I watched the new Who with lofro, who is not a Who fan but actually liked this one, which is good, because it was awesome.

The plot was nice and clean, and yes, it did reprise some elements of "Prisoner of the Judoon" (though that was Phil Ford's writing) but I really didn't mind. It also hit on what seems to be some of Mofty's favorite themes: perceptual anomalies, creepy children, and things with nasty pointy teeth. (Somebody pointed out that it's almost like "Blink" meets "The Girl in the Fireplace" at times.) But we got some great lines, a few very vivid side characters, and probably my biggest complaint is the way this show insists that the sun can flicker, giant eyeballs can cruise over Western countries and global computer systems can suffer massive errors, but still, nobody believes in aliens.

The whole point of the episode is to show off the shiny new Doctor man, and it did its job nicely. Eleven seems more mature than Ten was, more comfortable with himself, though still with the raging ego, and there's a general thread of badassitude running close to the surface that reminds me more of Nine, and to all this I say: yes. He's a bit of a bastard, but magnificently so, and I think it really sets the tone for him that he called the bad guys back in order to scold them--and that he opens the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers. (Yes, I've seen Those Spoilers. But not the Other Ones. Shush.) I now understand why Mofty found MS so impressive, because he does project an older persona very well, and with the bowtie costume and all it actually works quite well. I was anticipating more of an absent-minded-professor out of him based on the costume, but no, this guy regenerated from a puddle of rage and emo; this guys has got edges.

I also really liked Amy; she's nicely distinct from all the other NuWho Companions, but clearly complements the Doctor in some of the same ways that Donna did. I am a little uneasy about the wedding thing, because, well, DAMN. THIS IS BECOMING A RUNNING THEME. But I'm also willing to reserve judgment. I presume Mofty does NOT share Rusty's obsession with the romance template of "inaccessible, reserved dom/shamelessly devoted sub" and am thus hoping against hope that we won't see a rehash of the Doctor/Rose/Mickey triangle in Doctor/Amy/Rory; I have this thing about the nice guys sometimes finishing ahead of the flash bastards, however awesome their spaceships.

I am also super excited about Neil Gaiman's Series 6 episode and hope he will say a few words about it when lofro and I see him in Chicago in two weeks.

One question, because I am that much of a pedant: what's the year again? I pretty much had "End of Time" pegged at New Year's 2010/2011, but "Eleventh Hour" has three separate time stamps at zero, twelve, and fourteen years, with no internal points of reference* except perhaps the fact that at year twelve since Eleven met Amy, everybody's got very modern camera phones and laptops, putting it easily in 2010 or 2011 still. (In fact, one could make the argument that the TARDIS was actively trying to return to its last temporal location when the engines overheated, but that would be pure spackle.) So are we now three years in the future, timeline-wise? Or two? Or one or none? I MUST KNOW THESE THINGS RAR.

(There is the fact that, as somebody on another comm pointed out, Rory's hospital ID was issued in 1990. But that clashes so drastically with his and Amy's apparent ages and the mobiles on display that I refuse to consider it anything but a hiccup from the props department. Or possibly a crack in time. Yeah, that's it.)

Nonspoilery bit of squee: Matt Smith wrote fanfic to get himself into character. YES.