Watching scientists solve crimes is kind of old hat nowadays, what with the big burly CSI franchise and Numb3rs and all. That said, there is still territory to explore that they don’t, and some of that is explored here in Eleventh Hour (also in the short-lived Tim Guinee vehicle Strange World, with which this show has more than a little in common, but less with the sci-fi paranoia and more with the genuinely tragic), by the always-wonderful Patrick Stewart.

I say always wonderful because he is, he is, but really he’s not giving that much to do here relative to his talents. That’s ok; his acting chops get a break to service the storytelling, which is good. Here he is a government science advisor, given a free hand to investigate abuses of science like… botched attempts at human cloning… water from a spring that is claimed to cure cancer… as well as cover-up attempts of promising or important research. The writers wisely resist the temptation, for the most part, to set up straw men for him to knock down, so there are no anti-vaccination nutters, creationists or (at least not much) alternative medicine practioners to tilt with. He is stalked, though, by radical animal rights people, which is why he has a bodyguard—a pretty young woman, naturally, a non-scientist to serve as the Doctor’s companion and say “what’s that?” but also someone to provide the action scenes (and in one case the stilted sex scene).

I’d like to see more of this series—and am told another version with another actor is kicking around out there. Because Patrick Stewart’s Patrick Stewartiness is by no means vital to this character, I’m cool with that and will hunt it out.