Story #219 - Let's Kill Hitler (2011)

Harry -

They didn’t even kill Hitler! Classic Moffat misdirection in order to tell a completely different story.

Sarah -

Remember how mad everyone was and then he ended up in the closet for most of the story. That said, it didn’t have to be Hitler in a story that is about the complicated relationships between the four characters. Amy, Rory, and River/Melody/Mels are the center of the story.

Harry -

Seriously it could have been anyone, anywhere. The nanotech-employing, justice-deploying force known as the Teselecta could have been after any other criminal in history.

Sarah -

We meet Mels for the first time when they’re teenagers and Mels gets Amy to realize that Rory loves her. And then they name their baby after the person who brought them together. Timey wimey, indeed.

Harry -

The timey-wimey reveal about Mels was mind-blowing. For all the shocks and revelations the Ponds have had to endure throughout their lives, they took it in stride. By now they know to expect the unexpected. River arrives in a burst of fun and immediately sets out to kill the Doctor, as she was programmed to do.

Sarah - 

And we think our families are difficult! At least they’re all on the same timeline. 

Harry - 

This episode really flew by, it almost felt like one of the Moffat era's mini-episodes. It made me wonder if we really needed a season-long arc to describe River's origin story. So much time went into the mysteries and the reveals. This season has always been my least-favourite and this is part of the reason why. 

Sarah - 

As much as I love River and Alex Kingston, the arc does go on a bit. Watching the series the first time, I recall being confused every week, forgetting what was going on in the previous episode. Rewatching this time, it all makes more sense, but it’s still the most Moffaty series of Moffat’s series. 

Harry - 

Agreed, it makes much more sense on a rewatch, even with longer gaps between our viewing of episodes.  

The new era of Doctor Who delves so deeply into the lives of the Doctor's companions like the classic series never did. I still prefer a series of bouncy stand alone stories over a season-long arc that needs to be watched all the way through to be appreciated.

Sarah - 

One of my favorite things about contemporary Doctor Who is that it does delve into the lives of the companions and how traveling with the Doctor impacts them. 

Harry - 

By the end of this breezy piece, Hitler's in the closet, the Ponds have met their now-grown-adult daughter who regenerated from their childhood friend, the Doctor has been saved from the assassination plot when River herself sacrificed her regenerative energy to revive him. It's as Moffaty a story as they come.

Sarah - 

‘Tis. Ready for some Night Terrors?

Harry -

Let's do it!

Sarah -

Best Line: "Well, I was on my way to this gay Gypsy Bar-Mitzvah for the disabled, when I thought gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish. I think I'll kill the Fuhrer. Who's with me?"

Favorite Moment: The Doctor asking if there’s someone left in the universe he hasn't screwed up yet.

Lasting Image: River on the motorcycle.

5/10

Harry - 

Best Line:

RORY: Doctor, River was brainwashed to kill you, right?

DOCTOR: Well, she did kill me, and then she used her remaining lives to bring me back. As first dates go, I'd say that was mixed signals.

Favourite Moment: Alex Kingston's newly-regenerated self checking herself out.

Lasting Image: Hitler placed in the closet.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #220: Night Terrors...

Story #218 - A Good Man Goes to War (2011)

Harry -

There's a line in this story that captures how I feel about this particular episode, and some of the New Who era in general. It's when River Song describes the Doctor's actions at the battle of Demon's Run:

"He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further."

First, the rising part. "A Good Man Goes to War" is Doctor Who if it was done as a Star Wars space opera. It is massive. The huge cast features multiple heroes, villains, a space militia, a mysterious dark order and a colourful assortment of aliens and robots. There are explosions in space. There is a battle in a Star Warsy hangar. Betrayals, revenge, loss and hope. At the centre of it all is the Doctor, who is so powerful that the mention of his name sends enemies to flight.

To me, this story is Doctor Who fallen so far from what it should be.

In a way, I get it. When Star Wars first appeared on the scene with its big budget effects, casting, music and universe-building, Doctor Who suddenly looked like a shabby small screen cousin. I wonder if part of the new era's aggrandization of the Doctor and his aura is a reflection of the first two showrunners wanting to show that, yes, Doctor Who can be just as big and overwhelmingly Hollywood as any movie franchise.

I'm sure a lot of people liked this story and this direction for the show, but I didn't. I prefer the wandering madman in a box, exploring the universe and righting wrongs on a smaller scale, with one or two companions along for the adventure. Doctor Who as overblown space opera doesn't turn my crank.

