The Outer Church extends a warm welcome to Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, who acquitted themselves very well indeed in last night's opening episode of Doctor Who's 2010 season. David Tennant was always going to be a hard act to follow, but Smith pulled a blinder with his twitchy charisma and unusual, expressive looks. Meanwhile Gillan looks like she may prove the most interesting companion of the revived series, a psychologically damaged survivor of a troubled upbringing whose relationship with the Doctor goes back to her pre-teens... regardless of chief writer and executive producer Steven Moffat's protestations to the contrary, we're already in darker territory than that of preceding seasons. Anyone else feel distinctly uncomfortable with the idea that Prisoner Zero had been lurking on the periphary of Amy's vision for over a decade, looking on as she grew up? Shudder.
The locations of Amy's house and village were used to great effect. Blink indicated that Moffat may harbour a bit of an obsession with the (supposedly) inanimate - perhaps inspired by youthful exposure to the Autons - and here both a crack in a wall and a doorway became harbingers of doom. The use of the leafy village was reminiscent of 70s Who serials such as The Daemons, Terror Of The Autons, The Green Death, The Ambassadors Of Death and The Android Invasion, the subtly remarkable interval on the green boasting a sickly, dreary, dreamlike quality unlike anything we've seen in the series since its return, or at least since Blink. The Vogon-like announcements of imminent annihilation emanating from the ice cream van loudspeaker raised a grim smile too. Douglas Adams would have approved.
2 comments:
Just one question: Where was the other end of that bloody snake? Lazy, lazy character design.
Not something I've been losing sleep over but a fair point! Given my eternal hatred of CGI, I would have preferred the true form of Prisoner Zero to remain unseen or at least obscure. Where's Chroma Key when you need it? ;-)
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