In the English village of Leadworth, a Scottish girl named Amelia Pond is frightened by a strange crack in her bedroom wall. When the newly-regenerated Doctor crashlands in her back garden, he discovers that the crack is really a fracture in space and time, through which an alien criminal has escaped. Before the Doctor can recapture Prisoner Zero, he's forced to leave to stabilise the TARDIS. When he returns, he inadvertently does so twelve years after his previous visit. Now, with the help of a grown-up Amy, the Doctor must contend not only with the shape-shifting Prisoner Zero, but with its ruthless Atraxi jailers as well.

Having agreed to become Doctor Who's next executive producer and showrunner on September 26th, 2007, Steven Moffat's thoughts quickly turned to the shape of his first season. The Doctor's last regular companion, Donna Noble, had left the TARDIS at the end of Season Thirty's Journey's End. Furthermore, it seemed likely that David Tennant would be giving up the role of the Tenth Doctor in the last of a series of specials which would bridge the gap until Moffat took over with Season Thirty-One. As such, he anticipated introducing an entirely new regular cast.

Since Doctor Who's return in 2005, a story arc had been loosely threaded through each season. In every instance but one, the season premiere had also seen a new companion board the TARDIS. However, these two events had heretofore proved largely unrelated. By contrast, Moffat wanted to establish a firm connection between Season Thirty-One's linking elements and the latest companion -- a character who, at this point, was called Lucy Sparrow. In particular, Lucy would be introduced as a child who had become frightened of a crack on her bedroom wall; this element was inspired by Moffat's observation that a crack on his young son Louis' wall resembled a crooked smile. In Lucy's case, however, the crack would turn out to be the manifestation of a disruption in the very fabric of space and time. Its cause would be related to a terrible war, in which the Doctor would become trapped during the season finale -- seemingly irrevocably.

Steven Moffat wanted the Eleventh Doctor to be at the forefront of the entire adventure

Around late December, Moffat began writing Season Thirty-One's opening episode, which he dubbed “The Doctor's Return”. He was keen to develop a narrative which was very different from The Christmas Invasion, the 2005 Christmas special which had introduced Tennant's Doctor. Instead of the story being carried by recurring characters while the Doctor slept in a regenerative coma, Moffat wanted the Eleventh Doctor to be at the forefront of the entire adventure. The fast-paced tempo would provide neither the Doctor nor the audience with the opportunity to reflect on the regeneration's outcome until the episode's closing minutes, by which time the new incarnation would be well-established. Indeed, the Doctor would spend almost the whole of the proceedings still dressed in his predecessor's clothes.

Another reason to focus on the Doctor was because -- unlike Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith in The Christmas Invasion -- the Eleventh Doctor's debut would feature no other recognisable characters. As a result, Moffat introduced the device of the Doctor encountering Lucy at several points in her life: childhood, early adulthood, and finally the day before her wedding. It would quickly establish an inextricable bond between the two characters, and ensure that the main part of the narrative included someone who was already familiar with the Doctor.

During the early months of 2008, however, Moffat had to reconsider his plans, when Tennant informed him that he was contemplating remaining on Doctor Who. Moffat's alternative was for the story to begin with the young Lucy meeting a Tenth Doctor on the verge of regeneration, as a result of the events which would ultimately be depicted during the season finale. A slightly younger Doctor would then be baffled and intrigued after meeting an adult Lucy who already seemed to know him. However, on April 16th, these contingency plans were rendered unnecessary when Tennant informed Moffat that he was indeed leaving Doctor Who in the last of the specials, The End Of Time.

Moffat completed an initial draft of “The Doctor's Return” around early August. With the Tenth Doctor's companions -- Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble -- having all hailed from London, he deliberately chose a sleepy rural hometown for Lucy in order to provide some interesting variety. Moffat briefly considered placing the village of Leadworth somewhere in Scotland, but it was eventually situated in Gloucestershire. His perception of Lucy was influenced by Wendy Darling, the heroine of JM Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its many subsequent adaptations. Both would leave home, clad only in a nightdress, to have adventures in faraway lands with an impish figure. Like Wendy, whose time with Peter Pan allowed her to temporarily stave off her entry into womanhood, Lucy's travels in the TARDIS would initially permit her to delay the implied maturity which accompanied her wedding.

