Doctor Who 6.01 The Impossible Astronaut
In which the Moff delights in setting up a new puzzle, and the season is off to a good start.
Overall, I very much enjoyed that, minus only the very first scene which I thought was too slapsticky (though oddly enough not the Laurel & Hardy scene afterwards). Mind you, I might change my mind later depending on how everything resolves, but for now, I'm enjoying the ride. Also the character development. Amy and Rory not being on the TARDIS but living somewhere (though obviously expecting to hear from the Doctor soon) was a surprise, but the more I think about it, the more welcome it was: that way, they travel with the Doctor but also create their own space somewhere, and hey, a vacation from lethally dangerous adventures now and then probably is a good thing. :) It also could bode well for their eventual departure, as all companions must - instead of going for the angst, we just maybe can assume their times of taking trips with the Doctor have longer distances between them, or something like that.
Anyway. As is his want, the Moff sets up a time puzzle, and Matt Smith does a good job in his few scenes as 1100-something Doctor, playing him subtly different to regular Eleven whom we meet again for the rest of the episode; there's the sense of melancholy under the veneer, and he's completely at ease with River while 909-Eleven is getting there (and by now very strongly flirting), but isn't completely there yet. Now, given that Matt Smith presumably will do the usual three or four years stint as the Doctor before wandering off to greener pastures, declaring that the Doctor stays in this shape for 200 years would create a lot of off screen life - possibilities for media tie-ins? Or not. Because I strongly suspect that's where Beardy!Eleven from the trailer for next week comes in. Or maybe I've listened to Rob Sherman's DW audio Jubilee too often, but I suspect the Doctor might spend those two hundred years as a prisoner in a cell within the next episode before showing up to be killed by the astronaut. (How Moffat will get out of that one, I don't know, and am looking forward to find out, but hey, I'm a Babylon 5 fan. I fully expect the inevitable flashback next episode to just what was said between the Doctor and the astronaut to contain the sentence "not the one".
So far, a Team TARDIS of four works very well; everyone of the regulars (counting River as one) gets scenes, no one feels neglected. And who'd have thought it, but Moffat comes up with a new variation of a mystery to be solved situation, in that the companions know something the Doctor (this version) does not . Conversely, the viewer sometimes knows more than the companions - note that it's Rory and River, i.e. the two who weren't there during the episode The Lodger last season, who are in the underground space ship, which very much looks like and presumably is one of the not quite TARDIS ships from that episode.
The Doctor figuring out where the little girl called from was a neat bit of Sherlockian business that worked for me better than when Sherlock H. in the Moffat/Gattiss series does it, not least because there was no slo mo time involved, and also because I actually like Eleven. (Though he so deserved that slap from River for something he hadn't done yet. As Donna would confirm, you go never wrong slapping the Doctor.) Oh, and for those of us taking note of numbers of het involvements versus numbers of same sex involvements: "Lovely fellows. Two of them" ("them" being Founding Fathers Jefferson, Adams and Hamilton) "fancied me." Okay then, Americans, all I know about J, A & H is derived from fiction (three novels, a film and a musical, to be precise), so, in your expert opinion: which two are most likely to have fancied the Doctor? (And also, which Doctor, assuming it wasn't all Eleven - personally speaking, having all the other regenerations available for guess work is just more fun.) I like to think of this as the Moff making up for saddling the Doctor previously only with female historical figures. Well done, Moff.
