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| Amy and The Doctor |
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 This season is the first for Matt Smith, as the Eleventh Doctor, and for his new companion, Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan. It also is the first season that Steven Moffat has overseen as Head Writer and Executive Producer. As well as changes on both sides of the camera this season heralded a new title sequence, logo and a more upbeat theme music.
The season started off where Season Thirty (New Series 4 Specials), the previous season starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, left off. Having undergone a rather violent regeneration, which nearly destroyed the TARDIS, the first story of this season, "The Eleventh Hour", starts with The Doctor hanging on for dear life as the TARDIS hurtles out of control over London. The TARDIS eventually comes to earth, on its side, in the back garden of the home of seven year old Amelia Pond, who is played by Karen Gillan’s cousin, Caitlin Blackwood.
This story has the most unusual introduction of a companion that there has ever been in the show. Not only do we get to meet Amy Pond (as her adult version is called) as a young child but also two versions of her as an adult. When The Doctor is forced to pilot the TARDIS into the future, so as to stabilise its engines, he leaves the young Amelia behind, sitting on a small suitcase, waiting for The Doctor to return in five minutes as he promised. However, when the TARDIS materialises back in Amelia's back garden twelve years have passed (it is now 2008 instead of 1996) and Amelia Pond has grown up. Finally in this story The Doctor takes another trip in the TARDIS (again only intending to be gone for a few minutes) only to return in 2010 on the eve of her wedding day. Unaware of the importance that the following day The Doctor allows Amy Pond to join him in the TARDIS and so her adventure of a lifetime starts.
This season introduced some new enemies (including: Atraxi, Dream Lord, Krafayis, Prisoner Zero, Saturnynians, Eknodine, Smilers and Weevils), re-introduced some previous seen enemies (these were Autons, Cybermen, Sontarans, The Judoon and the Weeping Angels) and some that have been revamped for this season (these were Daleks and the Silurians). We also see the return of River Song who The Doctor first met in the 2008 story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead". This season also has The Doctor and Amy meeting some famous people from the past - namely war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh.
But it was the Dalek’s make-over that caused the most comments by fans and the press - and not all favourable. "Victory of the Daleks" started off being a typical Dalek story reminiscent of those seen in the 1960’s - especially the Second Doctor’s debut story "The Power of the Daleks" where the Daleks in this earlier story also masquerade as being loyal servants but secretly are working to a secret agenda. In "Victory of the Daleks" this agenda is the birth of a new race of Daleks. Larger and deadlier than any Dalek that The Doctor has encountered before. Unfortunately the primary colour scheme and larger plastic looking side panels used for this new breed of Daleks resulted in them being likened to plastic toys and they have even described as being ‘CBeebies Daleks’. The revamp of another iconic enemy though was a far greater success.
The seventh story of this season, "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood" heralded the welcome return of the Silurians. First seen in the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians" these classic creatures have a very unique can place in Doctor Who. They are not alien nor are they truly an enemy. Being the original inhabitants of Earth they actually have more of a right to live on Earth as the humans do. Like in his previous encounters The Doctor tries to broker a peace between the two races and despite there being on both sides key members who are susceptible for this to happen he has to overcome key individuals, also on both sides, who are either ignorant or are just power crazy and war like. The Silurians seen in this story are more realistic looking then their earlier versions and the costumes worn by the key figures make them more regal looking.
Like in previous seasons all the stories in this season led or had elements that build up to the season’s finale. In the case for this season "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang". However, like the ending of "Amy's Choice" you may have been left wondering if previous events really happened. However, unlike "Amy's Choice", in which everything that occurred except for the very ending in that particular story turned out to be all a dream, the ending of "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang" resulted in one huge paradox.
As a means for the Universe to be reinstated The Doctor uses River Song’s Vortex Manipulator and the Pandorica to reach the heart of the exploding TARDIS. This ended in all the cracks in the universe sealing up so trapping The Doctor in an alternative Universe. With the known Universe returned to normal Amy and Rory live their lives without The Doctor’s influence and, in the case of Amy with her parents – now that there is no crack in her bedroom to erase them from her history. At the end of this story Amy and Rory get married rather than Amy departing in the TARDIS on the eve of her wedding day. It is only during their wedding reception that Amy finally remembers The Doctor and his TARDIS – after The Doctor had planted a thought in Amy’s sub-conscious, when he visited her when she was seven years old just after he departed in the TARDIS, shortly after meeting her for the first time. This allowed him to return to our Universe and it is then, just before the final story of this season ended, that Amy and Rory join him in his travels.
