Allons-Y
By Seth Freilich | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (22)
This weekend, both the British and Yankee “Doctor Who” fans finally saw something that’s been heavily anticipated for the better part of this year, the Tenth Doctor’s farewell. I’m not here to review or spoil the two-parter “The End of Time,” or the recent specials leading up to it, as I assume our excellent resident “Doctor” reviewer will get to all that in due course. I will say that, overall, I found it a little disappointing, particularly after “The Waters of Mars,” which is probably the best of the post-series 4 specials. “The End of Time” suffered from quite a few problems and things to nit about, including the season-ending Russel T. Davies trademark (using higher and higher “end of everything” stakes in a never-ending game of one-upsmanship). So far, online reaction seems to be pretty mixed. But despite the fact that there’s plenty to complain about, on the whole, I still found “The End of Time” entertaining, particularly the second-half. More importantly, Tenant was absolutely fantastic throughout, and the winding-down goodbye to Ten at the end mostly worked, complete with a moment that just might have gotten a little dust in my eyes. Ten may not have wanted to go, but go he did.
Which brings us to Eleven, Matt Smith, the youngest Doctor yet (who some already lovingly refer to as Emo Doctor). Of course we don’t have much to go on yet, but, like many, I am tempering my expectations, even though his brief appearance did manage to get a chuckle out of me. For me, it’s not so much about Smith but about the fact that anyone would have a tough time filling Tennant’s sneakers. Of course, I thought the same thing when Tennant first showed up and, after a few episodes, I wasn’t missing the black leather jacket quite so much anymore.
And, of course, we know that new showrunner Steven Moffat can write some bang-up episodes. If he’s able to carry that over as grand poobah of the show and sustain that kind of quality for a whole season (he only actually penned about half of the season’s episodes), it will go a long way to general acceptance of Smith and Eleven. All of which is what brings me here today, to share the new trailer for the upcoming Season Five, premiering this Spring (in the UK, anyway - not sure when, exactly, it’ll drop stateside). And while it doesn’t do much to bolster my expectations (particularly ending with the god-awful new logo), here it is nevertheless. Fingers crossed and we’ll see how things go in a few months.
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Comments
Posted by: Carrie at January 4, 2010 10:02 AM
I'm trying to wait for the proper review of the ep, but will say I was very disappointed with the ending. However, the way Ten went out made me look forward to Eleven, when I hadn't been before, so there's a good thing to come out of it. It'll be nice to see what Smith does with the role, if he can make it his own and break away from Tennant's performance. It'll be difficult, since he was so loved, for the most part, but I'm looking forward to having new characters and a continuing companion back in the Tardis.