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The Wedding of River Song
Very good, but perhaps trying too hard.
There seemed to be a definite impression here that Moffatt felt he had to "top" "The Pandorica Opens"/The Big Bang". And, moreover, do it in half the time. So instead of cold openings showing a chain of the Doctor's friends through time in Part One and an altered history in Part Two, we get one showing the Doctor's friends all in one place[1] because all of history happening at once (basically, what if the Starless Earth's National Museum had been right?). Alternate version of Amy, check; Rory doing his Last Centurion thing, albeit without the outfit, check; characters standing on top of a big impressive monument, check; the Doctor fighting inevitability itself and winning by changing an unchangable event, check. The only thing missing was Amelia Pond, perhaps because she'd already appeared in half the season. Looked at from that perspective, it's a bit of a Big Event By Numbers.
But once you set all that aside, it's a pretty good story. The twists are nicely handled: Sure it's disappointing that "River is the Astronaut and kills the Doctor" was exactly what it appears to be ... but then she doesn't, and it's anyone's guess what happens next. And the eyepatches! Now there's a red herring for you. The second-half-of-the-season trailer featured River wearing an eyepatch, and the obvious conclusion was that she was working with Madame Kovorian now. Then we got a trailer showing Amy wearing an eyepatch, and thought "Madame Kovorian got her too!" Then we saw a Radio Times cover with everyone wearing eyepatches [2] including the Doctor and thought "So what is going on here?" And it turns out the eyepatches don't indicate they work with Madam Kovorian at all, they're a way of seeing the Silence. Which makes perfect sense, since Kovorian works for the Silence.
And the guest shots were fun: Simon Callow's Dickens interviewed on TV about his "Christmas special"! Malohkeh, personal assistant to Holy Roman Emperor Churchill! Dorium Maldovar as a head in a box!
Rather taken aback that the Brigadier died, since fan consensus seemed to be that he should be forever referred to as "at a meeting in Geneva" or "in Peru". But it was nicely handled as the impetus for the Doctor realising that everyone dies, and he can't avoid Lake Silencio forever. Which doesn't stop him having a cunning plan to avoid actually dying there -- I didn't predict that one, because I was too hung up on the idea of it being a Ganger.
Favourite scenes: The opening madness. Amy remembers Rory, but has idealised him to the point that she doesn't recognise Captain Williams. The scene where Amy kills Madame Kovorian was chilling. "River didn't get it all from you" indeed. And the scene on top of the pyramid was a beautiful counterpoint to the end of "The Pandorica Opens"; instead of all the Doctors enemies joining forces to stuff him in a box, all the people he helped have arrived at the moment of his death to see if there's anything they can do. It would have been nice if we'd seen any of them though. Then again, we may have been close to guest-appearance saturation point as it was. (Although, having said that, I'd have liked Carlton Delaware to have had more than a cameo. With all of history happening at once, maybe Young Carlton Delaware could have been part of Amy's army.)
And once again, the Moff's idea of providing answers is to create more questions. "Is the Doctor going to marry River, and is that why he told her his true name?" becomes "Was the Doctor and River's marriage 'real', and has he told her his true name?"[2]. "What is the Question That Must Not Be Answered" becomes "Why mustn't it be answered?" (which is the same thing as "What will the answer be?", which in turn is the same thing as the question itself; the oldest question in the series, sure, but one that we'd all pretty much stopped asking, Cartmell's best efforts notwithstanding.)
And the coda is interesting. The Doctor who can yell "We're in a library, look me up!" at monsters and expect them to back off has always been one of Moffatt's things, so the fact he's deliberately taken this away suggests he wants to move the series out of his own comfort zone, which is admirable. We'll see how the new status quo works when Doctor Who returns at Christmas (seriously, it's October and they don't have a title yet?)
[1] This was of course, clear "Brigade-Leader Anecdote" bait. And I, along with every other DW fan on Twitter, took it.
