"The Eleventh Hour" is the first episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010. The episode, written by then-new head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, saw a complete change in cast and production crew.
In the episode, the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) crashes the TARDIS into the small English village of Leadworth, where he meets a young Scottish girl named Amelia Pond (Caitlin Blackwood). The Doctor is forced to leave in order to repair damage to the TARDIS caused during his recent regeneration and crash, but promises Amelia he will return in five minutes. However, he arrives twelve years late and is confronted by the grown-up Amelia, now known as Amy (Karen Gillan), who does not trust him. He attempts to regain her trust to help return the shape-shifting alien Prisoner Zero to the galactic police, the Atraxi, before they destroy the Earth for harbouring Prisoner Zero.
The episode is the first to be led by Moffat, alongside executive producer Piers Wenger, after Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner stepped down after David Tennant's final two-part Christmas episode, "The End of Time". It is also the starring appearances of Smith as the Doctor, Gillan as his new companion and Arthur Darvill as Amy's boyfriend Rory Williams, who would later become a main cast member. The show's tradition is for the Doctor to rest after he regenerates, but Moffat decided to have him save the world instead. The episode sets up the main story arc of the series by introducing the cracks in the universe. "The Eleventh Hour" was seen by 10.08 million viewers in the UK, the highest rated premiere since "Rose". It also achieved popularity on the online BBC iPlayer and on BBC America in the United States. The episode received positive reviews from critics, who welcomed Smith, Gillan and Darvill into the series.
Plot
Having newly regenerated, the Eleventh Doctor crash-lands his TARDIS in the English village of Leadworth. The Doctor leaves the TARDIS to self-repair while the Scottish girl Amelia Pond helps him recover. She shows him a crack in her bedroom wall that he recognises as a tear in space-time, leading to an Atraxi prison. The Atraxi alert him to the escape of Prisoner Zero. Before he can respond, he must take the TARDIS for a short trip to help its repairs, and promises Amelia he will be back in five minutes. She packs a suitcase and waits for him.
The Doctor returns twelve years later. He is accosted by an adult Amelia, now going by Amy, who has been ridiculed by the townsfolk for her fascination with her "raggedy doctor". The Doctor sees a door hidden by a perception filter in Amy's home, and finds Prisoner Zero inside. They flee before it attacks. The Atraxi arrive in Earth's orbit and, speaking through all communication devices, demand they turn over Zero or they will destroy the Earth.
Zero is able to take the form of any unconscious being that it has telepathically linked to. The Doctor and Amy run across her boyfriend Rory, a nurse who helps spot Zero posing as one of the coma patients in his care. The Doctor directs Amy and Rory to the hospital, while he gate-crashes an online meeting of experts discussing the Atraxi warning to give them instructions. Amy and Rory corner Zero at the hospital, and the Doctor arrives as the experts execute his plan, broadcasting "zero" to the Atraxi. The Atraxi trace the origin of the message to a mobile phone the Doctor is carrying. To hide from the Atraxi, Zero knocks out Amy and takes the form of Amelia. The Doctor speaks to Amy's subconscious to force Zero to take its native form, allowing the Atraxi to recapture it. Zero warns the Doctor as it is taken away "silence will fall". As the Atraxi leave Earth, the Doctor declares that he is Earth's protector and cautions them not to threaten the planet again.
Intending to take the repaired TARDIS for a short test run, the Doctor returns to Amy's house two years later. While Amy is still bitter over the Doctor's original disappearance and suspicious of his offer to travel with her, she agrees to his offer, so long as the time machine returns tomorrow morning. After departing, a wedding dress is seen in Amy's bedroom.
Production Background and casting
"The Eleventh Hour" marked several production changes. Steven Moffat succeeded Russell T Davies as executive producer and head writer. Piers Wenger and Beth Willis replaced Julie Gardner as executive producer. A new logo was incorporated into a new title sequence with a new variation of the theme tune, composed by Murray Gold. By the end of "The Eleventh Hour", the Doctor has a new sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS sported a new interior and exterior, similar to the one used from 1963 to 1966. The previous TARDIS interior was shown at the beginning of "The Eleventh Hour"; the Time Rotor on the console had to be rebuilt due to the explosive special effects that were used in "The End of Time".
"The End of Time" saw the end of David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor and his regeneration into Matt Smith. Moffat was originally looking to cast a middle-aged actor, but he and Wenger went with the 26-year-old Smith in what they considered an easy decision. Karen Gillan was cast as the Doctor's new companion Amy Pond; she had previously appeared in the fourth series episode "The Fires of Pompeii" and was suggested to Moffat by casting director Andy Pryor. Gillan auditioned for the role in both her natural Scottish and English accents. Only after Gillan was cast was Amy made Scottish.
