This series is a huge miss. Between the abysmal direction and the lousy writing, I'm surprised that Stewart was able to put anything into his role. I have to admit that "Eleventh Hour" doesn't resort to the ridiculous, semi-supernatural plot lines that characterize "Fringe," but it sins in the other direction: it is boring and superficial. In a typical scene, Stewart demonstrates the fact that he can't predict what his department's budget will be by tossing papers in the air to land randomly. He uses grapes to demonstrate (?) how cloning is accomplished. Later, he gives us a history lesson by explaining how Edward Jenner developed inoculation against smallpox. All of this is done on a third-grade level, like an after-school special or "Sesame Street." When you add to this his incomprehensible status as the "science adviser" to some government group (with oddly undefined powers and authority) and the fact that apparently there's nobody else in the health services who is capable of conducting an investigation, you get a lot of eye-rolling and sighs.If you're a big Stewart fan, you might give this a look. Otherwise, stay away.

If I was British, I would be embarrassed by this portrayal of incompetence. A protection agent of the Special Branch unable to defend herself against a sick, unarmed and untrained assailant? The Home Office sends a single "Science Adviser" to investigate a possible Level Four biohazard, and that "Advisor" doesn't have the sense to wear even a mask and gloves? Totally unprotected London police officers working side by side with technicians in full biohazard suits? The "Advisor" and his bodyguard bearding the lair of a sociopathic doctor experimenting on human subjects without any backup? Puh-leeze! One wonders whether the producers could not afford to hire any technical advisers or if, for some arcane reason, they consciously decided to portray the principals as hopelessly incompetent. Even my wife, who has no background in either medicine or law enforcement, was rolling her eyes in disbelief. After the first episode, I was discouraged; now that I have seen two episodes, I give up.

yeah regarding the first episode, it was interesting to watch but was spoilt by two script flaws. Firstly after discovering the address of the lab, you would expect them to stake out the lab to catch the criminals, nooo... they just brake in to the empty lab, then the crim sees them and escapes,... sure likely !! Secondly, after the girl absconds from hospital they seem to have no way to find out where the girl lives. I mean, an ambulance just collected her from her home for goodness sake. Either the script writer is dumb :) , or he thinks the audience are. Just obvious mistakes that spoil the believability of the program.my 2p

I found the first episode less impressive than I had hoped. Patrick Stewart was nowhere near even his ST:TNG form, much less the stage presence we know he is capable of. It felt a bit weak, not quite "phoned in", but unenthusiastic.I was really bothered though by the lack of sophistication in the thinking behind the scientific issues involved. After all this is a show about a "government scientist" (who introduces himself as "Alan Hood, Scientist"--which I find hard to imagine coming out of any scientist's mouth: is he a physicist, a bioethicist, biohazard specialist, geneticist, medical experimenter, or what? Am I too picky here? It just didn't ring true...) Episode one was a drama about illegal human cloning, with the police refusing to take an interest because "there's no murder here". (If Hood has no authority, then in what sense does he "work for the government"?) At no point was it clearly expressed what was actually wrong with the human cloning that was going on. (Stewart rolled his eyes and bellowed that it was "repugnant", "abhorrent", and such things, but at no point explained why.) OK, it was self-evident that the exploitation of young surrogate mothers was wrong, but this was not a drama about exploitation--although it handled the issue well. I would have liked to see more medical ethics covered, after all it is a serious issue and the only way to keep such matters from being judged by the "morality of repugnance" is to educate the public as to some of the issues involved.But as I say this is only the first episode. I'll watch a few more and see if other issues are better handled. This sort of show often takes a few hours to grow into itself, so I remain hopeful.