@@HarboWholmes I have always seen the Eleventh Doctor as a homosexual in the closet, perhaps that is why this Doctor is closer to men like Rory or Craig Owens and somewhat distant with Amy and Clara. Not to mention that he is a matchmaker. What do you think of that?
@@mayotango1317 I personally see him as distinctly asexual, but either way I agree with you that he definitely has zero interest in the women around him
One thing i think this episode does really well is does a soft genre shift into a fairy tale kind of show. The doctor even mentions that "Amelia Pond" sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Watching this episode with that idea in mind has really softened me to it.
"Soft" is the key word. People really overstate the apparent fairy tale vibe, but it's barely there. The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, and The Parndorica Opens is pretty much it, plus the last ten minutes of The Big Bang. That's 3 and a half stories.
@@nightowl8477 arguably Vampires of Venice, A Christmas Carol, The Curse of the Black Spot and The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe lean further towards fairytale/fantasy than the mostly Sci-Fi RTD era.
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 - I'm talking about Series 5, and I don't see any real fairy tale aesthetics or themes in Vampires of Venice. The conspiracy motif of Series 6 is much more consistent imo. Plus Steven actually has something to _say_ on it. Not sure what he was going for with the whole fairy tale thing beyond nabbing the aesthetic. Also, I'd argue Russell was cultivating a genre of his own entirely; 'event television' being the closest name we have for it. Primeval, Being Human, Merlin - all based off of RTD's reimagining of franchise storytelling.
I'm sorry but a huge part of Amy's character arc in series 5 is letting go of her commitment issues that stem from her abandonment issues. We see that even as a child she's already cynical towards other people when the Doctor tells her that he will come back immediately and she responds with 'people always say that'. This cynicism comes from her parents leaving her (not on purpose of course). Then the Doctor also leaves her for twelve years (again not on purpose) and so she becomes bitter and generally mistrustful of others. She keeps Rory at a distance not because she doesn't love him or care for him but because she keeps everyone at a distance. Even the Doctor struggles to gain back her trust during the episode and we see later on that she still doesn't fully trust that he won't just abandon her again (in episode 4 the Doctor tells her he's sorry and she immediately assumes that he's leaving her to die from the weeping angels). So my point is that her leaving with the Doctor the night before her wedding doesn't mean that she doesn't love Rory, but that she's afraid of commitment and marriage is the ultimate commitment. She's afraid of fully loving another person because at this stage she's still afraid that people won't just abandon her. She pushes people away before they can push her away (case in point her filing for divorce in Aotd before Rory can divorce her), she keeps them at an emotional distance because she's afraid of getting hurt/being abandoned. I wrote an essay, I know, but I love Amy and I feel that she's a misunderstood character by the fandom and I wanted to bring my analysis on some of her actions (by the way this is also not justification for what she does or how she treats Rory in early series 5 but an explanation of her behavior and how her character arc is literally about moving past these mistakes/flaws and eventually leave the Doctor forever in order to be with Rory). I could also write about how Rory and the Doctor represent adulthood vs childhood and Amy must grow and choose the former and give up the latter but then I would never stop writing.
This, exactly. Harbo spent a whole section of this video feeling sorry for GEOFF. Why is he so incapable of showing empathy to Amy? (Also . . . "sex worker"? She's a kissogram. WTF.)
@@masterchiefblank4885 Not hinted, she explicitly told us about it. Not gonna look it up but the line was something like "There were cracks, Doctor. Through some we saw other worlds, through others only darkness"
As much as i love the rooftop scene, I have to be critical of how when asked if the earth is defended, the atraxi manage to pull up scenes from the far future, different planets and an aborted timeline.
The casting of young Amy was excellent. I remember my sister coming across a picture of the grown up Caitlin Blackwood and it's uncanny how much she looks like Karen Gillan
It's so crazy that she did such a good job despite it being her first acting role, and was mainly considered for the role because she looked like her cousin
I like Smith's orange console room. firstly I love the warm colours. Tennant's TARDIS always felt either very dull or the lighting had a coldness to it. Secondly I love how mad it is. things look out of place. so many leavers and buttons and random household objects. It feels very Doctory. like him just in the dead of night getting bored and disassembling stuff and just going "that thing goes there now" It adds to that eccentric mad professor vibe that we get from this Doctor. Like he is the mad man with the box. He never tries to be anything else.
Correction: The Crack in Time also serves the portal purpose in episode Vampires of Venice, transporting the supposed vampires from Saturnyne to Earth. This only sort of counts, but it also transports the voices of the Silence.
@@HarboWholmes I like New Who, but I feel it has *always* leant heaviliy into being a children's program (or, more rather, a program which all children can enjoy *as well* as adults). I don't think The Eleventh Hour stands out in that regard.
I mean even then with the farting aliens, they executed an entire room of alien experts. Davies was camp, yeah but classic who was also camp. Moffat tries to play the camp straight and it doesn’t work for me The comedy gets so jarring for me with Matt smiths era . Personally I preferred Capaldi’s more deadpan delivery of this sort of humour, not Matt smith playing up “ha ha ! How funny!!!”
I think the fact she’s running away from her wedding at the end isn’t a “see how little she cares for Rory” kinda thing. When people get married or have those huge moments in their lives it’s normal to feel nervous and begin to rethink your choices and just kinda of run away for a bit or for good and while most people don’t have the means at that moment to do so Amy had a rare opportunity to do just that and be back in time if she truly wanted to go through with it in the end
Exactly! I always saw Amy's story as sort of a coming-of-age narrative. At the start, she doesn't want to grow up (get married, commit to Rory and a normal life) so she runs off with her "imaginary friend" from her childhood. As she grows during her adventures, Amy sees how much she truly cares for Rory and wants a life with him. So, in the end, she says goodbye to her imaginary friend to embrace adulthood.
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 That might be alright if she wasn't consistently pretty awful to Rory throughout most of her arc, particularly in Series 5
I never said Amy and Rory were a perfect couple and Amy could definitely be a flawed character at times. Ultimately, she put Rory first in the end though. That should be counted for something...
I think that this analogy to "Girl in the Fireplace" episode might be intentional, the Doctor wanted to invite her to the Tardis, but he was to late to do so - that's why he does this with Amy, whose situation was similar. Also, Amy being mean is definitely intentional, we can see her actually "growing up" through this season and by that I mean she realises that having loving and loyal husband is more important than having adventures with the man that she desired.
I think the Doctor’s fame was supposed to be intentional, since that ends up being the motivation for the end of Series 6, where the Doctor fakes his death because he made ‘too much noise’. Matt Smith’s Doctor making a spectacle of himself was something Moffat probably wanted to be something he was punished for, but it ends up not paying off all that much. Since the only time we really see the Doctor’s reputation affecting people who haven’t met him directly is Demon’s Run. Even in Time of the Doctor, we only see ships of recurring villains, meaning its not the people who heard about the Doctor and wanted to fight him because he was too famous, it was just his rogues gallery coming for revenge. (Again.)
I feel like the main, consistent sin that Moffat commits is having a really good setup/establishing stories with super strong introductions to the ideas and characters, and then utterly failing to actually resolve it or pay it off in a satisfying way. It either lasts WAY too long and becomes more of an annoyance than anything, or it just kinda gets swept aside before it even has a chance to be cool. RTD basically did the exact opposite - an episode would begin with the most absurd campy sci-fi bullshit you've ever seen that almost makes you embarrassed to be a doctor who fan, and by the end you're crying your eyes out over it.
@@DELTARYZ Except in Journey’s End lol But yeah, honestly I completely agree with you. That’s why I love RTD and just kinda.. enjoy Moffat. I don’t think Moffat is a bad writer but I don’t know if his specific skills were well tailored to being shoe runner since he can’t resolve stories well. To the point where it feels like the Doctor’s trait of “hating endings” belongs more to Moffat than the Doctor. And I know we’ll get more of that discussed when Harbo gets to the two parters, especially Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent. Though.. that’s probably a few years of Harbo content away lol
I feel like you almost need to watch ALL of Series 5 before reviewing any of the episodes, just because of so much that happens. For one, there are episodes where I absolutely HATE Amy Pond and Rory’s one-sided relationship, but god, the Van Gogh episode always brings it back and puts it in perspective. The Doctor’s anguish at hurting Amy Pond in a way he thought was impossible to prepare, Van Gogh and Amy talking about loss, and that line, “Why are you being nice to me?”. Amy’s not at fault for being afraid to marry Rory, and those abandonment issues really come into play with The Doctor. If you stay with him forever, he can never leave you again, right? The man who makes the monsters turn tail and run away? The impossible man with a heart of gold? When you’re nervous already about a wedding, and a guy comes along who’s a perfect, witty, intelligent master of time and space, it’s fair to want to re-evaluate a moment. She lost track of who she was, and it took the impossible, just like the Doctor themselves, to fix that. Interesting story, to say the least. As for the crack, my ongoing theory has been, ever since we saw a crack reappear one last time in a certain Season 7 story working just like this one and the one from Vampires of Venice, is that the reason the cracks later began leaking time energy is the same reason the Doctor had to be locked in the Pandorica. The world was disappearing, and in many other points in space-time, the TARDIS had already exploded. It’s a crack opening to a point in time that doesn’t exist. While that’s never outright confirmed, it’s worth noting how when the Doctor reached into that specific crack in time that took Rory, that’s where he found the broken Tardis piece, and that the cracks are directly connected to the explosion of the TARDIS. The Tardis was erasing time around them, and as there was less and less time in existence, the likelihood of time energy leaking through got larger and larger. When you think of it that way, which, again, even has some neat evidence going for it, there’s a lot of stuff that suddenly makes sense. I think Series 5’s introduction is so loved by many because of what comes after it. Does that make it a good episode on it’s own? That’s up to personal preference, but to me this episode kept going higher and higher on the rankings as more and more things paid off. I just finished a re-watch of Series 5, so my feelings are pretty fresh, can’t wait to compare and contrast with you as the rest of these episodes come out! Edit: One more thing, the Silence are behind the crack in time, it totally makes sense that someone like Prisoner Zero might have been either clued into what was happening, or subconsciously implanted with this information by the Silence! That’s a stretch, and either way I still also find it just as odd as you do that they have that information anyways, but there’s a possible reason at the very least for why Prisoner Zero might know that information.
I do think you’ve missed the point of Amy which is unfortunate! Her character development is one that goes from fascination to the Doctor to the point of maybe fancying him, to realising how much she loves Rory to the point she chooses to die with him. It’s a full circle that pays off as she grows, and makes Rory such a great character as he openly dislikes the Doctor for some time until he finally realised Amy loves him (start of Season 6) and grows more friendly towards the Doctor as a result, understanding he’s just a traveller and not interested in Amy! Rose actively fancied the Doctor and treated Mickey like crap so it’s weird you like her but not Amy
@@worldgame7754 I think a lot of these character arcs don't really land for people because so much of it is played as a joke in the moment, and doesn't really get the seriousness it deserves to fully land in the viewer's mind. It becomes more apparent as you think about the story in broader strokes, but in the moment many of these important character beats are disguised as lame jokes. I appreciate what Moffat was going for & totally see the genius in his ideas, but I feel his execution is often severely flawed or lacking a satisfying payoff.
