I so liked David Tennant’s run as the tenth Doctor that I was apprehensive heading into this season, with both a new face for the Doctor and a new companion. I need not have worried, though. Matt Smith is a younger version of the Doctor, but a very fun one and I was won over before the first episode was finished. Equally fine is Karen Gillan as companion Amy Pond. The Doctor actually met her when she was a young girl -- he investigated a crack in one of the walls or her house, a problem that reoccurs and becomes worse throughout the season -- and headed off briefly with plans to return and take her with him. The only trouble is a few minutes his time turned into more than a decade for Amy. In the meantime, Amy has a fiancé, Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), a quite likeable hap who ends up going on several of the adventures. Also new is a spiffy bright blue TARDIS outside and an inside that has twice the room of the previous one and is multi-leveled.
With Steven Moffat back in control of the show, the episodes are quite good as well. A trip to the distant future finds England a giant spaceship powered by a space whale; The Doctor has to help Winston Churchill battle the Daleks in blitz-torn London; the stone Weeping Angels make a creepy, ominous return in back-to-back episodes; the beauty of Venice is threatened by vampires; Amy’s wedding to Rory is threatened; the Earth rebels against mankind’s drilling; artist Vincent Van Gogh is seeing things or is he; and the Pandorica finally opens. There are in-vision commentaries by Moffat and two fellow producers on six of the 13 episodes; two new shorts (less than 4 minutes each) that show the between-episode bonding between Amy and the Doctor in the TARDIS; monster files on the Daleks, Weeping Angels, the Silurians and The Alliance; video diaries on three discs; outtakes; and a sixth disc with more than 20 teasers and trailers and “Doctor Who Confidential,” with behind-the scenes looks on each episode (generally 13 to 14 minutes each). There also are three character cards. Grade: season 3.75 stars; extras 3.5 stars
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