Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1
The Eleventh Hour Review This fanzine owes Matt’s Smith’s first full episode, The Eleventh Hour, a lot. Apart from obviously providing the name of the fanzine, it actually made me fall in love with Doctor Who all over again and inspired me to start this humble fanzine. Here is my review of The Eleventh Hour, written just a day after the episode aired, after watching it for the third time!
I’m grinning like a loon at the moment. Not because the episode was so good, nor the fact that the episode had very good viewing figures. I’m not even grinning because I got in with a lady on Saturday night (actually that’s a lie) - it’s because the normally-fickle fans of Doctor Who mostly agreed that Matt Smith was THE Doctor and the episode was thoroughly enjoyable. The chances of the fans unanimously agreeing on something, pre-Eleventh Hour, was about the same as England winning the World Cup. Or indeed me getting in with a lady… But wasn’t it brilliant? From the moment the camera pans into Amelia Pond’s house, to when The Doctor whisks off Amy for adventures new - I was hooked all the way. I honestly believe that someone who finds fault with this episode, is just doing it for finding faults-sake. No real Doctor Who fan can pan something which has such beautiful moments as when Amelia packs her little suitcase and waits for The Doctor, who we know will never show. Or the moment when The Doctor walks through the image of his previous incarnations and announces that he IS The Doctor. Not the Matt Smith Doctor or the 11th Doctor, but THE Doctor. It’s something that I really was desperate for Steven Moffat to put across. The Doctor is always the same man - just with a different face. I really enjoyed the ‘food scene’ when The Doctor was trying out different tastes for his mouth. Again, that was another point to drive home that this man was just a new incarnation of the same person, which was why he now likes the taste of fish fingers and custard, instead of apples! Oh and I loved his answer to when little Amelia offered him carrots - ‘Carrots – are you insane?’ I suspect (hope?) that was a reference to the 6th Doctor, as his last line in his criminally-short tenure as The Doctor was ‘Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice’! What can I say about Amy Pond that hasn’t been said already? Well not much, as you probably can guess where this is going - but she is definitely one for the Lads and Dads! But that’s unfair, as most actresses cast in a similar mould can’t actually act, whereas Karen was pretty decent on her first outing! I thought she made the best of what she was given and I loved her facial reactions, whenever The Doctor spoke to her/riled her up. Generally, the response to her has been warm, but I suppose it’ll be better to judge her on her first full episode, as she wasn’t actually in this for its entirety! Apart from the wonderful Matt Smith (who I’ll get to later) the other star performer in this was young Caitlin Blackwood, who played young Amy. Watching Doctor
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