Sarah - 

I’m with you Harry. I was looking forward to rewatching "A Good Man Goes to War" for the first time since it aired in 2011. I remembered it being a very busy story that wasn’t very satisfying for me. The big reveal that River is Melody Pond wasn’t much of a surprise by the time it happened. 

This episode is too much like the Doctor as a Jesus figure in the Tennant Era. All three showrunners have dabbled with the Doctor being the most important person in the universe. It’s just not interesting. 

Harry -

It's not interesting no matter which showrunner wants it to be.

Sarah -

I don’t have much else to say. Let’s go kill Hitler, or whatever.

Harry -

I'm of the let's-get-it-over-with mind there.

Sarah - 

Best Line: “He's the last of his kind. He looks young, but he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you will never be alone. Because this man is your father.”

Favorite Moment: Amy and Rory discussing Melody’s naming.

Lasting Image: The Doctor bringing the wooden cot from the TARDIS.

5/10

Harry -

Best Line: "I speak baby."

Favourite Moment: the Doctor's silly reaction to River's reveal.

Lasting Image: the hangar battle.

2/10

Our marathon continues with Story #219: Let's Kill Hitler...

Story #217 - The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People (2011)

Harry -

I had forgotten most of this story, other than the part about rebel flesh becoming almost people.

As we enter the middle section of this season, we get a big dose of Moffat’s story arc, but not as much as we probably realized on first viewing.

Sarah -

It's a whole different experience this time around. I remember being often confused when series six debuted. What I remember most about this story is how creeped out I was by the gangers.

Harry -

The gangers are particularly creepy whenever we see them midway through their formation into human copies. Those warped porcelain faces are unforgettable.

Right off the bat this story had a strong Pertwee-era vibe. The Doctor arrives at a remote facility where some dodgy environmental activity is going on, in this case involving lots of acid. The low morals of the place are immediately on display as we see its workforce seemingly put less value into a co-worker's life than into preserving his acid suit. Mac Hulke would have been raging at this corporation.

Sarah - 

You could totally drop Pertwee’s Doctor and Jo right into this story, which would have to be written by Hulke. Some things never change when it comes to screwing the workers.

Harry - 

It doesn't take long for the TARDIS team to discover what the gangers are. And the moral dilemmas continue. Are the gangers real lifeforms? Do they deserve to live as long as the humans they are based on? Before everyone can work out the ethics of these questions, the gangers run amok, and things get confusing.

The confusion reigns as we lose track of some characters. Well, I did anyway.  Is this one human or ganger? Has Rory come to the aid of Jennifer, or is it ganger Jennifer? And which Doctor is the real one? Lots of material for a merry chase around the medieval castle (which was a nice touch for an out-of-the-way facility instead of a sterile lab closed to outside observation).

Despite the story opening with the Doctor puzzling over Amy's yes/no pregnancy, she seemed to be once again shunted aside from the main action. She did get another moment of being startled by the woman who keeps peeking at her through walls. Amy's big moment was saved for the bizarre reveal at the end.

Sarah - 

The more I think about this story, the less I like it. The whole point of the gangers is to get to Amy’s reveal – and it’s a big one! The story might have been stronger and more interesting as one episode. The gangers are only there to support the Amy storyline. If a company is doing work this dangerous, why not build robots and avoid the existential crisis? And what’s with Rory taking the side of the gangers over the Doctor and Amy? And where’s the real Amy?

Harry -

I have more questions now than before!  This was very much the vibe I felt through most of this season.

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

Amy: Doctor, I am frightened. I’m properly, properly scared.

The Doctor: Don’t be, hold on. We’re coming for you, I swear that whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you.

Amy: I’m right here.

The Doctor: No you’re not. You haven’t been here for a long long time.

Amy: Oh no.

Favorite Moment: Jimmy being reunited with his son.

Lasting Image: The gangers in the goop.

4/10

Harry -

Best Line:

Doctor: I've to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose. [*smiles wistfully*] I never thought I'd have to say that again. 

Favourite Moment: the big twist at the end.

Lasting Image: the porcelain-faced gangers for sure.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story # 218: A Good Man Goes to War...

Story #216 - The Doctor's Wife (2011)

Harry -

A pocket story in a pocket universe. Sort of. Think of soap bubbles or something. Anyway, the TARDIS takes a very long detour, so far away that even Moffat's season-long story arc is barely in view.

Sarah -

Who doesn’t love a pocket universe? They’re so cozy.

Harry -

I think this story was perfectly placed as a sidebar before we go back into the main season arc.