I also like that he realised he needed to intervene to fix things. He'd already seen what travelling did to Mickey and Rose, so he decided to bring Rory along very early so Amy wouldn't leave him behind
@@SirDono_ yeah i don't quite get harbo's dislike towards any characters that are not paragon of good human values, those people are not normal people. Normal people are likely a bunch of piece of shits
Two slightly slanderous Matt Smith-era videos released in one day by my two favourite DW RUclipsrs. Lol, this is pain. *Quietly turns on The Eleventh Hour with a huge grin.*
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 I absolutely agree. It’s just a feel good, well paced romp of an opener that is, imo, the best Doctor introduction episode (if we exclude The Christmas Invasion). Smith and Gillan are excellent. I wouldn’t, however, say it’s perfect and I’m agreeing with a couple of things that the video is saying *however* my score wouldn’t decrease from the 9/10 I gave it last time I watched it.
@@hitormissdoctorwhoreviews3491 eh I hate rose and considering 2 thirds of the episode is centred around her the Christmas invasion doesn’t really do it for me. And I’m personally not that much a fan of Tennant either so when he comes on screen I’m still not that enamoured...
@@notsosmartguy6254 Smith and Capaldi are my favourite Doctors and I think Moffat did an excellent job at handling them. I notice the detractors of the Moffat-era tend to be hardcore fans of the RTD-era. It's a shame, because I can see the highs (and lows) of both eras, but still be fair. Chibnall on the other hand... *shudders*.
The answer to your title is.... no lol. One of my fav episodes, lets GO!!!!!! After watching video: Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?
This is underrated if anything eleventh hour instantly catches lightning in a bottle unlike any other opener ever has. There’s a reason it got every alienated viewer who had no faith on board within the first 5 minutes. Smith absolutely smashes and the story is gripping and emotional.
No doubt, the episode is quite good, but it's far from the only good regeneration story. Rose, Robot, The Spearhead From Space, and The Power of the Daleks were all excellent new Doctor introductory stories.
Honestly, I’ve got big feelings on the Amy Rory relationship. On the one hand, I empathize with Amy for being a completely emotionally wrecked person, deeply in need of proper therapy, with tendencies towards pushing away those she loves, and who is super scared of commitment, she’s been abandoned so much that abandonment is all she knows. But on the other hand Rory is literally my favorite moffat era character and he was actively the character I saw myself in most when I was a teen watching it. The way she treats him is horrible, and sometimes hurts to watch, but it’s also real, I really don’t think characters should make the right decision or act well, I think flawed characters make a more interesting story, to this day I’m still questioning if bojack can even be considered his series protagonist. Especially with this being the start of her arc, I’m ok with Amy as a character in this, cause her whole character development is towards mending this one sided relationship. Also, I’d consider “I am the doctor” to be his theme, and I’d kinda say you can’t overuse a characters scene so long as you are creating appropriate moments for it. Also yeah it’s a sight more fairy tail but that’s kinda the theme of the show in the moffat era, now whether or not you like that is up to you but I wouldn’t necessarily say the show taking a more fairy tail feel diminishes it, more like it simply moved it into a slightly different sub genre.
Yeah, Rory is one of my favorite Doctor Who characters and when I first watched this as a teenager I HATED Amy and how she treated him. I recently rewatched the Matt Smith episodes and I understand Amy a lot more now. I still don't really like her, but I understand her character a lot more.
To be honest, the Matt Smith/Moffat-Era of Doctor Who will always be my favourite! I have a major soft spot for this episode and the general fairytale wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-ness of their stint as Doctor and Showrunner (and the Ponds too of course! Amy and Rory were great!) IMO, not overrated at all!!!
@@marcos-ll2yr Season 5 was decent. Season 6 was fine for the first half. Season 7 was complete rubbish. Especially Clara's half. Season 8 was decent. Season 9 was forgettable (Clara's most annoying season) and season 10 I can't even remember it. I liked Bill but if a character dies, MOFFAT, then let them stay dead.
@@NileSWPhotography I only like the episode of Vincent Van gogh, and thats it. Moffat destroys the weeping angels in this season, and season 7 become worse.
Perhaps I am in the minority, but that's okay... Yes, I understand how popular and culturally impactful the original RTD and Tennant Era of the show was (which I like a whole lot too by the way...season 4 being the best of RTD's seasons...didn't care much for season 2). Personally though, I just enjoyed Matt Smith and Karen Gillian's performaces more. Season 5 and 6 have some of the most rewatchable episodes of the series for me. Vincent and the Doctor, the Doctor's Wife, the God Complex, The Big Bang/The Pandorica and The Eleventh Hour to name a few off the top of my head. I also liked the River Song storyline so that probably contributes to my enjoyment of season 6. Season 7 was a bit more of a mixed bag but, to be honest, I think some people are too critical of episodes like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three. I like how nonsensical and whimsical they are! The Power of Three (leaving aside the cube invasion plotline for a moment) also does a really lovely job of giving a more immediate insight into the Doctor's relationship with the Ponds...almost like the minisodes :) A Town Called Mercy, Angels in Manhattan, and Asylum of the Daleks are proper solid episodes! And no, I don't really like Clara much either but Bill was pretty great with Capaldi. They gave me serious Seven and Ace vibes!
I liked everyone in the village knowing the Doctor before he even knew himself. It's a fun thing to write around and also helps cement Smith as the new Doctor since everyone is confidently calling him that.
The scene where Amy enters the Tardis is beautiful. It’s definitely nostalgia for a lot of people including myself but watching it back I still am in shock with how it makes me feel. Just topped off with Smiths “all of time and space, anything that ever happens or ever will”, amazing scene for me
I think we have different readings of Amy's arc (which is perfectly fine). I personally feel that Amy wanting to see the universe before committing herself is something natural and through the series we see that she associates getting married to settling down and having children, that's why I love them leaving together with the Doctor at the end of the series: Amy got married, but she still had room to dream. The fact that her family was "absorbed by the time crack" also creates this idea that her home would eventually "eat her". The only thing that spoils her arc for me is when she tried to kiss the Doctor, but Moffat himself said he regrets that scene.
I agree with what you say about Amy. Love Karen Gillan, but Amy just always came across as a real sucky partner to me. Most of her time with Rory it feels like she's putting him down or choosing whether to snog him or the Doctor. People say that her arc in season 5 is her maturing until she's ready to marry him, but I don't think that arc is delivered well. She spends her wedding not paying attention to Rory to bring the Doctor back, then when he does, she tries to kiss him, so it doesn't feel like it's resolved, and then throughout season 6 they do a bunch of cheap "She doesn't really like Rory" jokes (like when she's speaking into the device in The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and everyone thinks she's talking to the Doctor). And throughout the whole relationship, Rory is faithful and kind and patient and I just feel bad for the guy. That said, there are plenty of moments between them that are genuinely great. I love the Girl Who Waited and I think in that story we see how much Amy cares and what Rory means to her. We also have the end of The Angels Take Manhattan when she takes the risk and jumps off the building with him. Again, really touching and in that moment they feel great together. Overall though, it feels to me like Amy isn't good to Rory except for a few specific moments
I think the doctor and Amy's first meeting had a huge impact on her growing up. She was constantly told she was deluding herself or lying about him. When the doctor came back, she started acting like a child again and having a crush on him. Her whole arc is like one big coming of age story. Amy always had commitment issues, it's shown in series 5 with her running away from marriage, but she always planned to actually marry Rory, she loved him. Even in series 7, she commitment issues with her job. The Doctor makes a remark about her getting a new job every other week in the power of three, along with always running with the doctor even after she commited to Rory
I agree with you. Amy's issues are not an excuse to how she treated Rory. That is an abusive relationship right there: being treated badly sprinkled with a few nice moments. At least Rose had the decency to (kind of) call it off with Mickey, and they were not even engaged or something.
@@user-is7xs1mr9y but there's a big difference. Rose didn't love Mickey, she never did. She just settled for him. She always chose the doctor over him. Amy did love Rory. She always did. She always chose him over the doctor, even willing to die for him twice because she didn't want to live without him. She gave up the doctor, the adventures, River, her parents, her whole life to be with him. You can't compare rose and mickey to Amy and rory
I do think this episode is a brilliant regeneration story and introduction to the series as a whole, but it definitely has its issues as you said with stuff like the multiform predicting the future and the crack not being a sucky light abyss thing, but I definitely enjoy it for sure
To me this is the perfect introduction to a new doctor. Normally it takes 1 or 2 episodes for me to say "that the Doctor" for Smith in Eleven hour I was like, yep Smith is the doctor.
I watched a video where they said the Doctor was known by the whole town to combat the feeling The End of Time suggesting the 11th Doctor wouldn't be the same man.
I can never tell if these videos are real. Prisoner Zero talking about the crack isn't a plothole or confusing. The question of WHY Prisoner Zero childishly taunts the Doctor is already answered within this episode, and how Prisoner Zero would have prophecy-like knowledge is explained both generally by it's long association with the crack in the universe, AND specifically by the post-Pandorica Doctor priming little Amelia (who Prisoner Zero is psychically linked with). This stuff isn't even complicated - in fact, it's all explicitly explained either in this episode or in later ones I have to assume pretending you're confused by a plothole makes for a video that gets more clicks
I'd say The Eleventh Hour is one of the absolute best new Doctor introductory episodes. Honestly it's a million times better than "Rose" and tons better than "The Christmas Invasion", let alone the sixth or seventh Doctor intros! Amy was great fun as well. Moffat also did a great job with Peter Capaldi's first episode.
Well said. I totally agree. I think sadly a lot of young fans who came to the show with “RTD” have a hang up about how nothing will ever be as good. For me the revival really took off under Moffat whom ran with it.
@@worldgame7754 I must say that I like the RTD version of Doctor Who but it took a while to grow on me... It wasn't until Rob Shearman's "Dalek" that I was properly convinced, but I think it was a lot better with David Tennant. I would have liked to see where DT's Doctor would have gone if he'd stayed around for a season or two with Steven Moffat, but although I was a bit unsure of Matt Smith at first with the silliness etc, SM did a fantastic job of taking that aspect, running with it, then by the end of the episode you are never in any doubt that THIS IS THE DOCTOR!!
@@JeffJolly1 totally agree it got better with DT but for me only after Rose departed. Yes I think DT with a season under Moffat we would have explored the darker side of the Time Lord victorious.
@@worldgame7754 yeah I always thought Martha was a much better companion. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed Catherine Tate as Donna too, cos before that I really had a dislike of her! Probably more to do with a different sense of humour to the comedy show she used to do. Personally I never understand what some fans have against Amy and Clara as I really enjoyed both those characters, but each to their own as they say :)
@@JeffJolly1 I sentiment all of that. Never understood the intense dislike especially for Clara. Her relationship with the doctor was one of the best, you really had a great sense of the love and friendship, especially with 12.
This was my introduction to Doctor Who so this episode holds a special place in my heart. I never really picked up on Amy's met arc on being won over by the Doctor cause for me, I loved Matt Smith right away. I had no idea what regeneration was so I never saw any Tennat and it wasn't really a battle for me bevause once I watched Tennant's episodes I loved it (no duh), but to me Smith will be THEE Dcotor that I base all others off. Tbh, I don't hate any Doctor actors, even Whittaker, I just think she was let down by bad writing and direction. I still argue Capaldi was the best modern Doctor actor despite having some poor writing but his performance is so captivating that you can forgive the awful lines.
