that's what Tiggers like

[freckles_and_doubt]

I seem to have a Seekrit Network of agents who supply me with the new TV I want to watch, in some cases unasked, as in mac1235 arriving randomly on Friday night with the first of the Matt Smith Doctor Who episodes. This is a slightly odd situation for me to find myself in, given my ongoing ethical problems with the idea of watching ripped copies: I still have to subdue the raging guilt with the knowledge that I will acquire the DVDs of these things when they come out - the rule is, if I watch more than an episode or so of something, I have to buy it, and I do. My giant DVD collection and shattered credit card will, of course, be an absolutely ineffective plea when the jack-booted fascists of the New World Order kick my door down on a piracy charge, but at least I'll be dragged off while still in possession of the moral high ground.

So, the new Doctor. Hmmm.

• I absolutely do not like the new logo or Tardis tunnels, or the new arrangement of the theme music.
  
• On the other hand, the simple words "By Stephen Moffat" on the screen fill me with security and peaceful expectation. "By Russell T. Davies" used to make me tense up and cower slightly in anticipation of the hurtling plot holes.
  
• Cute little girl. I do like strong-minded small children. And the Doctor's interactions with her over the whole Tigger-like food-testing were rather endearing.
  
• The unfolding of the plot gave me what I can only describe as the Anti-Davies experience, in that I kept recognising tiny throw-away bits of dialogue which tied the whole thing together and made events make sense. It wasn't a vintage Moffat plot, but it was a solid one, with the hallmarks of logic, coherence, a reasonable degree of underlying elegance, and the actual weaving-in of time travel as intrinsic to events.
  
• I'm impressed by how quickly the new Doctor establishes himself as a presence and a personality in his own right. There's a lovely balance of continuity with the Tennant quirks and novelty in the whole new bunch of his own. I have a dark suspicion that this is a clever actor, although I think he's also well supported by a clever script. Clever scripting causes me fangirly swooning. I also like the way he's being set up as having a forceful, slightly threatening edge, which was there in the last Doctor but slightly obscured by the Tennant Well-Bred Field-Mouse Effect.
  
• I am not grovelling in instant fangirl adoration at the Eleventh Doctor's feet, my heart still belongs to the Tenth, but he isn't annoying me as much as I was afraid he would. I still feel the actor is a bit young, but actually the way he's playing it, possibly in tandem with the slightly odd shape of his face, makes him come across as rather ageless. (Is it just me, or is his head shaped like a peanut?).

All in all I'm open to allowing him to grow on me. As did, in fact, David Tennant, in the teeth of my fondness for the Ecclestone version. Possibly I should just trust to Stephen Moffat, or to the ineffable charms of the Doctor archetype. Or to my own propensities, which encourage me to invest utterly in these things if they give me half a chance. Sigh.

Comments

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Is it just me, or is his head shaped like a peanut

We thought it was a thumb.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

possibly a thumb-shaped peanut?

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

no, a peanut-shaped thumb!

[veratiny.livejournal.com]

Hhhhmmm, I find it hard to tell...I have only seen it grotesquely enlarged on the side of a New York bus...it was alarming but not instantly peanut-y or thumb-y by virtue of its extravagant proportions!

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

You know, it has to be absolutely bizarre to be an actor who steps into a major franchise like Doctor Who - to suddenly see your own face writ large in unlikely places. Unreal and dislocating.

[tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com]

Also, the publicity photos prettify him considerably :P

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I dunno, he's still quite pretty in the episode. At least occasionally. When he's not making manic faces.

[(Anonymous)]

I saw Episode 2 last night. The theme music was OK, the rest was a bit disappointing.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

The theme music is really annoying me. I liked the old one. Phooey.

[tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on that one, as well as the awful logo and lightning-y tunnel.