Doctor Who (again) [SPOILERS]

[Syka]

Moffat is ballsy for doing a two-parter as an opening, and I love him for it.

Also, starting right off with the spooky. I'll leave it at I really enjoyed the episode, except for the end because it felt like a forced break in the story. But other than that, I adored it.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Interesting episode. Spoilers:

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So, have the aliens been there for all of history, just now noticed, or are they new? Or maybe both (with some time travel). And I wonder if they have anything to do with what happened to The Doctor. Or if they are bad guys or not.

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Well, they're confirmed to be called 'the silent'. Thus trolling us with the whole 'silence will fall' thing.

Maybe they've only been there since the universe got rebooted last season, but have always been there in the new universe. So "silence will fall" was actually refering ot the creatures that were about to be created and the voice was someone trying to warn the doctor (possibly future doctor).

Or maybe since they mentioned a revolution against the silent, maybe the "fall of the silent" refers to this revolution. So more "rome will fall" than "night will fall".

[Drolyt]

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Well, they're confirmed to be called 'the silent'. Thus trolling us with the whole 'silence will fall' thing.

Maybe they've only been there since the universe got rebooted last season, but have always been there in the new universe. So "silence will fall" was actually refering ot the creatures that were about to be created and the voice was someone trying to warn the doctor (possibly future doctor).

Or maybe since they mentioned a revolution against the silent, maybe the "fall of the silent" refers to this revolution. So more "rome will fall" than "night will fall".

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Well, I think one thing is clear: Moffat isn't going to be as obvious as we were thinking. Which is good, because it is rare to see a tv writer that can actually, truly, surprise you.

[Adlan]

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While I enjoyed this episode, I felt it was all little too much, like they were trying to do everything at once. Surely the Dr's death and the return of River is a good enough plot hook without adding in the pregnency as well, and heaping on the romance drama? It just felt a little... hasty maybe?

On the whole, I liked it, good episode to start the series again.

[Dornath]

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Very nice episode. I like that Moffat had the stones to throw us for a loop, although I've seen better. Just a couple notes on my part:

It'll take some work, but if you pay attention in the warehouse you can see The Doctor acknowledge the Spaceman...Spacegirl... whatever. As the camera focuses on the helmet look at the reflection. Matt Smith raises his arm in a very obvious "Hello There!" manner.

Also the new Doctor seems rather... dark. The scene in the TARDIS when everyone is trying to convince him that he should go to 1969... Seems a little out of character?

Amy really bothered me in the diner after Matt's death. She seemed very whiny and rather useless.

Rory... Rory was AWESOME in this episode. He's growing from a sometimes companion in the last series to a really good character. Very smart, intuitive... and gets a few Crowning Moments of Awesome (tm).

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As a side note, I'm glad he's not dead in the second part of this episode. If he had died again I'd have been sad.

And I've seen it tooling around that there might be TWO (2) regenerations in the first episode. (2 parter people, episode is not technically over yet) So... Speculation?

[Demons_eye]

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Loved the episode.

Thoughts:

Spaceman is the doctor.

The necron Tardis is a paradox machine and breaking it will save the doctor.

[zyphyr]

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Amy is pregnant. The nausea gave it away in the Oval Office scene.

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River had the same nausea in the tunnels when Rory came down to join her. As such, I would assume that the nausea is somehow related to having seen and then forgotten the aliens. Either that or River is pregnant too.

[BRC]

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River had the same nausea in the tunnels when Rory came down to join her. As such, I would assume that the nausea is somehow related to having seen and then forgotten the aliens. Either that or River is pregnant too.

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That would make sense. Amy feels nauseous, but, because she's not looking at the Silence, dosn't have any reason why and concludes that she's pregnant, rather than that she ate some bad fish or something.

[thorgrim29]

Well, she probably is pregnant, that's why she's not that surprised at the nausea, that or somehow half remembering the Silence's message made her mind fill the gap. Also, God the Silence are creepy, I wonder if seeing the photo will do the trick, I also wonder if the Moff had been watching Marble Hornets.

[The Big Dice]

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That would make sense. Amy feels nauseous, but, because she's not looking at the Silence, dosn't have any reason why and concludes that she's pregnant, rather than that she ate some bad fish or something.

Silents, not Silence. At least according to the end credits.

Other than that, it wasn't bad. Rory, as usual, seemed superfluous. And the continuity between A Christmas Carol, the Comic Relief special and the opening of the new season seemed like there as a bit of filler missing. And I'm starting to get bored of River Song and her catch phrases of "Hello, sweetie" and "spilers" turning up all the time.

[BRC]

Silents, not Silence. At least according to the end credits.