[2] River implies he didn't. Rule 1.5: River lies too.
There seemed to be a definite impression here that Moffatt felt he had to "top" "The Pandorica Opens"/The Big Bang". And, moreover, do it in half the time. So instead of cold openings showing a chain of the Doctor's friends through time in Part One and an altered history in Part Two, we get one showing the Doctor's friends all in one place[1] because all of history happening at once (basically, what if the Starless Earth's National Museum had been right?). Alternate version of Amy, check; Rory doing his Last Centurion thing, albeit without the outfit, check; characters standing on top of a big impressive monument, check; the Doctor fighting inevitability itself and winning by changing an unchangable event, check. The only thing missing was Amelia Pond, perhaps because she'd already appeared in half the season. Looked at from that perspective, it's a bit of a Big Event By Numbers.
But once you set all that aside, it's a pretty good story. The twists are nicely handled: Sure it's disappointing that "River is the Astronaut and kills the Doctor" was exactly what it appears to be ... but then she doesn't, and it's anyone's guess what happens next. And the eyepatches! Now there's a red herring for you. The second-half-of-the-season trailer featured River wearing an eyepatch, and the obvious conclusion was that she was working with Madame Kovorian now. Then we got a trailer showing Amy wearing an eyepatch, and thought "Madame Kovorian got her too!" Then we saw a Radio Times cover with everyone wearing eyepatches [2] including the Doctor and thought "So what is going on here?" And it turns out the eyepatches don't indicate they work with Madam Kovorian at all, they're a way of seeing the Silence. Which makes perfect sense, since Kovorian works for the Silence.
And the guest shots were fun: Simon Callow's Dickens interviewed on TV about his "Christmas special"! Malohkeh, personal assistant to Holy Roman Emperor Churchill! Dorium Maldovar as a head in a box!
Rather taken aback that the Brigadier died, since fan consensus seemed to be that he should be forever referred to as "at a meeting in Geneva" or "in Peru". But it was nicely handled as the impetus for the Doctor realising that everyone dies, and he can't avoid Lake Silencio forever. Which doesn't stop him having a cunning plan to avoid actually dying there -- I didn't predict that one, because I was too hung up on the idea of it being a Ganger.
Favourite scenes: The opening madness. Amy remembers Rory, but has idealised him to the point that she doesn't recognise Captain Williams. The scene where Amy kills Madame Kovorian was chilling. "River didn't get it all from you" indeed. And the scene on top of the pyramid was a beautiful counterpoint to the end of "The Pandorica Opens"; instead of all the Doctors enemies joining forces to stuff him in a box, all the people he helped have arrived at the moment of his death to see if there's anything they can do. It would have been nice if we'd seen any of them though. Then again, we may have been close to guest-appearance saturation point as it was. (Although, having said that, I'd have liked Carlton Delaware to have had more than a cameo. With all of history happening at once, maybe Young Carlton Delaware could have been part of Amy's army.)
And once again, the Moff's idea of providing answers is to create more questions. "Is the Doctor going to marry River, and is that why he told her his true name?" becomes "Was the Doctor and River's marriage 'real', and has he told her his true name?"[2]. "What is the Question That Must Not Be Answered" becomes "Why mustn't it be answered?" (which is the same thing as "What will the answer be?", which in turn is the same thing as the question itself; the oldest question in the series, sure, but one that we'd all pretty much stopped asking, Cartmell's best efforts notwithstanding.)
And the coda is interesting. The Doctor who can yell "We're in a library, look me up!" at monsters and expect them to back off has always been one of Moffatt's things, so the fact he's deliberately taken this away suggests he wants to move the series out of his own comfort zone, which is admirable. We'll see how the new status quo works when Doctor Who returns at Christmas (seriously, it's October and they don't have a title yet?)
[1] This was of course, clear "Brigade-Leader Anecdote" bait. And I, along with every other DW fan on Twitter, took it.
[2] River implies he didn't. Rule 1.5: River lies too.