The Eleventh Hour (TV story) . It was Matt Smith's first full story as the Doctor, as well as the debut of Karen Gillan as new companion Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as recurring character and future companion Rory Williams. It further debuted the presence of cracks in the universe, and sparked the beginning of a critical plot thread that trailed deep into the Eleventh Doctor's tenure with three words: . This was compounded by the mention of a Pandorica which was fated to open. It was also the public's first exposure to director. Adam Smith's work on a Doctor Who universe programme. ![]() A new title sequence by Framestore debuted with this episode, along with yet another Murray Goldtheme arrangement. The theme change, however, garnered significant public backlash in the United Kingdom, forcing the Doctor Who production team to respond to criticism in a long segment on the public comment programme, Points of View. The first minute of the episode was released as a special preview on the digital Red Button service a week before its first BBC One broadcast. However, he has little time to recover. With a mysterious crack in a little girl's wall and a missing alien prisoner, the Doctor is in for an adventure. However, with the TARDIS damaged and the sonic screwdriver destroyed, can the Doctor capture the rogue alien before its jailers burn Earth to a crisp? An explosion on the console inside causes the doors to unlock and the new Doctor to fall out, barely hanging onto the edge of the entrance. He tries to pull himself up as the TARDIS momentarily stabilises, though it is still heading downwards. Getting halfway in, he notices the TARDIS is heading straight for Big Ben; using the sonic screwdriver, he diverts the TARDIS just enough to miss the clock tower's spire. ![]() Pulling himself back in and locking the doors behind him, the Doctor sighs in relief. However, another explosion throws him as the TARDIS spins madly off into the distance. Suddenly, a crash outside catches her attention, and running to look, she sees the TARDIS lying sideways in her back garden, having crushed her shed on landing. She thanks Santa, and goes to investigate.
![]() In 1966, Charles Whitman, then 25, killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others from the University of Texas clock tower. The TARDIS doors swing open, and a grappling hook flies out, hooking onto a wheelbarrow. A soaking- wet Doctor struggles to pull himself out. He asks for an apple as they're the only thing he can think of; his regeneration is giving him a craving, which he's never had before. As he starts climbing out, he has a look down into the TARDIS, explaining that he'd had to climb up from the library. When Amelia points out that he's soaking wet, the Doctor explains that the swimming pool is also in the library right now. The Doctor has a momentary spasm, causing him to fall to the ground before breathing out a stream of golden energy. She asks him who he is, but the Doctor doesn't know yet himself; he's . Amelia tells him about the crack, and the Doctor introduces himself, informing her to do what he says and not wander off; he promptly walks into a tree and knocks himself down — . He then requests yoghurt, but spits it out as well. Amelia is confused, as the Doctor had said it was his favourite. The Doctor explains, . More food follows: bacon (. Searching Amelia's fridge, the Doctor rejects carrots (. During their conversation, the Doctor discovers Amelia Pond — a great name, according to the Doctor, . Upon learning that her aunt is out, the Doctor notes that because Amelia is neither afraid of him nor his strange arrival in her garden, it must be one hell of a scary crack in her wall. She also offers him an apple with a smiley face carved into it, like her mother used to make for her to help her like them. Upon inspecting the crack closer, the Doctor is astonished to hear a voice on the other side of the crack transmitting the message, . The message reads the same thing: . Before he can discover it, though, the Cloister Bell chimes. Amelia wonders how a box can have engines, and the Doctor tells her his TARDIS is a time machine. She asks to come with him, but the Doctor says it's too dangerous now, and he'll do so after taking a quick five- minute trip into the future to begin repairs. Excited, the little girl returns to her bedroom to collect her things, not noticing that the door at the end of the corridor — the thing the Doctor was missing — has opened.. He rushes back into the house, having figured out what he was missing and knowing that Amelia's life is in danger. The Doctor tries opening the door at the end of the corridor with the sonic, yelling that Prisoner Zero is there with them. He suspects someone is behind him and turns around, only to be whacked on the head with a cricket bat. She dismisses the idea, drawling that they are comatose. As