Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut

Enormous spoilers right from the off, so stop reading if you’re trying to avoid them.

I really enjoyed this episode. The Doctor, River Song, Amy and Rory are invited to the middle of nowhere (in America) by a mysterious chap, who turns out to be a Doctor from the future. Shortly thereafter, the future Doctor gets promptly murdered by a strange astronaut that emerges from (and then returns to) a lake.

His companions burn his body, only to bump into an earlier Doctor (still played by Matt Smith) later that day. Earlier Doctor has no idea who summoned them (he also got an invite) nor what’s happened previously (or later, in his timeline).

The scant information future Doctor provided before getting crispy allows earlier Doctor to take the TARDIS to the Oval office, where President Nixon is trying to enlist an ex-FBI agent’s assistance. Nixon’s being hassled, via phone daily, by a little girl and wants the agent, distinctively named as Canton Delaware, to find out how she manages to call him directly, wherever he is.

The Doctor’s cunning (and the President’s impatience) affords him the opportunity to discover the girl’s whereabouts and he takes off in the TARDIS, along with Delaware. Whilst in the White House, Amy encountered a creepy alien, the Silence, who cannot be remembered once you stop looking at him.

River Song and Rory explore underneath the building, which is filled with ancient tunnels inhabited by other Silence type aliens. They seem to be in some sort of trouble at the end, though it’s a little vague.

In the abandoned building the little girl is supposedly in the Doctor and Amy come across the unconscious body of Delaware, and are stumbled upon by an astronaut. Without thinking, Amy shoots him, only he turns out to be the little girl. At which point, the first part of the double bill draws to a close.

The episode was fast paced, made good use of the show’s temporal potential and was nice and dark, lightened by numerous witty moments throughout. I’m not generally a River Song fan, but rather liked all the main cast in this one. Looking forward to next week.

Thaddeus