The young Amy, known as Amelia, was played by Karen Gillan's real-life cousin Caitlin Blackwood. Though Gillan recommended Blackwood, the young actor first had to undergo rigorous auditions, lacking any formal acting experience. "The Eleventh Hour" was also the debut of Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, who became a regular in the sixth series. Moffat stated that what stood out about Darvill's audition was "just how funny" he was. EastEnders star Nina Wadia was chosen for the part of the doctor at the Leadworth Hospital. Wadia speculated that she was cast because she had worked with Adam Smith before. Patrick Moore appears as himself in the video conference with a brief speaking part, though not all his lines survived the final cut. The man above Moore is the brother of Adam Smith. Marcello Magni, who played a man Prisoner Zero impersonates that barks like his dog, had already worked as a canine impersonator. Academy Award-winning actor Olivia Colman and The Umbrella Academy star Tom Hopper make pre-stardom appearances in small roles (as one of Prisoner Zero's forms, and Jeff, respectively). Arthur Cox, who played Mr. Henderson, previously played Cully in The Dominators in 1968.
Writing
The title of the episode is a play on words, referring both to the introduction of the eleventh Doctor and to the fact that he was nearly too late, the connotation of the phrase. In the DVD commentary, Moffat said it was originally titled The Doctor Returns, and that it was the most difficult script he had ever written, as he had to introduce a new Doctor, a new companion, convince the audience that it was both a new and an old show, and deliver a fast-paced story. While traditionally the Doctor rests after he regenerates, Moffat thought it would be fun to make him save the world instead. He described it as a comedy of a man whose day keeps getting worse and worse. Believing that London and companions from London had become a cliché and the audience had become bored with it, Moffat set the episode in the fictional village of Leadworth. Moffat, a Scot, debated whether to locate the episode in a village in Scotland. He ultimately decided on England, in keeping with the notion of Amelia as an unconventional girl.
Throughout the episode, the Doctor behaves erratically, as he gradually gets used to his new body and tastes while developing a new personality. Willis stated that he "finally clicks into place" after picking out his new outfit. The rooftop scene was not in the original script; the Doctor simply ran away from the ward and returned to the TARDIS. Moffat felt that he did not really have a formal introduction, and that more could be made of the costume, as many previous Doctors had picked theirs out quietly. The main story arc is the Doctor meeting the grown-up Amy. Moffat felt that over time the relationships between the Doctor and his companions had become too adult. He wanted to create a childlike relationship like that between Peter Pan and Wendy, rather than boyfriend and girlfriend. He believed this was the kind of relationship viewers had with the Doctor, regardless of their age. When the Doctor returns for Amy, she is a very different person from the seven-year-old he had met before. Moffat explains that she developed a tough element and had become distrustful and cynical due to him not returning as promised, forcing her to accept that he was an imaginary friend. Rory was completely in love with Amy, but Amy wanted adventures before admitting she loved him, too. Moffat described Rory as someone who had grown up in the shadow of Amy's imaginary Doctor.
Moffat was inspired by a crack in his son's bedroom wall and developed the idea into the main story arc for the fifth series. He thought that a child might think that something interesting lived inside such a crack. The hidden room in Amelia's house was based on Moffat's recurring childhood dream of a nonexistent hidden room in his grandmother's house. Moffat was keen to give the monster a giant eyeball, and commented that the Atraxi's design — a giant eyeball on a star — was easy for children to draw, as he used to draw Doctor Who monsters as a child. These aspects reflect Doctor Who "domestically-scaled menace" principle. Moffat wrote a scene that explained Prisoner Zero's crime, but cut it because he figured no one would care.
The opening sequence, in which the Doctor barely hangs onto the crashing TARDIS as it flies over London, was later added to the script to bridge from the conclusion of "The End of Time" to the TARDIS's crash into Amy's garden. Moffat thought it would be funny if they showed him hanging out of the TARDIS and nearly crashing into London, which would start an episode set in a small town in a big way. Moffat also referenced the scene from A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner, where Tigger claims to like everything, but then proceeds to reject all food offered to him until he finally finds that he likes extract of malt. Moffat's variant had the newly regenerated Doctor reject a variety of foods, with the exception of fish fingers with custard, offered to him by the young Amy. Moffat felt that appealing to children was important to the show's success. The scene where the Doctor creates the virus using Jeff's laptop was originally set in a classroom where the Doctor used the students' computers; this was changed for production reasons. In the episode, the Doctor snaps his fingers to open the TARDIS, a trick his previous incarnation learned from River Song in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead". He also repeats the lines "wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey" and "some cowboys in here" from the Moffat-written episodes "Blink" and "The Girl in the Fireplace".
Filming and effects