Other than that, it wasn't bad. Rory, as usual, seemed superfluous. And the continuity between A Christmas Carol, the Comic Relief special and the opening of the new season seemed like there as a bit of filler missing. And I'm starting to get bored of River Song and her catch phrases of "Hello, sweetie" and "spilers" turning up all the time.

Rory may seem superlfuous, but I still love him. They're breaking the pattern of "Doctor+Hot Girl" to give us "Doctor+Hot Girl+Hot Girl's Funny Husband+Doctor's future/past lover".

That said, I like River, provided they don't overuse her. Eventually she can become a regular companion, but first we have to go far enough into her past for her to lose her Mystery.
There were three things that bugged me here

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1: River mentioning how meeting the doctor for the last time will be the most painful experience ever, which is a trend I don't like. Yes the Doctor is awesome, and meeting/travelling with him is a huge deal, but the show has this habit of making companions fall hopelessly, heads-over-heals, "Willing to die for you" in love with him, which I don't like.
2: The danger of using TW3 (Timey Wimey Wibbledy Wobbely) elements is that you risk locking yourself, or future writers, into certain events. This episode locked the entire SERIES into either revealing that the whole Funeral thing was a Big Trick, or, of it was real, having there be no doctors after Matt Smith. Assuming the death/funeral was legit, it means that the Doctor never regenerates again, decides that Amy, Rory, and River are, of all the people he's ever met, the ones that he most wants to be there when he dies.
3: I'm putting my foot down, they are limited to one "I'm the Doctor!" "Doctor Who?" joke per episode.

Other than that, I loved the episode, my favorite bits

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The "Waving through history" vignettes at the beginning. Rory getting stuck with running TARDIS orientation, "I'm being very clever up here and there is nobody to stand around looking impressed"

[Evil DM Mark3]

My views.

First, I am not a River Song fan but she carries her weight in the story here, doing a vital role. That said however I hope she leaves after this two parter. A little goes a long way.

I do like all the call backs this episode has, including some things that seem like a cheap sidestep but are in fact cannon, biggest example

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We alst saw the TARDIS go invisible in the 2nd Doctor's The Invasion, a brilliant 8 part story that I advise people to find

.

While I have defended Moffat's use of time travel in story before, I do hope that it does not get to a point where it is in EVERY story. I think Christmas Carol was the high water mark of the first Moff/Matt season, but again too much of a good thing is boring.

The monsters are brilliant

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combination Greys and MIBs. You don't have to say hardly anything and you can see how they fit into the earth's history and mythos. It is clear that at some point people have manged to half remember them, perhaps if they interacted with them directly, hence why all the Silent we have seen have hung back, save for the one who killed the woman and gave Amy the message. Notice how Amy can half remember that someone told her to tell The Doctor something, now what if there had been direct contact with evidence of that contact?

Things I want to know

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Who is that girl? How can people not have noticed tunnels like that (Silent be damned they would come to light when any major civil engineering or public works project happened). Will Moffat's saving of the doctor have the Davies fanboys up in arms, regardless of how it is done (signs point to yes).

And finally, they give us a Next Time that whets you appetite for the next episode, WITHOUT spoiling any of the key questions! I can now use NuWho as an example of the very best and very worst ways to do that. (For worst see the first Slytheen episode).

[Closet_Skeleton]

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Maybe the tunnels are part of the tardis and only there while the tardis is there. It seems kind of odd that the tardis console is just there behind a pickable door.

Grey and alien abduction memories are usually extracted through hypnosis. So that might be important.

[Tiger Duck]

That said, I like River, provided they don't overuse her. Eventually she can become a regular companion, but first we have to go far enough into her past for her to lose her Mystery.
There were three things that bugged me here

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1: River mentioning how meeting the doctor for the last time will be the most painful experience ever, which is a trend I don't like. Yes the Doctor is awesome, and meeting/travelling with him is a huge deal, but the show has this habit of making companions fall hopelessly, heads-over-heals, "Willing to die for you" in love with him, which I don't like.

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I think it will mostly be because she has always known the doctor to known her, to know her through and through even. And that was what she was most impressed with as a youngling. And every time she meets him he looses something of what she liked most about him.

That is how I interpreted it.

[Aidan305]

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1: River mentioning how meeting the doctor for the last time will be the most painful experience ever, which is a trend I don't like. Yes the Doctor is awesome, and meeting/travelling with him is a huge deal, but the show has this habit of making companions fall hopelessly, heads-over-heals, "Willing to die for you" in love with him, which I don't like.

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I thought it was fairly clear really. They're passing in history, with one going one way and the other going the other.The Doctor's last meeting with Dr Song will be her first meeting with him, just like his first meeting with her was the last time she would ever see him (Silence in the Library). She fell for him because when he met River he knew everything about her from all their previous encounters. She was swept off her feet by someone who knew her better than she knew herself.

