I've just watched the eleventh hour again, and I noticed that Amy could remember her parents. It was mentioned that her mum used to cut faces in apples for her.

Least I think that's what was said, if I caught the dialogue correctly.

I was sure that her missing parents were put down to the crack making things vanish.

They were but like with Rory (photograph, engagement ring) little things were left behind.


So her mum probably cut a face into an apple just before she was erased by the Crack.


Young Amelia has the apple and remembers that her Mother made the face but nothing else.

It's possible you could ret-con some sort of reasoning for this but frankly I always just took this as a continuity mistake. Then again, Amy was still apparently grieving in some way for the erased Rory in 'Vincent and the Doctor' so you could probably get away with saying that vestiges of memory somehow remain. Personally, I still think its a mistake though

I caught the repeat last night and was struck by how young Matt Smith looked.
And, with the neatly coiffed floppy style of the last couple of years, I'd forgotten how messy his hair used to be. But Matt was totally the Doctor right from the word go. Great performance.

Watching it I thought the episode wasn't as clever as it thinks it is.

Aliens invade and The Doctor has a short time to thwart them.
It was basically the Judoon ep with regeneration trauma thrown in.

But I guess Moffat needed a basic trope threat when he had enough establishing going on, new Doctor, New Tardis, new companion, new style....maybe it was good the threat wasn't too complex.

Nice to see the Gamesmaster's avatar has updated to incorporate his entire body now though

There's no way it's the same apple - you know how quickly those things turn brown. Amelia remembered her mum doing it - just like later on Amy remembered that she should have parents, but can't remember who they are or what happened to them. She said her mum used to do it for her because she didn't like apples, so she did the same thing to try and make the Doctor like them.

It can't be a continuity error - they already made the point that Amelia was alone in the house without her parents, they wouldn't miss a line that specifically mentions them.

I think the episode overall is so-so but I always love an epic doctor speech, and his conversation with the big eye thing (sorry, I can't recall if they gave it a name) was pretty awesome, the whole 'is this world protected' then it scan's through all the info of the doctor and now in the know, cant wait to get out of there when matt says he is the doctor.

Never claimed it was the same apple just that Amys mum had done one just before she vanished which is why Amy remembered that particular thing.

It must've been the same apple. Amy couldn't have carved a face into it, herself. Not at 8 years old. And not that good. And, wouldn't the apple have gone brown, where it's been carved?

Surely it's illegal for anyone under the age of 16 to be left in the house on their own for more than two hours, at any one time?

Instead of her paretns she had an Aunt Sharon. Tabithas sister as Amys mum was english.
Funny how after a brief apperance in TBB her family was never mentioned again.
Seems Amy and Rory were closer to Brian. Seperate question where was Rorys mum ?.
Only thing we knewc about her was she liked Dusty Springfield 6.5 TRF. Wonder if they divorced or she died making Brian a widower.

I always think this episode sets up a lot but little is eventually delivered. For instance, none of the people in the village are ever seen again.

In terms of the new style of the episode - in particular the 3D freeze-frame on the common when the Doctor is analysing all the information around him - those innovations are dropped from Who and used later in Sherlock instead.

Wonderful episode, right up there for me and my favourite debut episode in all of Who. So far. Of course I hope one day to see if Power of the Daleks challenges it!

The Doctor has only been away for a few minutes after leaving Amelia, and he kept the apple "for later" so sure it's the same one.

I'm with you on this one. Don't see the confusion about the apple at all.

I do, however, wonder why we never saw Amy's parents again, her mum seemed the type who could do the occasional battle with the Doctor.

Maybe that was exactly the reason they didn't. Nine & Jackie hardly got on, Francine wanted nothing more than to get Martha away from Ten (down to misinformation admittedly) and Sylvia wasn't a Ten fan in the beginning either.

Little Amy could use a cooker to fry bacon and heat up beans, I'm sure she could use a knife and it wouldn't have to be extra sharp, it was hardly the work of Banksy! I could do all that at that age (supervised, admittedly).

I'm hardly old, yet I was able to be alone for more than 2 hours when I was younger than 16 - is that really a law? Surely the only danger is if you still stupid enough to throw a party and give out details beforehand on social media? You're not allowed to be alone for more than 2 hours, then the clock strikes twelve, you turn 16 and you're allowed to get married? Say what?!


I agree. As someone who was only interested in character development that happened due to travel on the TARDIS, I really didn't want to see yet more angst with the 'In Laws'. Wilf and Brian, as amiable blokes getting to know the Doctor themselves, unfettered by romantic tension, worked fine. Overprotective mother as shrew, not so much. Three times in four years? Sylvia being harsh towards her own family, as well as the Doctor, wasn't enough of a variation, imo.

Given that this suggests that she no longer hates apples, her mum would no longer be putting faces on them.

That was exactly the point. They should have been there - they weren't. A bit of a mention of an aunt - who also wasn't there - to put us off the scent. They had been erased, leaving Amelia and some anomalous memories behind. It was foreshadowing for Rory disappearing from Amy's life but leaving anomalies like the engagement ring and the picture behind.

The law is ambiguous on this particular issue.

When was it even implied she was alone? She lived with her aunt, and there was nothing to imply her aunt was absent from the house at the time of the Doctor's visit.

To be fair, I always thought she was alone, or anyone else in the house must be aVERY heavy sleeper!

It was actually stated that the Aunt was out never mind implied.

The Atraxi must be the most sensible race to threaten the destruction of the Earth in Who history.

The Doctor gives them one warning, which they take a few moments to consider, then scarper!

Just re-watched this, it's my first re-watch of this episode since the original air date.


Looking back on it with all the knowledge of what came after, I must say its still a brilliant episode. Loved it. My opinion

Fair enough; obviously, I didn't remember that detail. Still, she wasn't necessarily telling the truth. And even if she was, it kind of goes to show what kind of culture we're living in if some people think that is either a plot mistake or a case for social services.