Doctor Who S32E7, "A Good Man Goes to War" [spoilers]

[NecronLord]

Objective Interim Spoiler Policy: All prior episodes of Doctor Who up to and including this one may be discussed without spoilers. Recent EU publications and upcoming episodes must be spoiler tagged and labelled. Previews (as released on BBC, website, etc) of the next episode are not spoilers, nor is speculation derived from them.

[Crazedwraith]

Well at least they told us the sodding answer. I was worried for a second, the Doctor was going to find out and we weren't.

I though the solider girl was going to turn out to be Melody.

I voted 2. Too much bombastic, too much jumping around. Too much talking about how badass everyone is. I did like that Amy was initially describing Rory and not the Doctor.

[HMS Sophia]

What?... no but seriously, what the fuck?
Okay, this is the first time river has actually annoyed me, because I felt like she couldn't act. But then I stopped noticing because of what felt like the fucking stupid plot points to me.
The start, when the doctor was gathering his... army? that was very cool.
The bit with the Silurian and her 'maid' or whatever she was... with the tongue, and the look.... that was fucking hilarious...
The cybermen felt like they dropped it in just to have them.
Actually, there were generally a load of cameo's that were simply pointless and mildly irritating. but whatever, it was fine for linking it back.

But then the end happened... or rather river song happened. And now I simply don't care, because that was really fucking stupid and annoying...

So overall... I would have given it a 4, because I mostly enjoyed the silliness, but I think a 3 due to stupidity at the end...

Oh, and yeah, I thought the same. I thought we weren't going to find out for a minute either.

(Also, chrome auto corrects Silurian )

[evilsoup]

Man, the first part was fantastic. I love that this Doctor will just put his mind to things and beat whole armies.

WHERE IS MY WIFE?
And what is your message from the Doctor?
*Cyberships explode*

'We are not fools!' *Silurians teleport in*

Aah, awesome. And I didn't see the fleshbaby coming. What a twist.

[Revy]

... I haven't given this a score yet, because I ... honestly don't know what to rate it. I'm not sure if I like it or not.

Well if they wanted a Time Lord weapon to fight the Doctor ... they failed. Big time. She's practically his wife. She loves him. So much for that. And so much for the Silence, because I don't see River helping them out in any way. She shot them the last time she saw them.

I had a hunch the baby was a ganger avatar given how confident the eyepatch lady was, so that wasn't much of a surprise. But how does this militant church and eye patch lady tie in to the Silents? What, is she just going to travle back to 1960 whatever and hand her baby/weapon over to a bunch of suit-wearing mind screwy aliens?

Well I liked the sword wielding Victorian maid lady at least. Yum.

I'll give this a score tomorrow when I hopefully have some idea what to rate it. I'm thinking either 3 or 4 atm. Weird episode.

[NecronLord]

But how does this militant church and eye patch lady tie in to the Silents? What, is she just going to travle back to 1960 whatever and hand her baby/weapon over to a bunch of suit-wearing mind screwy aliens?

I suspect she's their mind-bitch, given that they can manipulate people without them being aware of it.

[evilsoup]

Actually, hold on. What was the point of the plot of this episode? If the baby was Flesh all along, then ... I mean, were they hoping that the monks would kill the Doctor, or what?

[HMS Sophia]

Actually, hold on. What was the point of the plot of this episode? If the baby was Flesh all along, then ... I mean, were they hoping that the monks would kill the Doctor, or what?

.... yes? I suppose? I don't know... It feels a bit like an excuse to reveal River now you mention it...

[NecronLord]

Actually, hold on. What was the point of the plot of this episode? If the baby was Flesh all along, then ... I mean, were they hoping that the monks would kill the Doctor, or what?

Presumably. That, and killing his friends even, seems like an objective in itself.

[Revy]

... so is the Doctor the Good Man that River kills? Maybe she is going to be the one who finally kills the Doctor, perhaps because the Silents mind control her to do it without even realising (when she was younger), and that is her purpose? Maybe that's why River said "Of course" when she saw the impossible astronaut walk away - she realised it was her and she had killed the Doctor. Still, if that's the case why would that get her locked up? It happened on Earth and I doubt any of the witnesses would testify to have her locked up for it. Hmm.

[NecronLord]

... so is the Doctor the Good Man that River kills? Maybe she is going to be the one who finally kills the Doctor, perhaps because the Silents mind control her to do it without even realising (when she was younger), and that is her purpose? Maybe that's why River said "Of course" when she saw the impossible astronaut walk away - she realised it was her and she had killed the Doctor. Still, if that's the case why would that get her locked up? It happened on Earth and I doubt any of the witnesses would testify to have her locked up for it. Hmm.

Given that the guys who control stormcage are the guys who created her, perhaps they locked her up because she has no function for them any more?

[Iroscato]

Brilliant, absofuckinglutely brilliant. I KNEW River was Amy's daughter, and I thought it was nice how they revealed it. The flesh baby was a shock, Kavorian was an evil bitch, and I just loved it. 5. Anyone who thinks I'm overrating it can kiss my Whovian ass.

[Revy]

Stormcage *scoffs* That is hands down the crappiest prison in the universe. It's more like her own personal holiday camp. They may as well just let her go. And why didn't River regenerate when we first saw her die in Forest of the Dead? If she is that little girl that we saw regenerate?

This is just annoying. More questions than answers.

[NecronLord]

And why didn't River regenerate when we first saw her die in Forest of the Dead? If she is that little girl that we saw regenerate?