The Doctor's invention of fish fingers and custard was an homage to AA Milne's The House At Pooh Corner

The door hidden behind a perception filter in Aunt Sharon's house was inspired by one of Moffat's recurring childhood dreams, in which he imagined his grandmother's home to have an additional room which did not exist in real life. Moffat found his way into the Eleventh Doctor's character by drawing upon AA Milne's 1928 children's book The House At Pooh Corner -- specifically the scene in which Tigger claimed to love all types of food, only to reject each offered meal until he finally discovered that he enjoyed baby Roo's extract of malt. The Doctor's invention of fish fingers and custard was an homage to Milne's story.

In late 2008, Moffat found his Eleventh Doctor in the form of Matt Smith. Then, in May 2009, Karen Gillan was cast as the new companion. Over the following weeks, her character was renamed Amy Pond, while their debut adventure became The Eleventh Hour. To help Smith and Gillan find their feet on Doctor Who, it was decided that the production of their introductory episode would be deferred until partway through the Season Thirty-One recording calendar. It would wind up as the fifth episode to be made, forming Block Three of the shooting schedule. Assigned to direct was Adam Smith; he had just completed work on Block One, which consisted of episodes four and five, the two-part The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone.

A crucial piece of casting for The Eleventh Hour was the role of Rory Williams, a character who would recur throughout Season Thirty-One. Amongst those who auditioned for the part was Jacob Anderson, who would later play Vinder, ally of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor, in 2021's Flux and 2022's The Power Of The Doctor. The successful candidate was Arthur Darvill, who had acted with Matt Smith in the 2007 stage play Swimming With Sharks, and had been directed by Adam Smith in episodes of the 2008 adaptation of Little Dorrit. His involvement was later announced on February 3rd, 2010, in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. Meanwhile, a particular challenge was finding a red-headed juvenile actress to play the young Amelia Pond, especially since she would need to have an accent resembling Gillan's Inverness brogue. Finally, Gillan nominated her nine-year-old cousin, Caitlin Blackwood. The two had never met -- Blackwood having been raised in Ireland -- but Gillan knew that she suited the production team's requirements. Although she had no prior acting experience, Blackwood's audition went well, and she was duly cast as Amelia. The readthrough for The Eleventh Hour would, in fact, mark the first time that the two cousins were together in one place.

Recording for The Eleventh Hour began on September 24th, 2009 at Doctor Who's regular studio home in Upper Boat; ironically, the closing material on the new TARDIS set was the order of the day. Cast and crew remained at Upper Boat on the 25th for scenes in Jeff's bedroom. Into this footage would be incorporated specially-filmed material involving Doctor Who's latest celebrity cameo: Sir Patrick Moore, an astronomer who had hosted The Sky At Night for the BBC since 1957. On September 26th, cast and crew headed out on location, with St Cadoc's Hospital in Caerleon providing Royal Leadworth Hospital's exterior, locker room and reception area. The same day, shots of the Doctor in the fire engine and Rory in his car were completed along the A48 in Newport.

Playing the mother was Olivia Colman, who would go on to be a three-time Academy Award nominee

Sunday the 27th was a day off, after which the team spent September 28th at the Johnsey Estates, part of the Mamhilad Park Industrial Estate in Pontypool, for sequences on the hospital roof. On the 29th, the White House in Cardiff offered a space suitable as Mrs Angelo's living room. Aunt Sharon's home was actually the Vicarage at Rhymney, with the focus on September 30th being material in Prisoner Zero's hidden lair. The week's work concluded on October 1st and 2nd at Abertillery Hospital in Aberbeeg, for material in the coma ward and the corridor beyond. Playing the minor role of the mother imitated by Prisoner Zero was Olivia Colman. At this point sufficiently unknown for her surname to be misspelt “Coleman” in the closing credits, she would soon thereafter become the breakout star of programmes such as Twenty Twelve, Broadchurch and The Crown. Colman would also go on to be a three-time Academy Award nominee, earning the trophy as Best Actress for 2018's The Favourite.

