Doctor Who S6 E7 "A Good Man Goes to War" ***SPOILERS***

It's even in the title.... spoilers! Now that that's out of the way... let's get on with the blogging.

The mid-season finale was all that was cracked up to be. And yet there are STILL some things that we don't know for sure and will have to wait until September (I know, it's quite unreasonable) to find out. All in all though, how could I not love it?

In short, the Doctor is at war against some religious weirdos led by Eye Patch Lady (Madam Kovarian), Amy has had her baby, and we find out who River Song is.


This episode has that great, almost nostalgia feeling to it because there are a return of a lot of previous characters/creatures. There are Cybermen, Silurians and a Sontaran, as well as the brief return of pirates Henry Avery and his son Toby. We even get a cameo from the World War II fighter jets turned spacecraft from Series 5, meaning Winston Churchill is on on this as well.

I was really happy that this episode confirmed that the baby's father is in fact Rory. There was a ton of speculation that it was really The Doctor, which to me would've been completely horrible. The relationship between The Doctor and Amy is many things, but I don't think that it is at all romantic. I always thought that Amy's speculation about the baby having  a "time head" or something was funny, but now I guess it's true! The idea of a TARDIS conception is really quite interesting. I wonder if the TARDIS herself had any influence on it? Could something like that happen again, or is it random?

There are some really cute moments in this episode. Some were between Amy and Rory like Rory wanting to look cool but instead blubbering over the baby, and of course, "Mrs. Williams." The Doctor's cradle was really adorable too. And the moment where The Doctor meets the baby! Happy family time there, for a moment. Also, Roranicus Pondicus = awesome and River's first dress is cool as hell.

Something a bit deeper that "A Good Man Goes to War" tackles is this religious war thing. Those opposed to The Doctor here are "soldiers of God." There is a part where they all chant "we are not fools" after being reminded of this. I found it quite interesting. I think that everyone is entitled to their religion and it can be a truly wonderful thing, but I also think that wars caused by religion are quite foolish. It makes me wonder: what kind of a statement are the writers making? Are they condemning religious war? It would be really be something if that were so, basically a commentary on modern, religiously driven terrorism.

We see something different with The Doctor here as well: anger.  "Oh look, I'm angry. That's new." Each Doctor has had moments of anger before, but Matt Smith's Doctor is just so damn silly sometimes! Here though, he does stay quite angry for a while. I don't blame him though; the people he loves are being senselessly endangered.

And finally, I'll talk about the scene that Whovians have been waiting for ever since "Silence in the Library:" River Song. I'm really quite happy with it all. I was convinced that she wasn't The Doctor's wife and I was right! I had heard the suggestion that she was Amy and Rory's daughter before, but I wasn't set on that theory up until I saw the name of the baby, Melody Pond. I was texting Nicole (WORDforTeens) throughout the whole thing and together we figured it out.... Melody = Song and Pond = River (also goes along with the whole "the only water in the forest is the river" thing).

There's still so much to find out though... we don't know who the little girl regenerating in New York is for sure. It could be River/Melody but there's no evidence of that besides her timey wimey DNA. Also, where's the real baby? We thought we had the real Melody all along, but then BAM she's a ganger (or as Rory calls them, "Flesh avatars"). Has Madam Kovarian taken her? And there is still  the lingering thought that River has been put in jail for killing "a good man." So much still to figure out!

And on a final note, who else is intrigued by the next episode being called "Let's Kill Hitler?"

Doctor Who S6 E7 Trailer and Prequel Clips

These three clips are basically making me hyperventilate. That's it basically. All I can do until Saturday is speculate about who River Song is and what the deal with the baby is. Holy crap holy crap holy crap!!!

Doctor Who S6 E6 "The Almost People"

I'm going to start off by saying that this post WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS! It's really hard this late in the first half of the season to discuss anything with using spoilers. Fair warning!

This episode written by Matthew Graham is a continuation of last week's "The Rebel Flesh." The Doctor, Amy and Rory are still at the acid factory deciding how to best deal with the group of malicious gangers. The interesting twist this time is that now The Doctor's got a ganger! This proves to be quite a challenge for Amy to deal with. Two Doctor's is quite interesting though, providing a lot of silly moments. Actually, for an end-scene last week that made me think that the Doctor having a ganger would mean complete and utter doom, the reality of it was pretty cool. I also thought it was really neat how the two Doctors even moved in unison at times. The effect of double Matt Smiths was well done.

There is, of course, a return to the theme from last episode of the "Frankenstein effect." The humans are struggling to figure out what their responsibility towards the gangers is, and the gangers are struggling to not get destroyed.

As I mentioned before, Amy has a really hard time deciding how to feel about there being more than one Doctor. She trusts the original Doctor completely, but even though the ganger is essentially the same person, she just can't easily feel the same way towards him.

