when a good man goes to war
It seems like all I do is watch Doctor Who once a week and post about it. I swear I do also other things with my life! :) For example, I've started reading The Fry Chronicles and it is so good that I could barely tear myself away to eat the other day. I've also just finished playing Lego Harry Potter 1-4 in its entirety; wonderful game, I cannot wait to buy it for my little brother.
Anyways... Fans will be nitpicking this episode for the next few months. Actually, the nitpicking will possibly extend over the duration of the next half of the series. Which is exactly what Steven Moffat had planned would happen, the cheeky mastermind...
did you guess?
Demons run, when a good man goes to war.
Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies.
Night will fall and the dark will rise, when a good man goes to war.
First of all, let's look at this damn poem: it's pretty, yes, and it's dark, yes, but what does it actually say? First line is sort of obvious, I guess, and it's clearly meant to be what Man in Blue said about the Doctor. The way it's all phrased though is... ancient? What I mean is that a long time ago oral poetry was the only way to perpetuate the knowledge about things (especially in Norse tradition, which is where we find the ultimate trickster, Odin, who is not only the god of victory and the dead, but also the supreme god and creator in the mythology... does he remind you of anyone?). The constant repetition of 'when a good man goes to war' is a device to remember the musicality of the lines, like a nursery rhyme, and therein is my point. I think this poem is something that Melody will grow up with, to remind her to stay out of the events at Demons Run, which in turn explains how she already knew about the place when Rory visited River in Stormcage.
Speaking of Stormcage... Has anyone ever noticed that the full name is not Stormcage Prison, but Stormcage Containment Facility? Lookalike is to be credited for making me re-think the naming of this place and the apparent ease with which River is able to leave and return to it. What if it's not a prison at all, but the 'cage' where they keep her, ready to be of use in the war against the Doctor? It made me think of the poem by Maya Angelou, I know why the caged bird sings (if I find it, I shall link to it). And just to clear some things up, the symbol of the army raised by Eyepatch Lady is the omega sign that the soldiers of the Church sported in Time of Angels, isn't it? Which means that Father Octavian has River Song in custody due to more than just precaution. I always thought that when he told the Doctor why River was in Stormcage he was trying to give him a hint instead of actually telling him straight out what she had done. So what if she's actually NOT in Stormcage because she killed a man in cold blood, but because she was brought up as a weapon to kill the Doctor and, at least according to the history of the Church, she succeeded?
I'll have more speculation as the days go by and I listen to more podcasts, but that's all I have now. Which is actually quite a lot; a nice indicator of how much this episode made me think. I like thinking.
Lookalike and I positively loved Rory at the beginning. Luckily as soon as he became to badass to contain our excitement, it went into the opening credits and I at least was able to jump around for a minute before settling down. I'll be honest, the name Melody sounds like it came out of a not-so-good fanfiction, but they couldn't call her Tune, could they? Though Aria would have been nice. :P
The recruiting of the Doctor's army was nice and totally in character; the baddies really don't get how dangerous it was to plant a fake Amy in the TARDIS. And the silhouette when he went to get Man in Blue (Dorium?)... wow! There was a lot of this episode that made me go... wow! And from halfway through I kept jumping up and saying 'No, no, it can't be over yet, it's too early, isn't it? Isn't it?' and getting extremely funny shushing noises from the man lying next to me. :) I probably missed vital pieces of dialogue which I'll have to look out for when I watch the episode again with the very handy subtitles.
Now it makes perfect sense why a) River always knew who Amy was, she's her mum, of course she did AND b) why she suddenly appeared at the wedding, it was probably the mutual presence of Amy and Rory and Amy accepting marriage to Rory as final that poof! brought the baby into existence too. With a helpful diary obviously.
Anyways... Fans will be nitpicking this episode for the next few months. Actually, the nitpicking will possibly extend over the duration of the next half of the series. Which is exactly what Steven Moffat had planned would happen, the cheeky mastermind...
did you guess?
Demons run, when a good man goes to war.
Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies.
Night will fall and the dark will rise, when a good man goes to war.
First of all, let's look at this damn poem: it's pretty, yes, and it's dark, yes, but what does it actually say? First line is sort of obvious, I guess, and it's clearly meant to be what Man in Blue said about the Doctor. The way it's all phrased though is... ancient? What I mean is that a long time ago oral poetry was the only way to perpetuate the knowledge about things (especially in Norse tradition, which is where we find the ultimate trickster, Odin, who is not only the god of victory and the dead, but also the supreme god and creator in the mythology... does he remind you of anyone?). The constant repetition of 'when a good man goes to war' is a device to remember the musicality of the lines, like a nursery rhyme, and therein is my point. I think this poem is something that Melody will grow up with, to remind her to stay out of the events at Demons Run, which in turn explains how she already knew about the place when Rory visited River in Stormcage.
Speaking of Stormcage... Has anyone ever noticed that the full name is not Stormcage Prison, but Stormcage Containment Facility? Lookalike is to be credited for making me re-think the naming of this place and the apparent ease with which River is able to leave and return to it. What if it's not a prison at all, but the 'cage' where they keep her, ready to be of use in the war against the Doctor? It made me think of the poem by Maya Angelou, I know why the caged bird sings (if I find it, I shall link to it). And just to clear some things up, the symbol of the army raised by Eyepatch Lady is the omega sign that the soldiers of the Church sported in Time of Angels, isn't it? Which means that Father Octavian has River Song in custody due to more than just precaution. I always thought that when he told the Doctor why River was in Stormcage he was trying to give him a hint instead of actually telling him straight out what she had done. So what if she's actually NOT in Stormcage because she killed a man in cold blood, but because she was brought up as a weapon to kill the Doctor and, at least according to the history of the Church, she succeeded?
I'll have more speculation as the days go by and I listen to more podcasts, but that's all I have now. Which is actually quite a lot; a nice indicator of how much this episode made me think. I like thinking.
Lookalike and I positively loved Rory at the beginning. Luckily as soon as he became to badass to contain our excitement, it went into the opening credits and I at least was able to jump around for a minute before settling down. I'll be honest, the name Melody sounds like it came out of a not-so-good fanfiction, but they couldn't call her Tune, could they? Though Aria would have been nice. :P
The recruiting of the Doctor's army was nice and totally in character; the baddies really don't get how dangerous it was to plant a fake Amy in the TARDIS. And the silhouette when he went to get Man in Blue (Dorium?)... wow! There was a lot of this episode that made me go... wow! And from halfway through I kept jumping up and saying 'No, no, it can't be over yet, it's too early, isn't it? Isn't it?' and getting extremely funny shushing noises from the man lying next to me. :) I probably missed vital pieces of dialogue which I'll have to look out for when I watch the episode again with the very handy subtitles.
Now it makes perfect sense why a) River always knew who Amy was, she's her mum, of course she did AND b) why she suddenly appeared at the wedding, it was probably the mutual presence of Amy and Rory and Amy accepting marriage to Rory as final that poof! brought the baby into existence too. With a helpful diary obviously.