Pilot episodes are hard. You have to introduce everything, make people care about it and tell a story too. But even when taking that into account "Heirs" is bad.

*The Problems*

First of all, there is too much exposition - especially for a prequel. Martin loves naming things a bit too much and they should've shown more restraint here. Also giving every other character an "ae" in their name is awful.

The CGI is shockingly poor. The dragons look alright but the buildings look like a video game. I have no idea why they decided to do aerial shots if they couldn't afford to make them look good.

Then there is the issue of Matt Smith. He's a perfect Doctor Who but terribly miscast as a violent hedonist. He is too goofy to be menacing.

Another problem is that some things really don't make sense. The dragon keepers, the ones maintaining the most important weapons, look filthy and poor. People didn't get killed on purpose during real-life tournaments and they definitely wouldn't kill nobles. The summary execution also made no sense from a practical POV.

The worst part was the violent birth. We really really really didn't need to see that. I love bloody violence but this was just exploitative.

*The Rest*

There were some redeeming elements. The physical production value is amazing. Most of the acting was good. The girls, played by Alcock and Carey, really carry the episode. And there's still some promise to it all. Let's hope this was just a false start.