The most exciting part of this episode falls at the end... we finally find out whether or not Amy is pregnant AND we find out who the eye patch lady is. It blew my mind (but really, Moffat is a huge troll so I'm not surprised that I was surprised) when it turned out that the Amy who we've been with since... probably the beginning of the season, is a ganger. I was becoming somewhat suspicious that she might be when it was shown that gangers and their originals have a weak telepathic connection, but I did not expect to be right. The question now is... how and why was an Amy duplicate created? And how did the two switch? I'm going to gloat a bit and say... I KNEW IT about the eye patch lady. I think it might have had some sort of inspiration from the 2-1B medical droids from Star Wars. For some reason, I just knew that she was a nurse or something related to Amy's pregnancy.

So what do we still need to figure out? Well obviously, we still need to know who River Song is. And also, who was that little Time Lord girl from "Day of the Moon?" Is she Amy's child? If not, who IS Amy's child. I can't wait to find out!

Until next week (and the mid-season finale) DFTBA!

Doctor Who S6 E5 "The Rebel Flesh"

This episode, written by Matthew Graham, is the first of season 6's second two-parter.

A solar tsunami forces The Doctor to land the TARDIS at a medieval monastery, but in the 22nd century. The monastery has been converted into an acid factory. What makes this operation interesting is how the staff go about their jobs. Instead of doing things personally, they use doppelgangers, which they claim are more acurately referred to as "gangers." The gangers are composed of fully programmable organic matter called "The Flesh." The Flesh begins as liquid and then solidifies into the form of the host human.

A complication caused by the solar storm that got The Doctor, Amy and Rory there in the first place causes the gangers to go rogue, resulting in a lot of problems. The gangers have all of the memories and feelings as their original human counterparts. Because of these feelings, the gangers are confused and angry, striking back against their creators.

This episode is almost a modern adaption of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, using the same theme of human's creation of life in their image turning against them. Although I do have to say that the use of Flesh, while a bit gross, is less morbid than Frankenstein's monster's patchwork skin.  It is quite interesting though, to think about the position that the gangers have been put in. What would you do if you had all of the memories and feelings of a human, but were told that you weren't real; weren't worth keeping alive? It also calls to mind the attitudes of racists and anyone with an irrational prejudice.

 Returning in this episode are The Doctor's psychic paper, which we haven't seen in a while; Rory getting in trouble as usual, and Mysterious Eye Patch Lady. Also, the TARDIS still can't figure out if Amy is pregnant or not, which is very frustrating. We still don't know who River Song is, and in this episode there were no apparent clues.

The ending of "The Rebel Flesh" is quite interesting, and I won't give anything away, but it's a great twist that has me begging for the second part!

*Fun fact: The music playing in the background when Amy and Rory are playing darts is "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse, which most people recognize as the "baseball song" from Twilight!

Doctor Who S6 E4 "The Doctor's Wife"

I know this is my third Doctor Who post in a row... but it's kinda taking over my life right now. In a good way!

I'm going to start off by saying that today's episode, written by Neil Gaiman blew me away. It was very emotional and nostalgic and, of course, clever.

If your interested in watching this episode but haven't seen it yet GO NO FURTHER. I can't talk about it without giving away a big-ish *spoiler* having to do with the name of the episode, so go watch it now! It's so worth it.


This one begins on a strange "world" where several people (and an Ood) are attempting a kind of operation on a girl called Idris.

We then cut to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory on board the TARDIS. Eventually, through a misconstrued piece of "mail" they end up on the strange "world," which they are told is called the House. Some shenanigans ensue (well not really shenanigans; they're not that silly) and it turns out that the House is an evil parasite which has now leeched onto the TARDIS's body and the soul of the TARDIS is now inside Idris's body. This means that HOLY COW THE TARDIS CAN TALK.

What follows is completely adorable and has convinced me that the Doctor and the TARDIS are a "one true pairing." The episode is called "The Doctor's Wife" for a reason. The connection between the two of them is completely indescribable. To me, during certain scenes, I got that feeling that you get when things are just so awesome and so right that you are completely engrossed in the moment and can't wait for what's next. And guess what? This episode delivers.

Although not the creepiest Who villain ever, I did like how the House played with Amy and Rory's minds, which let us see into their heads. Although the circumstances are terrible, it's was a good chance to get in a cute moment where we can see just how much they love each other.


One of my favorite parts of this episode was the reappearance of the old TARDIS control room. My favorite Doctor is Ten, so for me, this was awesome. I had forgotten how much I had missed that old control room, and it was actually quite nostalgic (even though I've been watching Doctor Who for.... let's see... four months. This series IS that good!)

