Now:
We open on the TARDIS barreling towards Earth. Eleven is hanging out the doors, still rocking Ten's suit and tie, and pulling it off far better than Ten pulled off Nine's jumper and jacket. And... that's about that for this scene.
Theme song!
And now we cut to a sort of creepy, desolate exterior shot of a house. We see a young girl kneeling by her bed, in that classic prayer position, with a ... slight subversion. She begins "Dear Santa..." and that's the moment I decided I love Amelia/Amy Pond. She asks Santa to please do something about the creepy ass crack in her wall. She can here voices through it. So if he could send the police or something, that'd be sweet. She hears a crash outside, tells Santa she'll BRB (for real), and runs to the window to check it out. She sees "Police" written on the crash landed TARDIS, thanks Santa, and runs out to investigate.
The TARDIS has landed on its back, which causes a bit of the problem for the Doctor. He has to repel out. Which is when I forgave Eleven his geronimo related sins and started high fiving him with my brain. What a way to play with the shows quirks. Anyway, he emerges soaking wet, with triumphant music backing him. Amelia is incredulous. He explains that he had to climb up from the library, but was in the pool, because the pool was in the library.
She asks if he's there about the crack in her wall, which he will see to, but first he wants an apple. Which he then spits out. This bit continues through a number of different food items (highlights: "I hate yogurt, it's just stuff with bits in it!" and the chucking of bread and butter out the front door while yelling "And stay out!"), until he realizes what he really needs is fish sticks dipped in custard.
As they adorably sit across the table from each other enjoying their treats (Amelia is eating some ice cream straight off the scoop), they get to know each other a little bit. Well, Amelia helps the Doctor get to know himself, by informing him that he's funny. He in turn tells her Amelia Pond is a brilliant name, like in a fairy tale. We also learn that Amelia does not have parents, just an aunt. The Doctor underlines his loneliness by saying he doesn't even have that.
The Doctor smoothly brings us back to the subject at hand, namely the crack, by saying since she wasn't scared of him or the crash, it "must be a hell of a scary crack in [her] wall." They head up to Amelia's room to investigate.
While he's going on about the crack, how it was probably caused by two pieces of time or space that were never meant to touch doing so, she gives him an apple with a smiley face carved out of the skin, just like her mum used to. It's sweet and he keeps it for later.
The Doctor chucks some water out of a cup and uses it to listen to the crack. The voices are saying "Prisoner Zero has escaped," which Amelia already knows.
Anyway! Eleven decides that opening the crack up all the way is the best way to close it. He's a little nervous about this, seeing as the last time he tried something like this Rose got trapped in a parallel dimension, and he voices his concern with this exchange:
"You know when grown-ups say everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"
"Yes," says Amelia with an exasperated tone indicating she knows this feeling very well.
"Everything's going to be fine," says the Doctor with an amazing manic smile.
The Doctor holds Amelia's hand (which is almost as sure a sign of companion status as riding in the TARDIS is) and opens the crack. A giant eyeball appears.
It shoots some light at Eleven and the crack closes. Turns out it was sending a message to his psychic paper (yeah. He has psychic paper. It's pretty sweet.) which says... Prisoner Zero has escaped. They wonder why they would tell them that, but obviously it's because Prisoner Zero has escaped through the crack and into Amelia's house.Eleven's trying to figure out where the hell this prisoner could be and feels like he's missing something in the corner of his eye. It's made clear that what he's talking about is that weird door on the right behind them, which they cannot see.
But that shit is going to have to wait because the goddamned cloister bell is ringing, which is to say things are getting real with the TARDIS. The bell only rings when something has gone horribly wrong.So the Doctor runs to the TARDIS and realizes that the engines are phasing and if he doesn't do a quick hop to the future (five minutes ought to do), the whole thing will burn. Amy asks if she can come with, but he says she can't right now because it isn't safe, but he'll be back. She doesn't believe him, because people always lie when they say that. He says he isn't people, he's the Doctor, and she can trust him. Wonder if that'll bite him in the ass? But she believes him.
So the Doctor attaches a rope to himself and the TARDIS doors, hops in shouting Geronimo!, and takes off. Amelia runs inside and packs up her suitcase, but when she runs by the invisible door from earlier... it's open.