Sarah -

What I remember most about this story is how fandom lost its collective mind when it was announced that Neil Gaiman would be writing for Doctor Who.

Harry -

Surely I was among them. After seeing so many big name writers say "Oh I'd love to write for Doctor Who" over the years, here finally was a big name writer coming on board.

Sarah -

And then it lost its mind all over again when the title was announced, followed by the never-ending speculation of who would be The Doctor’s Wife. The TARDIS was almost a disappointment after all that.

While working on "The Caves of Androzani", John Nathan-Turner wrote the title “The Doctor’s Wife” on the white board in his office to identify the person who was leaking information to the media. It worked and he found the leak. I imagine Moffat had been waiting decades to use The Doctor’s Wife as a title!

Harry -

An amusing bit of history there.

Almost from the start there's some misdirection about who the titular wife might be. The Doctor receives a Gallifreyan distress cube in the middle of space from a previously unknown Time Lord called the Corsair. We learn that the Corsair is a friend of the Doctor's and has changed gender multiple times, a bit of foundation-laying for Michelle Gomez and Jodie Whittaker. Without further ado, the TARDIS heads outside the universe into all manner of strangeness and trouble.

Sarah -

Well played, Moff! I’d forgotten it was in this story.

Harry -

Turns out the Corsair was not the Doctor's wife, but the victim of a sentient asteroid that has been luring and killing dozens of Time Lords in this pocket universe, and devouring their TARDISes. Seeking to capture the Doctor's TARDIS, the asteroid (identified as House) drains out its matrix, leaving an empty shell ready to be occupied. The matrix meanwhile is dumped into the body of a human named Idris, one of a handful of scraggly people clinging to life on the asteroid. Perhaps these people were surviving companions of other Time Lords?

Sarah - 

That’s so sad and entirely possible. 

Harry -

Watching the story again, Idris' initial nonsensical dialogue made much more sense. "Thief, thief!" she shouts when spotting the Doctor. Over the years there has been the occasional gag about the Doctor and TARDIS sharing amorous communications between themselves but here they are finally both able to vocalize together at the same time. I particularly liked the line "You stole me, and I stole you."

Sarah - 

At least it was consensual and they’ve been committed for millennia. 

Harry - 

The story is very clever and spreads out nicely over 45 minutes. Did it strike you that Gaiman didn't give Amy and Rory much to do, other than being trapped inside the TARDIS for much of the story?

Sarah - 

Just another week of Amy and Rory being traumatized – again. 

Harry - 

Their lack of involvement really stood out here, until they were subjected to some horror story wandering in the TARDIS corridors.  It didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the story.  

One thing I remembered about this story was the colour palette. Grey, grey and more grey. It definitely contributed to the lifeless atmosphere on the asteroid.

Sarah -

Not a place you’d like to spend any more time than necessary. It’s a well-paced episode and I enjoyed it more than I expected. 

Harry -

The Doctor and the TARDIS throw together another console from junk parks, reclaim the TARDIS shell and expel House, problem resolved.

Later on, Gaiman said that he would have liked to write another story for the Capaldi era.  It never happened and who knows if he'll ever write for the show again.  As far as I know, there hasn't been much spinoff content regarding the Corsair.  Perhaps Gaiman is hanging on to that for future opportunities.

This was an interesting story.  Big on ideas, with a huge focus on the Doctor and TARDIS.  It was nice to hear the TARDIS' side of things for once.

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

AMY: She's the TARDIS?

DOCTOR: And she's a woman. She's a woman and she's the TARDIS.

AMY: Did you wish really hard?

Favorite Moment: Amy and Rory asking to get rid of the bunk beds.

Lasting Image: The spare-parts TARDIS

6/10

Harry -

Best Line:

DOCTOR: I don't know what to do.  That's a new feeling.

Favourite Moment: The Doctor and TARDIS saying hello.

Lasting Image: Idris

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #217: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People...

Story #215 - The Curse of the Black Spot (2011)

Sarah -

Did you know there was a prequel for this episode?

Harry -

Well how about that. Thank you for sharing, Sarah. I just watched that prequel for the first time, twelve years after it was broadcast, somewhere.

That clip was useful because it immediately spoke to one of the things that bothered me as I rewatched "The Curse of the Black Spot". For the first little while in this story, no one was remarking on why there seemed to be no wind or waves despite everyone standing on the deck of a ship. Eventually we find out that the ship has been in waters becalmed for eight days. Viewers who caught that prequel would have known right away.

