As I mentioned in The Big Bang review, Moffat has a problem
ending big epic two-parters. Whilst this isn’t the same as The Big Bang, its
fair to say that this episode doesn’t suffer from the same problems but it
certainly comes close. Doctor Who’s stateside holiday takes a decidedly grim
and unexpected twist in this episode. The episode immediately starts with Amy
running in the middle of the desert and is seemingly killed. Quite a grim start
to the episode, things get grimmer when Rory seems to suffer the same fate.
River seems to be jumping off a unbuilt floor and is going to fall to her death
but I like how after a while the TARDIS appears and she dives into the TARDIS
and seemingly into the infamous swimming pool. For Amy and Rory their fate is revealed
because the perfect prison that has been built for the Doctor and Amy and Rory
are alive and the TARDIS has been placed inside the prison but is invisible.
Action moves to a creepy abandoned children’s home. It’s
very creepy indeed and one this is where some of the best stuff in the episode
happens. When Amy is looking at all the silences hanging from the ceiling I
thought that it was a great moment. Another great moment comes when Amy sees a
woman called the Eye Patch Lady and she opens a slot in a door and then
disappears. It’s unclear whether this is relevant to this part of the story but
obviously as the series progresses it becomes more interesting.
The big scene comes when the Doctor has moment with the
silence which leads to the death of the silence. The use of the moon landing is
teased throughout these two episodes and the moment when it actually happens
comes at the peak of the episode. When everyone is watching the moon landing
they can suddenly see the silence which leads to their deaths. It’s quite a way
of getting out of the current situation and does lead to a great shootout with
River showing that she’s more than a match for the Doctor.
Nixon asks the Doctor if he will be remembered which is
quite an amusing question and when the Doctor says “say hello to David Frost”
that also made me chuckle. Milligan has portrayed Nixon as a bit of a comedy
character in this episode which is a bit odd but after a while I got use to it
and whilst it was clear that Nixon wasn’t the greatest person in the world. In
the context of this story he was someone that the Doctor could trust
The final shot in the TARDIS is of the scanner checking to
see if Amy is pregnant and it doesn’t make a decision. I’ll be honest and say I
don’t really care about this and the only reason its getting a mention is that
at least later on it becomes relevant but at the moment I just can’t get worked
up about whether she’s pregnant or not.
The final shot of the episode is arguably the most
intriguing because it’s the girl from the astronauts costume and she
regenerates. There are too many loose ends in this story which are left frustratingly
open. The opening story of the season should have a gentle open to the story
arc and it feels like they have just gone overboard with it. It’s a good two
parter but I think that they have started to high and the rest of the series
will be poorer as a result.
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