This is probably one of the few videos you've done where I've highly disagreed. One point I see you repeatedly making is the ending not making sense. One of which specifically that you focus in on is Prisoner Zero shapeshifting into himself. I can understand why you believe this to be a nonsensical aspect, with the point of a possible failsafe, but I think one thing we should keep in mind is the fact that Prisoner Zero is a shape-shifting species, not a person with a shape-shifting device. I think a good analogy would be our immune systems. The immune system is designed to be a safety mechanism, where it is used to defend us from threats. But in some cases, a new stimuli may influence the immune system into attacking itself. In this case, Prisoner Zero's shapeshifting abilities have been tricked into being used against itself, as it formed the 12 year psychic link with Amy. I've rewatched this episode so many times, as it is practically one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, so clearly I have a significant level of bias, but I think you're just glossing over the issues here. Yes, there are a few points you make that do make sense, specifically the mentions of the Pandorica and the Silence, as well as Amy mistreating Rory. I won't go into the Rory/Amy drama, as someone else has done a far better job at explaining it, but I will make one observation. The analysis of this episode appeared to be lacking, significantly more than the RTD era reviews you've made. The others, even episodes such as Defending the Despised appear to have so much more depth to the reviews. With your review of The Eleventh Hour, it mainly felt like you were going over a pre-meditated list of criticisms with very little no elaborations. Another part of the ending you've mentioned multiple times has been resetting all the clocks to zero. I'm not quite sure if you were poking fun at the ending, or just didn't understand it as well, but it didn't feel like your criticisms of the ending had much weight. It was basically, "it's bad because reasons," or at least that was how it felt. In hindsight, the ending makes so much sense. Of course, if the Atraxi had access to the Internet, and suddenly ever switched to zero, they'd most likely take that as a sign and follow the sign back to where it was first launched from, which was Rory's phone which the Doctor stole. Now, the scene setting this up did appear to be technobabble, but it was just meant to be a way of saying, "trust me, I'm smart." He provided these experts with the Virus they needed and it did exactly what the Doctor said it would. This hasn't been the first time the Doctor has made a computer virus either, during the episode World War Three, the Doctor gives Mickey Smith a disc that will delete every mention of the Doctor off the internet. The ending, at least to me, made sense with what the Doctor had on hand as well as his improvisational skills. I'm sorry if this is a bit of a read, this is just an episode I really love and felt the need to make a few mentions. I apologize if anything I mentioned came off as hostile or ignorant. Thank your for your consideration!
i dont understand why people are hell bent on shittng on the moffat era. rtd was not perfect yet no one seems to be going against that era. its so unfair.
the unfair is the part where Moffat basically erased everything in RTD era and companions from the Doctor's mind and acted as if the Doctor had no life before his era and only his own creations matters and deserve to be the center of the story an even insulted the doctors before his era, at every chance he got. that's what's called unfair
Most of Series 5 was felt too clunky to me. However, I love Smith from Series 6 onward, where he's really gotten into portraying the old man in the young man's body. His whole demeanor seem to shift a lot more toward that in his second season onward.
@@mayotango1317 the fact that you think rtd returning means they hate chibnall just proves how small minded you are, you refuse to believe that someone doesn't hate him. You say you hate him, but you talk about his era all the time. Why do you drag chibnall into stuff that has nothing to do with him? I don't like moffat but I don't feel the need to constantly attack him
@@mayotango1317 my opinion of his stories has nothing to do with this. I'm just simply wondering why you feel the need to constantly talk about Chibnall and his creations, even tho you claim to hate him and his stories. Seems to me like you are clearly obsessed with him
still thinking about how fucked up it was that russel t davies ended his last episode with "when i die, it will feel like i have truly died and i will watch have to watch another man saunter around in my body"
I'm not sure I agree that there's no camp in Moffat's era. It's still campy; it's just a different kind of camp - bit more heterosexual. Matt Smith hams the shit out of every scene that he's in and there's still a lot of campy elements. The bedazzled eyeball is pretty campy for one thing. But for real though, I think while the Moffat era is definitely trying to be a bit cooler and take itself a bit more seriously than the Davies era, it's still quite openly dorky and makes a lot of campy moments out of Matt Smith's physical comedy, and later Peter Capaldi's theatricality. I also think it reflects the era a bit. The 2010s were very different to the 2000s as far as TV was concerned. Doctor Who had truly broken through to America by this point, online catch up was a thing, streaming services were starting to appear, RUclips and social media were starting to explode, etc. Ironic and awkward were the words of the day, and bathos was SUPER popular, so Moffat's tendency to undercut his big moments was totally fitting for the time. Like look back at all of the early 2010s Marvel movies and it happens ALL the time. It feels a bit weird now, even just 11 years later, because TV and film have continued to shift and merge, and right now, we expect true fulfilment of those moments - we want a climax to mean something - possibly because we've all been struggling for human connection given the trauma and bitterness of the past few years so we are looking to TV for the resolution that we can't find in our daily lives... but haha lol jk don't know why I said that... is what I would have said in 2010. I also think it is fitting for the 11th Doctor to be constantly undercutting his own big emotional moments, because he is shown - unlike David Tennant's very openly emotional Doctor - to be a Doctor who is now all too aware of what happens when he lets his emotions take control and when he lets people in too close, and he responds to that by shutting them off and not letting himself be vulnerable. Matt Smith's Doctor is revealed repeatedly to be running from both his past and his emotions, and he wears the mask of a fool to hide it. He also knows this could likely be his last regeneration, so you could also see this as him desperately trying to have fun with his last go around. The 11th Doctor is simultaneously one of the goofiest yet manipulative Doctors, so I think the constant juxtaposition between what is happening and what he thinks people want to hear is very in character, and while it may undercut the impact of the moment at times, it is another way of displaying who he is and how he responds to things.
You say that "I am the doctor" was used a lot... It is a great track though. I also once found a crack on a tree trunk that looked exactly like the Smith Crack, which was weird. And I don't recommend fish fingers and custard
I know you've talked about it in some of your videos before, but it would be really interesting to see a video from you about how Moffat wrote his female characters!
The only good female character I've seen from him till this episode, was only Sally Sparrow. others were either sexualized or jarring (I mean shouldn't viewers decide whether a person is ignorant or intelligent, instead of having it thrown into your face?) or some little girl that looks at the Doctor like a father figure or guardian angel, only to become horny for him by growing up. I don't know what else describes a very creepy way of writing
Firstly, it's always a good time for I am the Doctor. Secondly, I've also always been critical of how Amy treated Rory, however I'm in the middle of a Series 5 rewatch which has given me a new appreciation for her arc: She starts off as little girl enamored with her imaginary friend, growing up never being able to let go of that childhood magic, which prevents her from ever truly connecting properly with Rory. Then as a young woman on the eve of a wedding that she's not actually certain about, that magical imaginary friend whisks her away on a fairy tale adventure. Only now she's got some, ahem, adult attraction for him thrown into the mix. As the series progresses though and the Doctor picks Rory up for the ride, she comes to mature and get over her enamourment for the sexy imaginary friend and comes to appreciate the loveable, dependable and heroic in his own way guy that's always been there for her. Plus, I love the fairytale aspect of it all.
I will always love this episode. Smith is MY Doctor. His tenure came around just at the right time in my life. at the time when I needed a mad man with a box to come along and whisk me off on some mad adventures. I was just starting high school and I was awkward, dorky, naïve and didn't really fit in. Doctor Who was my escape and Smith was the hero I needed. he was quirky and eccentric and unabashedly himself. He didn't care about people liking him or people thinking he was odd. he knew it and embraced it. I needed that in my life. Over the years as I have grown into myself and become the person I am today I have found myself seeing something of myself in 11. And this episode for me is a great opener. the moment where he steps forward in his full outfit, including the bow tie and he just day "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, Run!" Still gives me chills. When I watched it first time around I just remember saying "Yes you are. You are The Doctor" He's my Doctor. Not the swashbuckling, charismatic hero that everyone else loves but the dorky, odd, eccentric and quirky underdog hero that nobody expects. 11 Always has a place in my heart.
Clara is the gem for Moffat, he make her the most important companion ever, because he writter that way. Donna is clearly the number 1 companion or Rose.
When Davies wrote an intentionally cringey joke it felt like when your dad met one of your friends and intentionally hammed up the crummy jokes, when Moffatt did it he felt like the kid that didn't know how to tell a funny joke kept telling bad jokes and trying to convince you that it's funny because its so unfunny...
I think part of the food cravings scene is the doctor's hamming it up more than he would naturally be even with regeneration. This is because he knows Amelia as a young child is scared of the crack in the wall so he procrastinated while building up his energy and helps calm the child by making her laugh
Honestly I feel you missed the mark with this one. I generally enjoy your reviews, highlighting the good parts of bad episodes and making cases for why some episodes aren't as bad as people claim (I rather enjoy your reviews of End of Time and Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords). Compared to those, this just seems... needlessly pedantic I guess. Let's start with the criticisms I agree with - The unneeded sexual content/jokes. I 100% agree that those jokes are weird and are my main gripe with the episode - The Atraxi -> Judoon idea is one I'd never thought of but could've worked rather well. Criticisms I feel ambivalent on - The landing of humour (Like 'Who da man'). This is ultimately subjective and I feel this can't really be evaluated beyond your personal enjoyment or lack thereof of said jokes. - Amy is grating. I can see it, though honestly she's not nearly as bad as S1 Torchwood Gwen. Criticisms I disagree with - The crack arc goes nowhere - This is criticising the Eleventh Hour for its good setup for something other episodes didn't deliver on and would be like rating both Face the Raven and Heaven Sent bad because you didn't like Hell Bent. Or rating Utopia bad because you didn't like Last of the Time Lords. A story should be evaluated on its own and the Eleventh Hour does its setup really well. - Prisoner Zero knows too much. He's literally established to be sitting next to one of the cracks in the wall which are explicitly explained to have the Universe pour through into your head. - Cracks don't behave like this again. -> 'Through some, we saw worlds and people, and through others, we saw Silence... and the end of all things.' Vampires in Venice. This is demonstratively false. - Resolution was lacklustre. I find it odd you point out that Prisoner Zero knows too much for a random low level enemy but then point out that the defeat of said low level enemy was 'too low level'. Honestly the Eleventh Hour's resolution is no more contrived than Journey's End's, Last of the Time Lord's or Doomsday's. - The Doctor is elevated too much. I'm honestly not sure how 'Being well known as some girls imaginary friend' qualifies as any more well known than anything Tennant did. I know this becomes a problem later into 11s run but I don't consider this in any way the same thing. It was clearly an attempt to reinforce the Fairy Tale aesthetic that defined the Smith era. - Moffat's era is tonally more serious so jokes feel out of place. I don't know where this one comes from at all. Moffat's intended tone is a Children's Fairy Tale, that's far from more serious. All in all, disagree with this review and felt it was too harsh on this story given how forgiving you are for prior stories. Still love your content though, keep it up!
The crack was caused by the tardis blowing up at the end of season 5. The doctor reached into it when Rory died in the hungry earth and grabbed part of the tardis door. The fact it’s a crack in time and space means Moffat doesn’t really have to explain it showing up everywhere
Pause the video at 4:15 - Her coat perfectly matches with her trousers making it look as if her trousers are part of the coat... The more I look at this the more confused I am getting, some insane optical illusion that is.
it's honestly the best opener to a new doctor, but I may be biased since it's also the opener to my doctor. S5 as a whole is just peak who for me, the whole fairy tale aspect to the series was just an interesting take on DW. there's only 1 or 2 episodes that drag, in my opinion. no matter how much valid criticism is thrown towards this era, I still find myself loving it, but that could just be my nostalgia.
