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| River Song's version of a day on the town. |
1 episode. Approx. 48 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Richard Senior. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.
THE PLOT
Months have passed for Amy and Rory. Finally fed up with their inability to contact the Doctor, they decide to attract his attention by creating a crop circle. It works, but it attracts other attention as well. Their friend Mels (Nina Toussaint-White) follows them in a stolen car, then forces her way onto the TARDIS.
The time machine materializes in late 1930's Germany. Just in time to save Hitler's life - an irony, given that Mels' first thought upon entering the time machine is, "let's kill Hitler." The German Chancellor was being menaced by the Tesselecta, a time travelling robot from the future staffed by miniaturized officials determined to punish history's most notorious criminals.
The Doctor's arrival diverts their attention from Hitler. They have found a more interesting war criminal to pursue. Because River Song has just arrived - a River who does not yet know the Doctor!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: When he requests a voice interface from his TARDIS, it presents him first with his own image. He rejects that, asking for the image of someone he likes. Taken together with last season's Dream Lord, this says a lot about the Doctor's inner emotional state. He is then presented with the images of his recent companions: Rose, Martha, Donna. He rejects all of these, each image filling him with guilt. Rose said of the 9th Doctor that he makes people better than themselves. The 11th Doctor believes the opposite, feeling that he's ruined everyone with whom he's come into contact.
Amy/Rory: Needing to attract the Doctor's attention, they do it by going big. They create a crop circle spelling out the word "Doctor." Sure enough, he comes, a copy of a future news magazine in hand. When the Tesselecta prepares to punish River, Amy thinks fast to stop the miniaturized time travellers. Her solution recalls one of her most notable qualities from Series Five: her ability to observe key details and act on them very, very quickly.
River Song: This would be River's first meeting with the Doctor from her perspective. This version of River is violent, vain, and self-absorbed. These are all traits we have seen in her, to be sure. But here they exist with no undercurrent of compassion or even thought. When the Doctor, apparently dying, refuses to give up on saving his companions even in great pain, his struggle impresses her. We also find out who it was that taught River to fly the TARDIS, paying off a line from last season's The Time of Angels as well as recalling an earlier episode from this season.
THOUGHTS
Well, that was unexpected!
...and in so many ways. I had fully anticipated Let's Kill Hitler being the second half of a story begun in A Good Man Goes to War. Imagine my surprise when it became clear that this was an entirely different story that happened to follow up on the ending of its predecessor - a sequel, rather than a conclusion.
This is a Steven Moffat script, with many of the hallmarks. We get the games with time that Moffat loves so much. A new "best friend" is introduced for Rory and Amy, and flashbacks fill in their prior relationship. Then there's a twist that ties that character into the larger arc. We get to see what is effectively River Song's origin story, and it plays out very differently than I had expected. Finally, we see the Doctor learn of his future death - which, once again, happens very differently than I'd have expected it to.
All of the twists and turns come in the midst of a story that's lightning-paced and downright bizarre, with miniature time travellers controlling a human-like robot from inside the robot's body. The security system? Antibodies, of course. And the control room is in the brain. It's odd and funny, and more than a little mad.
Not a bad description of the episode, come to that. The title (unsurprisingly) is just there to grab attention. Hitler's barely in the piece, and is treated like a joke by the Doctor and company. A gag that's not in very good taste and isn't funny enough to make up for it... but since it's a very small part of the story, it's not that hard to get past.
In addition to the usual Games With Structure (and there's a terrific bit in which we see how the Doctor has evaded multiple assassination attempts by River, all without seeming to have done anything), the episode has another Moffat hallmark: It's audacious. This is a big episode. It follows up on the ending of A Good Man Goes to War. It gives us new information about The Silence, and a new question to go with it. It's the episode in which the Doctor and River meet for the first time from her perspective, and it's the episode in which the Doctor learns of his eventual fate. In terms of the overall arc, this is every bit as big as A Good Man Goes to War.
Yet it feels much smaller, and that's not a flaw. It's deliberate. Moffat has decided that if the last episode was an action film, then this one is a comedy. The gags come rapid-fire from the teaser on. Physical comedy, verbal sparring, mild satire, all thrown into this very weird mix. It shouldn't work, and for some it probably doesn't - Comedy in Who is always dicey, doubly so in a "payoff episode." But I have to admit, I found myself laughing frequently while watching. It's not the episode I really wanted for this slot. I had imagined something dark and epic. Then again, A Good Man Goes to War filled that bill rather thoroughly. So for the follow up, why not go to the opposite extreme?
I can't say that this is a great episode. The jokey tone isn't an entirely comfortable fit with the big events, and there's a slight feeling that this episode is meant to tie off emotional arcs that should rightfully play out over the rest of the season. Certainly, the final TARDIS scene seems to suggest that a messy situation is being tied up just a bit too neatly.
Still, after a season that's been very dark, an episode this light is actually something of a relief. Besides, I laughed, and didn't feel like the episode was insulting my intelligence while making me laugh. I'm not sure there's any better gauge of a comedy episode's success than that.
Rating: 7/10.
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