I suppose that my love of this series actually starts with the trailers. The first preview trailer was fun and exciting, promising something different to the previous 5 years that we'd had under Russell T Davies. But that was only 1 minute long with some brief shots to show us how exciting the upcoming series would be. To understand the tone of the series, look no further than the trailer above. Previous trailers that had been specially shot for the series would focus on the fact that the series is new and exciting, perhaps a little bit clever, a little bit dangerous. They were good, but none really match the sheer beauty that is this trailer. It focuses on the magic of Doctor Who, this entire idea that the process of travelling with the Doctor is beautiful and magical. The time vortex isn't presented as some terrifying wasteland in the trailer, instead it's something weird and wonderful, filled with rich purples and dark blues. And through it all we have the Doctor, this mystical figure who can take control of the situation and save the day.
This is further shown in The Eleventh Hour, the Eleventh Doctor's first story. It is, in my opinion, actually perfect, and every single scene conveys the pure magic that the Doctor is. It's an absolute joy to watch, not least because Steven Moffat keeps on introducing little pieces of wonder to keep us occupied until the big reveal of the new Doctor. We have a story that can give us scenes like the Doctor driving a fire engine, before releasing a computer virus that turns every single piece of technology to zero, just so that some alien policemen can track the viruses point of origin to his phone, which is handily in the same room as Prisoner Zero, the villain of the piece. Other stories could botch these moments slightly by shifting the attention to something else, but Moffat never really lets us forget the fact that this man who is the Doctor is actually marvellous and brilliant, and a proper magician.
Take, for instance, my favourite scene in the entire story: the scene where he writes the virus and essentially sets up the entire conclusion to the episode. Beginning with a couple of jokes, it quickly evolves into something greater. We see the Doctor drop forth technobabble to show that he's smart, but Moffat keeps the technobabble relatable. Giving proper proofs to well known scientific problems is enough to show that this man is brilliant in terms of knowledge, but there are other details dropped in there as well. There's the fact that he offhandedly mentions the fact that he was accidentally responsible for Fermat's death, bringing forth the impossible nature of this man. There's the fact that he immediately turns that section of the plot over to Jeff, ensuring that both Jeff can get a job with anywhere that he wants to, as well as keeping the momentum of the plot moving. This moment with Jeff also shows that the Doctor can be magical in other ways, not just in terms of saving the Universe, but that he can help out ordinary people just on a whim, it just so happens that there are often bigger problems to solve at the same time. This presentation of the Doctor as a magical figure in what would otherwise be regarded as a lesser scene in an episode full of big moments, helps cement this idea that this entire series is just going to be absolutely wonderful, exciting, and magical. And beyond all that, the Jeff scene ends on a perfect joke about clearing your internet history.
So that's The Eleventh Hour. A perfect little fairy tale to start the series off. But we've just begun on this fantastic voyage, and I can honestly hardly wait to watch the rest of this beautiful series one more time.
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