I have to break from the recap here and mention the music. Dear god the music here is amazing. The song is "Can I Come With You?" and it's brilliantly employed. It has a very hopeful feel to it, but the second that door is shown open it becomes very ominous and I genuinely feared that they were going to kill off Amelia, despite knowing that she was the official companion for the season. That's how you do a score for TV people!Back to business. Amelia goes back out to the garden, sits on her suitcase, and waits, while the camera cuts back inside to show someone running through the empty house. (And I think little Amelia waiting for the Doctor while "Can I Come With You?" plays beats Brittany from Glee pushing the meatball across her plate. I forgot to mention this, so this is just being added right now, but FOR REAL!)
Much later the TARDIS reappears in the garden, during the day, sans Amelia. The inside still seems to be burning. The Doctor comes out shouting for Amelia, telling her he figured it out and he knows where Prisoner Zero is.
He runs into the house, using his sonic screwdriver to open the locked door. He gets to the floor with the invisible door and is whacked in the head with a cricket bat.We cut to a hospital where a nurse (Rory) is trying to convince a doctor (not important) to listen to him. Apparently the coma patients all called for her (well they said Doctor, but who else could they be talking about, right?). She's a complete bitch and doesn't believe him really, then one of the patients does it right there. He says he also has pictures of the patients wandering around the village, but she elects to tell him to GTFO and not come back for a long time, instead of just looking at his damn camera phone. It's not like he was right about something you didn't believe just a second ago doctor lady! I'm so glad she dies. Oops, spoilers. Sort of.
So we cut back to the house, and it appears that the cricket bat culprit is a rather sexily dressed English policewoman who has handcuffed the Doctor to a thing. It's actually Amy, faking an English accent, and I am telling you this because it's important. This really makes it clear that Amy is not really an audience expy, unlike many past companions. Her first appearance as a full grown person involves her deceiving the Doctor and withholding information from him. It's pretty amazing. It's the first of many Doctor-like behaviors exhibited by her.
But anyway! She says that Amelia Pond hasn't lived there for six months and insinuates that it is due to some unfortunate circumstances (DEATH!). The Doctor is very upset at this revelation (I said I'd be five minutes! I promised!)
She says that she lives there and he asks her how many rooms are on this floor, and when she gives the wrong answer he tells her to look where she doesn't want to, the corner of her eye.
She now sees the door, and over the Doctor's protests (Do I just have a face no one listens to?... Again?) she decides to investigate. Really it's the perception filter making her believe that she always knew the door was there (I don't have the key. I lost it.) When she enters, she finds the sonic screwdriver on a table covered in some gross looking stuff. He tells her to leave it, but she grabs it anyway. And then a creepy thing (Prisoner Zero) descends from the ceiling!
The Doctor tells her not to try and see it, because it will kill her if she does, but she ends up looking it square in the face anyway, and high tails it out the door. The Doctor locks it from across the hall with his screwdriver. She wonders if that will hold it and his response is priceless: Yeah of course. It's an interdimensional multiform from outerspace. They're all terrified of wood! Which I took to mean YOU SUCK M. NIGHT HOWEVER YOU SPELL YOUR LAST NAME, but maybe that's just me. Amy's response is an epic bitchface.
She admits that she is not a policewoman and has no back up coming. She's actually a kissogram and pulled on the outfit because he broke into her house and it was that or French maid.A man (one of the coma patients in the hospital) emerges from the room with a door. Amy thinks maybe it's okay because it's just a man (which come on! You were just in that room! It would be bad even if it were just a man and a dog because they came out of a room that they weren't in!), but the Doctor explains that Zero can take on different forms.
He has the same fascination with the bad things as he always has, because they're novel. He can't disguise it. He questions Zero, calling it a "clever old multiform." Of course, it has a little trouble working with two faces and ends up making the man growl and bark like a dog (Amy: What? I'm sorry, what?!") Eventually it just gives up on the pretense and makes SCARY FACE!
There's a bit of a dance about whether or not they have back-up, but when they finally land on "if we had back-up you'd have to kill us" they hear "Attention Prisoner Zero, the human residence is surrounded." which Eleven decides to say means they are safe. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." Aside from incineration anyway.
