daibhidc | A Good Man Goes To War

Did I say "Oh. My. Flippin'. Heck." last week? I used it too soon...

Last year, the big finale involved the Doctor's friends all sending him a message, while an army was assembled of various monsters. This year, the Doctor assembles an army of monsters, and also Danny Boy from "Victory of the Daleks" and a criminally underused Captain Avery.

First off, how awesome is the opening? Amy tells her daughter about the heroic figure who'll come to rescue them, who looks young, but lived for hundreds of years, who'll never stop fighting to protect them. And, of course, she's talking about Rory the Roman, who proves the point by facing down the Cyberleader[1].

The Moff's fondness of Sherlock Holmes shows in the scenes of Another-Neve-Campbell-Silurian as a Victorian detective, who is a very fun character[2]. The Sontaran nurse is an intriguing character, especially his last words, saying Rory's catchphrase to Rory. But honestly, while it was nice to see the Blue Kingpin again, I'm not sure what he did add to the Doctor's Alliance.

So it's the Doctor's Alliance versus the Cleric Army and the Headless Monks. And they win, and Amy's baby is returned, and now the Doctor just has to find out what's actually going on. Amy's baby has mutated DNA that makes her sort-of-Time-Lordy. (And the Doctor's general cluelessness about that sort of thing has never been clearer than his statement that the baby can't have "begun" on the TARDIS because Amy and Rory didn't spend the night there until their ... wedding ... night ...)

And then Eyepatch Woman reveals that she's done it again! Amy's baby is another Ganger! And the Doctor, having reached his highest, falls even further. Not just because he's failed to protect Melody, but because it turns out the whole idea of "Time Lord as weapon" comes from him. The whole "I'm the Doctor, look me up!" attitude of Eleventh has backfired bigtime -- he's now seen as a relentless warrior, not an eccentric explorer and scientist[3]. Whether his determination to rescue Melody will do anything to reverse that remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely 8-(...

But if the revelation that Melody Pond isn't really in the room is shocking, that's nothing to the revelation that, actually, she is...

[1]Although ... what was the "something very funny to an old enemy that you can’t believe has never been said before" mentioned in the SFX non-spoilery teaser I linked to yesterday? (And looking at that again, I note I forgot to look at the monitors and corridors. There was just too much else going on.)

[2]...and his fondness of innuendo shows in the scene where she did the tongue thing immediately after asking her devoted maid why she put up with her. Sigh.

[3]ETA:

jblum has commented that Eleventh's character arc is a bit New-Adventuresesque. And you really can't get more New Adventuresesque than that, can you?