Have to admit i think Rose treated Mickey way worse. He thinks she is dead and has moved on in Aliens of London then Rose gets mad at him. Everytime he wants to do his own thing she gets mad despite always obsessing over the doctor. Even in Age of Steel when he wants to stay she wants him to stay but has shown nothing prior to make him want to.
11:41 It's been 12 years since this photo came out. I remember being nine years old and seeing that after the announcement of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. How has it been that long!?
And another thing! -- when the Doctor send the computer virus it contained a joke that began with "Why do electrons have mass?" Well, it's been twelve years since this episode debuted; I think I'm entitled to a punchline now! 😅
David Tennant as the Doctor had such a big impact on me that it took me a long, long time to accept Matt Smith fully. It was well into Series 6 in fact that I really started to take to him. So, at the time, I wasn't the biggest fan of Series 5 and the over-usage of I Am the Doctor from the start tarnished it for me and I still don't like the track entirely to this day. While this episode and the series as a whole has grown on me, I still have some reservations about it from my apprehensive memories of watching it for the first time. But I'm still glad I stuck around for the ride.
5:45 it's just acknowledging that even audiences entirely new to Doctor Who will have heard the name for decades. Like they know it, even if they haven't seen it. Also both Russell and Steven criticise faith by way of making the Doctor a god. They both massively overplay it tho, with no real point in the end.
I mean, without sounding passive aggressive, it can't have been a long run given how the majority of Defending the Despised is me defending Moffat era episodes. Why does it have to be a competition? You know I like both showrunners, right?
3:20 also Vampires in Venice, the vampires say that through some of the cracks they saw the end of all things, and through others they saw other worlds (no quotations marks because I don't know specifically what they said). 4:17 I think it makes sense tbh, considering the fact that both the Pandorica happened a long time ago, and also that prisoner zero is smart, and that the silence isn't exactly completely unheard of 15:42 btw, I just wanna say this was seriously one of the funniest things that happens in doctor who, and David Tennant's acting really brings it to life perfectly 20:09 also yes, the RTD era just looks better, I don't know what they changed exactly but it just looks ever so slightly worse
You left out the reason of the bow tie. Amy cruelly rolling the Doctor's regular tie up in the window? Of course he's going to switch to a bow tie. It's harder to get it caught in a rolled up window...
Personally I love this episode and I still think its the best introduction story for the new doctor. I think it says a lot about the quality of this episode that the major problems I have with the Matt Smith era later on still don't hurt this episode that much for me though I understand your criticisms of the episode. I will say in terms of Amy worshiping the Doctor and his mistreatment of Rory in the former while I think it's been overused in other cases I'm fine with Amy looking up to him as it is understanble from an early age seeing this mystery wacky man and it gets called out later in the show as to how unhealthy that is for her. As for her treatment of Rory while I do agree there are parts where it feels like Moffat is going too far I think this aspect is also acknowledged in Amy's Choice where Rory (fake) dies it's almost a wake up call for her in terms of how she has been treating him. I think Amy does love Rory but her relationship with the Doctor is like a Fairy Tale/Dream scape that it has caused her to take him for granted sometimes. Either way great video I just subscribed after Russell Universe video and I have to say I have been enjoying you content keep up the good work (sorry if this is too long for a comment )
The biggest issue with the prisoner knowing that stuff is that even the Doctor's greatest enemies working together, including the Daleks, didn't know how his TARDIS blew up, they just knew it did, but somehow this no-namer knows?
Prisoner Zero being at least as psychic as the Sybelline actually made sense to me. It's an alien that literally has to use telepathy to hide after all, so picking up on random mental static through the timecrack that spoils the next two series is honestly fine.
This was my first epsiode I didn't watch the russel t davis epsiodes until after smith's run then I found out there was more and went back and loved it watched 12th doctor loved that too. But smiths run will always be my favorite.
Honestly, while I’m not a massive fan of the Doctor being portrayed as this fantastical hero usually, I think that it works really well with Amy, considering that they treat her hero worship of the Doctor as something that is unhealthy and that’s part of her arc to of learning to live independently from the Doctor. They gave her the perfect end with the Doctor leaving her and Rory behind in season 6 and her getting over that, but then they just return in season 7 for 5 episodes for an honestly anticlimactic and out of nowhere ending and I don’t think it works nearly as well as the one we got from season 6. So I don’t actually think hero worship is a problem with Amy specifically because it’s a part of her character arc.
Great analysis - but I think if the Atraxi had been replaced by the Judoon, then the episode would have been even more similar to "Smith and Jones" - and I think it already uses similar plot points (alien criminal in hiding, police force after it, Doctor tricks it into revealing its location to the police). Totally agree about Amy - she was awful.
I think my feelings are pretty well in line with Harbo's here. I was about 9 when Matt Smith's era started, and I really really loved his early seasons as a kid, so Moffatt at least managed to sell it for me as a kid. But now I'm older I just can't get behind it. I think Matt Smith is amazing in the role, he's right up there with Tennant for me, but I just can't get behind this era because I don't like how Moffatt handled the story. I really want to enjoy it like I used to, but the convoluted story lines and constant character resurrections are really only enjoyable for their shock value, not as enduring television. I also just really dislike the way Moffatt writes his women, so I struggle to connect with Amy and River like I did as a kid. Especially Amy. No hate for Karen Gillian, she's brilliant. But I just can't enjoy her like I did at age 9. She admittedly has a lot of abandonment issues, so her terrible treatment of Rory is Somewhat understandable, but god she's just so unlikeable. Sassy, sarcastic characters can be very loveable (just look at Donna), but Moffatt prioritised making her snarky and cool over balancing her sassiness with her heart, and her bullying was played for laughs more often than it was treated as a character flaw. As for River, I just feel there's not enough to her as a character for me to understand why the Doctor loves her so much. Meeting out of order is a very cool concept, but in the end she's just a sexy archaeologist with a tragic backstory who he's spent significantly less time with than all his other companions. I just don't buy her as the one person he loved enough to reveal his name to.
After the Fam, Amy feels so refreshingly realistic. Not everyone has to be nice or likeable. If you saw the series well, the 11 Doctor at the beginning distrusts and is distant from River, it is with Capaldi that he finally confesses his love for her.
The Saturnynes explained that some cracks lead to other places, others there is just silence and the end of all things. I think you're taking too much issue with it.
fun fact did you know Jodie Whittaker was going to have a role in the episode but was cut this is just speculation on my part but I think that Jodie was going to play Rory's boss at the hospital
The Judoon weren't used because Moffat decided to ignore 4 seasons of the show's history for his entire run of the show, except for the bits that he wrote. I do not have a high opinion of Moffat as a writer, or Matt Smith's version of Doctor.
You know, after what RTD2 did recently. I appreciate more what Moffat did: erase the past and start with something fresh and new. Besides, the Judoon then show up in Series 6, so shut up. Matt Smith is a real alien Doctor.
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Harbo didn't place End of Time on the tier rankings. I feel empty inside.
@@PathsUnwritten probably like a B I guess
@@HarboWholmes I have always seen the Eleventh Doctor as a homosexual in the closet, perhaps that is why this Doctor is closer to men like Rory or Craig Owens and somewhat distant with Amy and Clara. Not to mention that he is a matchmaker. What do you think of that?
@@mayotango1317 I personally see him as distinctly asexual, but either way I agree with you that he definitely has zero interest in the women around him
@@robbiesmith8055 Probably realized that as he is thousands of years old it is a bit creepy lusting after young women
One thing i think this episode does really well is does a soft genre shift into a fairy tale kind of show. The doctor even mentions that "Amelia Pond" sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Watching this episode with that idea in mind has really softened me to it.
"Soft" is the key word. People really overstate the apparent fairy tale vibe, but it's barely there. The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, and The Parndorica Opens is pretty much it, plus the last ten minutes of The Big Bang. That's 3 and a half stories.
@@nightowl8477 arguably Vampires of Venice, A Christmas Carol, The Curse of the Black Spot and The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe lean further towards fairytale/fantasy than the mostly Sci-Fi RTD era.
Still is Doctor Who, as the Gothic era of classic who.
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 - I'm talking about Series 5, and I don't see any real fairy tale aesthetics or themes in Vampires of Venice.
The conspiracy motif of Series 6 is much more consistent imo. Plus Steven actually has something to _say_ on it. Not sure what he was going for with the whole fairy tale thing beyond nabbing the aesthetic.
Also, I'd argue Russell was cultivating a genre of his own entirely; 'event television' being the closest name we have for it. Primeval, Being Human, Merlin - all based off of RTD's reimagining of franchise storytelling.
I love how more fun and controlled the idea of post-regeneration was done here compared to the last post-regeneration episode.
I'm sorry but a huge part of Amy's character arc in series 5 is letting go of her commitment issues that stem from her abandonment issues. We see that even as a child she's already cynical towards other people when the Doctor tells her that he will come back immediately and she responds with 'people always say that'. This cynicism comes from her parents leaving her (not on purpose of course). Then the Doctor also leaves her for twelve years (again not on purpose) and so she becomes bitter and generally mistrustful of others. She keeps Rory at a distance not because she doesn't love him or care for him but because she keeps everyone at a distance. Even the Doctor struggles to gain back her trust during the episode and we see later on that she still doesn't fully trust that he won't just abandon her again (in episode 4 the Doctor tells her he's sorry and she immediately assumes that he's leaving her to die from the weeping angels). So my point is that her leaving with the Doctor the night before her wedding doesn't mean that she doesn't love Rory, but that she's afraid of commitment and marriage is the ultimate commitment. She's afraid of fully loving another person because at this stage she's still afraid that people won't just abandon her. She pushes people away before they can push her away (case in point her filing for divorce in Aotd before Rory can divorce her), she keeps them at an emotional distance because she's afraid of getting hurt/being abandoned. I wrote an essay, I know, but I love Amy and I feel that she's a misunderstood character by the fandom and I wanted to bring my analysis on some of her actions (by the way this is also not justification for what she does or how she treats Rory in early series 5 but an explanation of her behavior and how her character arc is literally about moving past these mistakes/flaws and eventually leave the Doctor forever in order to be with Rory). I could also write about how Rory and the Doctor represent adulthood vs childhood and Amy must grow and choose the former and give up the latter but then I would never stop writing.
I completely agree with you! And I don't mind ANY essays on Doctor Who, they're always welcome!
@@Lia-uf1ir yeah, we won't watch Harbo if we don't need such essays)))
Great coment dude :)
Couldn't agree more!!!
This, exactly. Harbo spent a whole section of this video feeling sorry for GEOFF. Why is he so incapable of showing empathy to Amy?
(Also . . . "sex worker"? She's a kissogram. WTF.)
Although we don't see it, the cracks also serve as a portal for the vampires in vampires in Venice
I feel it hinted towards was it not by the vampire fish queen ???
@@masterchiefblank4885 Not hinted, she explicitly told us about it. Not gonna look it up but the line was something like "There were cracks, Doctor. Through some we saw other worlds, through others only darkness"
@@EnglisherThanThou I forgot what the lines were so I just went for what was safest
As much as i love the rooftop scene, I have to be critical of how when asked if the earth is defended, the atraxi manage to pull up scenes from the far future, different planets and an aborted timeline.