So the Doctor grabs her hand and goes "Run!" like we needed another cue that she's the companion, and they book it. The Doctor explains what's going on to Amy again. He also discovers that the TARDIS has locked him out, because it's repairing itself. Then he licks her shed (what a terrible euphemism that would be) and realizes that he isn't six months late, he's twelve years late (the shed was originally destroyed when the TARDIS crashed and the new shed has become old again). He asks why she said it six months and she just screams "WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES?!" completely dropping her faked English accent in favor of her Scottish one. This sort of continues for a while. "You hit me with a cricket bat!" "12 YEARS!" is a highlight. Amy is just delighting in finally being able to let out all of this frustration on someone either than the four psychiatrists she went to and kept biting for saying he wasn't real.
They hear the message about the human residence coming from an ice cream truck, and look at this fucking ice cream guy you guys.
It turns out the message is broadcasting everywhere. They run into an old lady's house and see that it's being broadcast on international television stations as well. The old lady also asks Amy if she's with the police now, because it seems like she was just a maid. And a nun. The Doctor says she was a little girl five minutes ago, clearly squicked at the kissogram thing, and she calls him worse than her aunt. But "[he's] The Doctor. [He's] worse than everybody's aunt!" but that's not how he's introducing myself. The name rings a bell with the lady, who realizes it's Amy's imaginary friend, "The Raggedy Doctor," who she used to draw stories about. We also hear about this from Jeff, who lives with the old lady and is fairly attractive.Oh and the aliens are going to blow up the whole planet. He figures he's got about 20 minutes about 20 minutes to save the world. Unfortunately Leadworth, the village, is pretty crap and the only thing at his disposal is a post office. Which is shut.
And then things got worse. The sun went wibbly, blocked by a force field from the Atraxi (those giant eye things that are going to blow up the world). Everyone starts taking pictures of it, but the Doctor notices Rory standing there, not taking a picture of the sun, but rather the man with a dog from earlier. He is going to go talk to him, telling Amy that he can do it, he can save the world. 20 minutes, run to your loved ones and say goodbye or stay and help me. She screams NO! and proceeds to trap him in a car door using his tie.
She demands an explanation from him. He says he's the Doctor and he's a time traveler. He tosses her the apple from earlier, telling her she knows it's the same apple and asking her to just believe him for twenty minutes.
She agrees to and they stop Rory, who is Amy's boyfriend. He explains about the coma patients (which the Doctor figures out at the same time Rory is telling him). Rory is freaking out about the Doctor's existence (You made me dress up as him!), but Prisoner Zero realizes their presence and starts to be freaky again. An Atraxi ship comes down to scan for non-terrestrial tech, so the Doctor uses his screwdriver to make a bunch of hooplah, because nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver. Unfortunately, the screwdriver has had a rough day and decides to die before Prisoner Zero is found. This really pisses the Doctor off.
So now he has 17 minutes, no TARDIS, and no screwdriver. We also find out that the Atraxi took 12 years to get here because they followed the Doctor, so that's convenient.So he sends Amy and Rory to the hospital because that's where Prisoner Zero probably went, since he disappeared down a storm drain, and heads back to the old lady's house to use Jeff's laptop. He hacks into a video chat with the foremost minds of our day who are trying to figure out the whole fucked up sun things, gives them some brilliant stuff (like the secret to faster than light travel with 2 diagrams and a joke) so that they'll listen to him, which is a nice change from 10 who usually just went "I AM THE DOCTOR! *STOMP STOMP STOMP* LISTEN TO ME! *POUT POUT POUT*" He writes a virus on the phone he stole from Rory and sends it to everyone, so that they can send it to everyone. It resets counters to zero. He gets ready to take off, leaving Jeff to make them do what he wants them to do. He sort of forces Jeff into being extraordinary ("Today's the day you save the world!" "Why me?" "It's your bedroom.")