From October 5th to 7th, the Llandaff district of Cardiff was dressed as Leadworth for scenes in and around the village green. Unfortunately, the production was hampered by torrential rain, forcing some shots to be curtailed or reimagined. A major set piece on the first day was the Doctor's point-of-view recall of the activity on the green. This was accomplished using a technique called Roaming Eye, which involved Anthony Dickenson and Dan Lowe of Partizan Lab taking hundreds of individual photographs which would be edited together to comprise the sequence. An element of the Doctor's confrontation with Prisoner Zero which did not make it into the shooting script saw him explain to the alien that the sonic screwdriver was not a weapon, but a tool for removing screws at a distance... at which point a bandstand several metres away suddenly collapsed.

Elsewhere on October 6th, a brand-new Doctor Who logo was revealed. This was part of a plan by Moffat and his fellow executive producers, Piers Wenger and Beth Willis, to completely refresh the programme's visual presentation. A centrepiece of the new design was that the “D” and “W” could be tilted and collapsed together, forming a recognisable TARDIS shape.

Back at the Vicarage, scenes inside and on the grounds of Aunt Sharon's house were filmed from October 8th to 15th, except for a rest day on Sunday the 11th. The first day saw the Doctor devouring fish fingers which were actually made from coconut sponge. Various inserts were also taped on the 12th, 13th and 14th. Principal photography ended back at Abertillery Hospital, where more material on the coma ward was completed on October 16th and 19th, bookending a weekend off. Nina Wadia was cast as Dr Ramsden for the last day at Aberbeeg, despite the character being conceived as male. The final shots required for The Eleventh Hour were close-ups of the Doctor driving the fire engine. They were taped against a green screen at Upper Boat on November 18th. By now, however, it had been decided to revise the Doctor's confrontation with Prisoner Zero on the Leadworth Green. As a result, Smith, Gillan and Darvill returned to Llandaff on November 20th.

One of Moffat's concerns about The Eleventh Hour was that there was a disconnect between the raucous conclusion of The End Of Time and the appearance of the TARDIS in Amelia's back garden at the start of the season premiere. He felt that the new Doctor's first adventure should instead open with an exciting action sequence. During the last weeks of 2009, Moffat wrote additional material for the beginning of The Eleventh Hour, in which the Doctor tried to control the crashing TARDIS only to be flung through the open doors. As such, on January 7th, 2010, the aerial view of London was captured by helicopter. Adam Smith then returned on January 10th to record new footage of the Doctor against a green screen and on the old TARDIS set which still stood at Upper Boat. Nikki Wilson, who had produced 2009's The Waters Of Mars, filled the same role for this extra material, and she was duly thanked in the closing credits.

On March 18th, Piers Wenger confirmed that Doctor Who would return for 13 more episodes in 2011

The BBC planned a massive build-up to the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour, including a specially-filmed 3D cinema trailer and a bus tour on which Smith and Gillan hosted sneak previews of the episode for schoolchildren at a number of venues throughout the UK. On March 18th, Wenger unveiled the new TARDIS console room to the press; at the same time, he confirmed that Doctor Who would return for a Christmas special and then thirteen more episodes in 2011. One of the final elements to be added to The Eleventh Hour was the new title sequence, for which the time vortex had been reconceptualised. It was accompanied by Murray Gold's latest rearrangement of the Doctor Who theme music.

Since 2005, each Doctor Who season premiere had aired within a couple of weeks of the Easter holiday, and The Eleventh Hour was no different. It debuted at 6.20pm on April 3rd -- Easter Saturday -- in an extra-length sixty-five-minute time slot. Doctor Who's lead-in was the third season of the game show Total Wipeout, and it was followed by the Andrew Lloyd Webber reality competition Over The Rainbow. When those watching the broadcasts on BBC One and BBC HD were tallied together, the audience for The Eleventh Hour exceeded ten million viewers. Not only did this make Doctor Who the third-most-watched programme of the week, but it bested the ratings of Tennant's first outing in The Christmas Invasion. The Eleventh Hour also set a new record after being streamed 1.3 million times over the course of the following week via the BBC's iPlayer internet service. The Eleventh Doctor's much-anticipated era was finally under way, and it was off to an impressive start. Geronimo!

• Doctor Who Magazine #570, October 2021, “Out Of The TARDIS: Jacob Anderson” by Paul Kirkley, Panini UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #26, 30th December 2010, “The Eleventh Hour” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #63, 2017, “Story 203: The Eleventh Hour”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.