*dawning realisation* "You're Amelia"
"You're late"
"Amelia Pond. You're the little girl"
"I'm Amelia, and you're late"
"What happened?"
"Twelve years"
"You hit me with a cricket bat"
*scoffs* "Twelve years!"
"A cricket bat!"
"Twelve years and four psychiatrists!"
"Four?"
"I kept biting them!"
"Why?"
"They said you weren't real"
- The Doctor
- Amelia Pond
I would think by now all of us have watched Doctor Who, Matt Smiths first episode as The On’ComingStorm from Galifrey. Or everyone that Watches it they’re probably some who don’t watch it at all.
After the fourth series with the Doctor at the end of his tenth incarnation and with Wilfred Mott who helped out, and him saving the whole world once again (And I’d feel agitated having to save earth who knows how many times) can Doctor Who salvage his own tarnished reputation?
And so for the New series we’ve got a new production team, new logo, new titles, new music, new Doctor, new assistant and a new show runner. Steven Moffat, creator of Coupling (as well as writer of some of the best Who episodes), has his work cut out for him. He has so far made all and every episode in series 5 good fun and quite frankly laughable to watch and see him do silly things and save the planet and the whole universe and still manage to be still here and ready for more action.
So to begin on the episode
After the tenth Doctor absorbed a huge amount of radiation and visiting everyone of his companions and regenerating, the Doctor manages to renerate inside the TARDIS as it tears itself apart. The opening of it was the TARDIS flying across london heading straight for big ben, the Doctor fell out and hanging from the craft by his fingers and barely missing Big Ben. Before he crash lands into the garden of 7-year-old Amelia Pond. Amelia being her brave self and out of curiousity went to investigate the noise to find a police box and a man coming out of it, the Doctor saying 'I've got a craving for apples' he turned to look at amelia 'I'm the Doctor. Do everything i tell you; don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off' and walking into a tree.
The Doctor rejecting all and every food Amy gave him, Spitting out apples, yoghurt and making a brilliant line 'You're scottish, fry something' he chucked out the bread, he finally found something to eat which just happened to be fish fingers and custard. Despite him being in his weakened state he stil managed to investigate what the crack in time and space in little amelia's bedroom wall, a crack which linked to a prison that was overseen by a giant eye and sent him a message that said 'Prisoner Zero has excaped'. It seemed that prisoner zero escaped from the other side of the crack and decided to hide in the house. The Doctor ran out of the bedroom and looked out of the corner of his eye to see an extra door, before the Doctor had a chance to hunt round further he ran down to his TARDIS to avoid his TARDIS going into meltdown.
Obvisiouly when the Doctor told little Amelia he'd be 5 minutes he got it wrong, when he returned he was twelve years late not 5 minutes later. Amelia had grown up with her dreams of the Raggedy Doctor and is slightly or more then slightly bitter about being left behind for longer than 5 minutes, Prisoner Zero still in her house he rushes into her house and hits him with a cricket bat. With her finally seeing the extra door prisoner zero is now putting the entire planet at risk...
The door that Amy just ran out of suddenly falls forward, revealing a man and his dog. The officer asks how that is possible, but the Doctor points out that the man can only bark, not speak English - it was Prisoner Zero. The Doctor tries to convince Zero not to attack, but an announcement is suddenly made from somewhere outside: ‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated’. While Zero is occupying itself the Doctor has a chance to free himself from the radiator, he and the kissogram escape, outside the Doctor notices the shed has been rebuilt and completely identical to old one he destroyed.
The Doctor smells and licks the shed to deduct that it is twelve years old, asking the kissogram why she had said it had been six months she replies ‘Why did you say five minutes?’ angrily at him in her Scottish accent and also revealing that she is in fact Amelia the little Amelia he promised five minutes to. After arguing on the subject they stop while passing by an ice-cream truck playing the same announcement they heard in the house. Looking round they notice that every sound-emitting device is playing the same thing and the Doctor realising that Human residence is the whole earth.
The Doctor deduces that they have twenty minutes before the Atraxi weapons power up, and therefore only that amount of time to save the world. However, he is unable to access the TARDIS while it is rebuilding itself, and the Sonic Screwdriver is destroyed when he uses it to try and attract the Atraxi. He also discovers that Amy has been creating dolls and drawing pictures of him since his crash twelve years ago. Prisoner Zero tells him that it is not responsible for the crack in the wall, mocking the Doctor for his lack of knowledge of the origin and saying ‘the Pandorica is open and silence will fall.’
With others who know her thus convinced of his identity, he uses a resident's laptop and Rory's phone to transmit a computer virus around the world that sets all clocks and electronic displays to the number zero, therefore notifying the Atraxi of Prisoner Zero's presence and allowing them to track it to Leadworth as the source of the virus. He explains to Amy and Rory that the "Multiform," or Prisoner Zero, needs a dormant host and can change into the shape of whatever the host dreams of. Therefore, Prisoner Zero has eight disguises because of the eight comatose patients at the hospital.
Prisoner attempts to steal Amy’s dreams and memories to use as a disguise, having a built up psychic link with her for all the years. It changes it’s disguise into the Doctor and Amy’s childhood self. The Doctor prompts Amy to instead think of the undisguised Prisoner which she saw earlier at the house; thus, Prisoner Zero manifests as itself, and is recaptured. Before disappearing, Prisoner Zero repeats the warning, "silence will fall."
Angered by the fact that the Atraxi would attack Earth, the Doctor calls them back and chooses his new outfit to have a meeting with them on the hospital's roof. He tells them that aliens have invaded before and to look up how they were defeated. The Atraxi discover who the Doctor is and promptly leave. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS, which by this point has finished repairing itself. He leaves to perform test runs and then returns to Amy, though he is inadvertently two years late. He shows Amy the regenerated TARDIS (complete with a new sonic screwdriver), and she agrees to travel with him on the condition he returns her home for the next day, which unbeknownst to the Doctor is her wedding day.
The humour, too, is probably the best the show has ever managed and for once it doesn’t feel completely out of place. The early montage of the Doctor struggling to find something good to eat is genuinely hilarious, as well as the usual asides and digs he dished out to the supporting cast in the episode.
And, of course, Matt Smith is utterly wonderful, in the space of one hour he manages to be sympathetic, a badass, a comedy figure, a lover, a fighter, a genius and that moment where he deduces what’s wrong simply by looking around him (aided by a stunning photography piece) is undeniably fantastic.
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