Rory and Amy can't get in to the coma patients, due to Patient Zero killing a bunch of bitches, but when they call the Doctor he reminds them that Amy is currently passing as an officer of the law, so they get in. They encounter a lady with 2 children, who explain to them that all the doctors and nurses are dead. And then one of the children starts talking with the woman's voice. It's Prisoner Zero, fucking shit up again! So it's time for the scary face and then running.
They end up in the coma ward, once again using the complicated piece of technology that is a door to stop the alien. They call the Doctor and inform him of what's going on, and he tells them his on his way, having stolen a fire truck. He also asks what window they are at. After Zero breaks down the door and tells Amy that the Doctor will not be coming for her this time, they get a text message that says DUCK (The Doctor texts and drives. For shame!) and the ladder of the fire truck crashes through the window.
The Doctor scurries up the ladder and inside and has a nice little chat with Zero. He asks Zero to give itself up to save the planet, but Zero says it will be killed and it might as well take a planet out with it. Can't fault it there really. The Doctor asks why Zero doesn't just open up another crack, and Zero gives the Doctor some shit about not knowing where the cracks in the universe come from. It also says "The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." which are our arc words for the season, but they leave Rory quite confused and gift us with his epic "...the fuck?" face.
But now it's the set time for the Doctor's virus to kick in. All the counters in all the world reset to Zero, putting the word out. The Atraxi will be able to track the virus to its source, which happens to be the phone that the Doctor has on him. Zero says that the Atraxi cannot recognize it in this form, but the Doctor points out that the phone has pictures of all the forms it can take and, oh yeah, he just sent all those to the Atraxi. He's pretty proud of himself for this one, exclaiming "Who da man?!" and making some pretty hood arm movements. Of course, this goes over poorly (because the Doctor is a nerd) and he declares he's never saying that again (a little sadly).
But it turns out Zero can take one other form, because it's had years to form a link with Amy. It does so, causing Amy to lose consciousness. Instead of turning into Amy though, Zero first appears to be the Doctor. Little Amelia is quickly shown to be there as well, holding the Doctor's hand. Zero, as Amelia, says that poor Amy never grew up or out of her dream of the Doctor. (It's also interesting that the Doctor's first look at himself is through Amy's psyche pretty much. He doesn't even recognize himself at first, Rory has to point it out to him.)
The Doctor says Amy is dreaming of him because she can hear him. He tells her to dream about what she saw in the room all those years ago, when she got a look at Zero's true form. It works and Zero changes back into itself. The Atraxi snatch him up and book it.This will simply not do, so the Doctor calls them and yells about the Shadow Proclamation and how Earth is a fully established level five planet and they were just going to core it? Did they think no one was watching? He tells them to get back her right the hell now.
But first, Eleven doesn't even have his own outfit yet, so he goes to a locker room and steals a bunch of clothes, saying "I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy, time to put on a show" with a fabulous flourish that could not be captured in a screen cap. He changes and Amy watches, with Rory chastising her for doing so.
The Doctor explains that he called the Atraxi back because leaving is good, but never coming back is better. So they head up to the roof with the Doctor rocking some new duds, without having settled on a tie yet.
He addresses the Atraxi while tossing aside tie after tie. He asks them if this world is a threat? Have the people broken any laws of the Atraxi? The Atraxi show some bits of terrible things from the world, but decide that the Earth is not a threat. Then the Doctor asks if they think they're the first to try this kind of thing. So the Atraxi pull up videos of some of the Doctor's rogues gallery. He asks if this world is protected, and the Atraxi pull up images of each of the ten previous Doctors (I specify that they show all ten, because there are still some people who believe that the Eighth Doctor doesn't count). Eleven walks through the final image of the Tenth Doctor, newly clad in his bow tie, and says cheerily, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run." And you bet your ass the Atraxi take the fuck off, because when the Doctor starts badass boasting to you it's time to get the hell out of there.
As the Atraxi are leaving you can hear the sound of the TARDIS engines, and Eleven feels something hot in his pocket. It's the TARDIS key, telling him it's ready to go.
When Amy and Rory look round, they see that the Doctor has Batman'd his ass out of there. He's booking it for the TARDIS. We finally get a glimpse at the new TARDIS design when he makes it back to Amy's house.
