Boob Tube Breakdown – Doctor Who: Off with their heads
|
“This is the day he finds out who I am.”
– River Song
Steven Moffat has an incredibly gift for making episodes of Doctor Who feel epic.
Both the finale of last season featuring the Pandorica and the resetting of the Universe and the beginning of this season with the gang’s American adventure felt grandiose and exciting. And this week’s “A Good Man Goes to War” once again was Doctor Who at its quickest pace and largest scale (which was somewhat jarring following a two-part story that seemed to unfold at a snail’s pace).
Maybe it was just me, but I got a definite Star Wars vibe from this week’s adventure. The Doctor was certainly channeling his inner Ben Kenobi as he first appeared in Demon’s Run in a robe, then quickly disappeared again in the most theatrical and bad ass way possible. (Seriously, I could easily have pictured him saying “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine” to that roomful of gun-toting Clerics.) Rory the Roman seemed to be in the Luke Skywalker role – finally finding an inner swagger that hadn’t really been there until now. Amy was imprisoned and needed to be rescued just like Princess Leia. And of course you had a variety of alien species showing up, bad guys shooting lighting out of their hands and a shocking ending involving the paternity of a major character.
But while the episode was certainly Star Wars-esque, it was still distinctly Doctor Who. I really enjoyed the eclectic mix that comprised The Doctor’s army, featuring specific characters and species we’ve seen throughout the show. But what I liked best about the episode was how it dealt with The Doctor’s cult status that he’s developed over the centuries. It also was an interesting examination of the dual nature of The Doctor – he’s someone who always looks for the best in people and strives to find peaceful, diplomatic solutions to the problems he encounters, but when pushed he can be absolutely ruthless. His “Colonel Runaway” speech was a perfect example of The Doctor not just wanting to beat his opponent, but wanting to absolutely crushing him.
What makes it all so intriguing though is the idea that The Doctor is the one responsible for this all. He inadvertently creates a child that is half-human half-Time Lord by bringing Amy and Rory into the TARDIS on their wedding night. His reputation throughout the universe is what convinces those at Demon’s Run to kidnap Amy and steal Melody to use as a weapon against him. Many of the members of The Doctor’s “army” who show up to help spring Amy end up sacrificing their life for this man and his cause. And, of course, there is River Song, who we are slowly starting to discover has had the entire course of her life shaped by The Doctor’s presence. He’s an amazing and wonderful man that does so much good, but he’s always running so fast, going on impulse and adrenaline, that he misses the toll his presence takes on those around him.
Moffat really seems to enjoy exploring the effects of The Doctor entering people’s lives at a very young age. In this episode, we have three female characters who all first met The Doctor when they were little girls. There is Amelia Pond, of course, who we learned last season spent her childhood waiting for The Doctor to reappear while everyone around her rolled their eyes at the constant mentions of her “imaginary” friend. Then there’s River Song/Melody Pond, who we now know has had The Doctor in her life from the moment she was first born. And also this week we had Lorna Bucket, who devoted her entire life to being a Cleric just for a second chance at meeting The Doctor. Lorna ultimately sacrificed her life to protect him and Amy, a death made even more tragic because The Doctor clearly doesn’t remember her, but pretends he does in order to reassure her in her final moments.
The Doctor didn’t appear on screen for the first time this week until about halfway through the episode. Instead this week was very much about how he is perceived by others and what effect he has on them. He seems genuinely hurt and distraught to discover he is viewed as an unstoppable warrior. In a way, he essentially plays God from week to week, shaping history and deciding who is right and who is wrong. But there isn’t really any accountability for his actions, so it is possible to see how factions out there could view him as the bad guy. Now that he sees the role he played in everything that unfolded this week, it will be interesting to see what effect, if any, this has on his future actions.
But whatever happens next, this week was a great mid-season finale which certainly has me excited for the future. We got an epic 40 minutes of television and one of the big mysteries of the season was answered, so where we go from here should be a really intriguing place.
And another thing …
- In an episode that was very much about The Doctor running in and out of people’s lives and causing chaos in his wake, it’s pretty funny that he runs off in the TARDIS at the end and just leaves everyone else standing around at Demon’s Run. How are Madame Vastra and Jenny supposed to get back to 1888? He just tells them he’ll see them next time, with no thought put into how they’ll get back home.
