Ten Statements--No, Eleven--About....DOCTOR WHO SEASON SIX, EPISODE ONE: THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT (2011)

"Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy-wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff like Mondays and Tuesdays and" Thursday Afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays, big temporal tipping points where anything's possible."

1) Matt Smith dancing with Laurel and Hardy? Win. Naked Matt Smith hiding under a woman's skirts...not so much...

2) There's something really, really wicked cool about the whole 'Getting The Band Back Together' feel of the pre-title teaser....and there's something even cooler about how the music sort of builds when everyone gets their invites...

3) YES! Arthur Darvill gets his just rewards by being top billed along with Matt and Karen...

The Doctor and Company welcome aboard that guy
from THE MATRIX, as played by Michael Ironside

4) ...and as proof that Arthur deserves above-the-title credit, look at how masterfully he handles the big shock at the ten minute mark...His Rory is obviously breaking up inside, but he is able to pull it all together in a snap and makes sure what The Doctor wanted done gets done. This is a fine actor, and may be the show's secret weapon this season.

5) Once again, we are asked to share Steven Moffat's love of twisting and contorting time lines...and once again, it's very clear that all this fooling around has a purpose, that he has a story to tell with a very clear end point somewhere down the line.

6) This version of The Matt Smith Doctor is a lot less bombastic...but it's clear that the anger that drove him throughout Season Five is still there, just transformed into something subtler--and scarier. And speaking of subtle...



"NO....YOU SUCK!"



7) Is it just me, or has Karen Gillen stepped up her game? The character is still recognizably Amy, but also recognizably more mature....it's obvious that Gillen is using the knowledge of her character's new status to give us a more nuanced, sober version of Amy.

8) The Silent...creepy little mouthed energy sucking things that you can only remember when you look at it straight on? In suits, no less? I'm sold.



Shut up...she's cute...

9) I like the younger Canton. It's like they decided that the perfect partner for this iteration of The Doctor was Michael Ironside--and much props for letting us in on something about Canton with the kind of subtlety Russell T. Davies wishes he could have pulled off. On the other hand, every time I looked at this episode's Nixon, I thought 'when did we elect John Cusack president?'

10) This may very well be my favorite River Song appearance to date...she's a lot more nuanced, and the true bond that seems to have grown between her an Amy (prolly growing out of a similar bonding between Alex Kingston and Karen Gillen) is natural and warm. And on top of that, we get the scene between her and Rory which suddenly throws a lot of her behavior into a sharp, cold light...and it's at turns both sad and terrifying.

11) Is that the same control module as we saw in "The Lodger" last season?

In short...this isn't as great a season opener as last year's in terms of spectacle--but it's a better in terms of character. The strengths of last season look to not have been abandoned, and The Silent may prove to be another in a long line of great Moffat monsters.