Each time River Song returns, I love the character more, which unfortunately means that now her parts in the Library episodes are quite heartbreaking, which they weren't before. That scene with Rory was outstanding, and Alex Kingston delivers a hell of a performance in this episode in general - just note the very different way she says her trademark "spoilers" because now we know what she's hiding in this particular case. And she's just glorious fun when bantering. Also, "Hippie!" "Archaeologist!" cracked me up. (Mind you, Nixon so far has been unexpectedly non-caricatury. Why couldn't you have done that last year for Winston C., show?) One thing about River's unfolding tale I find disquieting, though, when thinking about it aftewards (I didn't during watching the episode): in s4 and 5, River has indeed been getting progressively younger from the Doctor's and audience's pov, i.e. we were watching River's story backwards. Now, it's not spelled out River in this particular episode comes from a point of time in her life line that is before The Big Bang, but it's definitely one before Time of the Angels. And River says that every time she meets the Doctor, she knows more about him and he knows less about her, which would imply a strict linearity in their meetings, only in reverse. Whiy do I find this disquieting? Because though we're far from it yet, that means the time line the show is following, i.e. the Dcotor's, will near an inevitable knowledge and power shift between River and the Doctor. And the moment he knows more about her than she does about him it's the status quo for virtually all his other relationships, with companions and non-companions alike. :(
(Actually, I don't think the show will take us there, not least because Alex Kingston is not immortal and can't age backwards, either. And I don't think the Moff wants to give River's story to the next showrunner, so he'll conclude it within his run, and while I fully expect we'll see the first encounter (from her pov) between River and the Doctor where she does indeed know nothing and he knows everything, where River will probably be played by another actress depending on what she meant with "young girl", I also expect this a one episode or maybe one scene only thing, and otherwise we'll see River as she is now minus a few years but still having slightly the upper hand in knowledge; when she and the Doctor reach equal knowledge, the Moff will wrap up the story, minus that first encounter scene. *end of current River speculation* )
Aliens, or, as I'm told they're called, "The Silence": no judgment yet, I'll wait until the next episode.
Moffat really likes astronaut suits, doesn't he? Well, I do, too, so I don't mind.
Amy: pregnant or not? It could be the aliens messing with her mind, since River also throws up and it seems to be connected to having your mind wiped of the Silence encounter. Otoh, there was the Doctor's crack about a few pounds more, and younger Eleven telling Amy and Rory when he's being flippant about where everyone is off to "you know can make babies". I doubt Moffat will make Karen Gillan wear a pregnancy suit a la Sharon in s2 of BSG for the entire season, so if Amy is really pregnant, she's probably get one of thiose sci fi miracle pregnancies that go super quickly. But I also doubt there is a baby on the TARDIS in the offering, either. No idea how that one will work out.
More interestin to me, though: the implication of Amy shooting the astronaut/girl in suit. Because that's a big one. Could be with season long consequences.
Lastly: "I'm quite the screamer, now there's a spoiler for you" versus - "The Legs, the Nose and Mrs Robinson" as best line of the episode?
Overall, I very much enjoyed that, minus only the very first scene which I thought was too slapsticky (though oddly enough not the Laurel & Hardy scene afterwards). Mind you, I might change my mind later depending on how everything resolves, but for now, I'm enjoying the ride. Also the character development. Amy and Rory not being on the TARDIS but living somewhere (though obviously expecting to hear from the Doctor soon) was a surprise, but the more I think about it, the more welcome it was: that way, they travel with the Doctor but also create their own space somewhere, and hey, a vacation from lethally dangerous adventures now and then probably is a good thing. :) It also could bode well for their eventual departure, as all companions must - instead of going for the angst, we just maybe can assume their times of taking trips with the Doctor have longer distances between them, or something like that.
Anyway. As is his want, the Moff sets up a time puzzle, and Matt Smith does a good job in his few scenes as 1100-something Doctor, playing him subtly different to regular Eleven whom we meet again for the rest of the episode; there's the sense of melancholy under the veneer, and he's completely at ease with River while 909-Eleven is getting there (and by now very strongly flirting), but isn't completely there yet. Now, given that Matt Smith presumably will do the usual three or four years stint as the Doctor before wandering off to greener pastures, declaring that the Doctor stays in this shape for 200 years would create a lot of off screen life - possibilities for media tie-ins? Or not. Because I strongly suspect that's where Beardy!Eleven from the trailer for next week comes in. Or maybe I've listened to Rob Sherman's DW audio Jubilee too often, but I suspect the Doctor might spend those two hundred years as a prisoner in a cell within the next episode before showing up to be killed by the astronaut. (How Moffat will get out of that one, I don't know, and am looking forward to find out, but hey, I'm a Babylon 5 fan. I fully expect the inevitable flashback next episode to just what was said between the Doctor and the astronaut to contain the sentence "not the one".