I always crease when the hath show up, not only because they’re from another galaxy but also cuz… they didn’t wanna hurt nobody 🥲🥲
I hate how hey don't show ANY of the other people who defend earth their. Like unit, torchwood or the bannerman road gang
@@rainbowrainbow4621 This is Doctor Who, no the others. The Doctor is the only defender of Earth.
They pull the images from his mind.
@@TheToonMonkey well that doesn't explain it, the hath shot was from after the doctor and Martha got split, meaning he wouldn't have seen it anyway
The casting of young Amy was excellent. I remember my sister coming across a picture of the grown up Caitlin Blackwood and it's uncanny how much she looks like Karen Gillan
They're first cousins
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 I don't look that much like my first cousins xD
It's so crazy that she did such a good job despite it being her first acting role, and was mainly considered for the role because she looked like her cousin
I think that photo is on Caitlin's tv tropes page.
Really? I think they look nothing like each other
I like Smith's orange console room. firstly I love the warm colours. Tennant's TARDIS always felt either very dull or the lighting had a coldness to it. Secondly I love how mad it is. things look out of place. so many leavers and buttons and random household objects. It feels very Doctory. like him just in the dead of night getting bored and disassembling stuff and just going "that thing goes there now" It adds to that eccentric mad professor vibe that we get from this Doctor. Like he is the mad man with the box. He never tries to be anything else.
This
Correction:
The Crack in Time also serves the portal purpose in episode Vampires of Venice, transporting the supposed vampires from Saturnyne to Earth.
This only sort of counts, but it also transports the voices of the Silence.
Also whenever he pulls pieces of the destroyed TARDIS from the crack? A bit of a weird thing to question...
"A bit too far into childish CBBC territory"?
Y'all remember when a wheelie bin ate Mickey, right...
Yes and that was criticised by basically everyone both at the time and now
@@HarboWholmes To be honest, "Rose" feel more childish that this episode with cringe moments. No wonder that nobody take seriously the Autons again.
@@HarboWholmes I like New Who, but I feel it has *always* leant heaviliy into being a children's program (or, more rather, a program which all children can enjoy *as well* as adults). I don't think The Eleventh Hour stands out in that regard.
I mean even then with the farting aliens, they executed an entire room of alien experts. Davies was camp, yeah but classic who was also camp.
Moffat tries to play the camp straight and it doesn’t work for me
The comedy gets so jarring for me with Matt smiths era . Personally I preferred Capaldi’s more deadpan delivery of this sort of humour, not Matt smith playing up “ha ha ! How funny!!!”
I think the fact she’s running away from her wedding at the end isn’t a “see how little she cares for Rory” kinda thing. When people get married or have those huge moments in their lives it’s normal to feel nervous and begin to rethink your choices and just kinda of run away for a bit or for good and while most people don’t have the means at that moment to do so Amy had a rare opportunity to do just that and be back in time if she truly wanted to go through with it in the end
Exactly! I always saw Amy's story as sort of a coming-of-age narrative.
At the start, she doesn't want to grow up (get married, commit to Rory and a normal life) so she runs off with her "imaginary friend" from her childhood.
As she grows during her adventures, Amy sees how much she truly cares for Rory and wants a life with him. So, in the end, she says goodbye to her imaginary friend to embrace adulthood.
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 That might be alright if she wasn't consistently pretty awful to Rory throughout most of her arc, particularly in Series 5
She still is mean to Rory in this series tho
Facts
I never said Amy and Rory were a perfect couple and Amy could definitely be a flawed character at times. Ultimately, she put Rory first in the end though. That should be counted for something...
Is it overrated? Definitely not for me. Bloody awesome stuff
I hope Matt Smith reprises his role as the eleventh doctor in the realm of big finish
@@benjaminjamesmiller5208 imagen Peter, David, matt and Jodie jheeez (Russell t davis as writer of course)
Definitely overrated
@ibtunesoriginals2629 it's wild having your opinion when the entirety of David Tennant run exists.
I think that this analogy to "Girl in the Fireplace" episode might be intentional, the Doctor wanted to invite her to the Tardis, but he was to late to do so - that's why he does this with Amy, whose situation was similar. Also, Amy being mean is definitely intentional, we can see her actually "growing up" through this season and by that I mean she realises that having loving and loyal husband is more important than having adventures with the man that she desired.
“Who da man” is still the funniest things I have ever seen
I like it too but I can see how his jokes can be cringe
I think the Doctor’s fame was supposed to be intentional, since that ends up being the motivation for the end of Series 6, where the Doctor fakes his death because he made ‘too much noise’. Matt Smith’s Doctor making a spectacle of himself was something Moffat probably wanted to be something he was punished for, but it ends up not paying off all that much. Since the only time we really see the Doctor’s reputation affecting people who haven’t met him directly is Demon’s Run. Even in Time of the Doctor, we only see ships of recurring villains, meaning its not the people who heard about the Doctor and wanted to fight him because he was too famous, it was just his rogues gallery coming for revenge. (Again.)
I feel like the main, consistent sin that Moffat commits is having a really good setup/establishing stories with super strong introductions to the ideas and characters, and then utterly failing to actually resolve it or pay it off in a satisfying way. It either lasts WAY too long and becomes more of an annoyance than anything, or it just kinda gets swept aside before it even has a chance to be cool.
RTD basically did the exact opposite - an episode would begin with the most absurd campy sci-fi bullshit you've ever seen that almost makes you embarrassed to be a doctor who fan, and by the end you're crying your eyes out over it.
@@DELTARYZ Except in Journey’s End lol
But yeah, honestly I completely agree with you. That’s why I love RTD and just kinda.. enjoy Moffat. I don’t think Moffat is a bad writer but I don’t know if his specific skills were well tailored to being shoe runner since he can’t resolve stories well. To the point where it feels like the Doctor’s trait of “hating endings” belongs more to Moffat than the Doctor. And I know we’ll get more of that discussed when Harbo gets to the two parters, especially Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent.
Though.. that’s probably a few years of Harbo content away lol
Ive got a feeling im gonna disagree with alot of these series 5 reviews 😭😭
yep
I feel like you almost need to watch ALL of Series 5 before reviewing any of the episodes, just because of so much that happens.
For one, there are episodes where I absolutely HATE Amy Pond and Rory’s one-sided relationship, but god, the Van Gogh episode always brings it back and puts it in perspective. The Doctor’s anguish at hurting Amy Pond in a way he thought was impossible to prepare, Van Gogh and Amy talking about loss, and that line, “Why are you being nice to me?”. Amy’s not at fault for being afraid to marry Rory, and those abandonment issues really come into play with The Doctor. If you stay with him forever, he can never leave you again, right? The man who makes the monsters turn tail and run away? The impossible man with a heart of gold?
When you’re nervous already about a wedding, and a guy comes along who’s a perfect, witty, intelligent master of time and space, it’s fair to want to re-evaluate a moment. She lost track of who she was, and it took the impossible, just like the Doctor themselves, to fix that. Interesting story, to say the least.
As for the crack, my ongoing theory has been, ever since we saw a crack reappear one last time in a certain Season 7 story working just like this one and the one from Vampires of Venice, is that the reason the cracks later began leaking time energy is the same reason the Doctor had to be locked in the Pandorica.
The world was disappearing, and in many other points in space-time, the TARDIS had already exploded. It’s a crack opening to a point in time that doesn’t exist. While that’s never outright confirmed, it’s worth noting how when the Doctor reached into that specific crack in time that took Rory, that’s where he found the broken Tardis piece, and that the cracks are directly connected to the explosion of the TARDIS. The Tardis was erasing time around them, and as there was less and less time in existence, the likelihood of time energy leaking through got larger and larger.
When you think of it that way, which, again, even has some neat evidence going for it, there’s a lot of stuff that suddenly makes sense. I think Series 5’s introduction is so loved by many because of what comes after it. Does that make it a good episode on it’s own? That’s up to personal preference, but to me this episode kept going higher and higher on the rankings as more and more things paid off. I just finished a re-watch of Series 5, so my feelings are pretty fresh, can’t wait to compare and contrast with you as the rest of these episodes come out!
Edit: One more thing, the Silence are behind the crack in time, it totally makes sense that someone like Prisoner Zero might have been either clued into what was happening, or subconsciously implanted with this information by the Silence! That’s a stretch, and either way I still also find it just as odd as you do that they have that information anyways, but there’s a possible reason at the very least for why Prisoner Zero might know that information.
I do think you’ve missed the point of Amy which is unfortunate! Her character development is one that goes from fascination to the Doctor to the point of maybe fancying him, to realising how much she loves Rory to the point she chooses to die with him. It’s a full circle that pays off as she grows, and makes Rory such a great character as he openly dislikes the Doctor for some time until he finally realised Amy loves him (start of Season 6) and grows more friendly towards the Doctor as a result, understanding he’s just a traveller and not interested in Amy! Rose actively fancied the Doctor and treated Mickey like crap so it’s weird you like her but not Amy
Completely agree with this! Amy's story was a coming-of-age narrative. And a really well executed one at that!!
Spot on. That is so correct and think a lot of people fail to appreciate the longer character arcs that occur over the Moffat era.
@@worldgame7754 I think a lot of these character arcs don't really land for people because so much of it is played as a joke in the moment, and doesn't really get the seriousness it deserves to fully land in the viewer's mind. It becomes more apparent as you think about the story in broader strokes, but in the moment many of these important character beats are disguised as lame jokes.
I appreciate what Moffat was going for & totally see the genius in his ideas, but I feel his execution is often severely flawed or lacking a satisfying payoff.
he doesn't like rose does he?
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 exactly - Amy's whole character arc is explicitly a child growing up.
I always liked the amy - rory relationship because it kinda showed how much 'damage' the doctor can do with his time travel
I also like that he realised he needed to intervene to fix things. He'd already seen what travelling did to Mickey and Rose, so he decided to bring Rory along very early so Amy wouldn't leave him behind
@@robbiesmith8055 Amy also feels real enough to make the fucked up bits acceptable. The character is flawed but those people can exist
@@SirDono_ yeah i don't quite get harbo's dislike towards any characters that are not paragon of good human values, those people are not normal people. Normal people are likely a bunch of piece of shits
Amy as a Kissogram is the most hilarious joke that I can always come back to laugh at
Two slightly slanderous Matt Smith-era videos released in one day by my two favourite DW RUclipsrs. Lol, this is pain. *Quietly turns on The Eleventh Hour with a huge grin.*
What can u say?! It's just a feel good episode!
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 I absolutely agree. It’s just a feel good, well paced romp of an opener that is, imo, the best Doctor introduction episode (if we exclude The Christmas Invasion).
Smith and Gillan are excellent. I wouldn’t, however, say it’s perfect and I’m agreeing with a couple of things that the video is saying *however* my score wouldn’t decrease from the 9/10 I gave it last time I watched it.
@@hitormissdoctorwhoreviews3491 eh I hate rose and considering 2 thirds of the episode is centred around her the Christmas invasion doesn’t really do it for me. And I’m personally not that much a fan of Tennant either so when he comes on screen I’m still not that enamoured...
I love it so much. I know people love the the RTD era but Smith and Capaldi will always be my Doctor Who eras.
@@notsosmartguy6254 Smith and Capaldi are my favourite Doctors and I think Moffat did an excellent job at handling them.
I notice the detractors of the Moffat-era tend to be hardcore fans of the RTD-era. It's a shame, because I can see the highs (and lows) of both eras, but still be fair. Chibnall on the other hand... *shudders*.
