Okay, time to spice things up a little I think. For this blog entry I will be recording my thoughts and feelings "live" as I watch the episode instead of trying to think of something to put several days after the episode as has mainly been the case so far. So here goes. Time to press play!
A recap of the series so far. Well it's nice to be reminded of what I've already seen. Seems strange though that they are showing me the Teselecta, the robot that can change its appearance to look like any other person. Well technically it's not a robot I suppose as it's crewed by miniaturised people. If it were to be a robot, then I guess it's sort of like Kamelion and we all know what happened to him! No...you don't...because he was shit. Anyway, too much writing and the episode hasn't even properly begun yet!
Those opening scenes were awesome! So as I've seen the episode before I know what's going on so I can explain it a little better. Basically all we know so far is that time has got seriously screwed up. Time is no longer moving and all of history is happening at once. So we have train tracks suspended in the sky with old steam engines going along them, cars being hoisted into the air by hot air balloons, pterodactyls as vermin the parks and Charles Dickens appearing on BBC breakfast news to talk about his latest Christmas tale. Brilliant. It's also great that Dickins is once again played by Simon Callow who played him in The Unquiet Dead.
Matt Smith's first appearance is a little..I don't know if cheesy is the right word..but basically I don't like it. As Ceaser Churchill (yes Winston Churchill is back and he's some kind of Roman Emporer) begs the "soothsayer" to explain to him what is happening to time, the soothsayer raises his head slowly to reveal he's the Doctor and simply says "a woman" and then it cuts to the opening titles. I don't like that. It makes me cringe a bit.
He's fully redeemed immediately after though as we seem him approaching and mocking a dying Dalek before dismantling it to gather any information it may be holding about the Silence. Also I have to say that I love the new green coat that the Doctor has taken to wearing. I actually have a replica of it which is pretty cool. He only really wears it a few times in this season and after this story it is never seen again but I quite like that because it means it's not too recognisable so when I wear my replica in town I don't get people staring at me thinking "look at that knob in his Doctor Who coat"..they probably just think "look at that knob in his surprisingly stylish green coat" instead. Anyway I'm straying from the story again. I better get going with it otherwise I won't finish it before midnight!
The Doctor sits in a bar and reads "knitting for girls". I approve of this.
Sometimes Steven Moffat just comes up with some brilliant ideas that aren't important to the plot but are brilliant nevertheless and the "live chess" scene is one of them. A game of chess played as if some kind of blood sport, with baying crowds etc. The twist with this game of chess is that each piece has an electric charge running through it and each time it is moved the charge increases meaning that a piece that has been moved several times can give a lethal shock should you try to move it again. I think it's an idea that could catch on! Maybe a suggestion for Dragons' Den?
The Doctor meets Dorium again, now just a head in a box and he gives up a bit of an info dump as to why the Slience want the Doctor dead. But it's an awesome info dump so I can forgive that.
"You're a man with with a long and dangerous past, but you're future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted!"
"On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall the of the eleventh, where no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never ever be answered."
The Doctor finds out what the question is (still unknown to us) and goes a little mental as he now knows why he has to die. He explains that with a time machine he can run away from it all and carry on forever but it's after a phone call to a dear old friend that the Doctor realises that he can't run forever. This was a moment that took me by surprise on my first viewing. The Doctor is told by a nurse that Brigadier Lethebridge Stewert has passed away. The Brigadier had been such a long standing recurring character in the series, right back to the 1960s that to hear he has gone in a real shock. It's also a touching moment as Nicholas Courtney who played the character had recently passed away so this was obviously written in as a nod to him. But it works as part of the story itself to as it is what makes the Doctor finally realise that his time is up.
So here's something cool that I've only just noticed in this episode. River is trapped in a space suit and is being controlled in order to short the Doctor. She is begging him to run away but he tells her that this must happen. She says "time can be rewritten" to which he responds "don't you dare!" which is the exact exchange that took place between them at the end of Forest Of The Dead where River dies except the lines are swapped around between the Doctor and River. That's quite clever mirroring.
Amy shows where her daughter gets some of her ruthlessness as she completely wastes some Silents with a machine gun and then forces Madame Kovarian to put her eyepatch back on which is electrocuting her. This would seem to be a little to much really but these are stressful circumstances and Amy at least shows some remorse later on for actions. She's not a woman to be messed with. That's cool too.
So River has sent a distress call to the whole universe asking them to help save the Doctor's life. It makes quite an emotional punch when you realise that the so called solar flare interruptions are actually the replies from thousands of civilisations answering the call to help the Doctor.
Then for reasons that still confuse me. The Doctor marries River in a rushed ceremony. It seems the only reason for it is to make her kiss him which helps make time move again and also allows him to whisper something very important in her ear...his name...except he's lying and what he's really telling her is that this is not the real Doctor and it's just the Tesalecta which is going to take his place on the beach thus faking his own death. Given what we've been told about fixed points in time etc it feels like a bit if a cheat. It's further upsetting that we have had to wait pretty much a whole year for this rather disappointing resolution.
And just what is the question that must never be answered. Well this is pretty awesome actually. The question really has been staring us in the face this whole time..Doctor Who?
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