Our poor Doctor. He’s so harangued by River Song. LOL. Even the brief, surprise greeting of, “Hello, Sweetie,” elicits such a hangdog response that you just want to put your arm around The Doctor and tell him that everything will be okay. Being out of the loop, I had no idea there was a current running through fandom with theories about River. I’m pretty bad to take a plot point at face value and just let the story play out, but now I’m dying to get into the conspiracy theorists’ minds.

That’s the big difference with the new series; it’s smarter. Certainly not to disparage RTD’s helm, which was still largely better than anything else on television, but the nuances now are just a bit more mature and cerebral. Perhaps the least cerebral clue, as I mentioned before, is “The Crack” and though I did not spot the crack in the episode, it’s FINALLY being seen by The Doctor in the preview for next week’s episode. Next week’s episode, by the way, looks to be full of excitement, and motion, and intrigue.

In what I consider to be the mark of greatness for a show, a Twitter friend of mine is just getting into Doctor Who, and I’m proud to have him jump on board with Eleven and Amy. Welcome to the greatest show on Earth. Or Gallifrey. Or Raxacoricofallapatorius. Or, well, you get the picture. With The Doctor and the TARDIS, anything is possible!

I love this show. This Doctor has surpassed the last one in every single way for me, even though I can see shades of similarity between the two. When he exclaims, “TARDIS, bang bang; Daleks, BOOM!” he takes what feels like a Ten line and elevates it to a level of sheer brilliance. Well played, Eleven! Well played, indeed.

I feel a bit guilty about “finding” the crack this episode since it STARES US IN THE FACE. Heh. No “Spot the Observer” Fringe level of difficulty here, guys. The clue is right here, in plain, unobstructed view for all to see. I guess I’m not going to complain because with a thread this blatant, the pay off is going to have to deliver the goods. Got that Doctor Who team?? We are expecting greatness (and I have no doubt we’ll get it, too!).

We got precious few teaser images of the new Doctor Who Series 5 before it premiered last week. One of the scarier images was that of The Smilers. As it turns out, the Smilers aren’t nearly as dangerous as I thought they would be. Relief!

What is scary, however, is the crack. The crack in Amy’s wall is now on the platform of the UK. We saw Prisoner Zero slip through the crack with terrible consequences, and now that we’ve seen the crack again, we have to fear what it is and what’s behind it. Is it related to The Silence? Is the color of the crack significant in light of (PUN!) last week’s observation about the blue lens flare/mystery light with The Doctor and Amy?

However, this is the biggest question on my mind: Is The Doctor following the crack, or is the crack following The Doctor?