It's been a little under three months coming, but finally the second half of Doctor Who series six has arrived! Kicking off with Let's Kill Hitler, the Doctor's return was nothing short of utterly spectacular.
Having summoned the Doctor back to Leadworth via a crop-circle (just one of the many ways to contact an extraterrestrial), Amy and Rory are reunited with the Time Lord adventurer, who's sporting a new and rather magnificent overcoat. However, they aren't the only ones seeking the Doctor, as Mels (Nina Toussaint-White), the childhood friend of Amy and Rory, comes ploughing through the corn field in a red corvette – which, as it happens, does not strictly belong to her, judging by the sirens that seemed to be following. In a bid to escape, she holds the Doctor at gunpoint, and off they bugger in the TARDIS.
It becomes clear that this isn't Mels's first altercation with authority, as a series of flashbacks indicate her repetitive detentions throughout school, as well as the occasional arrest later in life, with Amy always there scolding her in a motherly fashion. Appropriate, really... (For those who read my article on the prequel and previews... I was right. Not going to make a big deal out of it, I just like being right. And blimey was that part executed brilliantly!).
After crashing into Hitler's office, the TARDIS crew find themselves confronted with the Fuhrer, played by Albert Welling, having just inadvertently saved his life from a time-travelling, shape-shifting, law-enforcing robot piloted by tiny people (that's one hell of a CV!). Welling's role as Hitler was disappointingly short-lived, though, having been punched by Rory (“shut up, Hitler”, brilliant line!) and locked in a cupboard for the rest of the episode. However, despite the title, Hitler is not really the focus of the episode, nor is the Teselecta that had been attempting to kill him, but it is actually quite a Melody Pond/River Song based episode.
Despite the many, many fantastic elements that made up this episode, and the entire cast producing an utterly stellar performance, Alex Kingston absolutely stole the show. Portraying the early days of River Song as unstable, murderous, and fairly psychotic, Kingston was at her most engaging since she first appeared on the show in Silence in the Library. River's character was also considerably more fleshed out, probably helped by the revelation that she's Amy's daughter in the mid-series finale, and we begin to learn more things about River Song's past. Things such as where she got her diary from, why she became an archaeologist in the first place, and how she used up all of her regenerations which would ultimately lead to her demise in the Library, is made clear by the end.
There was also a nod to the Doctor's former companions (circa 2005 onwards), and the guilt he feels for how he's affected their lives. Evidently after the events of Demon's Run, he sees himself as more of a curse than someone who enriched their lives – a nice touch, I felt! We also learn a little more about the Silence; that they're a religious order (not a species) who believe that silence will fall when the oldest question in the Universe is asked – a question no-one knows, but is hidden in plain sight. An intriguing new riddle from Moffat's Mind! I'm looking forward to this new narrative panning out...
As an aside, I'm still a little perturbed by the fact that they never let Hitler out of the cupboard. I'm going to assume that this will be some clever plot device in the future, seeing as there'll be more Churchill in this series, and someone alludes to the fact that “something has happened to time”. Although, if this is the case, you have to wonder about how effective the Nazi party were/are if they never noticed Hitler had been shut in a cupboard the whole time! I know when I lose something, I tend to check the cupboards quite early on in the searching process, and that's just for menial things like keys and laptop chargers, let alone the leader of my political party (although, I wouldn't be surprised if someone did lock Nick Clegg in a cupboard at some point. I bet Cameron's done that already... Several times...)!
Compared to the opening half of the series, which felt more story-arc driven for the most part, Let's Kill Hitler narratively followed on from the mid-series finale but felt less arc-driven. The story was fast-paced, rife with humour, and once again a televisual triumph! With the revelations regarding baby Melody, I doubt the quest to find her will be the main plot arc throughout the next few episodes, and will instead be based more on individual stories, but with the lingering threads from the beginning of the series... The Silence and the death of the Doctor.
Next week's episode, Night Terrors, is scripted by Mark Gatiss, so is bound to be thoroughly bizarre and creepy. The trailer for Night Terrors can be seen here.
If you missed Let's Kill Hitler, the episode is available on iPlayer here.
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