The crack also serves as a portal in vampires of Venice as the aliens say some of the cracks lead to other worlds and others to silence.
I always thought that Prisoner Zero knew about Silence, and the Pandorica, and all that stuff because he travelled through the Crack.
The answer to your title is.... no lol. One of my fav episodes, lets GO!!!!!!
After watching video: Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?
Moffat loved setting up big mysteries and then giving them really weird complicated solutions.
This is underrated if anything eleventh hour instantly catches lightning in a bottle unlike any other opener ever has.
There’s a reason it got every alienated viewer who had no faith on board within the first 5 minutes.
Smith absolutely smashes and the story is gripping and emotional.
No doubt, the episode is quite good, but it's far from the only good regeneration story. Rose, Robot, The Spearhead From Space, and The Power of the Daleks were all excellent new Doctor introductory stories.
God I am scared for this series 5 review
As you should. It sucks
@@jvictor001 bit harsh, I personally enjoy it a lot but if you don’t that’s fine I guess
@@jvictor001 If the best series in nuwho sucks then the show sucks.
Trust me, by what Harbo's been saying on his DC server, be scared. I certainly am
Moffat era for me, becomes good only when Jenna and Capaldi adventures started . He is a good and creative writter, but not as showrunner.
Honestly, I’ve got big feelings on the Amy Rory relationship. On the one hand, I empathize with Amy for being a completely emotionally wrecked person, deeply in need of proper therapy, with tendencies towards pushing away those she loves, and who is super scared of commitment, she’s been abandoned so much that abandonment is all she knows. But on the other hand Rory is literally my favorite moffat era character and he was actively the character I saw myself in most when I was a teen watching it. The way she treats him is horrible, and sometimes hurts to watch, but it’s also real, I really don’t think characters should make the right decision or act well, I think flawed characters make a more interesting story, to this day I’m still questioning if bojack can even be considered his series protagonist. Especially with this being the start of her arc, I’m ok with Amy as a character in this, cause her whole character development is towards mending this one sided relationship. Also, I’d consider “I am the doctor” to be his theme, and I’d kinda say you can’t overuse a characters scene so long as you are creating appropriate moments for it. Also yeah it’s a sight more fairy tail but that’s kinda the theme of the show in the moffat era, now whether or not you like that is up to you but I wouldn’t necessarily say the show taking a more fairy tail feel diminishes it, more like it simply moved it into a slightly different sub genre.
Yeah, Rory is one of my favorite Doctor Who characters and when I first watched this as a teenager I HATED Amy and how she treated him. I recently rewatched the Matt Smith episodes and I understand Amy a lot more now. I still don't really like her, but I understand her character a lot more.
To be honest, the Matt Smith/Moffat-Era of Doctor Who will always be my favourite! I have a major soft spot for this episode and the general fairytale wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-ness of their stint as Doctor and Showrunner (and the Ponds too of course! Amy and Rory were great!)
IMO, not overrated at all!!!
you are the minority. Season5 is very ok, and season 6 is very divisive. Capaldi era is better with Moffat. RTD era is the most popular.
@@marcos-ll2yr Season 5 was decent. Season 6 was fine for the first half. Season 7 was complete rubbish. Especially Clara's half. Season 8 was decent. Season 9 was forgettable (Clara's most annoying season) and season 10 I can't even remember it. I liked Bill but if a character dies, MOFFAT, then let them stay dead.
@@NileSWPhotography season 9 for me was good, season 7 agree., season 6 its ok, season 5 no fucking way that was decente, is garbage for me.
@@NileSWPhotography I only like the episode of Vincent Van gogh, and thats it. Moffat destroys the weeping angels in this season, and season 7 become worse.
Perhaps I am in the minority, but that's okay...
Yes, I understand how popular and culturally impactful the original RTD and Tennant Era of the show was (which I like a whole lot too by the way...season 4 being the best of RTD's seasons...didn't care much for season 2).
Personally though, I just enjoyed Matt Smith and Karen Gillian's performaces more.
Season 5 and 6 have some of the most rewatchable episodes of the series for me. Vincent and the Doctor, the Doctor's Wife, the God Complex, The Big Bang/The Pandorica and The Eleventh Hour to name a few off the top of my head. I also liked the River Song storyline so that probably contributes to my enjoyment of season 6. Season 7 was a bit more of a mixed bag but, to be honest, I think some people are too critical of episodes like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three. I like how nonsensical and whimsical they are! The Power of Three (leaving aside the cube invasion plotline for a moment) also does a really lovely job of giving a more immediate insight into the Doctor's relationship with the Ponds...almost like the minisodes :)
A Town Called Mercy, Angels in Manhattan, and Asylum of the Daleks are proper solid episodes!
And no, I don't really like Clara much either but Bill was pretty great with Capaldi. They gave me serious Seven and Ace vibes!
I liked everyone in the village knowing the Doctor before he even knew himself. It's a fun thing to write around and also helps cement Smith as the new Doctor since everyone is confidently calling him that.
The scene where Amy enters the Tardis is beautiful. It’s definitely nostalgia for a lot of people including myself but watching it back I still am in shock with how it makes me feel. Just topped off with Smiths “all of time and space, anything that ever happens or ever will”, amazing scene for me
I'm devastated the RTD era is over (for now)😭😭😭
Best profile pic ever .
@@TheMasterNathan25 thank you!
@@tardis9871 David Tennant will always be the best doctor .
@Thomas Meehan That's true really I know what you mean I might watch series 1 again haven't seen it for ages .
@@TheMasterNathan25 Agreed!
I think we have different readings of Amy's arc (which is perfectly fine). I personally feel that Amy wanting to see the universe before committing herself is something natural and through the series we see that she associates getting married to settling down and having children, that's why I love them leaving together with the Doctor at the end of the series: Amy got married, but she still had room to dream. The fact that her family was "absorbed by the time crack" also creates this idea that her home would eventually "eat her". The only thing that spoils her arc for me is when she tried to kiss the Doctor, but Moffat himself said he regrets that scene.
If it was just kissing that she tried
I agree with what you say about Amy. Love Karen Gillan, but Amy just always came across as a real sucky partner to me. Most of her time with Rory it feels like she's putting him down or choosing whether to snog him or the Doctor. People say that her arc in season 5 is her maturing until she's ready to marry him, but I don't think that arc is delivered well. She spends her wedding not paying attention to Rory to bring the Doctor back, then when he does, she tries to kiss him, so it doesn't feel like it's resolved, and then throughout season 6 they do a bunch of cheap "She doesn't really like Rory" jokes (like when she's speaking into the device in The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and everyone thinks she's talking to the Doctor). And throughout the whole relationship, Rory is faithful and kind and patient and I just feel bad for the guy.
That said, there are plenty of moments between them that are genuinely great. I love the Girl Who Waited and I think in that story we see how much Amy cares and what Rory means to her. We also have the end of The Angels Take Manhattan when she takes the risk and jumps off the building with him. Again, really touching and in that moment they feel great together. Overall though, it feels to me like Amy isn't good to Rory except for a few specific moments
I think the doctor and Amy's first meeting had a huge impact on her growing up. She was constantly told she was deluding herself or lying about him. When the doctor came back, she started acting like a child again and having a crush on him. Her whole arc is like one big coming of age story. Amy always had commitment issues, it's shown in series 5 with her running away from marriage, but she always planned to actually marry Rory, she loved him. Even in series 7, she commitment issues with her job. The Doctor makes a remark about her getting a new job every other week in the power of three, along with always running with the doctor even after she commited to Rory
I agree with you. Amy's issues are not an excuse to how she treated Rory. That is an abusive relationship right there: being treated badly sprinkled with a few nice moments. At least Rose had the decency to (kind of) call it off with Mickey, and they were not even engaged or something.
@@user-is7xs1mr9y but there's a big difference. Rose didn't love Mickey, she never did. She just settled for him. She always chose the doctor over him. Amy did love Rory. She always did. She always chose him over the doctor, even willing to die for him twice because she didn't want to live without him. She gave up the doctor, the adventures, River, her parents, her whole life to be with him. You can't compare rose and mickey to Amy and rory
Whatever is in this, it's still a fantastic episode, the best opener for a Doctor, and brings in the best Doctor and showrunner
@Thomas Meehan Episode 1 good, valid., overrated, overrated, possible contender, good but no
Rose, The Christmas Invasion and The Woman who fell to Earth were better Doctor openers
I do think this episode is a brilliant regeneration story and introduction to the series as a whole, but it definitely has its issues as you said with stuff like the multiform predicting the future and the crack not being a sucky light abyss thing, but I definitely enjoy it for sure
To me this is the perfect introduction to a new doctor. Normally it takes 1 or 2 episodes for me to say "that the Doctor" for Smith in Eleven hour I was like, yep Smith is the doctor.
I never really got into him but the Eleventh hour is still a great episode for me.
I had this reaction too! The moment on the roof with the speech and the bowtie and the stepping out from the hologram 👌👌
Don’t like the monster or the Atraxi but man, did Matt just knock it out of the park with his performance!
nah. The Christmas Invasion was enough for me to not only get over my grief but also chose my doctor, I can't say the same about this one
I watched a video where they said the Doctor was known by the whole town to combat the feeling The End of Time suggesting the 11th Doctor wouldn't be the same man.
Oh yeah, I remember that. I can’t recall what video it was though. I don’t know if it’s true but I found it to be quite a clever little parallel.
I can never tell if these videos are real. Prisoner Zero talking about the crack isn't a plothole or confusing. The question of WHY Prisoner Zero childishly taunts the Doctor is already answered within this episode, and how Prisoner Zero would have prophecy-like knowledge is explained both generally by it's long association with the crack in the universe, AND specifically by the post-Pandorica Doctor priming little Amelia (who Prisoner Zero is psychically linked with).
This stuff isn't even complicated - in fact, it's all explicitly explained either in this episode or in later ones
I have to assume pretending you're confused by a plothole makes for a video that gets more clicks
I'd say The Eleventh Hour is one of the absolute best new Doctor introductory episodes. Honestly it's a million times better than "Rose" and tons better than "The Christmas Invasion", let alone the sixth or seventh Doctor intros!
Amy was great fun as well.
Moffat also did a great job with Peter Capaldi's first episode.
Well said. I totally agree. I think sadly a lot of young fans who came to the show with “RTD” have a hang up about how nothing will ever be as good. For me the revival really took off under Moffat whom ran with it.
@@worldgame7754 I must say that I like the RTD version of Doctor Who but it took a while to grow on me... It wasn't until Rob Shearman's "Dalek" that I was properly convinced, but I think it was a lot better with David Tennant. I would have liked to see where DT's Doctor would have gone if he'd stayed around for a season or two with Steven Moffat, but although I was a bit unsure of Matt Smith at first with the silliness etc, SM did a fantastic job of taking that aspect, running with it, then by the end of the episode you are never in any doubt that THIS IS THE DOCTOR!!
@@JeffJolly1 totally agree it got better with DT but for me only after Rose departed. Yes I think DT with a season under Moffat we would have explored the darker side of the Time Lord victorious.
@@worldgame7754 yeah I always thought Martha was a much better companion. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed Catherine Tate as Donna too, cos before that I really had a dislike of her! Probably more to do with a different sense of humour to the comedy show she used to do.
Personally I never understand what some fans have against Amy and Clara as I really enjoyed both those characters, but each to their own as they say :)
@@JeffJolly1 I sentiment all of that. Never understood the intense dislike especially for Clara. Her relationship with the doctor was one of the best, you really had a great sense of the love and friendship, especially with 12.