[factotum]

What I liked about River Song in this episode is the bit where she said that she fears the day she'll meet the Doctor and he simply won't know who she is...because we've already seen that! It was River Song's very first appearance back in "Silence in the Library" when she met the Doctor from the first time from his point of view, but the last from hers...

[Dienekes]

The problem with that is that the River Song we see in Silence of the Library seems amused with the notion that the Doctor doesn't recognize her, and is totally ok with it. Only coming to emotional turmoil when she realizes that the Doctor knew all along how she was going to die.

In this one she makes it seem like the Doctor not recognizing her would cause her irreparable emotional damage and possibly break her will completely. But then, maybe she matures a bit by that time and isn't so dependent upon the Doctor for her fulfillment (which I never thought she did anyway, but the dialogue of the episode makes it seem like she does).

Also, I liked this episode. It was fun, and it had President Badger Lampkin, which can only be a good thing.

[Drolyt]

The problem with that is that the River Song we see in Silence of the Library seems amused with the notion that the Doctor doesn't recognize her, and is totally ok with it. Only coming to emotional turmoil when she realizes that the Doctor knew all along how she was going to die.

In this one she makes it seem like the Doctor not recognizing her would cause her irreparable emotional damage and possibly break her will completely. But then, maybe she matures a bit by that time and isn't so dependent upon the Doctor for her fulfillment (which I never thought she did anyway, but the dialogue of the episode makes it seem like she does).

Also, I liked this episode. It was fun, and it had President Badger Lampkin, which can only be a good thing.

In the Silence of the Library The Doctor not knowing her clearly hurts her, but she shrugs it off and goes on with it because she has to. Most likely you are right, she matured since the current episode. I think when she realizes that the first time The Doctor meets her was always meant to be her death she loses her composure and the full weight of the situation hits her again.

[Dienekes]

Hmm, I remember her initial reaction differently, but let's be honest here. I haven't seen that episode in awhile and my memory is average at best. If you say she was clearly hurt, I'll believe you fine.

I still think she played up how horrible it would be to meet the doctor for the first time a bit. Not that she can't have emotional issues and fears about it, but yeah seemed a bit too much for how I had viewed the character up to that point.

[The Big Dice]

The whole current companion thing makes me think of Adric, Nyssa and Tegan. With the added complications of Nyssa being a recurring rather than full time character and Tegan being married to Adric.

There, I said it.

Back in the 80s, three was too many companions and they realised this. So Adric became the dinosaur killer. Hopefully they'll realise it about Doctor #11 but maybe without such melodramatic deaths and ending an episode with no music.

In fact, tehy already did that. And then went and ruined Rory's awesome death by bringing him back as a life size Action Man doll.

[Dienekes]

Why is having so many companions bad?

They all seem likeable and don't detract from the main story arcs at all. Rory is funny and his dedication is awe inspiring, Amelia is tough and enjoyable, and Song is interesting. The stories don't seem hampered by their presence in fact I think they interact with each other rather well.

And importantly Smith is a strong enough Doctor that he and his eccentricities are still very much the focus.

Now as a caveat to this, the last multi-parter with Tennant tried to juggle a few too many companions. But it gave us the completely awesome death of Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister so all is forgiven.

[Namillus]

Just want to point out that Rory's position on the TARDIS team is a Thinker (he gets to the Wibbly Wobbly conclusions in this episode only slightly behind River), a trait which the Doctor loves in companions. He's also the 'translator'. Amy and Rory just sigh when the Doctor tangents or says something completely unrelated to the situation at hand, but Rory helps ease communication between the Doctor and Non-Companion humans because he's more 'normal' than anyone else on Team TARDIS.

Okay, in this case the 'most normal' person has two-thousand more years' worth of memory than he should have, but hey, can't win 'em all.

[BRC]

In the Silence of the Library The Doctor not knowing her clearly hurts her, but she shrugs it off and goes on with it because she has to. Most likely you are right, she matured since the current episode. I think when she realizes that the first time The Doctor meets her was always meant to be her death she loses her composure and the full weight of the situation hits her again.

As I see it, by the time "Silence in the Library" comes about, she's come to terms with the fact that, eventually, she will meet the Doctor and he won't remember her. By that point she's living her own life, rather than sitting in a jail cell, only breaking out to meet up with the Doctor. What's more, she see's it coming. Assuming their timelines interact in more-or-less reverse order (Which seems to be the case), by the time she's in the library, she likely expects that the next time they meet, the Doctor won't recognize her, and she decides she's okay with it.

