Raonaild

I think I've watched the first 15 minutes of this ep at least a dozen times (up to the point where the Doctor jumps back into the TARDIS and leaves 7 year-old Amelia behind ... it was both the most perfect companion introduction, and the most perfect post-regeneration Doctor introduction, ever.

Don't get me wrong, I loved The Christmas Invasion and the first moments with the new Tenth Doctor at the time, but I think the beginning of The Eleventh Hour was better.

addicted2much

Eleventh Hour was definitely for me, the best introduction to a new Doctor.

Mimmie

yeah, I liked Eleventh introduction too
he totally blewed me away

forestfire

I'm loving the new TARDIS interior too. Was I seeing things, or did anyone else spot a second level platform at some point? I've only seen the ep once though, so I might be wrong.

Also (sorry if this has already been discussed, new here), I noticed they just kind of glossed over Amy's parents. Do you think that maybe later on in the series we might find out what happened to them?

Mimmie

^ yes I think we'll find out what happened to them

lancer1993

What about the TARDIS doors? I read somewhere else (and don't know why I didn't see it myself) when on it's side the doors are opened outwards, don't they always open inwards?

Raonaild

It's true, but to be fair the TARDIS was kind of broken at the time. The doors were blasted open somehow, so they were blasted outwards.

I found that whole sequence pretty cool, the idea that the TARDIS was on its side, so internally everything was on its side as well and the Doctor had to climb out the door. It reminded me of the old Fifth Doctor story Time-Flight, where the TARDIS was also on its side and the Doctor had to carefully climb in and drop down to the console to flip a switch and change the interior orientation. Only in that story, you actually saw the inside of the TARDIS while the Doctor tried to right it.

I also liked how the Doctor tied the rope through the TARDIS door handles so that when he jumped back in the doors would close. I didn't notice it the first time, thought that was pretty clever.

Related to this, I like how Moffat has been playing with the physicality of the TARDIS.

In the old series, the TARDIS interior and exterior were very distinct - one was filmed in studio on video, the other filmed on location with film, rarely did you get a glimpse of the exterior from the interior (through the door anyway, they used the scanner screen frequently), and never did you see the interior from the exterior.

One of the innovations of the new series was that you could see the interior of the TARDIS when you opened the door from outside. Once in a while, they'd try a smooth transition from interior to exterior - one of the first eps to do this was Moffat's The Doctor Dances, where Jack crosses from his ship into the TARDIS interior. And then there was The Runaway Bride, where the Doctor chases Donna down with the TARDIS and eventually pulls her through the open door.

But Moffat seems to be taking the TARDIS interaction to a new level - in The Eleventh Hour, the Doctor tries to get control while hanging out the door, then later the Doctor climbs out the door and dives back in while it's lying on its side. Then in The Beast Below, he dangles Amy out the door a bit. In The Time of Angels, River floats through the door and they watch the other ship fly away through the door.

lancer1993

I was also wondering why the TARDIS wasn't right way up on the inside with it's own internal gravity, guess it was broken or the Doctor didn't know how to turn it back on

I thought it was weird how Amy was hanging out the door, floating in space.

I do like how they use the TARDIS interior cross over more, but to be fair I thing it has more to do with technology than any thing else, much easier to to do it now than in the classic series.

Raonaild

Clearly, there are things they can do now that they couldn't do then, I'm not faulting the classic series for not doing this. I just like that in the new series, they are taking advantage of modern effects to integrate the interior of the TARDIS with the exterior.

forestfire also mentioned the upper platform, which I noticed too. The new TARDIS interior is growing on me, and one thing I especially like is that it feels more dynamic than the previous console room. Going back through S1-S4, the console area looked good (especially compared to the classic series), but the room felt like the same 3-walled set of old (i.e. it was always shot from the same side of the console, you could never shoot from the other side). Also, all you really saw was the door out of the TARDIS, you didn't get the sense that there were doors and corridors that led to other parts of the ship. But the new console room seems to have stairs and corridors leading out - they may never use these, but at least you get the sense that there's more to the TARDIS than just the console room. The room itself also feels less box-like, they shoot it from different angles to try to hide the fact that it's a 3-walled set. I think they may even have temporary walls that they can add on so that they can shoot the console from almost any direction.

scififan2009

Wow. It really has been 10 years.

Such a great first episode for Matt Smith’s era of Doctor Who.

Summer Falls

i know such a good episode to a new era

scififan2009

Summer Falls

Wow 10 years ago seems lile just yesturday