After a literally explosive regeneration, the brand new Eleventh Doctor survives a crash-landing to Earth. However, he has little time to recover. With a mysterious crack in a little girl’s wall and a missing alien prisoner, the Doctor is in for an adventure. However, with the TARDIS damaged and the sonic screwdriver destroyed, can the Doctor capture the rogue alien before its jailers burn Earth to a crisp?
Rate and review below:
I love this story (and this season). It is such a well-crafted piece with a perfect tempo and introduces the new characters perfectly. I also think that it is pure genius to have Rory play a role in this but not have him fly away in the TARDIS. It allows us to get to know the team gradually.
Eleven, Amy, and Rory are one of my favourite teams, and it gets a great start here!
My favourite series opener, and honestly a pretty perfect introduction or reintroduction to the show. The story is fun, the stakes are clearly established, the ticking clock adds pace & urgency. The Doctor and Amy are wonderful and immediately have a terrific chemistry, and it not only tells it’s own satisfying story but neatly sets up the series arc. I just think this episode is a roaring success at pretty much everything it sets out to do.
A couple of random observations.
Firstly this episode looks great. Whenever I do a binge rewatch of NuWho, it’s always shocking when I go from the end of the Tennant era into this because it just mostly looks great (some of the CGI is a tad dated but it’s nothing ruinous). I’ve nothing against the look of the RTD1 era, which for the most part looks good. But whether it’s an increased budget, a better understanding of updating the show to HD or the new production team, the show definitely feels more expensive and more cinematic here.
Secondly and sticking with the visuals, I love the style of this episode. A lot has been written about the fairytale quality of S5, and this might be the episode that leans the most into that aesthetic. It might be set in a pretty unremarkable little English town, but there’s an otherworldly quality here that also feels like some hazy, sunshiney childhood memory. It sets such a great tone for the rest of S5.
Probably quite a controversial opinion but I really don’t like this one. I’ve never been able to get into the story and have always found Prisoner Zero to be totally uninteresting. I also don’t like the introduction to Rory in this and I also feel a little bit uncomfortable about Amy’s introduction, it hasn’t really felt very fairy tale to me like most other people seem to think. I have never understood why it’s such a beloved episode, I’ve just never got it. I’ve gone back to watch it a number of times but it’s just never clicked with me.
oh i love this one. it’s such a good introduction to all the characters and such a good season opener— it’s a really good introduction for eleven, too, and thank goodness for that because after ten’s popularity it had a lot riding on it!
100% agree with this. I don’t hate the episode, but compared to the rest of series 5 or even just Eleven’s era in general I’ve never quite understood why it’s held in such high regard
The perfect opener. The task of reinventing the show for the first time since it came back on air, following on from the most popular season its ever had with the most popular Doctor it’s ever had, whilst acting as a sort of subtle pilot for a new era in and of itself is maybe the most difficult thing a writer has had to do on this show.
And yet Moffat pulls it off.
A total breath of fresh air, even sixteen years later. Matt Smith bursts onto the screen with unmatchable confidence and utterly steals the show.
Same goes for Karen Gillen. The Eleventh Hour is also a phenomenal companion intro, showing Amy in her childhood and then having the Doctor become her imaginary friend, it’s the mission statement for the whole era and adds in so much subtle development that you practically know her inside and out by the time the episode gets out of her house.
The pace is electric and jam-packed. The music is sweeping and gorgeous. There’s probably a little nostalgia bias here but just about every other scene in this episode fills me with such a sense of childlike wonder, just because of the dialogue, the score and the cinematography.
Does Olivia Coleman get wasted? Sure. Is Prisoner Zero the most interesting villain ever? No but also he’s not really the focus, more a catalyst for the plot. And we get that fantastic ending, utterly cathartic and totally satisfying, the perfect bow for this story. And that scene alone? The one where the Doctor confronts the Atraxi? Maybe one of the most perfect bits of TV ever created, Moffat manages to introduce the behemoth that is Doctor Who, bells, whistles and everything else, in two minutes flat.
This is how you open a season and an era, it’s impossible to watch this episode without getting hyped.
10/10
I’ve always felt this episode is good but really overrated. I love that it just gave the show a very hard reboot but I’ve never understood the pedestal that people this episode on. It’s a fairly standard affair.
I really like Amy Pond generally but the scene with The Doctor handcuffed to the radiator is very cringeworthy, Rory’s first couple of appearances are like nails on a chalkboard.
Kissogram. 
Lastly, they also completely waste Olivia Colman.
That said I do really love the ending especially Matt Smith stepping through the hologram in his costume. The beginning with the crack in the wall and fish custard is also very good.
Overall solid opener to the new Moffatt era, but nothing too special for me.
Hot take here: The episode’s overrated. It’s a solid season opener and introduction to Eleven, but it’s only a 7.5/10, not the flawless 10/10 like people like to give it. It does what it needs to, but isn’t anything special.
I’m another who thinks this one is overrated (but only a bit). It is good, even very good, but not “number one of the era” or “the perfect opener” as I occasionally see it called. I do have very strong memories of the first time I watched it though, and I always enjoy going back to it, so I certainly think of it fondly even if it isn’t the best episode since The Web Planet.
I find it weird that people are talking about the episode wasting Olivia Colman like this is an actual issue with the episode.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Olivia Colman and she could obviously do more. But having Olivia Colman in your show in 2010 is a lot different from having her in it now. She wasn’t a complete unknown at the time (at least not in the UK), but she wasn’t a star and was mostly known for supporting roles in TV comedies. She wasn’t considered a particularly serious actor or a national treasure at this point, she was just a working British actor.
For me complaining that this episode wastes Olivia Colman is similar to complaining that Daleks in Manhattan wastes Andrew Garfield or Cold War wastes Josh O’Connor. Obviously with hindsight we know these are all great actors who are capable of much more than the show gave them, but at the time they were not some big, famous, special guest stars.
One of the best series openers! Love 11 here and a great introduction to Amy and Rory.
The difference is Andrew Garfield gets quite a bit to do in Daleks In Manhatten. As opposed to Olivia Colman who had very little.
Also Olivia Colman had done quite a lot before Doctor Who, she was hardly an unknown. I don’t think it affects the quality of the episode per se but it is worth noting.
omg yay we’re on Matt Smith!!! This era is everything to me and this is a top top episode, I’ve watched it 10000 times
I don’t think any other post-regeneration story has a moment on par with
“Hello. I’m the Doctor. Basically, run”
Even if I like Castrovalva more, I think this is the gold standard for Doctor introductions
Well what can I say it’s the eleventh hour. It’s peak
This is one of my favorite openers of the New Doctor Who to be honest. I enjoyed the Atraxi and Prisoner Zero, and I thought the idea of the Doctor meeting a little girl who helped him through his terrible time and coming back for her only to find she was an adult now was cute. Rory was also a complete mess in the best and most relatable of ways.
The whole Kissogram thing wasn’t great, and honestly I used to find her immediately crush on the Doctor bothersome but after reading other people’s opinions and thoughts on it over the years it has bothered me a little less. And Jeff’s inclusion was meh. The episode was pretty good overall, and I liked the energy Matt Smith brought to the part from the very start.
Should The Eleventh Hour Appreciation be folded into this thread now?
Nth-ing that it’s the perfect opener, and just how important it was that they nailed this episode, instantly ensuring everyone knew the show wasn’t dead without RTD/Tennant. Any random other episode might be better, but I don’t think any are better that was created under so much pressure.
Maybe in a while but not directly