Doctor Who: Day of the Moon

As before, spoilers throughout. This is posted a little later than I would’ve liked, due to connection-related woe.

I liked this quite a lot, though it wasn’t quite as good as the first part. The strangely inexplicable hunting of the Doctor et al. at the start and the unexplained possession of the densest material in the universe (still light enough for humans to move by hand) did detract in a minor way.

However, the story generally was good. Moffat’s excellent at taking advantage of the show’s basis to create complicated and creative plots using time-travel. In addition to the future and younger Doctor, the use of the Silence’s own powers of hypnotic suggestion being used against them was a cunning plot twist, if perhaps contrary to the Doctor’s typically pacific inclinations.

I also loved the clever use of the markings and Amy suddenly discovering she’d scrawled all over herself. Bringing in the viewer by showing the markings but not the initial moments of seeing the Silence (for her and, earlier, Canton) was a good move.

There was less comic relief than the first part, and River Song’s slightly silly massacring of the Silence was a bit over the top. I did miss, previously, that the machine was the same as the one in The Lodger, for the very good reason that I didn’t see The Lodger.

Amy’s pregnancy wasn’t resolved. She both is and isn’t pregnant, it seems, and the little girl (still unidentified but possibly the daughter of Amy, or the Doctor or, scandalously, both) has some sort of regenerative power.

It also seems likely that River Song’s dastardly deed will soon be revealed, given the closing scenes. She also seemed surprised that the Doctor had never kissed her before, raising the interesting possibility that he’s an even earlier version that he ought to be.

Next episode sees swashbuckling pirates, a siren and Amy Pond with a cutlass.

Thaddeus