New Who - The Eleventh Hour

Some lovely person uploaded the new episode of Doctor Who to YouTube (here it is, although no guess on when the BBC will make them take it down) for those of us who don't want to wait two weeks to get it.

I always hate new Doctors at first, in part because I've yet to see a regeneration sequence that provides a good picture of what the new guy's going to be like. The other part is that, once you've become attached to seeing one actor play a character, it's difficult to switch gears and accept an interloper.

To be fair, I gave this Doctor the same amount of time to wow me that I gave every other Doctor: one episode. Peter Davidson won me over with The Caves of Androzani, Christopher Eccleston got me with Rose, and David Tennant - with the help of an errant satsuma - helped me get past the fact that he didn't look like Eccleston.

Matt Smith earned my grudging respect with "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans" and "I'm the Doctor; I'm worse than everybody's aunt... and that's not how I'm introducing myself." Then, somewhere between fish custard and "Yes, I kept the clothes" he became the new Doctor for me.

So, great job Matt Smith - and all the actors, writers, and other people involved in The Eleventh Hour.


. . . But I'm still dressing up as the fifth Doctor for Halloween. Sorry!