The Doctor opens the door, excited to see what the TARDIS has in store for him this time. He looks absolutely happy and says "Oh, you sexy thing" which I loved because Doctor/TARDIS OTP.
And he leaves, just as Amy and Rory show up. Amy is depressed, because fucking seriously Doctor? Not that I can really be mad it him because of my aforementioned one true pairing on this show, but that's pretty shitty.
When she closes her eyes it cuts to little Amelia waiting atop her suitcase, this time in the light of day. She hears the TARDIS engines and looks up.
It turns out, however, that this is just a dream that Amy is having. The TARDIS engines are real though. She absolutely bolts out of bed and runs to the window. She sees the TARDIS outside and heads out the door.She gives the Doctor some crap for the clothes and the fact that he stole them. He thinks it's okay since he just saved the world for the millionth time. She does not approve of the bow tie, but he insists bow ties are cool (and I must agree).
After this banter, he asks her to come with him. She starts to talk about all of the crazy things that have happened over the course of the episode, sounding like she's apprehensive to go because of the danger. He starts to say that it's not all terrible, but she finishes her thought by saying that was all 2 years ago. 14 years since fish custard. He gives her a title (Amy Pond, the girl who waited). She says she grew up, but he tells her not worry and that he'll soon fix that.He snaps to open the TARDIS doors (which I am not a fan of being a thing, but think it is well employed here because he's trying to convince her that he's awesome and that's a pretty cool touch from the presentation stand point. He's showing off for her.) She enters and looks about as shocked as anyone would upon entering a blue box to find it has a whole world inside (just like he said).
He starts baiting her, asking if she has anything she'd like to say. Any passing remarks. He really does love it when they say it's bigger on the inside. He also makes a terrifying creeper face while doing this. Not really, but my pausing happened to catch such a creeper face anyway.
Her passing remark is "I'm in my nightie," but he informs her that there is plenty of stuff for her to wear in the wardrobe. She doesn't understand how he's so sure she's coming, but he says that she's a Scottish girl in an English village and he knows what that's like. She scoffs at the idea, but he points out that despite having lived in England practically her whole life, she has retained her accent. He knows she's coming.The TARDIS has made him a new sonic screwdriver. He says "Thanks, dear." This is when he is fully a new Doctor, really. He's got a new outfit, a new TARDIS, and a brand new screwdriver with a light that better compliments his new outfit.
She asks why he wants her to come with him. He says that he's been by himself for a while and has developed the annoying habit of talking to himself and it's hurting his ears. She gets that he's lonely, and asks if that's it. He says it is. Of course, during this they are standing in front of a oscilloscope thingy, which also happens to be showing the crack from Amy's wall (which is our arc-image for the season). The Doctor pointedly shuts it off after saying the only he wants her around is to ease his loneliness, making it clear that he knows something else is up.
She tells him that she spent all these years thinking he was just a mad man with a box. He gets very serious, telling her to pay attention because what he's about to say may save her life one day, "I am definitely a mad man with a box." He really lights up while saying this.
Amy verifies that she can be back by tomorrow for some unspecified stuff, and the Doctor tells her she can be back five minutes ago, it's a goddamned time machine! Speaking of which, they have the whole of space and time awaiting them, so it's about time to get adventuring!
We stick around Amy's house for the end though. The camera pans through her room, revealing her collection of drawings and homemade dolls featuring her younger self and the Doctor, and then dramatically sweeps up... a wedding dress hanging on her closet door. So now we know her unspecified plans for the next day are actually her wedding and she's basically running away with another man, who she has been obsessed with since childhood.
THE ENDAnd now my thoughts, really quickly since I've managed to write a crap ton already. I really like this episode a lot. I think that, while the whole Atraxi/Prisoner Zero thing is sort of crap, it is okay, because this episode is about the characters. Its purpose was to introduce us to the Eleventh Doctor and Amy (and Rory). The monster of the week plot doesn't have to be spectacular in a character driven episode. Crap might've been too strong of a word for it anyway, since it was sort of interesting. But yeah, I enjoyed the millionth rewatch that was required for this post and I'm sure I'll watch it again in the future.
Expect my new recap sometime soon. Hopefully it'll be shorter.
No comments:
Post a Comment