Doctor Who: 17 Cool Details Steven Moffat Just Revealed About The Eleventh Hour
Amy Pond's final scene was in her first episode. Mind = blown.
While there aren't any brand-new episodes of Doctor Who airing at the moment (and in fact, we don't even know when it's scheduled to return), there are literally hundreds of great stories - both classic and modern - for fans to revisit in the meantime.
But instead of just rewatching random episodes on a whim, hardcore Whovians have gone one step further, organising huge global events wherein fans of the show rewatch a specific episode at a specific time, and these viewing parties have proven so popular that they've even attracted the attention of famous Doctor Who creatives, like former showrunners Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies.
Rewatch events have already taken place for The Day of the Doctor and Vincent and the Doctor, and now - to celebrate its tenth birthday - the Eleventh Doctor's debut episode, The Eleventh Hour, has been given the same treatment.
Stars Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill - as well as writer Moffat and director Adam Smith - all sent out tweets during the watch-along too, and as a result, we just learned a bunch of cool details about the writing and filming of the Raggedy Doctor's first ever episode. Fish fingers and custard, anyone?
17. The Show Originally Happened "In Amy's Head" (And The Opening Sequence Was Almost Different)
The episode opens with the TARDIS darting wildly over the London cityscape as the Doctor hangs out of its doors, clinging on for dear life. It's a very action-oriented and bombastic opening which, as Moffat tweeted, wasn't in the original script.
However, because David Tennant's final story had been such an epic one, Moffat (and executive producer Piers Wenger) decided that Matt Smith needed to start his tenure with a bit more of a big bang, and thus, the episode's pre-title sequence was born.
But what was planned originally? Well, Moffat revealed that the original script started with Amelia Pond's garden, before heading inside her house as she prayed to Santa. The camera then zoomed into her eye and transitioned to the titles, meaning that the whole show (or this individual series) would've taken place "in Amy's head".
Moffat is almost certainly being a little sarcastic with that last point, although the entirety of Series 5 being the dream of a young Amy Pond does sync up well with the idea that the Doctor is her imaginary friend, something that is actually brought up in this episode, and in later episodes.