she berates him, the patients repeatedly cry out . He inquires where Amelia Pond is, only for the police woman to angrily inform him Amelia hasn't lived there for six months, and that she lives here now. Rory attempts to inform his supervisor of other suspicious circumstances pertaining to the coma patients, even proffering his phone with the suggestion that the pictures on it can prove his theory. She impatiently orders him to take some time off. Ignoring the Doctor's warnings, she enters the sixth room. The Doctor checks his pockets for the sonic screwdriver, finding it's not with him. He yells for her to check and see if it's in there; it could've rolled under the door when she hit him. ![]() The sonic is there, but is stuck in a puddle of goo on the table. She yells to him that it . The woman picks up the sonic, but senses something is in the room with her. The Doctor orders her not to try looking at it as it will kill her if she sees it. Despite the warning, the policewoman manages to trick Prisoner Zero into revealing himself, seeing it's a serpentine alien multi- form. The Doctor locks the door with the screwdriver and tries to free himself, but the thing is damaged from the goo. 9.1 PREPAREDNESS AS OF SEPTEMBER 11. Emergency response is a product of preparedness. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the last best hope. The young woman asks if the door will hold Prisoner Zero, making the Doctor retort, . The Doctor doesn't know, but tells her to run and radio for backup. However, the woman reveals herself to be a kissogram, whipping off her police hat to reveal long, red hair. Prisoner Zero breaks through the door, emerging as a man with a dog; both mouths bark, much to the Doctor's amusement as it's having trouble figuring out which mouths are supposed to make the correct sounds. He then wonders where he would have gotten the pattern from as it would need to form a psychic link with someone, which takes years. He informs the alien the young woman called for backup on her police radio, but she reminds him that she can't; the Doctor explains in annoyance it was a clever lie to save them. He then says that without any backup, they pose no threat. The Doctor decides to try one more time, telling Prisoner Zero that the he and the woman are safe due to the jailers coming for it. However, the prison guard is heard transmitting over and over: . The Doctor tries opening the TARDIS for equipment, but the doors won't open as it's still repairing itself. Suddenly, the Doctor notices the shed in the backyard, remembering he wrecked it when he previously crash- landed in the backyard. Licking it, he realises this . He turns to the woman, demanding to know why she told him six months when it had really been twelve years; she angrily demands to know, . The Doctor can only ask, ! Grabbing his arm, she pulls him out of the yard and towards town. She bit them all when they told her he wasn't real. Their argument is cut short when they suddenly realise that the Atraxi message is broadcasting over all of the town's electronics, including mobile phones, i. Pods, even the speaker of an ice cream van. The Doctor sees the Atraxi are not focused on simply Amelia's house as the . The Doctor uses the psychic paper to pass himself off as a television repair man. Mrs Angelo thinks she's met the Doctor before, but the Doctor tells her it's not likely, seeing as he's got a new face on. The Doctor then examines the TV and radio stations around the world with help from his sonic screwdriver, and realises, to his horror, that the warning is being broadcast all over the world in every language. The human residence is not just Amelia's town, but the entire planet! The Doctor deduces that the Atraxi will need twenty minutes, prompting Amelia to ask what for. While the Doctor begins thinking of a plan, everyone else watches the Atraxi message replay on the television in disbelief. However, it would seem they will never be able to find it on their own as they keep re- sending the message. According to the Doctor, the Atraxi followed him, which is why they are late to find Prisoner Zero; they either mistook him for Prisoner Zero in disguise and tracked him through the message they sent to his psychic paper, or thought he knew where the culprit was hiding. The Doctor is disappointed that, not only does she kiss people for a living, but she also dropped the name Amelia for Amy, citing its fairy tale quality — which the Doctor complimented on their last meeting — as its worst point. In the middle of remarking about a duck pond without ducks, the Doctor suddenly convulses and falls to the ground, protesting that it is . Suddenly, though, everything goes dark. The Atraxi have surrounded Earth in a force field to prepare the planet for boiling. Across the park, the Doctor notices Rory taking pictures of a man with a dog — whom the Doctor knows as Prisoner Zero — as