Dr. Who: Season 5 Premier- "The Eleventh Hour"

Here are my quick, with minor spoilers, notes on last night's excellent season premier of the Doctor Who.

• Matt Smith makes the difficult move of replacing David Tennant as The Doctor. It is difficult to make judgments about what he will do with the character, but he is game and engaging and immanently "Doctorish" in this episode. Smith's doctor still has many of the Tennant mannerisms, but they seem to fade more and more as the episode progresses and he becomes less manic and active and moves more into a thoughtful and reflective state.

• In a nod to the truly unique nature of this show, the extreme change of having an entirely new, but eternally connected, lead really creates a spark of power and newness that is exciting for the viewer. As much as loved Tennant (and Eccleston, Davidson, Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton and the others), having a new Doctor and going on the journey with him makes this season far far more exciting.
• I love Amy Pond (and not only because Karen Gillan is an incredibly attractive Scottish redhead). Her character is intriguing because she takes the previous new series companions and expands from them, she seems to have elements from each of the others and combines them in a fascinating way. She is smart, caring and sassy which hopefully points to a relationship with the Doctor which will be able to complex and not as emotionally limited as Davies always made them appear.
• The plot of this episode was standard Dr. Who, which was weird because Steven Moffat's episodes in the Davies era were so much better than the others. What Moffat brought though was a better attention to detail, and a tone that was more thoughtful, reflexive, and actually much more fun than much of the Davies era. I don't want to trash Davies, he did some things well, but this episode actually points out how much nicer it is to have someone who cares more about the "whole experience" in charge than someone who is always looking for "dramatic moments" which Davies was usually great at creating, but not sustaining. 
• I also really loved the new Tardis design. I was tired of the coral creepiness of the new series Tardis, which worked well to begin with, but should have been changed when Tennant replaced Eccleston anyway. I really hope we will spend more time exploring the Tardis this season too, there is a lot to explore within the ship and in its ability to sense the "trouble spots" in space. 
• I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season. There were plenty of hints about where things might be going in the "arc" and there is obviously something more to Amy Pond than we can even start to understand at this point. It is very awesome to think that this episode is setting up an entire season with three great new talents pouring all their powers into the show. Matt Smith has great potential to create a unique, but grounded Doctor, Karen Gillan is a marvelous companion, and Steven Moffat is a great writer who understands the power and uniqueness of the show. I can't wait for next week! (and I may not be able to, stupid waiting two weeks to see a show that has aired in Britain.)