Doctor Who is back – and here two of the Shropshire Star’s biggest Gallifrey geeks discuss Matt Smith’s first outing in the big blue box.  What did you think? Add your comments

Trust him – he’s not just a doctor, he’s THE Doctor, writes David Burrows.

When, at the age of just 26, Matt Smith was named as the new name to take over one of the most iconic roles on British television, the doubters and naysayers descended like a pack of Judoon.

Smith is the youngest ever actor to inhabit the Tardis, so how could he possibly convince in the role of the 900-year-old Time Lord?

Well, after the weekend’s opening salvo, there’s your answer: as easily as opening a door with a sonic screwdriver.

Smith, in the Easter special which marked the start of the new series of Doctor Who, was simply superb.

Which is just as well as the odds seemed stacked against him.

Let’s not forget he was taking over the role from David Tennant, recently voted the best Doctor of all time (and all of space as well, probably).

And what’s more, Tennant brought a whole new army of fans to the Doctor Who universe for very different reasons. Put simply, a lot of people fancy him.

But it’s hard to see how the series opener could have gone any better.

Smith’s performance was spot on.  A little manic at the start: “Can I have an apple? Maybe I’m having a craving. Never had a craving before,” before becoming more assured and, well, Time Lord-y as the show progressed.

And there is an obvious chemistry between Smith and co-star Karen Gillan as new companion Amy Pond.

Cleverness, too, on the part of new head honcho Steven Moffat. He seems to have decided that Smith’s character should start out being not too dissimilar in personality to Tennant’s, but with enough eccentricities of his own to suggest a gradual phasing into the new Doctor rather than the jolting transformations we’ve been used to in the past, giving audiences chance to get used to him.

It wasn’t just the character either: there were also some nice touches borrowed from Tennant’s stint as the Time Lord (Smith using the phrase “Timey wimey” and opening the doors to the Tardis with a click of his fingers).

And what of the problem of his age?

Again not a problem, and for three very good reasons: One, Smith’s distinguishing features actually make him look, if anything, older than Tennant;  Two, there was enough in Smith’s performance to suggest he would be more mad professor than enthusiastically child-like (even if he did tell Amy she should never grow up because it was a bad thing) and three, the new look. By the end of the episode he looked every inch the 1930s Cambridge professor, even exclaiming that bow ties were cool. He just looks older than Tennant’s Doctor.

Can Matt Smith cut it? Oh yes indeed.

How good is he?

“You’re worse than my aunt.”

“I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everyone’s aunt!”

That good.

Ooh deary me, writes Andrew Owen. And it started so well.

Now, before I begin, I’ll  be honest. When Christopher Eccleston was chosen to bring the Doctor back to life, I was the one saying, ‘Naah, he’ll be rubbish.’

I was wrong.

When David Tennant was chosen to be the 10th Doctor, I was the one saying, ‘What? Who? Him? Who? Naah?’

I was wrong again.

And when Matt Smith was chosen to replace Tennant, I thought, ‘Naah, far too young. It’s going to be like Smallville, with an adolescent doctor in charge. It’s Doogie Howser with a sonic screwdriver.’

So, and without wishing to do any harm to Matt Smith’s future career, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I thought he was excellent. I didn’t think of David Tennant once; Smith played the role as if to the manor born. He simply became The Doctor.

That’s his career ruined, then. They’ll probably cancel the next series now, and it’s all my fault.

But, putting aside praise for the new Doctor, let’s be honest – that opening episode was a right pile of old cobblers, wasn’t it?

And yet, as I said earlier, it started so well. The Doctor crash-lands The Tardis into the young Amy Pond’s garden shed and, like in a fairy tale, she takes in this strange visitor and ends up feeding him custard and fish fingers. Before he disappears again he tells her he’ll return in five minutes – but it’s years before he makes good his promise.

Now, this was wonderful stuff – well-written and well-acted, and it would take a writer of some considerable brilliance to take this opening and cock it up.

So step forward Steven Moffat. Take a bow.

I imagine the production meeting went something like this:

Production team: “Steve, like the script, and really love the character stuff you’ve written. But where’s the alien?”

Moffat: “Damn. Knew I’d forgotten something. Tell you what, give me five minutes and I’ll scribble something out on this old fag packet.”

Production team: “Nice one. It’ll look really tacked on, but if we shove in loads of babbled dialogue nobody’ll clock a thing. My God, we’re clever.”

This is the thing Dr Who does really, really well: it overdoes it. It gets too pleased with itself. Think the Tardis towing the earth back across the universe, flying buses, or Tennant’s swansong with its coven of witches, or whatever they were supposed to be, raising the Master from the dead in some bizarre ceremony, and the Master then developing the ability to fire energy bolts and jump like a grasshopper. (Did anybody think that was a good idea?) I know it’s a Saturday night kids’ TV show, a bit of escapism, but I think we deserve a bit better.

So the aliens came. Who were they? What did they want? Search me, because by now we were back into frantic chase sequences and spaceships. Characterisation and any sense of drama went out of the window. Instead things just went mad. This was the mistake Russell T Davies always made during his tenure as Dr Who’s grand fromage: the series works when it has one foot based in a believable reality; when it throws that away completely it becomes – dare I say it – a bit stupid. (Yes, I know I’m writing earnestly about a 900-year-old character who travels through time and space in a police box, but if you watch episodes such as Human Nature, when the Doctor becomes mortal and experiences love and loss, you’ll see what this series is capable of.)

And then, after a woefully underdeveloped climax, it was over. The aliens went home and Amy Pond finally got to enter the police box and collect her golden ticket to the stars.

The trailer for what’s in store promised some decent entertainment ahead.

But don’t worry – I’m sure they’ve found some clever way to ruin it.