Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO SEASON SIX, EPISODE EIGHT: Let's Hill Hitler! (2011)

This isn't what it looks like..no, really...

"Okay, I am trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I will try not to see that as a metaphor."

1) Okay, I know we're only four minutes in--but upon seeing Nina Toussaint-White literally bursting in on the episode proclaiming herself Mels, my first two thoughts were, 'it's teenage-to-young-adult Melody somehow insinuating herself into her parents' life without them knowing,' and 'God, please don't let this version of River Song become a companion next year.' Yes, there's a whole Leela/Ace/that cat burglar from the McCoy-Season-That-Wasn't vibe to her, but I can see her and her attempts to imitate Alex Kingston wearing on me quickly.

2) Young Amy Pond? Still seriously charming. Young Mels? Not so much. Even if I sort of liked how Moffat uses this to fill in some of the history of Amy and Rory, and shows us how Rory wasn't a fallback guy at any point, that there was an attraction there all along that wasn't acted on due to a misunderstanding.

3) And once again, I love how Rory may wield a weapon of death, but he never actually uses it. Confronted with Hitler (oh, comon'...it says it right on the tin), his tendencies to be a caregiver and not a destroyer take precedence. He may have been weaponized, but it doesn't matter if he never actually draws his weapon...and that's why he's so freakin' cool.

"Let's wrap this up quick--we're due to inhabit Eddie Murphy
in ten minutes."

4) I know Moffat is taking this spacecraft-in-human form in a different direction, but I just can't get visions of the Eddie Murphy flop-o-rama Meet Dave out of my head.

5) On one hand--and I've said this before--I really don't like how Regeneration always happens in this same 'look-there's-sparklies-now-my-extremities-are-explodey' sort of way in the new series. On the other, I took some delight in watching Matt Smith reacting to seeing another person regenerate...he seems shocked and ill-at-ease, as if he's wondering, 'Is this how other people see me?'

6) I should mention I've changed the opening quote for this entry several times so far. This really is one of the most quotable episodes of Moffat's rein, all chock full of fun lines that are as entertaining to hear as they are to say.

7) It's interesting how Moffat is utilizing some of the threads of Davies' era--using the whole 'hour-or-so-grace-period-after-a-regeneration' as a way out of a jam worked very well, and the shout backs to the Davies companions without letting them overpower the narrative also worked...although I wonder why he didn't go for a pre-reboot companion; surely there's a couple of people he didn't fuck with in those years, right? Right?

(and yeah, I can see the reason why he has guilt over Martha. He used her for an entire year without being sensitive to what she wanted or needed--or at least what Russell T. Davies forced her to want or need after episode three--which is a pretty good reason for being guilty, right?...)

(Oh, and since I haven't said it in a while...fuck y'all Russell T. Davies.)

Shut up, she's...no, on second thought this is nightmare
fuel....

8) What interesting to me about the revelations about The Silence in this episode is how there's now an implied relationship with those Headless Monk dudes from last episode...I'm thinking they're an order within the religion that is The Silence...because how can you speak without heads, right?.

9) So am I correct in assuming that by saving the Doctor that way, Moffat has set up a more logical way to sidestep the twelve regeneration limit for a Time Lord than Davies' simply declaring him immortal? 'Cause by my count, River still had nine regenerations (lives?) left.

Because if that's true, I like it.

10) Maybe it's me, but the ending seemed a little....well, off. Granted, I guess it's Moffat setting up the 'we're in for a ride this final half,' and I realize that this episode was more about River than anything else...but I expected a little more from Moffat.

In short....Well, it's more about River than anything else, innit? And while it answers some questions, I do have this slightly empty feeling that there are a whole bunch of loose ends left dangling in the aether. Of course, my impression might change as we move forward, but right now it's lots of fun bits surrounded by a pool of meh.

Ten Statements--No, Eleven--About....DOCTOR WHO SEASON SIX, EPISODE ONE: THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT (2011)

"Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy-wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff like Mondays and Tuesdays and" Thursday Afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays, big temporal tipping points where anything's possible."

1) Matt Smith dancing with Laurel and Hardy? Win. Naked Matt Smith hiding under a woman's skirts...not so much...

2) There's something really, really wicked cool about the whole 'Getting The Band Back Together' feel of the pre-title teaser....and there's something even cooler about how the music sort of builds when everyone gets their invites...

3) YES! Arthur Darvill gets his just rewards by being top billed along with Matt and Karen...

The Doctor and Company welcome aboard that guy
from THE MATRIX, as played by Michael Ironside

4) ...and as proof that Arthur deserves above-the-title credit, look at how masterfully he handles the big shock at the ten minute mark...His Rory is obviously breaking up inside, but he is able to pull it all together in a snap and makes sure what The Doctor wanted done gets done. This is a fine actor, and may be the show's secret weapon this season.

5) Once again, we are asked to share Steven Moffat's love of twisting and contorting time lines...and once again, it's very clear that all this fooling around has a purpose, that he has a story to tell with a very clear end point somewhere down the line.

6) This version of The Matt Smith Doctor is a lot less bombastic...but it's clear that the anger that drove him throughout Season Five is still there, just transformed into something subtler--and scarier. And speaking of subtle...



"NO....YOU SUCK!"



7) Is it just me, or has Karen Gillen stepped up her game? The character is still recognizably Amy, but also recognizably more mature....it's obvious that Gillen is using the knowledge of her character's new status to give us a more nuanced, sober version of Amy.

8) The Silent...creepy little mouthed energy sucking things that you can only remember when you look at it straight on? In suits, no less? I'm sold.



Shut up...she's cute...

9) I like the younger Canton. It's like they decided that the perfect partner for this iteration of The Doctor was Michael Ironside--and much props for letting us in on something about Canton with the kind of subtlety Russell T. Davies wishes he could have pulled off. On the other hand, every time I looked at this episode's Nixon, I thought 'when did we elect John Cusack president?'

10) This may very well be my favorite River Song appearance to date...she's a lot more nuanced, and the true bond that seems to have grown between her an Amy (prolly growing out of a similar bonding between Alex Kingston and Karen Gillen) is natural and warm. And on top of that, we get the scene between her and Rory which suddenly throws a lot of her behavior into a sharp, cold light...and it's at turns both sad and terrifying.

11) Is that the same control module as we saw in "The Lodger" last season?

In short...this isn't as great a season opener as last year's in terms of spectacle--but it's a better in terms of character. The strengths of last season look to not have been abandoned, and The Silent may prove to be another in a long line of great Moffat monsters.