As usual, I'm left thinking about all the various hints that are given for future episodes, but perhaps now more than ever, the most apparent question is who is River Song? I've never been a die hard River/Doctor shipper (I've always thought that Moffat had something more clever cooking for her) but especially after this episode, I can't believe that she's his wife. Maybe a sort of fling, but I don't think that that's all there is to Professor River Song.

Doctor Who S6, E3 "The Curse of the Black Spot"

Ok, so before I even start, did you know that there's a Doctor Who channel on Pandora? Awesomeness.
Anyway....

I really liked this most recent episode. Written by Steve Thompson, it was a break from the heaviness of the first two episodes. Really, it was just fun! There's not a whole lot to talk about this week because this was a fun, sort of disconnected episode, but here goes:

We start off on a pirate ship, where one of the crew has just been given a dreaded black spot. When this happens, a mysterious apparition emerges from the sea; a "siren." Throughout the episode more and more crew members are taken by the siren, as a single touch of her finger seemingly dissolves you. Havoc ensues as The Doctor, Amy and Rory try to solve the Siren's mystery and save the crew.

Although devoid of almost all continued plot from episodes one and two, the mysterious Eye Patch Lady from the orphanage makes a reappearance, speaking to Amy, and being heard or seen by no one else. The Doctor also loses the TARDIS as a malfunction causes it to disappear while he's outside. BUT THEN he gets is back and this we get this wonderful moment:

Not to give away too much, but Rory dies AGAIN. I feel kind of bad for him at this point, but on the other hand he's probably set some kind of record.

Also, Pirate Pond is pretty awesome. Karen Gillan said on Doctor Who Confidential that she really liked how swishy her coat was! I was pretty impressed with Amy's sword fighting skills too.

Until next week, DFTBA!

Doctor Who S6, E2 "The Day of the Moon"

The second part of this season’s premier episode (also written by Steven Moffat) left me just as frustrated yet mentally stimulated as the first part (which you can read about here).

The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River are still in America, alongside Canton Everett Delaware III yet again. President Nixon makes another appearance as well. Still our heroes are trying to overcome The Silence (which I found out this episode is singularized into “Silent.”) The black marks shown on The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Rivers skin which caused much speculation after being spotted in the Season 6 Trailer, are explained. We are also given more clues as to the identity of the mysterious “astronaut.” In fact, one of these clues, featured at the very end of the episode is enough to make any Whovian go crazy. We’re also shown a little bit more on River Song’s identity, though the long anticipated full reveal is still in our future. 

I have to make a comment on the beard. In the promotions for this episode, Matt Smith is shown chained up, obviously for a while due to the amount of facial hair. But I swear, he looks like Jesus with this beard. Kind of funny... if you think about it, don't the Doctor and Jesus have something in common? They're both considered saviors of all mankind.

My feelings at the end of this episode? Extrememly frustrated and anxious for next week. But I really appreciate a show that no matter how much is makes your brain want to explode, really makes you think. There is so much mindless television out there nowadays. I'm really thankful that I've found a program that tests my brainpower!

The amount of new theories that this episode has already spawned is quite unnerving, but that's Whovians for you! 

Until next week, DFTBA!

Doctor Who S6, E1 "The Impossible Astronaut"

I just got into Doctor Who this past February and once I was hooked, it was a race against the clock to watch all five seasons in the new series before the much anticipated premier of season 6.

So today, at one o'clock, I frantically tried to find a link to stream the episode I succeeded at the last minute, but it was a close call and I was about to fall over from anxiety if it hadn't worked!


The episode (written by the amazing Steven Moffat) starts off with the now iconic image of Matt Smith's Doctor in the Stetson ("I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool") I love the fact that the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River are in America. It's particularly awesome for those Who fans like myself who are from the States and rarely see our heroes interacting with American history or culture.

I don't want to give away anything that happens ("spoilers!") but it only gets better from there. The new plot line was fantastic, and the cliff-hanger at the end has left me doing little else but what will happen next. Can it just be next Saturday already?

We are also introduced to new creatures. These things are considered by many to be even more frightening than the dreaded Weeping Angels. These beings have been named in the TARDIS Index File as The Silence, the mysterious force that created the cracks in time from Series 5. I think they look like more sinister versions of what I call "Roswell Aliens," the typical little green guys with the big heads. These guys are ten times more disturbing however, and the fact that they wear neat black suits reminds me of how Lord Voldemort is portrayed in one scene of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


Something that I particularly like about this episode is it's one that goes back in time, bringing our heroes into contact with historical figures. In general, the episodes where the Doctor gets to meet famous figures are some of my favorites. What can I say, I'm a history junkie!

UPDATE: In the Doctor Who Confidential episode for The Day of the Moon, Stephen Moffat says that he based the Silence's images on Edvard Munch's "The Scream!" He said he wanted the creatures to be like something that everyone has seen but doesn't necessarily remember. Here it is, popping up in a famous work of art!