[Spoiler Warning] The two season opener eps are awesome. The Doctor killed in the 1st 5 minutes of ep 1 and the remaining cast dispatched in the 1st 5 minutes of ep 2 (especially liked River Song’s backward swallow dive off a building!). Some really nice interplay with the Doctor and River Song played by the brilliant Alex Kingston, especially where she slaps him!
I rated ep1 The Impossible Astronaut 9/10 as a bang-for-buck season opener. A very nice casting touch is the character Canton Everett Delaware III being played in the past by Mark Sheppard and in the present by his real life father William Morgan Sheppard, avoiding any dodgy ageing make-up.logy. Mark Sheppard has been seen lately in quite a number of sci-fi shows and is no stranger to techology – the table in front of him was positively buzzing with apple i-gizmos when I met him during an autograph session last year.
The story fairly whizzes along getting River Song back on board early on in a typically stagey entrance. Also some nice character progression when her character describes her travelling in opposite directions in time to Rory. Couple this with the “I’m pregnant” revelation and all in all a cracking start from Mr. Moffat. Well done sir.
Ep 2 Day of the Moon I ended up giving 8.5/10 only becuse it seemed to me to get a tad muddled mid-stream – although on a second viewing that could be as it’s setting up stuff for later in the season, which could appear disjointed at this point. Lots more arc on the pregnancy with some intimate moments between the Doctor and Amelia overheard by Rory – they’re playing this 3-way relationship nicely imho. Felt the Richard Nixon character got some cheesy oratory and the US national anthem theme tune whenever he appeared was a bit overdone.
The scenes in Graystark were genuinly creepy, with more than a passing homage to vintage black and white horrors, right down to the incidental music which I’m sure could be from an old movie – this’ll definitely get the kids back behind the sofa and the parents whingeing! An interesting fight sequence between the Doctor, River and the Silence reminded me of the gun-fight at the end of Mr and Mrs Smith but nicely done nonetheless, especially River’s slow-mo sequence, cool! Although we don’t clearly see if the Doctor’s screwdriver is merely knocking the Slience out? Cap this off with a Tardis-style prgenancy test flipping back and forth between positive and negative and a revelation in the final minutes when what appears to be a 9-year Timelord starts to regenerate and we’re well set for things to come.
Matt Smith’s characterisation of the Doctor is growing on me, thinking back now and I was pretty hard on David Tennant’s first season after Chistopher Eccelston’s departure and we all know how well that BBC faux pas turned out!
The “Next Time” Pirates of the Caribbean style trailer during the credits complete with a “stroppy homicidal mermaid” looked a bit fluffy by comparison.