Right then so we have us a new Doctor!

So we’re a few episodes in now on the new guy, and I know some of you out there are watching directly via the BBC, some of you are watching via BBC America, and some of you are using Means Which Shall Not Be Mentioned! Me, I’ll eschew going into specific episode details since I don’t know who’s up to date with what–but I will say I’m caught up through the most recent BBC episode, “The Time of Angels”.

And suffice to say, yeah, I’m down with the new guy. He’ll do. 😉

I’m always going to miss Tennant, who I daresay will always be My Doctor(TM), but I’m happy to see Matt Smith starting to get his bearings with the role. In the first couple of episodes, it’s the Murkworks consensus that he’s still channeling a bit too much Tennant. When he’s not chanelling Tennant, he’s apparently channeling Two, a.k.a. Shemp Doctor in our house; solarbird and spazzkat, as the original Classic Who fans in the house, are better at picking that out than I am. But I can kind of see it as well. As of the most recent episode, though, there are moments when Smith seems to finally meld both of these influences into something new and therefore his own.

Companion-wise, I like Amy Pond pretty well so far too. Yeah, she’s pretty much still in the mode of clever, beautiful young woman we’ve had established as the Standard Companion with New Who. But on the other hand, she’s starting to show the sorts of cleverness that seem best on display in the episodes Moffat previously wrote. And she’s got the best Companion backstory, hands down, ever.

I think too that the most recent episode, fourth one they’ve aired so far, is the first one to really feel like the season’s truly underway and not just hitting all the usual notes of “okay we’re introducing a new Doctor AND a new Companion and oh hey let’s get the obligatory Dalek episode out of the way”. mamishka and jennygriffee have been joining us for Doctor viewing the last couple of weeks, and I mentioned to everyone that with this week’s episode, one of the things I really enjoyed was the simple fact that the Weeping Angels are the most effective monster that the new show has ever introduced. And this episode? A worthy followup indeed to “Blink”.

Which of course leads me to mentioning River Song. No real surprise that she’s back too since her introduction was also in a Moffat episode–but we were also all in strong, strong agreement that the handling of her return was excellent, and as is very fitting in a show featuring time travel, continuing the delightfully screwed up timeline of meetings between her and the Doctor.

Yeah. I think our favorite Time Lord’s in good hands indeed.