Saturday 27 August 2011

Doctor Who: Let’s Kill Hitler

Woe, disappointment and spoilers lie ahead.

Unfortunately, after a prolonged wait following an unusual mid-season break of a few months, Dr Who returned with an episode as anti-climactic as can reasonably be imagined. It wasn’t awful. There was no Dobbie the House Doctor moment (cf the Master’s first, and horrendous reappearance), but it was just a bit tedious.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory together with a stranger they’re immensely close to (and we’ve never met before called Mels) take the TARDIS to Berlin in 1938. Mels gets shot by Hitler (imprisoned by Rory in a cabinet) and regenerates, as she’s River Song (something her parents managed not to notice). She then assassinates the Doctor, poisoning him with lipstick.

It’s quite hard to write up, because although there is a justice robot that effectively has a chameleon circuit and is populated with miniaturised time-travelling humans, nothing much happens. The Doctor eventually dies, and River saves him by sacrificing all her future regenerations, but there’s no sense of tension, only a few (not especially good) comedy moments early on and no vicious villain (Hitler’s in briefly and is a character of light relief rather than tyranny).

Almost the only thing of interest is that we learnt that the Silence is not actually a species, but a religious order.

Anyway, let’s hope the next episode’s better.

Thaddeus

8 comments:

  1. One other potential point of interest - is River's donation of regenerations going to be the way they get round the 12 regenerations limit, which meant Smith would be the last but one version of the Doctor if they stuck to it?

    One other thing that annoyed me which you haven't commented on - River's poisonous lipstick. How come it doesn't affect River? We're told several times throught the episode that there's no cure after all, so River can't have taken an antidote and yet she seems fine all the way through.

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  2. Ah, I did miss that. Cunning thinking, Mr. Random.

    On River: no idea. Lethal lipstick isn't my kind of thing, I'm afraid.

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  3. Sorry to go off topic, but have you noticed Sauron's Blog seems to have died.

    If it has gone forever it is a deep shame. I only found it recently, thanks to Mr. Thaddeus, and found it very funny indeed.

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  4. No need to apologise, Mr. Llama.

    At first I thought you meant the lack of updates (sometimes there are months between them), but you're right, it does appear to have disappeared.

    It's been around for several years, and hopefully it's just a technical issue. I'll check the address and the twitter feed occasionally to see if it's back.

    http://twitter.com/#!/SauronsBlog

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  5. Twitter feeds, hmmmm. One reads about such things, of course but how they actually work I have no idea. Does one need a special telephone?

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  6. No, as long as you live near an internet it's no problem at all.

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  7. Well, I set up a Twitter account and am now lost in a strange new world.

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  8. I don't have a twitter account, so can't offer much help. I just check accounts I want to see as and when I feel like it. I'm sure Miss Plato will be able to offer you some advice.

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