Its cool that Blackwood and Gillan are cousins, they also had never met before being casted as the Amy's
This was my introduction to Doctor Who so this episode holds a special place in my heart. I never really picked up on Amy's met arc on being won over by the Doctor cause for me, I loved Matt Smith right away. I had no idea what regeneration was so I never saw any Tennat and it wasn't really a battle for me bevause once I watched Tennant's episodes I loved it (no duh), but to me Smith will be THEE Dcotor that I base all others off. Tbh, I don't hate any Doctor actors, even Whittaker, I just think she was let down by bad writing and direction. I still argue Capaldi was the best modern Doctor actor despite having some poor writing but his performance is so captivating that you can forgive the awful lines.
This is probably one of the few videos you've done where I've highly disagreed. One point I see you repeatedly making is the ending not making sense. One of which specifically that you focus in on is Prisoner Zero shapeshifting into himself. I can understand why you believe this to be a nonsensical aspect, with the point of a possible failsafe, but I think one thing we should keep in mind is the fact that Prisoner Zero is a shape-shifting species, not a person with a shape-shifting device. I think a good analogy would be our immune systems. The immune system is designed to be a safety mechanism, where it is used to defend us from threats. But in some cases, a new stimuli may influence the immune system into attacking itself. In this case, Prisoner Zero's shapeshifting abilities have been tricked into being used against itself, as it formed the 12 year psychic link with Amy.
I've rewatched this episode so many times, as it is practically one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, so clearly I have a significant level of bias, but I think you're just glossing over the issues here. Yes, there are a few points you make that do make sense, specifically the mentions of the Pandorica and the Silence, as well as Amy mistreating Rory. I won't go into the Rory/Amy drama, as someone else has done a far better job at explaining it, but I will make one observation. The analysis of this episode appeared to be lacking, significantly more than the RTD era reviews you've made. The others, even episodes such as Defending the Despised appear to have so much more depth to the reviews. With your review of The Eleventh Hour, it mainly felt like you were going over a pre-meditated list of criticisms with very little no elaborations.
Another part of the ending you've mentioned multiple times has been resetting all the clocks to zero. I'm not quite sure if you were poking fun at the ending, or just didn't understand it as well, but it didn't feel like your criticisms of the ending had much weight. It was basically, "it's bad because reasons," or at least that was how it felt. In hindsight, the ending makes so much sense. Of course, if the Atraxi had access to the Internet, and suddenly ever switched to zero, they'd most likely take that as a sign and follow the sign back to where it was first launched from, which was Rory's phone which the Doctor stole. Now, the scene setting this up did appear to be technobabble, but it was just meant to be a way of saying, "trust me, I'm smart." He provided these experts with the Virus they needed and it did exactly what the Doctor said it would. This hasn't been the first time the Doctor has made a computer virus either, during the episode World War Three, the Doctor gives Mickey Smith a disc that will delete every mention of the Doctor off the internet. The ending, at least to me, made sense with what the Doctor had on hand as well as his improvisational skills.
I'm sorry if this is a bit of a read, this is just an episode I really love and felt the need to make a few mentions. I apologize if anything I mentioned came off as hostile or ignorant. Thank your for your consideration!
i dont understand why people are hell bent on shittng on the moffat era. rtd was not perfect yet no one seems to be going against that era. its so unfair.
the unfair is the part where Moffat basically erased everything in RTD era and companions from the Doctor's mind and acted as if the Doctor had no life before his era and only his own creations matters and deserve to be the center of the story an even insulted the doctors before his era, at every chance he got. that's what's called unfair
Walking into the tree and trying the food is what made me fall in love with 11.
Most of Series 5 was felt too clunky to me. However, I love Smith from Series 6 onward, where he's really gotten into portraying the old man in the young man's body. His whole demeanor seem to shift a lot more toward that in his second season onward.
Even if she was disguised as a female cop, Amy was much more convincing than Yaz.
Why do you constantly feel the need to drag chibnall into everything? Are you obsessed with him?
@@mrdr0161 Even the BBC hate him. That why RTD returns.
@@mayotango1317 the fact that you think rtd returning means they hate chibnall just proves how small minded you are, you refuse to believe that someone doesn't hate him. You say you hate him, but you talk about his era all the time. Why do you drag chibnall into stuff that has nothing to do with him? I don't like moffat but I don't feel the need to constantly attack him
@@mrdr0161 What is you problem? You like the Timeless Children?
@@mayotango1317 my opinion of his stories has nothing to do with this. I'm just simply wondering why you feel the need to constantly talk about Chibnall and his creations, even tho you claim to hate him and his stories. Seems to me like you are clearly obsessed with him
I like the 'human residence' twist being the earth. Also yes, we will all absolutely destroy you for any Moffat criticism XD
still thinking about how fucked up it was that russel t davies ended his last episode with "when i die, it will feel like i have truly died and i will watch have to watch another man saunter around in my body"
After The Timeless Children, that quote is more idiot.
@@mayotango1317 get lost
such a whinny
I'm not sure I agree that there's no camp in Moffat's era. It's still campy; it's just a different kind of camp - bit more heterosexual. Matt Smith hams the shit out of every scene that he's in and there's still a lot of campy elements. The bedazzled eyeball is pretty campy for one thing.
But for real though, I think while the Moffat era is definitely trying to be a bit cooler and take itself a bit more seriously than the Davies era, it's still quite openly dorky and makes a lot of campy moments out of Matt Smith's physical comedy, and later Peter Capaldi's theatricality. I also think it reflects the era a bit. The 2010s were very different to the 2000s as far as TV was concerned. Doctor Who had truly broken through to America by this point, online catch up was a thing, streaming services were starting to appear, RUclips and social media were starting to explode, etc. Ironic and awkward were the words of the day, and bathos was SUPER popular, so Moffat's tendency to undercut his big moments was totally fitting for the time. Like look back at all of the early 2010s Marvel movies and it happens ALL the time. It feels a bit weird now, even just 11 years later, because TV and film have continued to shift and merge, and right now, we expect true fulfilment of those moments - we want a climax to mean something - possibly because we've all been struggling for human connection given the trauma and bitterness of the past few years so we are looking to TV for the resolution that we can't find in our daily lives... but haha lol jk don't know why I said that... is what I would have said in 2010.
I also think it is fitting for the 11th Doctor to be constantly undercutting his own big emotional moments, because he is shown - unlike David Tennant's very openly emotional Doctor - to be a Doctor who is now all too aware of what happens when he lets his emotions take control and when he lets people in too close, and he responds to that by shutting them off and not letting himself be vulnerable. Matt Smith's Doctor is revealed repeatedly to be running from both his past and his emotions, and he wears the mask of a fool to hide it. He also knows this could likely be his last regeneration, so you could also see this as him desperately trying to have fun with his last go around. The 11th Doctor is simultaneously one of the goofiest yet manipulative Doctors, so I think the constant juxtaposition between what is happening and what he thinks people want to hear is very in character, and while it may undercut the impact of the moment at times, it is another way of displaying who he is and how he responds to things.
Yeah, the tv is worst now with Chibnall.
You say that "I am the doctor" was used a lot... It is a great track though. I also once found a crack on a tree trunk that looked exactly like the Smith Crack, which was weird. And I don't recommend fish fingers and custard
In no way is Eleventh hour overrated. It's a brilliant episode.
I know you've talked about it in some of your videos before, but it would be really interesting to see a video from you about how Moffat wrote his female characters!
The only good female character I've seen from him till this episode, was only Sally Sparrow. others were either sexualized or jarring (I mean shouldn't viewers decide whether a person is ignorant or intelligent, instead of having it thrown into your face?) or some little girl that looks at the Doctor like a father figure or guardian angel, only to become horny for him by growing up. I don't know what else describes a very creepy way of writing
Firstly, it's always a good time for I am the Doctor.
Secondly, I've also always been critical of how Amy treated Rory, however I'm in the middle of a Series 5 rewatch which has given me a new appreciation for her arc:
She starts off as little girl enamored with her imaginary friend, growing up never being able to let go of that childhood magic, which prevents her from ever truly connecting properly with Rory. Then as a young woman on the eve of a wedding that she's not actually certain about, that magical imaginary friend whisks her away on a fairy tale adventure. Only now she's got some, ahem, adult attraction for him thrown into the mix. As the series progresses though and the Doctor picks Rory up for the ride, she comes to mature and get over her enamourment for the sexy imaginary friend and comes to appreciate the loveable, dependable and heroic in his own way guy that's always been there for her.
Plus, I love the fairytale aspect of it all.
Maybe Prisoner Zero knew this because they went through the crack?
I will always love this episode. Smith is MY Doctor. His tenure came around just at the right time in my life. at the time when I needed a mad man with a box to come along and whisk me off on some mad adventures. I was just starting high school and I was awkward, dorky, naïve and didn't really fit in. Doctor Who was my escape and Smith was the hero I needed. he was quirky and eccentric and unabashedly himself. He didn't care about people liking him or people thinking he was odd. he knew it and embraced it. I needed that in my life. Over the years as I have grown into myself and become the person I am today I have found myself seeing something of myself in 11. And this episode for me is a great opener. the moment where he steps forward in his full outfit, including the bow tie and he just day "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, Run!" Still gives me chills. When I watched it first time around I just remember saying "Yes you are. You are The Doctor" He's my Doctor. Not the swashbuckling, charismatic hero that everyone else loves but the dorky, odd, eccentric and quirky underdog hero that nobody expects. 11 Always has a place in my heart.
Beautifully said! Completely agree!
@@fish-fingers_and_custard7685 Thank You xx
After watching this I feel like me watching all your 11 reviews whilst being the biggest smith era fan is gonna be painful. 🤣
He just hates on anything whats not RTD, Loved his reviews but probably gonna unsubscribe if he’s gonna blind hate everything
Amy's quite clearly Moffat's waifu made real.
And I can't blame him. I'd do the same if I was showrunner.
No, is Clara.
@@mayotango1317 yeah
Clara is the gem for Moffat, he make her the most important companion ever, because he writter that way. Donna is clearly the number 1 companion or Rose.
Calling a kissogram a "sex worker" is like calling a pest control guy an assassin.
I think Harbo has led a very very sheltered life
Moffat? Serious? Serious Moffat? Does not compute, Does not compute!
This episode is one of the most greatest episode written
Sorry, but I think that your Tennant/RTD favoritism is showing a bit...
That'll be because RTD was... Better
When Davies wrote an intentionally cringey joke it felt like when your dad met one of your friends and intentionally hammed up the crummy jokes, when Moffatt did it he felt like the kid that didn't know how to tell a funny joke kept telling bad jokes and trying to convince you that it's funny because its so unfunny...
Still the two are more funny that Chibnall.
@@mayotango1317 A dead rat is more funny than Chibnall, to be fair.
I think part of the food cravings scene is the doctor's hamming it up more than he would naturally be even with regeneration. This is because he knows Amelia as a young child is scared of the crack in the wall so he procrastinated while building up his energy and helps calm the child by making her laugh
Honestly I feel you missed the mark with this one.
I generally enjoy your reviews, highlighting the good parts of bad episodes and making cases for why some episodes aren't as bad as people claim (I rather enjoy your reviews of End of Time and Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords). Compared to those, this just seems... needlessly pedantic I guess.