With this paradox taking place it would therefore be easy to assume therefore that all the events from The Doctor arriving at Amelia’s house did not take place as the story ended with Amy Pond and Rory getting married and then joining The Doctor in the TARDIS. But before this The Doctor witnesses events from his recent past, and from recent stories. These include: "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone", "The Lodger", and "The Eleventh Hour". For The Doctor to revisit these events the stories in this season must have taken. Also for the cracks in the universe to be sealed and for the events that occurred in River Song’s past (as it was a River Song from the future who assists The Doctor) then the events in "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone", and in their previous adventure together,- the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", must have taken place for the paradox to occur.
As to viewing figures for the Eleventh Doctor and Amy’s first season (and the first for Steven Moffat at the helm) the first story, "The Eleventh Doctor", attracted 10.1 million viewers. This may not be as high as the average for the previous season (which was watched by an average of 11.2 million viewers) but this story was still watched by more than the average for the whole of the Tenth Doctor’s era. However, "The Eleventh Doctor" was to become the highest watched story of the season as the number of viewers slowly dropped for the remaining stories until the penultimate story, "The Lodger", which was only watched by 6 million viewers. The final story did gain a few more viewers (6.5 million) but this was not enough to prevent it becoming the least watched finale of the revamped series to date. Two possible reasons for this steady decline could be down to the 2010 FIFA World Cup football tournament and the hot weather experienced over the most of the UK during the later half of the season.
Many fans may have mourned David Tennant’s decision to give up playing possible the most popular incarnation of The Doctor (since Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor at least) but despite the low viewing figures the show was still in safe hands with the prospect of many great stories still to come and the answer as to who was behind the TARDIS to exploding and exactly what was meant by ‘The Silence will fall’. Until then as the caption, after the end credits of "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang", stated ‘Doctor Who Returns Christmas 2010’.
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| The Alliance |
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This season is full of scenes that are a joy to watch. From a khaki coloured Dalek carrying a cup of tea on a tray fixed to its plunger to The Doctor taken aback by a very expectant Amy. We even get to watch The Doctor try to masquerade as a normal human being so that he can rent a room in a house that very strange and deadly events are occurring in the first floor flat. This story, "The Lodger" even has The Doctor playing in a football match scoring many goals. But it is the scenes in the opening story "The Eleventh Hour" where we are introduced to his new companion. Not once but twice before she finally gets to join The Doctor in the TARDIS.
As well as having the return of the Daleks this season also has two stories where The Doctor came face-to-face with creatures that he has encountered before. In "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone" The Doctor and Amy, who are joined by River Song (who the Tenth Doctor previously encountered in the 2008 story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead"), have to face the return of the Weeping Angels. In The Doctors first encounter (see the 2007 story "Blink") there are only a few. But in "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone" there are hundreds and it seems that they are more deadly and ruthless. The most memorable scene is when Amy, who is unable to see, is forced to walk through a forest full of Weeping Angels, in a manner that will not make them realise that she can’t see them. As in the early story the Weeping Angels can only move when no one is looking at them and so they will not harm her – until that is when she trips over a tree root and the heads of the closest Weeping Angels turn to face Amy.
The second story is "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood" in which The Doctor encounters the Silurians once more. Like in his first encounter (see the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians") these reptiles, who lived on the surface of the Earth long before humans populated the planet, have been disturbed by human activity. This time by a drilling project. When The Doctor goes underground to try and broker a peace with the Silurians he is shocked to discover that there are not just a small handful of the reptiles but a whole underground city. Undaunted The Doctor continues in his quest unaware that a Silurian that had been captured, when it had been part of a raiding party above ground, has been killed. Worse still the dead Silurian is a family member of another Silurian who is determined, regardless of the cost, to wipe all ‘apes’, as she calls them, off the face of the Earth.
The must see story, because it contains the most number of enemies, is "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang". The end of the first part of this story has Autons, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, The Judoon, Sycorax, Hoix, Silurians, Roboforms, Blowfish, Weevils and Uvodni. Known as ‘The Alliance’ never before has The Doctor had to face so many foes at the same time. But the biggest surprise is when it is revealed that the Pandorica does not contain the most deadly being in the Universe, as expected, but is instead a prison. Worse still, for The Doctor, the newly formed alliance has arranged for him to be placed in as they believe imprisoning The Doctor will prevent the destruction of the Universe. And so as the Pandorica closes The Doctor is powerless to prevent the destruction of his TARDIS, the death of Amy at the hands of Rory, who turns out to be an Auton, and the destruction of all the galaxies in the universe. Only the Earth remains (for now) but with a night sky containing not one single star…
In the second part of this story The Doctor has one of the most interesting and original means of escaping from the Pandorica. This sequence is a must watch part of this story as is the scenes were The Doctor, Amy Rory and River Song are chased around a museum by a Stone Dalek. Brilliant stuff…
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