It's hard to believe the same man who penned the mind-bending masterpiece "Heaven Sent", my favorite Doctor Who episode in its franchise, wrote this dull debut episode. Debut episodes are supposed to draw you in and leave you wanting more or at least peak your interest. This did neither for me. How to make a time-traveling love story boring? Cast two leads with no chemistry. At least, Theo James is likeable. Rose Leslie comes off as angry half the time. Where's the love, passion or longing? Instead you get the juvenile "it's complicated" line. Adults should be able to express themselves. What's this teenage, lazy, generic "it's complicated" explanation? It explains nothing. Where's the science? How does Theo James' Henry talk to younger and older versions of himself? There aren't parallel worlds with different Henrys. In the last 20 minutes, some man-bashing/feminist talk rears its ugly head. There's some other agenda pushing, some blatant, some subtle. And the show desperately tries to justify its MA-Rating with forced vulgar language and an overly nude Theo James. I never thought too much of a naked Theo James would get boring. He's been hot since the Underworld movies. He time-travels and arrives naked. We get. We get it. You can film a man naked without showing him butt-naked like 2009's PG-13 movie did. I've never read the book. I liked the movie, but I loved the leads, so Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams drove that movie for me. Nothing is driving this show. For the first time, Steven Moffat wrote and produced something that made me feel nothing.
Review of Episode #1.1