As for the Companions, I'm acting under the assumption that River does not stick around, instead only showing up occasionally. So really, the question is not "Can the series sustain 3 companions" but "can the series sustain 2", Amy and Rory, and I think it can.

Rory and Amy are both full characters, but they're also both "Normal" enough that they don't overwhelm the screen with their presence the way the Doctor does. Neither is stupid or overly eccentric, they both have personality, but not so much as to make them crowd the scene.
In fact, the only problem with Rory sticking around right now is that he and the Doctor lack much in the way of a dynamic that is not centered around Amy. Amy and the Doctor have a fun dynamic, as their massive egos play off each other. Rory and Amy work well together, with Rory's down-to-earth sensibility and humility serving as a foil to Amy's ego and adrenaline addiction.

But put The Doctor and Rory in a room together and the only real dynamic they have is discussing Amy. Rory is still too much "Amy's Husband", which is a shame, because there is a great potential there. Rory's stubborn intelligent simplicity would work great with Smith's self-obsessed doctor. Rory doesn't accept "We're with the Doctor" as an explanation for weird stuff happening. He hasn't been Starstruck by the Doctor the way Amy is, and as such it would be great to watch the Doctor's ego bump up against somebody who, while not his enemy, doesn't share the Doctor's view of himself.

We get some hints of this In the episode

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When Old Doctor dies, Rory is the one who holds it together and starts asking questions. Amy just kind of breaks down, and River still takes it pretty hard despite knowing for sure that she will see the Doctor again (and being River Song, a woman so tough she makes Nails look weak). Rory holds it together, he's clearly shaken, but still okay. And when Young Doctor shows up he's more curious than furious.

Also, the Rory/Everett bit inside the Tardis was great. Say what you will about Rory, he's solid, sensible, and capable.

I would like to see some moments where The Doctor and Rory can just interact without Amy being involved at all. The potential is there, it just hasn't been realized.

That said, I really hope Rory doesn't go the way of Micky, getting sick of trying to compete with The Doctor and leaving the Tardis.

[factotum]

That said, I really hope Rory doesn't go the way of Micky, getting sick of trying to compete with The Doctor and leaving the Tardis.

That seems rather unlikely considering he'd have to leave his wife behind to do it!

[Hopeless]

I would like to see some moments where The Doctor and Rory can just interact without Amy being involved at all. The potential is there, it just hasn't been realized.

That said, I really hope Rory doesn't go the way of Micky, getting sick of trying to compete with The Doctor and leaving the Tardis.

Thats something I'd really like to see, reminds me of what was involved in the first companions of the First Doctor were like since they're really what inspired him to become what the doctor is now known for!

[BRC]

That seems rather unlikely considering he'd have to leave his wife behind to do it!

Oh, I know. But it's always possible they'll kill him off again, or he'll decide to staying "Modern" times while Amy goes time-travelling around with the Doctor. Or any number of ways they could write him out in order to return to the "Doctor+Hot Chick" formula. I really hope they don't though.

[The Extinguisher]

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I did not like the wake scene. I know that the Doctor had something planned, and knew he wasn't actually dying. Because really, he visits every companion he's ever had when he's going to regenerate, but only invites his most recent friends to his actual funeral.

It's rather upsetting.
Also, I want more Captain Jack Harkness. Seriously, where is the guy?

[Drolyt]

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I did not like the wake scene. I know that the Doctor had something planned, and knew he wasn't actually dying. Because really, he visits every companion he's ever had when he's going to regenerate, but only invites his most recent friends to his actual funeral.

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Not necessarily. Thing is, Ten viewed regenerating just like dying. He really didn't want to do it. Also, Ten only visited those companions from his own incarnation. Maybe Eleven is doing the same thing.

[Starscream]

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Not necessarily. Thing is, Ten viewed regenerating just like dying. He really didn't want to do it. Also, Ten only visited those companions from his own incarnation. Maybe Eleven is doing the same thing.

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Actually, in 11's appearance in the Sarah Jane Adventures, he tells her that he visited all his former companions. It's just the modern day ones that we saw, presumably because they couldn't afford 30+ guest stars, especially since some of the actors have now passed on. Also, as poignant as I thought Ten's death was, it did not need to be dragged out any longer.

Incidentally, Jo Grant appears in that story, and the eventual fates of a few of the past companions are touched upon. For instance, Tegan moved back to Australia and fights for Aboriginal rights, Ben and Polly run an orphanage in India, Harry Sullivan creates new vaccines, Ian and Barbara eventually got married and are college professors, and Ace now runs a worldwide charity.

[Dienekes]

Also, I want more Captain Jack Harkness. Seriously, where is the guy?

He has his own show now, doesn't really make sense for him to be a major participant in this one.

Though, maybe that's because I was never a huge fan of him.