Demons run when a good man goes to war…
It’s the long anticipated mid-season cliff-hanger. The episode that will keep us waiting with baited breath until August (not literally, otherwise Steven Moffat would have a lot of asphyxiated fans on his hands). We have been teased, we have been tantalised, and now the threads begin to come together and the pieces fall into place.
The Battle of Demon’s Run, the Doctor’s darkest hour. As River Song puts it “He’ll rise higher than ever before, and then fall so much further.” A Good Man Goes To War opens with Amy, having just given birth to her daughter Melody (Melody Pond… If bells aren’t merrily chiming at this for you, seek help!), in the company of the less-than-desirable Clerics and fantastically sinister Madame Kovarian (or as I still fondly know her, Eye Patch Lady, played by Frances Barber). Meanwhile, Rory’s becoming remarkably more masculine and confrontational in the quest to find his wife, with he and the Doctor devastating the 12th Cyber Legion’s fleet in a bid to find out Amy’s location. From the first five minutes, you have a sense of just how epic the ensuing 45 minutes will be.
It’s definitely a monumental episode, with a generous handful of races turning up to assist in the Doctor’s mission. The war is fought, not with weapons, but with cunning, and the only thing that really explodes is the fleet during the token appearance from the Cybermen. Perhaps the episode may have been better named (albeit more lengthily) A Good Man Is Prepared To Go To War If Needs Be…
It’s hinted at numerous times throughout the episode that, due to the Doctor’s ongoing adventures, the meaning of ‘doctor’ is slipping from ‘healer’ to ‘great warrior’, which is the primary impetus for building an army (and a weapon) to destroy him. Whilst the Battle of Demon’s Run shows the Doctor rising higher than ever before with his ability to assemble an army more than willing to sacrifice themselves in his name, and winning without a fight, it doesn’t really convey his fall. It is largely his fault that all of this happened in the first place, seeing as he’s become such a legendary figure, but I can’t help but feel we have yet to see the full impact of this episode on the Doctor’s image…
There was only one part of this episode I didn’t quite realise the point of, and that was the introduction of the Thin Fat Gay Married Anglican Marines. That appears to have been their only purpose - to say those words - and pass into the annals (oi!) of history. The coupling of Madame Vastra, the Victorian Silurian, and Jenny, however, felt a lot more fitting, and would make for quite a good spin-off series set in the late 1800s. There’s a very revealing insight into Moffat’s mind - oh, I like that, Moffat’s Mind - with these two, a joke involving the exceptionally long tongue of a Silurian, which would (hopefully) go over the heads of most children!
The entire cast gave their absolute best performance of this season yet, and the concept was superb. It was good to see Matt Smith’s Doctor in a much more serious capacity, embracing the anger he would inevitably feel if one of his companions had been mistreated. It was also a pleasant change to see a more sombre River Song towards the end of the episode, with none of her usual banter, but a severity to match the tone of the final scene. Oh and what a final scene! It was utterly sublime, and if there were one piece of television that could epitomise the potential of brilliant story-telling in Doctor Who, it was this.
Overall, A Good Man Goes To War was truly a spectacle to behold, and has taken it‘s place with The Doctor’s Wife as tied-favourite episode since Matt Smith took on the role as the Doctor. Obviously, though, the episode was largely a frame for the two biggest parts in the overall plot, Amy’s baby and who is River Song. The clues have been casually left lying about the place this series to show that those two points are actually one. Unfortunately, despite having bet with friends that River Song was Amy’s daughter, who was part-Time Lord due to travelling in the TARDIS, who was in turn the little girl who shoots and kills the Doctor in The Impossible Astronaut and regenerates at the end of The Day Of The Moon, I did not put money on my claims. All I’ve really done is either proven I’m very clever, or just quite good at guessing!
But now, with River’s identity revealed, and Melody Pond in the possession of Madame Kovarian, we’re still left with some questions… It’s now safe to assume that the astronaut that kills the Doctor is a young Melody Pond/River Song, and that’s the reason she was imprisoned (for killing the greatest man she ever knew). But to what end? Why is Madame Kovarian so intent on killing the Doctor? What effects will River’s Time Lord-esque DNA have on the future? The Doctor that dies, is he the Flesh-Doctor, or the Doctor in an alternate and aborted time line? Why does River essentially shoot at herself if it is indeed her in the astronaut?! Why did the Doctor mention Cybermats in The Almost People (new bet, seeing as there’s some fairly Patrick Troughton inspired content this series, we’ll see Cybermats return… Might stick money on that, this time!)? And more importantly, why do we have to wait until Autumn for the next episode?!
Doctor Who returns in the Autumn with the episode Let’s Kill Hitler. What a fantastically bizarre title! Presumably that will be followed up by Dinner with Pol Pot (credit for that joke goes to my good friend Lawrence Savill).
If you missed A Good Man Goes To War, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT?!
You may have this chance to redeem yourself by watching it on iPlayer here, but if you miss something as brilliant as this in future I may not be so forgiving…
No comments:
Post a Comment