Allow me to horrify you.

This could be the thirteenth incarnation of River.

[Crazedwraith]

Revy: Run out of Regenerations maybe?

Perhaps In the next episodes they'll use it as an excuse to have a different actress playing River since she's supposed to be getting younger and Alex Kingston... isn't.

Did it annoy anyone else how the BBC announcer had a speech about 'holy shit this episode we're going to show you is just so awesome and unbelievably epic and shot'? Yeah, right, just play the episode already.

[evilsoup]

Or, the way she died in the library precluded regeneration.

[Revy]

... *shoots NecronLord*

That's for giving me nightmares. Jesus don't do that to me!

[evilsoup]

So anyways, the next episode is genuinely called 'Lets Kill Hitler'. I don't know if that's panties-on-head stupid or cougar-punchingly awesome.

[2000AD]

Man, the first part was fantastic. I love that this Doctor will just put his mind to things and beat whole armies.

WHERE IS MY WIFE?
And what is your message from the Doctor?
*Cyberships explode*

Yeah, that part was bad ass.

Though unless they're from the classic series or the EU that's a load of new allies (or debtors) pulled out of thin air for this episode. Speaking of which did soldier girls previous encounter with the doctor appear in one of the new series?

Bit annoyed that the pirate crew appeared out of nowhere and then did nothing else after taking Eyepatches ship, maybe they'll pop up again at some point.

And finally the 'River = Amy's Daughter' thing opens up a whole can of worms including:
- If Amy realises that The Doctor and River have a thing going on how she'll react.
- If River is a Time Lord (though she may only be part one) then that blows a big hole in The Doctor's "I would feel/know if there was another Time Lord out there" assertion.
- That maybe the Time Lords started out as humans, so 8th Doctors "I'm half human" thing might not be BS.
- That if River is the girl in the astronaut suit then she can regenerate so why didn't she at the end of Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead ? *Ghetto Edit* And while I'm typing this half teh board jumps in with the same question,
- River's ability to act, hide her emotions and generally keep spoilers hidden goes up to 11 as not only was she hiding future stuff from her apparent future husband (assuming that that's not a red herring being telegraphed) The Doctor but also her parents as well.
- How The Doctor is going to react to getting it on with Amy's daughter, certainly River snogging him at the end of the last episode she was in indicates an intimate relationship. If Rory and Amy make him godfather or something that could be weird. Though if she if she is a time lord it gives a big reason for them getting together, continuation of the species and all.

Any other worms anyone wants to add?

And no pay off to Amy telling the Doctor that she's seen him die by mistake last episode. I was half expecting Doctor to come out with that when she got annoyed at him keeping secrets over the crib. I hope that comes up in Autum (Stupid mid-season break bollocks)

[El Moose Monstero]

I don't think I liked this episode much. I need to watch it again to see if my gut feeling holds out. It might not. There were some good moments in this, and some nice ideas. However - I hated the random return of BBC prop department and the random return of timetravelling spitfires which were supposed to be destroyed to preserve the timeline. Where'd they come from this time? Did he nip back entirely into his own timeline and borrow them for ten minutes?

Also, I feel like 'rises highest' is a bit of an overstatement. I'm sure he's done better. Rebooting the universe is probably a bit grander in scale.

The real thing that got me narked though was the 'this is your fault' bit. Fuck off! If she'd said 'you should have realised that you'd make enemies' or 'you acted in anger without stopping to consider the situation' then that would have been ok, but 'this is your fault because you're behaving like this, keep doing it and what will you become?'. That's like telling Churchill standing in blitzed London that all this is his fault for not being playing nicely with the villains. What's he supposed to do? Especially when you keep yanking him into half of it.

[NecronLord]

It also occurs to me that River wasn't just making shit up when she said that she couldn't help. First Law of Time; she was already there, and so shouldn't travel there.

[El Moose Monstero]

Good point - if it were true, that would mean it wasn't her in the spaceman costume killing the doctor. Although the Doctor invited himself to his death also, so they were at least within the same square kilometre of space at the same time.

I'm actually really disappointed that they killed off these army types so early. A lot of wasted potential. It would have been great to have a few episodes of them turning up and fucking him over or otherwise making a nuisance of themselves. Instead we get them dealt within half an hour. Hopefully that won't be the last we see of them - would have been nice to have some intelligent badguys for a change.

[NecronLord]

Hopefully that won't be the last we see of them - would have been nice to have some intelligent badguys for a change.

Isn't the point that they aren't, as eyepatch lady (or the Silence, if they're her handlers) is the brains of the outfit? They had no idea what they were up against.

[2000AD]

I'm actually really disappointed that they killed off these army types so early. A lot of wasted potential. It would have been great to have a few episodes of them turning up and fucking him over or otherwise making a nuisance of themselves. Instead we get them dealt within half an hour. Hopefully that won't be the last we see of them - would have been nice to have some intelligent badguys for a change.

Well they weren't killed off they just ran away. Also Eyepatch said that there was a war going on so presumably we're going to see them again.

[NecronLord]

Also, I loved the Sontaran nurse.

WHERE IS MY WIFE?
And what is your message from the Doctor?
*Cyberships explode*

Yeah, that part was bad ass.

Rory was epically cool. Hopefully this will be the end of the Rory-bashing.

When they end Amy & Rory's run as companions, it should be with Rory founding the New Roman Empire mentioned as ruling Earth in Rose.