Let's start with the criticisms I agree with
- The unneeded sexual content/jokes. I 100% agree that those jokes are weird and are my main gripe with the episode
- The Atraxi -> Judoon idea is one I'd never thought of but could've worked rather well.
Criticisms I feel ambivalent on
- The landing of humour (Like 'Who da man'). This is ultimately subjective and I feel this can't really be evaluated beyond your personal enjoyment or lack thereof of said jokes.
- Amy is grating. I can see it, though honestly she's not nearly as bad as S1 Torchwood Gwen.
Criticisms I disagree with
- The crack arc goes nowhere - This is criticising the Eleventh Hour for its good setup for something other episodes didn't deliver on and would be like rating both Face the Raven and Heaven Sent bad because you didn't like Hell Bent. Or rating Utopia bad because you didn't like Last of the Time Lords. A story should be evaluated on its own and the Eleventh Hour does its setup really well.
- Prisoner Zero knows too much. He's literally established to be sitting next to one of the cracks in the wall which are explicitly explained to have the Universe pour through into your head.
- Cracks don't behave like this again. -> 'Through some, we saw worlds and people, and through others, we saw Silence... and the end of all things.' Vampires in Venice. This is demonstratively false.
- Resolution was lacklustre. I find it odd you point out that Prisoner Zero knows too much for a random low level enemy but then point out that the defeat of said low level enemy was 'too low level'. Honestly the Eleventh Hour's resolution is no more contrived than Journey's End's, Last of the Time Lord's or Doomsday's.
- The Doctor is elevated too much. I'm honestly not sure how 'Being well known as some girls imaginary friend' qualifies as any more well known than anything Tennant did. I know this becomes a problem later into 11s run but I don't consider this in any way the same thing. It was clearly an attempt to reinforce the Fairy Tale aesthetic that defined the Smith era.
- Moffat's era is tonally more serious so jokes feel out of place. I don't know where this one comes from at all. Moffat's intended tone is a Children's Fairy Tale, that's far from more serious.
All in all, disagree with this review and felt it was too harsh on this story given how forgiving you are for prior stories.
Still love your content though, keep it up!
I think that prisoner zero knew about the cracks in time and the Pandorica because he travelled through a crack which could have given him knowledge
it hurts my heart to hear anything negative about this era.
Because the Tennant/Rose fanboys are so astonishing crap.
5:37 Me when Chibnall leaves Doctor Who.
* snorts *
The doctor would gain fame / mysticism tho, thinking he could go all over space and time and never get noticed enough to be remembered is unrealistic.
But I am the Doctor is a banger so who cares that its over used
The crack was caused by the tardis blowing up at the end of season 5. The doctor reached into it when Rory died in the hungry earth and grabbed part of the tardis door. The fact it’s a crack in time and space means Moffat doesn’t really have to explain it showing up everywhere
Pause the video at 4:15 - Her coat perfectly matches with her trousers making it look as if her trousers are part of the coat...
The more I look at this the more confused I am getting, some insane optical illusion that is.
it's honestly the best opener to a new doctor, but I may be biased since it's also the opener to my doctor.
S5 as a whole is just peak who for me, the whole fairy tale aspect to the series was just an interesting take on DW. there's only 1 or 2 episodes that drag, in my opinion.
no matter how much valid criticism is thrown towards this era, I still find myself loving it, but that could just be my nostalgia.
Saaaame this was my first episode I ever watched when I was 11 or 12 yrs old or sth
Have to admit i think Rose treated Mickey way worse. He thinks she is dead and has moved on in Aliens of London then Rose gets mad at him. Everytime he wants to do his own thing she gets mad despite always obsessing over the doctor. Even in Age of Steel when he wants to stay she wants him to stay but has shown nothing prior to make him want to.
i really like the pond family, especially adult amy since she actually feels like a character.
11:41 It's been 12 years since this photo came out. I remember being nine years old and seeing that after the announcement of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. How has it been that long!?
No it isn’t, next question.
Seriously though, I think this episode is the best introduction to a new Doctor. It does everything.
Harbo saying that the Zero sequence and Faith climax in Series 3 is just...no, the clock scene makes more sense
And another thing! -- when the Doctor send the computer virus it contained a joke that began with "Why do electrons have mass?"
Well, it's been twelve years since this episode debuted; I think I'm entitled to a punchline now! 😅
Spearhead from Space still stands up as one of the best classic new Doctor intro episodes, and he gets his clothes from a hospital too...
David Tennant as the Doctor had such a big impact on me that it took me a long, long time to accept Matt Smith fully. It was well into Series 6 in fact that I really started to take to him. So, at the time, I wasn't the biggest fan of Series 5 and the over-usage of I Am the Doctor from the start tarnished it for me and I still don't like the track entirely to this day. While this episode and the series as a whole has grown on me, I still have some reservations about it from my apprehensive memories of watching it for the first time. But I'm still glad I stuck around for the ride.
I like all doctors (including Jodie!) but Matt is my least favorite, tbh. He was just too whimsical for me.
5:45 it's just acknowledging that even audiences entirely new to Doctor Who will have heard the name for decades. Like they know it, even if they haven't seen it.
Also both Russell and Steven criticise faith by way of making the Doctor a god. They both massively overplay it tho, with no real point in the end.
Sorry, but Moffat is better than RTD to me. So I don't agree with any of the points you made in this video
He just hates on anything whats not rtd
@@ainzooalgown2459 Yeah, I've noticed. I'm unsubscribing now
Lmao
@@HarboWholmes Enjoyed the run for the most part
I mean, without sounding passive aggressive, it can't have been a long run given how the majority of Defending the Despised is me defending Moffat era episodes. Why does it have to be a competition? You know I like both showrunners, right?
3:20 also Vampires in Venice, the vampires say that through some of the cracks they saw the end of all things, and through others they saw other worlds (no quotations marks because I don't know specifically what they said).
4:17 I think it makes sense tbh, considering the fact that both the Pandorica happened a long time ago, and also that prisoner zero is smart, and that the silence isn't exactly completely unheard of
15:42 btw, I just wanna say this was seriously one of the funniest things that happens in doctor who, and David Tennant's acting really brings it to life perfectly
20:09 also yes, the RTD era just looks better, I don't know what they changed exactly but it just looks ever so slightly worse
You left out the reason of the bow tie. Amy cruelly rolling the Doctor's regular tie up in the window? Of course he's going to switch to a bow tie. It's harder to get it caught in a rolled up window...
Personally I love this episode and I still think its the best introduction story for the new doctor. I think it says a lot about the quality of this episode that the major problems I have with the Matt Smith era later on still don't hurt this episode that much for me though I understand your criticisms of the episode. I will say in terms of Amy worshiping the Doctor and his mistreatment of Rory in the former while I think it's been overused in other cases I'm fine with Amy looking up to him as it is understanble from an early age seeing this mystery wacky man and it gets called out later in the show as to how unhealthy that is for her. As for her treatment of Rory while I do agree there are parts where it feels like Moffat is going too far I think this aspect is also acknowledged in Amy's Choice where Rory (fake) dies it's almost a wake up call for her in terms of how she has been treating him. I think Amy does love Rory but her relationship with the Doctor is like a Fairy Tale/Dream scape that it has caused her to take him for granted sometimes. Either way great video I just subscribed after Russell Universe video and I have to say I have been enjoying you content keep up the good work (sorry if this is too long for a comment )
I'm pretty sure the bad guys in Vampires of Venice said they came through one of the cracks
The biggest issue with the prisoner knowing that stuff is that even the Doctor's greatest enemies working together, including the Daleks, didn't know how his TARDIS blew up, they just knew it did, but somehow this no-namer knows?
He only say "Silence will fall".
This is the series I grew up with so I am biased to it. Does it work better as an introduction series maybe?
Prisoner Zero being at least as psychic as the Sybelline actually made sense to me. It's an alien that literally has to use telepathy to hide after all, so picking up on random mental static through the timecrack that spoils the next two series is honestly fine.
This was my first epsiode I didn't watch the russel t davis epsiodes until after smith's run then I found out there was more and went back and loved it watched 12th doctor loved that too. But smiths run will always be my favorite.
Honestly, while I’m not a massive fan of the Doctor being portrayed as this fantastical hero usually, I think that it works really well with Amy, considering that they treat her hero worship of the Doctor as something that is unhealthy and that’s part of her arc to of learning to live independently from the Doctor. They gave her the perfect end with the Doctor leaving her and Rory behind in season 6 and her getting over that, but then they just return in season 7 for 5 episodes for an honestly anticlimactic and out of nowhere ending and I don’t think it works nearly as well as the one we got from season 6. So I don’t actually think hero worship is a problem with Amy specifically because it’s a part of her character arc.
Literally never liked this episode, not as a child, teenager or adult. Its cringy and showed how different Smith and Moffat were
This episode topped any episode in the 10th Doctor's first season in my list
Great analysis - but I think if the Atraxi had been replaced by the Judoon, then the episode would have been even more similar to "Smith and Jones" - and I think it already uses similar plot points (alien criminal in hiding, police force after it, Doctor tricks it into revealing its location to the police).
Totally agree about Amy - she was awful.
I think my feelings are pretty well in line with Harbo's here. I was about 9 when Matt Smith's era started, and I really really loved his early seasons as a kid, so Moffatt at least managed to sell it for me as a kid. But now I'm older I just can't get behind it.
I think Matt Smith is amazing in the role, he's right up there with Tennant for me, but I just can't get behind this era because I don't like how Moffatt handled the story. I really want to enjoy it like I used to, but the convoluted story lines and constant character resurrections are really only enjoyable for their shock value, not as enduring television.
I also just really dislike the way Moffatt writes his women, so I struggle to connect with Amy and River like I did as a kid. Especially Amy. No hate for Karen Gillian, she's brilliant. But I just can't enjoy her like I did at age 9. She admittedly has a lot of abandonment issues, so her terrible treatment of Rory is Somewhat understandable, but god she's just so unlikeable. Sassy, sarcastic characters can be very loveable (just look at Donna), but Moffatt prioritised making her snarky and cool over balancing her sassiness with her heart, and her bullying was played for laughs more often than it was treated as a character flaw. As for River, I just feel there's not enough to her as a character for me to understand why the Doctor loves her so much. Meeting out of order is a very cool concept, but in the end she's just a sexy archaeologist with a tragic backstory who he's spent significantly less time with than all his other companions. I just don't buy her as the one person he loved enough to reveal his name to.
After the Fam, Amy feels so refreshingly realistic. Not everyone has to be nice or likeable.
If you saw the series well, the 11 Doctor at the beginning distrusts and is distant from River, it is with Capaldi that he finally confesses his love for her.
The Saturnynes explained that some cracks lead to other places, others there is just silence and the end of all things. I think you're taking too much issue with it.
I don't think I could ever get tired of The 11th Hour.
Thumbs up every time for the RuneScape transition music. Great review as always!
fun fact did you know Jodie Whittaker was going to have a role in the episode but was cut this is just speculation on my part but I think that Jodie was going to play Rory's boss at the hospital
The Judoon weren't used because Moffat decided to ignore 4 seasons of the show's history for his entire run of the show, except for the bits that he wrote.
I do not have a high opinion of Moffat as a writer, or Matt Smith's version of Doctor.
You know, after what RTD2 did recently. I appreciate more what Moffat did: erase the past and start with something fresh and new.
Besides, the Judoon then show up in Series 6, so shut up.
Matt Smith is a real alien Doctor.