{"id":964,"date":"2011-08-30T17:12:22","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T17:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=964"},"modified":"2011-08-30T17:12:22","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T17:12:22","slug":"so-what-did-i-think-of-lets-kill-hitler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/30\/so-what-did-i-think-of-lets-kill-hitler\/","title":{"rendered":"So… what did I think of Let’s Kill Hitler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back after its mid-season break, but the Moffat-Masterplan shows little sign of letting up. Within the first twenty minutes, Moffat has ret-conned an entirely new character as part of Amelia Pond\u2019s childhood in Leadworth, revealed her to be an earlier incarnation of River Song, killed the Doctor (again!) and locked Hitler in a cupboard. And that\u2019s before we even begin to tackle the robot Amy Pond operated by tiny self-appointed kangaroo court judges (shades of Father Ted \u2013 \u201cI won’t be able to relax, Dougal, until the last rabbit round here is the one inside your head, working the controls\u201d).<\/p>\n

Despite Moffat\u2019s insistence on giving us everything all at once, let\u2019s try and take things one at a time.<\/p>\n

Mels \/ Melody \/ River Song
\n<\/strong>There seems to be some controversy on the Internet about whether Mels\u2019 identity was childishly obvious or a brilliant reveal. Obviously, if something is set up as a surprise and it fails to surprise you, then you are likely to have a low opinion of the plotting (this flawed study<\/a> notwithstanding). For the record, it did surprise me, and it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s neat and it makes sense (knowing of the connection between Amy Pond and The Doctor, it make perfect sense for a brainwashed Doctor-killing psychopath is inveigle herself into the life of young Ms Pond) and the Leadworth scenes are fun \u2013 but it does seem a shame that among all the Leadworth supporting cast members introduced in The Eleventh Hour<\/em> and never heard of again, Mels was not among them. Or is that asking too much?<\/p>\n

However, as well as showing off Moffat\u2019s dazzling plotting, this strategy also exposes a weakness along his flank. RTD\u2019s take on Doctor Who aimed to make the show far more emotionally resonant and realistic. This approach is described by some as moving, by others as overwrought and still by others as hysterical, but it brought a huge audience back to a programme that (fairly or unfairly) had become a joke by the time it was taken off the air. The moment when I began to see and admire what the new \u201cshow-runner\u201d was up to, was early in Aliens of London<\/em>, an episode now derided by many on the production team as it was the first to go before the cameras and they hadn\u2019t really ironed out the kinks yet. For the first time, the Doctor brought his companion back to her own time and place, just to say hello. And because he can\u2019t pilot the TARDIS properly (hurrah!) he brings her back a year too late.<\/p>\n

Bang!<\/p>\n

Rose has been missed<\/span>. People who love her, care about her and are desperately worried for her safety. Her boyfriend stands accused of murdering her. Her mother is out of her mind with anxiety. Posters are still up with her face on them. Of course there are<\/span><\/em>. You can\u2019t rip a young woman (or man) out of her home and not expect her to be missed, despite the fact that that\u2019s exactly what happened to Susan (sort-of), Barbara, Ian, Dodo, Polly, Sarah Jane, Tegan, Peri, Mel and Ace and no-one they left behind ever seemed to notice \u2013 or at least it wasn\u2019t anything the programme-makers were interested in.<\/p>\n

Suddenly the show had a whole new texture, a whole new reality which I for one greatly appreciated. Where Moffat often scored over Rusty was in his intricate plotting. I found that too many RTD stories ended up with a technobabble rabbit pulled out of a deus-ex-machina hat but in stories like The Empty Child<\/em>, Blink<\/em>, The Time of Angels<\/em>, the solutions are properly bedded-in and I don\u2019t feel cheated. However, here Moffat is asking us to pay a very high price for his narrative invention.<\/p>\n

At the end of the last series, Amy and Rory are frantic \u2013 every bit as frantic as Jackie in Aliens of London<\/em> \u2013 horribly fearful that they may never see their baby again. The maternal instinct is ferociously strong, and the limp consolation of learning that their baby was also their childhood friend and so they sort-of raised her is unlikely to do anything at all to salve that wound. Moffat punches a hole straight through the emotional fabric weaved by RTD and challenges us not to like it.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s lucky that there\u2019s so much else going on in this episode then, isn\u2019t it!<\/p>\n

The Teselecta
\n<\/strong>This is a delightful science-fiction idea, and although not entirely new, it\u2019s new to Doctor Who, so that\u2019s good enough for me. In fact, it\u2019s three ideas \u2013 the murderous judge sent through time, the robot doppelganger and the miniaturisation ray (\u201cwell, there was a ray \u2013 and we were miniaturised\u201d). Of course, this does mean another possible identity for the Doctor on the beach, although I imagine that a fake regeneration effect might be more than the Teselecta can muster. I was disappointed that the transformation effect was so Quantel-y but I suppose they have to save money somewhere.<\/p>\n

Nazi Germany
\n<\/strong>Not even the usual Doctor Who Ladybird Book, the third Reich becomes first a gag and then simply a backdrop against which the ongoing series-drama of the Doctor, his married companions and their psychopathic daughter is played out. They put Hitler in the title, then lock him in a cupboard for the rest of the episode!?<\/p>\n

The Doctor\u2019s Resurrection
\n<\/strong>Again, the solution is bedded in by Moffat, but River\u2019s change-of-heart feels a little rushed. From murderer to suicidal sacrifice in twenty minutes? However, there\u2019s no actual cheating here, and some precedent for this kind of thing in the series mythology (I\u2019m thinking of the promises made by the Time Lords to the Master in The Five Doctors<\/em> as well as the proposed use of the Doctor\u2019s remaining regenerations in Mawdryn Undead<\/em> \u2013 neither conclusive, but both persuasive). Furthermore, as others have pointed out, this exchange potentially paves the way for the twelve-regenerations \u00a0limit to be extended, in the Doctor\u2019s case at least.<\/p>\n

Overall
\n<\/strong>Thoroughly in the new-familiar Moffat style with all of his strengths and weakness on full display. There\u2019s nothing quite as original as Victorian Siluarian and the lactating Sontaran from A Good Man Goes To War<\/em>, and certainly nothing to match the depth and power of the \u201cColonel Runaway\u201d scene, but we did get \u201cSo I was on my way to this gay Gypsy bar-mitzvah for the disabled, then I thought, the Third Reich’s a bit rubbish\u201d, that temporal grace business sorted out once and for all, and the origin of River Song\u2019s diary, so I reckon we\u2019re about even. A good start. Four stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back after its mid-season break, but the Moffat-Masterplan shows little sign of letting up. Within the first twenty minutes, Moffat has ret-conned an entirely new character as part of Amelia Pond\u2019s childhood in Leadworth, revealed her to be an earlier incarnation of River Song, killed the Doctor (again!) and locked Hitler in a cupboard. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,19],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-doctor-who","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-fy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}