Secrets and Shadows: An Advance Review of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who

Fairy tales are funny things.

Ostensibly stories for children, they manage to capture that incredible sense of wonderment and awe that we all have when we are younger, as well as darkness and terror, a fear of the things that go bump in the night.

When I spoke to Matt Smith and Steven Moffat a few weeks ago for a feature I wrote on the new iteration of Doctor Who--which launches Stateside this Saturday on BBC America--both of them described this new Doctor Who as a "dark fairy tale," and, having seen the magical first two episodes, I can say that the comparison is particularly apt.

Under new head writer/executive producer Steven Moffat, Doctor Who has been transformed. 27-year-old Matt Smith has stepped into the role of 900-year-old Time Lord the Doctor with an equal mix of relish and madcap verve and he's joined in the TARDIS (which itself gets a facelift, along with the Doctor's trademark sonic screwdriver) by Scottish actress Karen Gillan, who plays new companion Amy Pond.

While I have an eternal love for David Tennant's Tenth Doctor (as fans of this site will undoubtedly know), I do have to say that Smith's Doctor is remarkable: at once mad scientist, man-child, and manic magician rolled into one.

I don't want to reveal too much about the plot of these first few episodes because Doctor Who truly thrives when it surprises. And these first two installments offer much in the way of surprise and tantalizing thrills. In other words: they have to be seen in order to truly feel just what Moffat, Smith, Gillan, and Co. are trying to achieve here. But I will say that Smith's charm, poise, and quirkiness are one of the series' best weapons.

In just his first scene--where he attempts to sample an array of food in order to settle into his newly regenerated body (culminating in a stomach-churning combination of custard and fish sticks)--Smith wins you over through sheer force of will, effortlessly offering the very best aspects of Tennant's Doctor with new twists of his own. The result is one that pays homage to Tennant (he wears his cast-off wardrobe for the first 45 minutes or so) while setting up the Eleventh Doctor as a separate entity in his own right.

It's not an easy feat to follow in the footsteps of David Tennant but Smith proves that he's more than up to the task. His Doctor is at once all wide-eyed wonder and haughty tutor rolled into one: a creature of paradox whose knowledge is only ever truly appreciated when he's in the company of another.

Which brings us then to Gillan's Amy Pond. I don't want to give too much away about Amy but I will say that Gillan's spin on the role of the companion is one for the ages, offering a character that's not only different than Billie Piper's Rose, Freema Agyeman's Martha, and Catherine's Tate's Donna but who is uniquely connected to the Doctor in a way that no other companion has been.

A Scottish girl in an English village, Amy shares the outsider status of the Doctor, exploring the notion of belonging or not belonging, of sharing a home but not having one. There's immediately a simpatico spirit between the two travelers, a connection forged in a sense of being the Other, with its roots in the series' dark fairy tale aura. She's plucky, resourceful, and secretive, keeping something vital from the Doctor that might have changed his offer to her to travel the stars with him. (You'll have to watch to find out just what that is as well as the circumstances of their first meeting.)

The first episode, "The Eleventh Hour," written by Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, is a staggering beautiful introduction to the new Doctor Who, a one-off mystery caper that at once sets up the new characters while exploring the small English village that Amy lives in, a village that conceals a dangerous creature known as Prisoner Zero, whose presence might spell doom for the entire planet. (My only complaint is that Prisoner Zero is far more terrifying when he's not seen than when he is. Which I promise will make more sense when you see the episode.) The installment deliciously sets up that overarching fairy tale sensation, offering a plot that is at once exciting and utterly heartbreaking. It seems that even a Time Lord is a prisoner to time itself...

The second episode, "The Beast Below," written again by Moffat and directed this time by Andrew Gunn, offers the first real adventure for the Doctor and Amy Pond as they travel to the far future and encounter a Great Britain that is little more than a metal spaceship amid the stars. But this ship and its seemingly docile society hide a dangerous and horrific secret. Look for Sophie Okenedo in a fantastic guest starring role as the mysterious Liz Ten, and for Amy to prove her worth to the Doctor.

Moffat's Doctor Who seems to have retained the sense of awe and beauty of Russell T Davies' run but has replaced some of the--for wont of a better word--silliness of some of those episodes with a darkness and grit. Fairy tales aren't always upbeat stories of magic and mirth but are often cautionary tales that explore the darker impulses of human nature. They might be intended for children but that doesn't mean that they are exclusively created for children.

In the hands of Moffat--the writer of some of Doctor Who's most beloved installments including "Blink" and "The Girl in the Fireplace"--the series becomes a winning mix of light and dark, adventure and heartache, home and away, the past and the future. Based on these early episodes, Moffat's tenure promises to be a legendary run on Doctor Who, filled with fire and spirit, joie de vivre and madness. In other words: exactly what the Doctor ordered.





Doctor Who launches Saturday at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.