so many memorable motifs that are instantly recognisable and hummable which at the time completely changed the tone of Doctor Who from slightly-mad RTD sci-fi to barmy, whimsical, and wondrous Moffat fantasy. Even when listening to this soundtrack completely devoid of its original context, it's impossible not to feel something, but with its original context, the music works seamlessly with the stunning and vibrant imagery to create an atmosphere that's never been captured before or since the Pond era. The Eleventh Hour to The Angels Take Manhattan functions as a self-contained fairytale, separate from the hard sci-fi presentation of the rest of Doctor Who, and it's so beautiful to watch. This is the story of Amelia Pond and this is how it begins.

Matt Smith nails it straight away with his portrayal. There are clear similarities between his Doctor and Tennant's in his early episodes but that can be explained in-universe as the Doctor getting used to his new persona and explained out-of-universe by the writers getting used to his new persona. Smith has great comedic timing and although many have picked up on the obvious comparisons to be made between his Doctor and Troughton's, there are clearly some aspects of his performance which are his own unique take on the role. For the first half of Series 5 he seems to experiment with the age of his character, trying to be more of a lapel-holding old man to compensate for the fact he was the youngest actor to be cast, but very quickly he settles down into the Eleventh Doctor we all know and love today. In The Eleventh Hour, he plays the part completely 'straight-faced', not in the sense that he is without humour, but in that he isn't trying to be someone he's not. Here, he isn't trying to play it old or young or like Tennant or like Troughton. He's just playing the Doctor. As soon as he climbs out of the crashed TARDIS and begins raiding Amelia's fridge, he carries himself and acts in a very genuine way.

At the centre of this new fairytale vision of Who is Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan. Amy is a breath of fresh air after Rose, Martha, and Donna, and she's still a great character in her own right. We learn a lot about her in this first episode, and the way she's first introduced to the Doctor as a child in an encounter that went on to shape her adult life is a really unique plot point. Amy is a character who's been slightly jaded by waiting for the Doctor to return and as we see throughout her run as a companion she doesn't always blindly do what the Doctor wants (she murders Kovarian in the parallel universe for stealing her baby, something that the older, more pacifistic companions would likely never do for fear of getting on the Doctor's wrong side). Unlike RTD, who often portrayed travelling in the TARDIS to be the solution to a companion's problems and a boost for their self-esteem, here Moffat sets a trend of showing the dangerous consequences of time travel.

As well as the Doctor, the companion, the production staff, the showrunner, the sonic screwdriver, the outfit, and the theme tune, the TARDIS also got a huge overhaul in this episode, both inside and out. The new police box prop is a thing of absolute beauty and looks so much bolder and brighter and more iconic than the old, rusty, worn-out box used during the RTD years. That box seemed like a formality that didn't really matter, like the production team said, "We have to have a police box, so any police box will do." Meanwhile, this new design has character and charm to it that looks like a lot more effort has gone into it. The inside, while not being the best TARDIS console room we've ever seen, does aesthetically compliment the fairytale motif of the Pond era, which is probably the reason why it was changed again as soon as the Ponds left. The bright gold colour scheme and asymmetrical design make it more magical and wondrous than a cold, mechanical ship, and the use of everyday objects like sink taps, a typewriter, and an alarm clock as controls make it feel like it's cobbled itself together with whatever it had to hand. Like with the police box itself, this console room takes everyday domestic objects and turns them into a means of escapism, making the ordinary extraordinary. In this sense, the 2010 to 2012 TARDIS console room is the perfect home for Amy and Rory.

The Eleventh Hour is a fantastic piece of television that I would absolutely recommend to anyone and everyone. The soundtrack, the writing, the direction, the acting; it's all superb, and it marks the start of a great era of Doctor Who.