Doctor Who's Eleventh Hour Screening and Q&A

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat

If you've ever been to a comic book convention (or a similar affair), you can imagine without much effort the atmosphere of the Doctor Who season premiere at the Village East Cinema last evening.

There were those who'd queued up since 6am for the chance to meet their new idols. They entertained themselves with toy props from the show: sonic screwdrivers and little remote-controlled Dalek figurines. There was also a slew of fans dressed up as their favorite characters. While waiting for the screening to begin we saw several Tennant and Tom Baker Doctors, a female Captain Jack, a female Eleven, and a saucy Amy in a police-constable uniform wandering around.

When the screening started, so did the screaming. There were cheers during the BBC America commercial; cheers for the first glimpse of Matt Smith's Eleven; cheers for the credits; cheers for the theme song; cheers for Karen Gillan's Amy Pond. One thing was certain: this was one appreciative crowd. Good thing, too, as Karen, Matt and show exec and head-writer, Steven Moffat, were watching the episode along with us.

The half-hour Q&A which followed the showing of The Eleventh Hour was not quite informative as hilarious. To recap: Matt had to eat 12 fish-sticks dipped in custard for one scene; Steven found many YouTube videos of people trying the fish-custard delicacy for themselves; if you want to know where Amy and Eleven's relationship is heading, keep watching!; writing, for Steven, is like a nervous breakdown that recurs every day; both Karen and Matt find the Steven-penned episode "Blink" to be their favorite Doctor Who episode ever; and Karen demurely declined to reveal whether she's a "chubby-chaser" or not (cue embarrassed laughter).

More adventure and scares are on the way and if you didn't make it to the screening, look to your BBC America channel this Saturday at 9pm EST when the time-traveling journey begins all over again.

-- OLGA BAS

Previously > Doctor Who: A Madman with a Box