- The mysterious eye patch woman now officially has a name – Madame Kovarian.
- It seems the preferred term this week was “Flesh Avatar.” I guess Steven Moffat isn’t a big fan of the term “’ganger.”
- If you watch the episode a second time, it seems like Moffat threw in a few lines throughout it that become funny once you know Melody is River. At one point, Amy says, “Melody Pond is a superhero,” which definitely sounds like an apt description of River. And also, as she’s holding a crying Melody, she tells everyone that the baby doesn’t like the TARDIS noise, which is funny if you think back to “The Time of Angels” when River claimed the TARDIS only makes that noise because The Doctor leaves the parking brake on.
- Amy’s joke about her baby having a time-head in “Day of the Moon” turned out to be a really well-crafted and subtle bit of foreshadowing. That was really well done.
- It’s worth noting that in last season’s “The Pandorica Opens,” River asks The Doctor who the Roman centurion protecting Amy is, which implies that she didn’t recognize Rory. Should we assume that she grows up not knowing what her parents look like or was she purposely playing dumb to avoid “spoilers”?
- I love the idea that The Doctor brought Stevie Wonder onto the TARDIS and sent him back in time without telling him.
- The headless monks were first mentioned in a throwaway line when The Doctor and Amy were at a museum in last season’s “The Time of Angels.” I’m glad that Moffat decided to actually show us the monks in action.
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff
Now that we know River Song is Melody Pond, we can begin trying to piece together the show’s various time lines. For one thing, this episode made it quite clear that River’s claim that she and The Doctor are at opposite ends of two time lines and are living their lives Benjamin Button style is really an oversimplification. In this episode alone, they have three different meetings at various times in each other’s lives – The Doctor sees her as a baby, as a grown woman at Demon’s Run and on some kind of birthday date with Stevie Wonder tagging along (which we don’t know where, in The Doctor’s time stream, that date occurred). So clearly, it isn’t two straight lines at opposite ends of a spectrum intersecting from time to time. Their encounters seem to be a bit more random than that.
Since it is now pretty safe to assume that River is the little girl in the space suit we saw in this first two episodes this season, it seems like Madame Kovarian and Co. will eventually stash her away at Graystark Hall Orphanage. It also begins to look more and more like River is the one who will shoot and kill The Doctor on the beach (since she eventually goes to jail for killing a great man and since obviously the bad guys are going to be brainwashing her to be a weapon against him).
It will be very interesting to see how all of that ends up working out. Last week Amy let it slip to The Doctor that she saw him die. Now that he knows that and most likely knows River was the girl in the spacesuit, we have to wait and see what his plan was at the start of the season when he invited Amy, River and Rory to America to watch him die. We also know from that episode that he doesn’t set that plan in motion until he is 1103, so he has 200 years to put it all in motion.
I’m also curious what this will ultimately mean for the show. It was officially announced last week that Matt Smith is confirmed for next season, but it looks like Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill might not be coming back. While we will undoubtedly get more of Alex Kingston playing the grown up River Song, I imagine that perhaps next season we will end up with a new actress playing a young River as The Doctor’s weekly companion, which could be when she learns how to fly the TARDIS and really gets to know him better. Or maybe we’ll even get several different actresses playing River at various times throughout her life – now that we know she can regenerate, the casting possibilities are endless.
But that’s just my theory, I’d love to hear where you all think the show might end up going from here. Obviously, we’ve got some time between now and when the show comes back from hiatus to endless speculate about the future, so feel free to let your theories fly in the comment section.
Gratuitous Amy Pond photo of the week
Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his recaps, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.
Related Posts:
The Doctor’s willingness to walk into his own death at the beginning of the season makes more sense, now that we presumably know who was in the spacesuit. He probably spends most of the next 200 years of his life running from that confrontation, but knows that he has to accept it or cause a major paradox.
I wonder if River won’t eventually try to cause a paradox that only affects her so that she can sacrifice herself for the Doctor. And if it comes to that, maybe Amy and Rory will sacrifice themselves for River.
[Reply]
Great recap, Joel!
