Doctor Who: Eleven at ten – Happy tenth anniversary to The Eleventh Hour!

Ten years ago, The Eleventh Hour was broadcast, and Doctor Who was never the same again. We look back on what makes this episode so special.

Today marks ten years since a key episode of Doctor Who was broadcast. Not only was The Eleventh Hour Matt Smith’s first full-length appearance as the Eleventh Doctor. But it was also Steven Moffat’s first episode as showrunner, too. As a result, it marks the start of not just one era, but two.

It’s weird to think that only last week, we were celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Rose, the first episode of Doctor Who‘s revival. Particularly because it highlights that the gap between such major episodes was just over five years.

What’s particularly impressive is how much change occurred during that gap. We had seen two Doctors, three full-time companions, many monsters both old and new and even more adventures. Russell T Davies left his mark as showrunner during a relatively short space of time. With such an incredibly high standard to live up to, Steven Moffat’s new era needed to hit the ground running. And that’s exactly what The Eleventh Hour did.

After a few successful episodes during Russell T Davies’s era, Steven Moffat’s era of Doctor Who truly began with The Eleventh Hour.

(Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

The start of a new era

With The Eleventh Hour, Steven Moffat makes it clear that, while his era will share some similarities to Russell T Davies’s, it’s also distinctly different from his predecessor’s too. You only need to compare their opening episodes to see how.

First, we have a companion who’s definitely not from or even living in London. While Davies’s companion introductions usually took place in England’s capital city, Moffat trades it for the quieter setting of Leadworth, your typical English village.

Moffat also makes time travel a key part of the story, and even the companion’s life, before their journey even begins. When the Doctor meets Amelia Pond, she’s ready to join him in his travels through time and space. She just has to wait a while. About twelve years, in fact. Followed by two more years after that.

As a result, Amy’s story is radically different from that of previous companions in the New Series. While Rose and Martha got to travel with the Doctor right after meeting him, Amy had to wait, and her entire life was affected. As a result, Amy would also come to be known as “the girl who waited”, not just in this episode, but in many others.

Even the look and feel of the show is noticeably different. There are many references to fairy tales, and the Doctor even comments that Amelia Pond is “like a name in a fairy tale”. And that’s what The Eleventh Hour often feels like: a modern-day fairy tale, as told by Doctor Who.

Matt Smith is the Doctor

Telling a story that was so different from what came before was definitely a risky move. But it was one that paid off. Steven Moffat set the tone of his era just right with The Eleventh Hour, giving us an extremely confident opening story. Not just for his own era, but also for a brand Doctor.

Which brings me to one of the episode’s best selling points: Matt Smith. From the very beginning, he embodies the role of the Doctor so perfectly. At this point, he’s extraordinarily young – to date, he’s still the youngest actor that’s ever been cast in the role.

But he’s also a brilliant fit, combining many moments of great physical comedy with the gravitas needed to convince that he truly is someone ancient. Throughout the episode, Smith’s Doctor is brilliantly alien, giving us one of the most impressive debut performances in the role.

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That iconic line

On top of that, if the performance alone wasn’t enough to sell us that this strange new man really was the Doctor, then the following quote certainly did:

"Hello. I’m the Doctor."

We all remember that moment. We all remember the buildup. We all remember that fantastic payoff. When I saw The Eleventh Hour when it was originally broadcast ten years ago, it was in a huge, crowded pub in London, projected onto a large screen. When the Doctor was speaking to the Atraxi and previous Doctors were shown, many people started to cheer. But when he said the line, there was a huge roar. The Eleventh Doctor had truly arrived, and we couldn’t have been happier about it.

So happy anniversary to an episode that performed an incredible achievement: showing that Doctor Who could continue without the extremely popular team of both Russell T Davies and David Tennant, and establishing a brand new era for both Steven Moffat and Matt Smith. It’s also a fantastic episode in it’s own right, and one that I’ll be more than happy to rewatch at 7 PM today, UK time.

Are you a fan of The Eleventh Hour? Is it your favorite “new Doctor” episode? Is Matt Smith your favorite Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.