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Historical Record
On 3 April 2010, the village of Leadworth becomes the center of a planetary security incident within hours of the Doctor's latest regeneration. The TARDIS arrives in damaged condition and crash lands near the home of a young Amelia Pond. She is the first local witness to the new Doctor and the first person to show him the crack in her bedroom wall, a fracture he immediately identifies as something more dangerous than structural damage. Even at this early stage, the event combines domestic detail with cosmic threat. A village child, a damaged time machine, and a crack in a bedroom wall turn out to be linked to an escaped prisoner from beyond Earth.
The Doctor leaves almost at once, promising Amelia that he will return in five minutes. He does return, but the delay is not five minutes. It is twelve years. By then Amelia is Amy Pond, an adult living in Leadworth and carrying the social consequences of having told people about the strange man who came to her house as a child. The Doctor's reappearance transforms an old private story into an active investigation. He discovers that Prisoner Zero has been hiding in Amy's home behind a perception filter, using the crack as cover and route. The threat is not passive. The Atraxi, an interstellar law enforcement force, are already searching for their escaped prisoner and place Earth under immediate threat if the fugitive is not surrendered.
The emergency quickly spreads beyond Amy's house. Communication screens across the planet are hijacked by the Atraxi warning. In Leadworth, Amy's boyfriend Rory Williams, a nurse, becomes directly involved when the search turns toward a local hospital. Prisoner Zero is able to adopt forms connected to unconscious minds, making identification difficult and allowing it to move through ordinary spaces without easy detection. The Doctor coordinates the response while still stabilising his own post regeneration state. He uses local people, improvised planning, and global communication systems rather than armies or formal agencies. That matters historically because the defense of Earth is carried out from a village and a hospital rather than from UNIT headquarters or a major military command.
The resolution defines the new Doctor's public posture. Prisoner Zero is exposed and reclaimed by the Atraxi, but the larger message of the day comes after the fugitive is removed. The Doctor confronts the Atraxi directly and warns them that Earth is under his protection. This is one of the clearest declarations of that principle in the revived series. It is also the true beginning of the Eleventh Doctor's era. Amy Pond moves from childhood witness to active participant, Rory enters the historical record alongside her, and Leadworth becomes the site where a newly regenerated Doctor proves both his identity and his authority. In timeline terms, 3 April 2010 is not only a first meeting. It is a reset point for the series, the formal opening of a new Doctor's relationship with Earth.
Key details
Date: 3 April 2010
Location: Leadworth, including Amy Pond's house and the local hospital
Source: Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Significance: This story introduces the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams, while establishing the Prisoner Zero incident as the first major crisis of the new era.
Related events
FAQ
Q: When does The Eleventh Hour take place in Doctor Who?
The main present day action is anchored to 3 April 2010. The story also includes an earlier visit to Amelia Pond as a child, but the event is dated by the principal Leadworth crisis involving the Atraxi and Prisoner Zero.
Q: What is the main event in The Eleventh Hour?
A newly regenerated Doctor must identify and expose Prisoner Zero before the Atraxi destroy Earth for sheltering a fugitive. At the same time, he meets Amy Pond again and formally begins a new phase of his travels on screen.