The big theory I’m struggling to accept, but can’t get my mind off of, is that I think River might actually have been imprisoned for killing Rory, not the Doctor. She’s imprisoned by the people who supposedly trained her to kill the Doctor, so why would they imprison her for carrying out that mission? Also, we’ve had lots of Doctor/Rory fakeouts, and my gut just thinks that the “greatest man she’s ever known” is her father, not the Doctor. And I think the River killing the Doctor line of thinking is what we’re all being led to believe. It just seems too easy. I think they’re’ll be another twist or three, and Rory very well could be the one to die. For real this time.
I am trying to reconcile that line of thought with the fact that my brain is still being led to believe that the person in the suit who kills the doctor is young River.
But Sexy said that she has 30 or so control rooms archived, and the Doctor has only seen 11 of them. The death we saw was of the 11th doctor, and I don’t think the doctor will die in this regeneration. As Jesse pointed out in a conversation we were having, the Doctor allows his death (assuming its caused by River) so that young River grows up to be older River, thus avoiding a paradox.
Speaking of paradoxes, I don’t think River could join the Doctor while baby River was there because it would’ve caused a paradox, like in Father’s Day, with Rose holding her baby-self.
I’m sure I have other thoughts rattling around, but my brain hurts right now.
[Reply]
And I was totally right about River. As soon as we saw Melody’s name on the delivery room cradle, that was confirmation. I was still thrilled at the reveal, though.
[Reply]
And River knows the Doctor’s name because she could read it on the cradle. She’s part time lord (from having been conceived in the vortex on the TARDIS) and can read Gallifreyan.
[Reply]
Wouldn’t The Doctor still have to teach her Gallifreyan at some point in her life? Time Lords aren’t just born with the ability to read, are they?
[Reply]
Probably not, but being conceived in the TARDIS I think gave her the ability to read Gallifreyan because of the whole translatey thing. It was just a wild thoght. The Doctor can speak baby after all. He speaks everything. It’s not too much of a stretch for her to remember what her cradle looked like, including what was written on it.
[Reply]
I’m with Joelle in that I can’t let go of the possibility that it’s Rory that River will eventually kill.
If that’s the case, then it follows that it’s probably not River in the spacesuit from the season opener. I’ve seen a few arguments floating around that it might even be Amy in the sentient spacesuit which—while a bit of a stretch—might not be entirely impossible in the Nu-Who/Stephen Moffat universe. He has a way of making the impossible sometimes probable, often likely and, even more often, logical in retrospect.
If River ends up killing Rory—whether it be of her free will or otherwise—and if Amy blames the Doctor for her daughter’s original & subsequent kidnappings (which River heavily implied was, in fact, the case), then all of this could culminate in some bizarre scenario in which Amy ends up offing the Doctor. Moffat can convincingly write his way in to and out of anything, quite frankly.
But who the hell really knows? I’m also not entirely convinced there won’t be another one (or two or three) ‘gangers/Flesh Avatars thrown into this whole mix.
On a side note: someone on Pajiba pointed out that there was a nice little moment in “Day of the Moon” in light of the River Song parental disclosure. When River is busy going all Clint Eastwood-gunslinger on the collective Silence ass (Silence asses???), Rory pops his head out of the TARDIS just as River says, “My old man didn’t see that now, did he? He gets ever so cross.”
Originally, I also thought that was referring to the Doctor, but now it seems it might be a nice little retroactive homage to Rory as River’s dad. Possibly. Then again, who knows?
All that being said: great recap/analysis, Joel.
[Reply]
KayceeK – I can’t wait to go back and watch all the River Song episodes. I’m sure there’s a great many of those moments peppered throughout. I don’t even think I heard her say “old man” in that scene. I think I remember hearing her sauy just “my man.” My brain heard what it wanted to hear. Man, I love the Moff.
[Reply]
She visited her frnieds and her brother separetly duh. She went to his uni to visit Alex, she went to the club with BOTH Amy and Rory. You can see amy’s arm and leg in the second picture in the club and the pics of her leaving and in the car with Emma. Emma is clearly comforting rory over something, probably Sophie being in America. She’s known rory a long time. Don’t be an idiot.
[Reply]