Rate "The Impossible Astronaut"

And so Series 6 has now seen it's official commencement with Steven Moffat's "The Impossible Astronaut." Granted it's only half of a two part tale, but what did you think? Let's get some lively Wrinkly conversations going about the Stetsons being "cool."

*Note: this poll will officially open following transmission of the the episode in the UK. US audience members- beware of spoilers if you peruse this thread prior to BBC America transmission of the episode later in the day on Saturday, 04/23/2011.

It has kicked off in spectacular style!

Fantastic! Can't believe that start!

Oh yes. I'm more than suitably impressed.

Remarkably I got home for six o'clock (it's usually nearer seven) and was glad I did as I too very much enjoyed that. Nice to see the tribute to Elisabeth Sladen.

Yes, that tribute caption added a layer of poignancy to an episode already heavily laced with that particular emotion.

That was a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see how this gets sorted. I suspect we may have to wait until autumn for all the answers.

Meantime, Twitter has been full of tweets from relatively new fans, all caught up in the story already. So, working as intended and a source of joy and bafflement to all.

Excellent.

Agreed. We're not going to see the full canvas until the autumn - and that's fine by me if this kind of quality is maintained.

I had a caller at the door only seconds before it started, and then my next door neighbour wanted to speak to me about our connecting fence, so it was already 20 minutes in by the time I got in front of the tv, so I switched off until it had finished, and watched the whole thing from the start.. I can only say one word; WOW!!!

I sympathise, John, my brother phoned me just as the episode was beginning - I quite naturally hung up on him. I think the dead line jogged his memory of exactly what the significance of the day and time were.

3/5 at best. Nothing special - it was just stuff happening. Without emotion or consequence. A bit gimmicky.

A very interesting start. Need to see it again though before I can properly rate it.

Glad to hear about all the new fans, good stuff.

I've now dutifully watched it twice. My initial opinion remains unchanged.

I'm struggling to get through it a second time!

Fun, scary and intriguing. Exactly what WHO should be. Slow in Places but it is a two parter.

Let's call it an initial 4/5

I'm going to watch the re-broadcast at 10, but initial reactions...

The first ten minutes are stunning! I watched that boat pyre, turned to look at the clock, and realized only 11 minutes had passed. I was amazed.

You know, the pacing didn't bother me at all- gave me time to try and figure out narratively what is Moffat doing. I almost succeeded. Really, with the provocative plot points that got dangled in front of us, this series could go anywhere. Which is one of the reasons I love this show so much.

I'll vote after watching the re-broadcast, but I'm leaning towards a good, solid 4/5.

Rich Flair wrote:3/5 at best. Nothing special - it was just stuff happening. Without emotion or consequence. A bit gimmicky.

I thought it was a bit of a mess too - lots of fan bait, but it didn't really gel together as a coherent story for me.

i thought it was pretty good when it got going- i found the pre credits stuff a bit annoying though.

4.

Things I didn't like:

The Canton Delaware's dodgy accent - both of them

They gave a guy prosthetics to look like Nixon - and he didn't look like Nixon.

They killed off a Doctor from the future. Like they did 2 episodes ago in The Big Bang.

Timey-wimey is getting old.

The cliff-hanger

Things I liked:

Matt Smith

Some of the jokes.

My reasoning is pretty much identical to Patrick's right down the line. It gained the extra point to push it to a Captain Kirk by virtue of the direction, cinematography, impressive location work and production design.

For me personally it was quite simply an impressive opening episode. Not just by Who standards - but by the standards of any recent series.

I also thought it looked nice, and, like Depeche Mode, I enjoyed the Silence.

As far as comparisons to recent series openers, it was better than New Earth.

Rich Flair wrote:I also thought it looked nice, and, like Depeche Mode, I enjoyed the Silence.

As far as comparisons to recent series openers, it was better than New Earth.

It was a quantum leap in quality over New Earth, I'd go so far as to say, Rich. And agreed again - the Silence was a superbly realised piece of design.

Having seen it again, I think I'll give it a 4. Good visuals, nice location work and some interesting questions to wrestle with. I feel like the pacing is off here and there, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the episode.

Rich Flair wrote:The Canton Delaware's dodgy accent - both of them

I thought they both sounded fine. Inspired casting, using father and son. Canton was a highlight of the episode for me, especially the younger version's reaction to seeing the TARDIS interior.

You get the feeling that Mr. Moffatt has told us all to "Pay attention Class, there will be questions after Episodes 7 and 13."

The Browncoat Cat wrote:You get the feeling that Mr. Moffatt has told us all to "Pay attention Class, there will be questions after Episodes 7 and 13."

To be fair, the number of folks on Twitter who are saying things like "I don't understand what's happening" makes me think he may have overshot slightly.

On the other hand, this is the first chapter in a ten chapter story and you have to wonder about the attention span of folks who compare the first episode of the new season to the last episode in the final season of Lost.