Just 84 days had passed since the world learned that River
Song was Amy and Rory’s daughter. Three years since River had made her debut,
the answers were answered (sort of) but after an unprecedented mid-season break
we finally get to see the second half of the series. The reason why I had
preferred the series to air like it had done since 2005 from March/April
onwards is that it was pretty much unopposed with only Britain’s Got Talent
being the competition and often that would air at a different time. When you
air a show in September then the competition comes in the form of The X-Factor
and Strictly Come Dancing. I wondered whether this was an experiment like when
the show was moved from Saturdays to twice weekly during the Peter Davison era.
This was the first time that an episode of Doctor Who had aired in August since
the first episode of The Leisure Hive on August 30, 1980. August is a dry month
for Doctor Who with only 14 episode having aired in this month.
The title is a curious one because it suggests that Hitler
is going to feature quite prominently in the story and he appears for a little
while and then gets locked in a cupboard. So not only is Hitler not killed but
he doesn’t even feature very much in the episode. The moment when the Doctor
realises that he saved Hitler is the sort of thing that I would imagine that
the Daily Mail would get its knickers in a twist over.
The episode starts with Amy and Rory creating a message in a
crop field and Mel is introduced into the story and she gets the last line of
the pre-title scene where she names the title. We get a lot of back story in
this episode where we see Amelia, Young Mel and Young Rory. His is slightly odd
because Amelia is best friends with her daughter. Mels doesn’t last very long
and is soon replaced by River Song so River is the third incarnation of Melody.
I like how River is now a psychopath and is determined to kill the Doctor. Alex
Kingston gets to do something different with the character and I think that she
is enjoying it.
The Doctor spends quite a while dying and there is a great
scene where stills of Rose, Martha and Donna appear. The Doctor is told that he
has 32 minutes to live and is also told that he can’t regenerate. This boxes
the Doctor into quite the corner. He is saved by the woman that tried to kill
him at the beginning of the episode. In doing this she uses all her
regenerations which is why she doesn’t live when she does that thing in her
debut story. Despite not being as involved in the story as he usually is, this
was a good performance from Matt Smith. He has to tread a fine line between
being a confident character yet somewhat restricted by his current predicament
and he deals with that well.
The idea of people inside a body controlling it is a really
good one and one that is used quite a lot in future stories. It effect of
people changing their appearances is one that is a subtle but quite impressive
visual wise. The people that operate the robots are people who think that they
are doing the right things in killing those who commit horrible crimes. In
reality they aren’t any better than those they are trying to destroy.
The state of temporal grace is said to be a lie after years
of people bickering about it. Gunfire was never seen in the TARDIS until Attack
of the Cybermen and from that point onwards the whole idea about whether the
TARDIS does have temporal grace thing is a rule that some people stick to
religiously and others aren’t that bothered by it. I personally think that like
most stuff in Doctor Who its not to be taken too seriously and will be used at
the whim of the writer/producer.
Ok its clear that River kills the Doctor but there is a bit
more given in a rather lengthy speech given by Robot Amy. River kills the
Doctor on the orders of the movement known as the silence and Academy of the
Question. I love the idea that there is an academy for the Question which is
something that is built up and won’t get answered for quite a while. Silence is
a movement and Silence will fall when the question is asked.
This was another episode that was better than I had thought
of in the past. Ok some of it is a bit contrived but I enjoyed it and looking
at what episodes are yet to come I can honestly say that all the good episodes
are still to come. After a shaky start the show is back on good form.
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