Season 5, Part 1

So my super-awesome skills at procrastination mean that I am already 5 episodes into this season.  Whoops.  At least I'll pretty much definitely be caught up by Saturday, I guess.  I don't really feel like doing episode-by-episode reviews for this one, so I'm just going to give some general thoughts.

I'm still not sold on Matt Smith as the Doctor.  I don't dislike him.  I'm not going to be one of those people who will hate everything he does just on principle and never ever get over David Tennant.  Smith's okay.  I just don't love him as much as I feel like I should.  Hopefully he'll win me over soon.  It took me a while to warm up to Eccleston too, so maybe it's just the same thing here.

Amy Pond, on the other hand, I am so in love with.  She's brilliant.  I love that she questions the Doctor and disobeys him and can call out his bullshit.  I guess she's kind of like Donna in that way, but younger and less shouty...

And oooh, new information about River Song!  Prison!  Killed the best man she ever knew!  Something the Doctor couldn't handle knowing this early in his timeline!  Gahh.  I can see how people who watched this show in regular time would be dying over this by now.

I find it interesting that they're dealing with this season's story arc earlier on.  Every other time it's been "let's throw these words in every episode and then all of a sudden have them be really important at the end of the season" but this time they're addressing what the crack is right from the beginning and having it be an important plot element throughout the season.  Very interesting.

Other thoughts:

"The Beast Below" might have been the first episode I ever saw... one of the very earliest, at any right.  I also happen to think it's one of the best episodes ever.  And Liz 10 is such a fantastic character.

I did love the food scene in "The Eleventh Hour."  That was hilarious.

During "Victory of the Daleks" I couldn't help but think that somewhere, perhaps at that very moment, Nine/Rose/Jack were out there...

I think what I'm most upset about this season is the new intro.  Ugh.  Do not like.