opposed to the obscured sun, like everyone else. Amy opts for a different option entirely: she slams the Doctor up against a nearby car, and locks his tie in the door, trapping him. She demands to know who he is, to which he tells her that she already knows. However, Amy doesn't believe him now since she grew up; disheartened, the Doctor says she should never do that. The Doctor tosses her the carved apple, explaining that he's a time traveller, and everything he told her twelve years ago is true. The Republican Plan to Kill the Open Internet. New FCC chair Ajit Pai has been clear that he intends to take a “weed whacker” to net neutrality regulations, but he’s been very reluctant to open up about how exactly he’s going to go about slicing them to bits. Weed Whacker wants to dismantle net neutrality, he’s got quite a battle ahead of him. What is net neutrality, again? Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers should provide equal access to all lawful content on the internet, meaning no blocking sites and no speeding up or slowing down traffic to certain sites depending on whether they’re a competitor or not, for example. That isn’t just an abstract threat: Comcast really did slow down traffic to Netflix a few years ago until Netflix paid the company to restore full speeds. Unsurprisingly, rules protecting net neutrality have been opposed by internet service providers (ISPs) and their trade groups, and supported by websites like Netflix and Google and their trade groups. Generally, ISPs have argued net neutrality rules “stifle innovation” and force them to increase costs. Net neutrality’s supporters, meanwhile, argue that net neutrality is necessary to preserve the open and democratic character of the internet, and warn that without strong net neutrality rules, “ISPs can prevent users from visiting some websites,” or “even redirect users from one website to a competing website.” The basic principles of net neutrality were enshrined in law by Obama’s FCC in 2. Open Internet Order. There are two basic bits to this. First, the order reclassified broadband providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, which took them out of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jurisdiction and put them under the FCC’s purview. Common carriers are services that carry traffic “without discrimination or interference, like telephone service.” (This is why you often hear that the order classified ISPs as utilities. That description isn’t quite accurate, but it is basically right.) Second, the order established “bright line” rules about things internet providers couldn’t do, such as paid prioritization or blocking for certain websites. What’s Pai planning to do to net neutrality? According to Reuters, Pai’s plan would involve overturning the classification of broadband providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act, which would return regulatory oversight of ISPs to the FTC. Pai also hopes to get ISPs to sign a voluntary agreement not to abuse their their control over your internet in the absence of net neutrality regulations. Unfortunately, Pai hasn’t deigned to tell the ol’ regular public, or really anyone who isn’t a lobbyist, many details about the plan yet. It was reportedly outlined in a meeting with telecom trade groups last week, but none of those groups have filed anything with the FCC about what was discussed. From what’s been reported, it seems the strategy resembles one outlined by broadband industry- and- Koch- brothers- funded think tank Tech. Freedom in November, when its president told PC World that the industry would likely promote a voluntary agreement plan promising no blocking of traffic, with FTC, not FCC, enforcement. Uncanny! What’s the problem with his plan? Even if ISPs signed onto a voluntary agreement, putting ISPs under FTC jurisdiction would essentially mean that nothing could be done to stop abuses until they’ve already happened. The FTC enforces rules through court cases against violators, while the FCC seeks to stop abuses through preventative rules. And any enforcement would probably happen years after abuses come to light—the FTC’s case against Vizio for spying on customers’ viewing habits in 2. February of this year. The Democratic commissioner on the FTC, Terrell Mc. Sweeny, told Ars Technica this week that the FTC would struggle to enforce net neutrality principles because it’s “not a very big agency,” and “can’t act on every single complaint.”And a voluntary agreement with ISPs, as you might imagine, would lack teeth. Josh Stager, Policy Counsel at the Open Technology Institute, told Gizmodo the idea of such a voluntary agreement was a “joke” and a “bait- and- switch.” If ISPs violated their voluntary promises, customers would lack real recourse—not just because so few Americans have a choice of broadband provider, but because most broadband contracts include a mandatory