Review: Doctor Who episode 5.1: The Eleventh Hour

I just couldn't help thinking of Drop Dead Fred. That is my problem with this episode - it is basically Drop Dead Fred. I loved Drop Dead Fred as a kid, but I made the stupid mistake of rewatching it, and... boy, it's awful. Not that this episode was awful or anything, it was sort of like Drop Dead Fred if Drop Dead Fred was good. But still, you know, Drop Dead Fred.

But think about it - a little girl has an imaginary friend, or does she? Nope. Turns out he was real all along. And he visits her again when she is a grown up, but she has made some poor decisions. He tries to fix things, but is kind of an asshole. Everything turns out alright in the end.

It was a good episode, and Matt Smith's whole, "I am a new doctor and therefore am a madman and don't know how my body works" thing was well done and funny, but the actual plot was kind of blah. Not the Amelia/Amy Pond stuff, that was all good (although does anyone work as a 'kissagram' anymore? How is that a job?) but the alien plot was by-the-numbers. The taking over the images of people in comas was a nice idea, as was the getting the voice wrong thing, but the actual alien itself looked pretty crummy. And I didn't understand why the Doctor shouted out, "Don't look at it, or it will kill you," she looked at it, but it didn't kill her. It just sort of hung there, growling.

Maybe I would have liked this episode better if I hadn't watched the second episode first, because the only thing this episode does really well is introduce the new Doctor and his companion, who I had already met. Oh well. It was still pretty good.