So far, a Team TARDIS of four works very well; everyone of the regulars (counting River as one) gets scenes, no one feels neglected. And who'd have thought it, but Moffat comes up with a new variation of a mystery to be solved situation, in that the companions know something the Doctor (this version) does not . Conversely, the viewer sometimes knows more than the companions - note that it's Rory and River, i.e. the two who weren't there during the episode The Lodger last season, who are in the underground space ship, which very much looks like and presumably is one of the not quite TARDIS ships from that episode.
The Doctor figuring out where the little girl called from was a neat bit of Sherlockian business that worked for me better than when Sherlock H. in the Moffat/Gattiss series does it, not least because there was no slo mo time involved, and also because I actually like Eleven. (Though he so deserved that slap from River for something he hadn't done yet. As Donna would confirm, you go never wrong slapping the Doctor.) Oh, and for those of us taking note of numbers of het involvements versus numbers of same sex involvements: "Lovely fellows. Two of them" ("them" being Founding Fathers Jefferson, Adams and Hamilton) "fancied me." Okay then, Americans, all I know about J, A & H is derived from fiction (three novels, a film and a musical, to be precise), so, in your expert opinion: which two are most likely to have fancied the Doctor? (And also, which Doctor, assuming it wasn't all Eleven - personally speaking, having all the other regenerations available for guess work is just more fun.) I like to think of this as the Moff making up for saddling the Doctor previously only with female historical figures. Well done, Moff.
Each time River Song returns, I love the character more, which unfortunately means that now her parts in the Library episodes are quite heartbreaking, which they weren't before. That scene with Rory was outstanding, and Alex Kingston delivers a hell of a performance in this episode in general - just note the very different way she says her trademark "spoilers" because now we know what she's hiding in this particular case. And she's just glorious fun when bantering. Also, "Hippie!" "Archaeologist!" cracked me up. (Mind you, Nixon so far has been unexpectedly non-caricatury. Why couldn't you have done that last year for Winston C., show?) One thing about River's unfolding tale I find disquieting, though, when thinking about it aftewards (I didn't during watching the episode): in s4 and 5, River has indeed been getting progressively younger from the Doctor's and audience's pov, i.e. we were watching River's story backwards. Now, it's not spelled out River in this particular episode comes from a point of time in her life line that is before The Big Bang, but it's definitely one before Time of the Angels. And River says that every time she meets the Doctor, she knows more about him and he knows less about her, which would imply a strict linearity in their meetings, only in reverse. Whiy do I find this disquieting? Because though we're far from it yet, that means the time line the show is following, i.e. the Dcotor's, will near an inevitable knowledge and power shift between River and the Doctor. And the moment he knows more about her than she does about him it's the status quo for virtually all his other relationships, with companions and non-companions alike. :(
(Actually, I don't think the show will take us there, not least because Alex Kingston is not immortal and can't age backwards, either. And I don't think the Moff wants to give River's story to the next showrunner, so he'll conclude it within his run, and while I fully expect we'll see the first encounter (from her pov) between River and the Doctor where she does indeed know nothing and he knows everything, where River will probably be played by another actress depending on what she meant with "young girl", I also expect this a one episode or maybe one scene only thing, and otherwise we'll see River as she is now minus a few years but still having slightly the upper hand in knowledge; when she and the Doctor reach equal knowledge, the Moff will wrap up the story, minus that first encounter scene. *end of current River speculation* )
Aliens, or, as I'm told they're called, "The Silence": no judgment yet, I'll wait until the next episode.
Moffat really likes astronaut suits, doesn't he? Well, I do, too, so I don't mind.
Amy: pregnant or not? It could be the aliens messing with her mind, since River also throws up and it seems to be connected to having your mind wiped of the Silence encounter. Otoh, there was the Doctor's crack about a few pounds more, and younger Eleven telling Amy and Rory when he's being flippant about where everyone is off to "you know can make babies". I doubt Moffat will make Karen Gillan wear a pregnancy suit a la Sharon in s2 of BSG for the entire season, so if Amy is really pregnant, she's probably get one of thiose sci fi miracle pregnancies that go super quickly. But I also doubt there is a baby on the TARDIS in the offering, either. No idea how that one will work out.
More interestin to me, though: the implication of Amy shooting the astronaut/girl in suit. Because that's a big one. Could be with season long consequences.
Lastly: "I'm quite the screamer, now there's a spoiler for you" versus - "The Legs, the Nose and Mrs Robinson" as best line of the episode?