One of my pet peeves of the Moffat era is just this, the pervasiveness of teasers, prequels, and mini-episodes that fans had to keep an eye out for. Here in the year 2023 everything worth knowing is transmitted almost instantaneously to people who want to know. But even in 2014, these things were not universally accessible, demonstrated by the fact that I just learned of the above prequel for the first time. I am not a troglodyte, I'm certain!

Anyway, that was very useful.

Sarah -

Pirates on a spaceship! Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Harry -

Absolutely!

Sarah -

The Doctor turns up ready for pirate hijinks, but the pirates are in no mood for Yo Ho Ho-ing as they’re being picked off. When a member of the crew is injured, a black spot appears on their hand and the siren entices them with her song and appears to kill them by disintegration.

It’s not the best time for the TARDIS Team to turn up on the ship in response to a distress call, which wasn’t sent by the pirates. It’s the plank for the Doctor and Rory and the scullery for Amy, which I assume includes “all other duties as assigned.” Being the general badass she is, Amy is having none of this and mounts an attack on the pirates to save her men. In the ensuing sword fight, Amy draws blood from small cuts from a pirate and Rory. The pirate tells Amy that she’s killed him, while she mocks him for being a baby. The siren turns up and the Team sees why the pirates are so afraid. Amy realizes Rory is next and restrains him from getting to the siren.

Harry -

Sirens and pirates, two things that go great together in stories. This being a story in the Moffat era, things take an unusual turn. The green glowing siren was wonderfully eerie, and her method of disintegrating the marked men was sudden and brutal.

Amy in her pirate gear is definitely my lasting image from this story, and the sword fight is really the only action scene in the whole story, but her kickass swashbuckling ended up getting Rory killed.

Sarah -

Poor Rory. Traveling with the Doctor can be stressful and potentially dangerous, but I don't think any companion has suffered as much as Rory.

Harry -

I'm pretty sure it's a thing that Rory keeps dying in this series (Moff you maniac!). He doesn't die at first, as everyone scrambles below decks to escape the siren. It's a ship under siege! Take cover!

Everyone holes up in a cabin and we meet a stowaway, the pirate captain's young son. He divulges some of the captain's backstory while the Doctor works out how the siren is making herself appear -- not through water but through reflections. That was a bit of a stretch but nicely explained the becalmed waters that were bugging me.

The Doctor slips into the TARDIS to try and puzzle things out, but it goes haywire and takes off, stranding everyone aboard.

Meanwhile, Amy experiences another baffling moment when the woman from the previous story appears through a sliding hatch again. I remember being freaked out and totally compelled by these weird David Lynch moments as the season went on.

Sarah -

I expect we’ll see her a lot this season.

I didn’t remember much about this story so it was a surprise when the siren turned out to be a doctor who had been removing the injured pirates to her hospital spaceship.

Harry -

It was a great twist.

Sarah -

Rory, who was drowning when he was transferred to the sickbay, was connected to life support. Amy tried to remove him from life support, but the doctor siren wouldn’t allow it until Amy agreed to accept responsibility. The Doctor and Amy remove him from the sickbay and rush him to the TARDIS, where Amy begins CPR and the Doctor... just stands by.

Harry -

Amy doing everything in her power to save Rory and becoming increasingly distraught as the agonizing seconds ticked by -- that was one of the most intense scenes in the entire New Who era.

Sarah -

But, as ever, Rory survives as do all the pirates, who sail off in the hospital ship. The TARDIS team wishes them the best and set off to new adventures.

Harry -

After Rory's near-death and Amy's trauma, I think we were all ready to rush to the happy ending. There wasn't much action to this story, mostly everyone dashing from one part of the ship to another with long sections of dialogue in between. The pirates didn't do any pirating. The Doctor did jack squat to save Rory which I'm hoping he'll be called out on later. Overall, kind of a meh experience, this one.

Sarah - 

Apparently, the episode was meant to be later in the series. I doubt it would have been any better later. 

Harry -

Best Line:

Wounded Pirate: "You have killed me!"

Amy: "No way, it’s just a cut. What kind of rubbish pirates are you?"

Favourite Moment: when the siren first emerged.

Lasting Image: Amy with her pirate hat and sword.

5/10

Sarah -

Best Line: 

Amy: Easy, tiger. Goodnight, Doctor.

Doctor: Goodnight, Amelia.

Amy: You only call me Amelia when you're worrying about me.

Doctor: I always worry about you.

Amy: Mutual.

Favorite Moment: Amy swings on a rope to save Rory and the Doctor

Lasting Image: Totes on Amy’s pirate kit!

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #216: The Doctor's Wife...