Day 870 - Let's Kill Hitler

First of all I have to say I bloody love that title! 

I remember the first time I watched this episode as I was in Australia at the time. I had never been abroad before and all of a sudden I found myself on the other side of the planet. It was an awesome time, and thanks to the wonders of technology and internet piracy I still got too see my Doctor Who only a day after it was broadcast in the UK.

It's one of the more popular ideas of what time travel could be used for. Go back in time to kill the Nazi leader before he can commit his terrible hate crimes. In fact the usual story goes on along the line of "could you kill a baby if you knew he was going to grow up to be Hitler?". This was something that had already been explored in Doctor Who way back in Genesis Of The Daleks when the Doctor has the chance to kill the Dalek mutants at the very beginning of their lives in order to prevent the terrible evil they would eventually go on to spread throughout the universe. The Doctor has to debate with himself whether he has the right to do that.

Anyway this is not Genesis Of The Daleks and the title is actually a bit of a cheat as the story does not really develop in the way you expect it to. The role of Hitler is in fact fairly minimal, after Rory locks him away in a cupboard fairly early on in the episode. "Okay I'm putting Hitler in the cupboard". It must be awesome to be a time travellor.

Amy and Rory call the Doctor back to Earth to check on his success in locating their kidnapped daughter. He still has not found her but explains that as they know she grows up to be River Song then they at least know she is save. It's a this point that we are introduced to an old school friend of Amy and Rory called Mels who turns up in a stolen car with a gun (not quite sure where she got the gun from) and demands that the Doctor take them all away so that she can escape from the police who are chasing her. It's Mels idea as to the destination, "you've got a time machine, I've got a gun. What the hell, let's kill Hitler"

Arriving in Germany in 1938 the TARDIS accidentally prevents the assassination of Hitler! It's pretty funny to see their reactions when Hitler tells that that he thinks they have saved his life. As the Doctor puts its "believe me, it was an accident".

This just about sums up why this episode is so bloody amazing. The writing is just fantastic and the ideas are awesome. The assassination attempt is being carried about by a robot replica of a German officer. This robot is called the Teselecta (I may have spelt that wrong), it is crewed by tiny miniaturised people and can take on the form of any other person it comes into contact with. The purpose of the Teselecta is a genius idea. It travels through time and punishes those people who committed terrible crimes and got away with them. In order not to interfere with history it intercepts them at the final moments if their life and then "gives them hell". Unfortunately the timing of Hitlers punishment is not quite right as they have arrived far to early. Instead the find themself facing another criminal, Mels.

As she is accidentally shot by a stray bullet she begins to regenerate. The penny drops with Amy and Rory that in fact this girl that they have grown up with is their daughter! As the regeneration completes we see River Song arrive in the form we know her as now. I did not see this coming! My friends, Lee and Travis who happened to be in the room when I was watching this (I won't delude myself that they were in anyway interested in what I was watching) looked on a little bemused as I nearly fell off the sofa.

This what the story is really all about. The development of Melody Pond, from psychopath who wants to kill the Doctor (and succeeds!) to River Song who realises she loved the Doctor and uses all her regeneration power at once to bring him back to life. 

As a teaser for future episodes we also learn a little more about the mysterious Silence. The Silence is apparently a religious order whose core belief is that "silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight". Intriguing. Unfortunately the actuall question itself is not revealed in the episode but if you think about it long enough it pretty obvious...despite the fact that I didn't work it out.

I love this episode. It's incredibly witty but also moving at the same time. It ties up some loose threads as we see the birth of River Song. It's quite refreshing that it's now the Doctor's turn to tease River with "spoilers" rather than the other way around!