arbitration clause, which makes it “virtually impossible” to participate in class action lawsuits against ISPs. Kate Forcsey, Government Affairs Associate Counsel at Public Knowledge, told Gizmodo that this kind of agreement is tantamount to parents telling children there will be a bedtime, “but you get to choose when that bedtime is” and “we’re not going to check if you actually go to bed when you say you will.”Will this work? Despite having a solid 2- 1 majority on the FCC in his favor and the backing of the immensely powerful ISP lobby, Pai will still have a tough time getting this done. Rolling back the Title II classification would likely require a rulemaking proceeding, which involves enduring lengthy comment period—when the Open Internet Order was under consideration in 2. If that happens again, Pai could legally ignore all those comments, but it would make it politically harder for him and for net neutrality’s opponents to steam ahead. Gigi Sohn, a former counsel to ex- FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, told Gizmodo that “all hell is going to break loose” if Pai does open up the rollback to a full proceeding of the commission, comments and all. As she told the Wall Street Journal last week, protests over rolling back net neutrality could be even bigger than the fight over SOPA- PIPA, a widely- hated anti- piracy bill that died due to public outcry in 2. Another hurdle for Pai is Chevron vs. NRDC, a relatively obscure court case, which established a principle known as “Chevron deference.” That means courts will generally defer to an agency’s interpretation of a vague statute—in this case, the FCC’s interpretation of the Telecommunications Act, when it reclassified internet providers as common carriers. That means for Pai to overturn net neutrality through FCC rulemaking, and for that rule to stand up in court after an inevitable challenge by proponents, he’ll need a good argument for why the FCC was wrong in 2. Open Technology’s Stager said that’ll be a tough argument to make, because “realistically, nothing about the nature of broadband service has changed in the past two years. Practically speaking, the only change is that we have a new administration.” Having a new president isn’t enough to make that argument. Sohn told Gizmodo that she thinks a Title II reversal only has about a 2. So we’re good then? Not exactly. After all, why would Pai go with such a risky strategy? Why waste time and political capital on an unpopular rule that’s likely to be overturned? Pai is a smart man; surely he knows this? That’s why some—including Stager, former FCC counselor Sohn, and telecom sources who spoke to Bloomberg in February—suggest that Pai’s plan might actually be a ploy to pressure Democrats into compromising on net neutrality legislation in Congress. There’s been chatter for a while—particularly from Commerce Committee chair and Republican senator John Thune—about passing a bill through Congress to “codify” net neutrality principles with new legislation. Bill Nelson of Florida, has already said he supports a bipartisan legislative fix. It’s a smart play for opponents of net neutrality. Having a Republican majority in both houses means it’s very likely that any law would be much more favorable to ISPs than the 2. FCC order was. Most people who advocate for new legislation about net neutrality legislation are opponents, like Tech. Freedom, which once said net neutrality regulation was “probably illegal.” That should tell you a lot about whether legislation is likely to favor ISPs or consumers. But there’s hope for net neutrality advocates. For a start, it’s clear Pai knows that net neutrality is a politically touchy issue, and that supporters are well- organized and very, very loud. That’s why he has always said he supports net neutrality, just not Title II, which, coincidentally, is the exact position of the main ISP lobby group: Back in 2. Internet and Television Association (NCTA) said its decision to appeal the rules actually had “nothing to do with net neutrality.” Pai was on the FCC when those 3. You’d be forgiven for being terrified about what’s going to happen to net neutrality after the the bill overturning ISP privacy rules passed so quickly; most Americans had no idea it was even being debated until it was already too late. Those rules were overturned using the Congressional Review Act, meaning the bill didn’t have to be debated in committee and only had to get 5. But a net neutrality bill can’t be done through this fast- tracked method, because the CRA only applies to rules enacted in the last six months of an administration; they can’t just take it out and shoot it in the yard at 4am. The longer it’s debated, the more time there is for advocacy groups to rally public opinion and action against the bill. If we’re lucky, Democrats might just figure that out.
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