THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The Eleventh Hour


WITH OMEN UNDERTONES
Review by Douglas West

These new series reviews for VORTEX aim to consider the possible influences and inspirations of the writers of Doctor Who. Many writers believe that concepts and story lines can be created with intentional motivation or from an unconscious awareness, possibly psychologically driven through dreams or current fears in a persons life.

FILM INSPIRATIONS
The Eleventh Hour sets the platform for Moffat's incarnation of Dr Who and performs very well on the whole, although is rather formulaic in structure. The basic mystery idea is interspersed with plenty of references to other films of a similar genre. 'The Omen'1976 by David Seltzer being one of the main influences. I am sure that the 70's must hold rich pickings for Moffat's inspirational fantasies. The reference of the 'rottweiler dog' the 'crack in the wall' and something evil escaping from it, as portrayed in the archaeological dig in the Omen film(s) are clear homages to Omen's original storyline. The prophecy element of the escapee 'Prisoner Zero' and the ability of 'Prisoner Zero' to create a psychic link with human beings is also another clear influence.



The story intersperses lots of carefully crafted aspirational cliches, the Dr is seen empowering Amy Pond and her friends in the small village to defeat the alien threat to earth. The alien's threat to destroy the earth at a whim was surely inspired by Douglas Adams 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'
Earth was routinely to be demolished to make way for a super space highway. The voices of the alien's with the 'big eye' were reminiscent of the ones portrayed in the BBC series.
The typical vulnerable hero scenario as we have seen with 'Tennant' was continued and brilliantly crafted; we see the Dr's plans to avert disaster go wrong and he has to rethink his new strategy - our flawed hero regains his strength and awareness as the story continues.

The comical elements were also well crafted in particular the use of the British elements pushed forward, an exploding telephone box, union jack mini, postbox, ice cream van and fire engine. In fact it all could be a little contrived, did Moffat start with a list of British iconography and then write the story around them, who cares it works and we all love to have that British flag being flown high - emotional values do fly high in Moffat's first outing for his new version of the Doctor, the viewer goes through quite a few emotional moments while watching this opening gambit with the effect that you feel that Moffat's new formula has served up a truly psychological experiences that is better than any anti-depressant and an improvement on the Russell T Davies concept - we are moving away from the working class roots of Davies earth based stories to a more enlightened middle class valued system where there are more intelligent plot lines and not just bland shock tactics. Many thanks Steven looking forward to you're next outing