Doctor Who Episode Review: The Impossible Astronaut & Day of the Moon

11-Layer Doctor Sandwich

Post #1!

For starters,  my reaction to Doctor Who's two-part season 6 opener. Oh, and since I'm jumping into the middle of the series, remember that my present might your past or future. In other words...

>>>Spoiler Alert<<<

Still here?

Great!

I should explain where I stand on things Doctor Who:

This is a fun, funny, exciting, suspenseful, witty show full of great ideas, and the newest incarnation of it almost, alllllmost fulfills every possible square millimeter of greatness of it. The producers have raised Doctor Who, from "campy, guilty-pleasure sci-fi" to "literate, adult, meaningful work of awesomeness." A lot of that has to do with the complex and engaging scripts, courtesy of "Sherlock" mastermind Steven Moffat, who just may be as smart as the characters he writes about (which is to say brilliant beyond belief. By the way, speaking of his other show, does anyone else think that one inspiration for Doctor Who might be "Sherlock Holmes in Space?" Maybe it's just Benedict Cumberbach's interpretation of the role that leads me into thinking that way, but I digress.)

"Forget about it. I'm too cool for this shit."

Like River Song, my relationship with Doctor Who is complicated. While the actors are engaging, and the f/x are up to snuff, and Moffat & Co. are some of the best writers with a pen and pulse, they are still locked, like Davros to his wheelchair, to those aweful cookie-cutter plots.

Spoiler Alert: regardless of whatever's going on for the first half of the show, the big plot twist in Doctor Who is always: it's an alien invasion!

Really?

Consider the voyages and adventures of Star Trek's Enterprise, in all versions combined, and let's throw in Moya, Serenity and Galactica--all of these vessels combined have only the merest fraction of the milage of the Doctor's Tardis, but look at the rich diversity of story types shared among them. With all of space and time to investigate, "it's an alien invasion!" is all you can come up with?

*sigh*

But, on to this episode. Or rather, pair of episodes. Series 6 had the distinction of being one of the first to be shot here in the States, and the opener certainly tries to highlight this: the story begins in the desert southwest, hops to Washington, DC and then to Cape Canaveral. It's 1969, and on the eve of Apollo 11's historic voyage to the moon, the Doctor uncovers...well, you know the rest.

"We're going to America-wheeeeee! River, you get a gun!
Doctor, you get a hat! Rory and Amy, you get clothes from Dickey Bubb!"

 But, it's not the destination that matters with this episode, so much as the scenery along the way. The setting of America in the late 60's is used to good advantage--Nixon could easily have been a caricature, the equivilant of Spaceball's Dark Helmet, but he's handled as a real person, and the way the episode explains his obsession with taping conversations? Genius.

Nixon, the Doctor and "Canton Everett Delaware III" (played by Mark Sheppard)
looking for a name that's less typically American than "Canton Everett Delaware III."

Curiously, one wonders why the production crew relied so heavily on Brits to fill roles like the LEGENDARY Morgan Sheppard and his son, Mark Sheppard, playing the same character at different ages. Great actors, but still, one wonders why they couldn't have gotten a pair of Americans for this role.

Character actor Morgan Sheppard in many guises. Most recently,
he was the dickish head of the Vulcan Science Academy in 2009's Star Trek.

The alien menace this time 'round are certainly frightening enough: "The Silence," a race of scary ET's who resemble the character from Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream." Easily in the same league as "The Weeping Angels" in terms of fear-factor, The Silence similarly rely on a gimmicky (yet effective) device: the minute you turn away, you forget you've seen them. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

But fear not, the Doctor never travels alone. Up for this adventure are Rory, Amy Pond and River Song, and the script entertainingly milks every bit of interpersonal drama from this group and their relationship with the Doctor. First up: River Song, the Doctor's (wife? lover? killer? all of the above?) She is ALSO a time-traveller. However, their travels are in opposite directions: his past is her future, and vice versa. There's some real pathos and bitterness as she realizes that time is no longer her friend, and that the best moments that she shared with the Doctor are now past, and a bitter and painful resolution to their relationship is all that's left. Alex Kingston's portrayal of River continues to amaze as she flirts, shoots aliens, pilots the Tardis, or contemplates a future--her future--without the Doctor.

I don't even want to think about what she keeps in her nightstand...

And the Rory/Amy/Doctor "love triangle" is up to full power, as well: Amy's pregnant--is it the Doctor's? OK, ok, it's not the most original plot hook, but the actors sell it really, really well. Rory's pathos when he overhears Amy professing her love for the Doctor is truly heartbreaking, thanks to Arthur Darvill's sympathetic performance. (However, the show missed an opportunity to wring every last drop from this soap-opera cliche. At one point, Amy shoots a mysterious spaceman, who is revealled to be just a little girl. Amy's daughter?!? Nah, it's someone else.)

"Please stop writing naughty fanfiction about me..."

Finally, there's the Doctor himself. While Matt Smith isn't my favorite (yet,) this episode stretches him in new ways, playing differnet versions of himself: older, younger and (my favorite) "grizzled Guantanamo Doctor." There's an occaisional note of cluelessness to this Doctor that's very appealing, a window of vulnerability that makes him more...well, human and interesting.

Scary aliens, tasty character stuff. What's not to like about this episode?

"Look Rory--everyone's got cool clothes but us!"

Well...laid on top of this rather straightforward plot is a another, more convoluted one: the characters are all gathered together by a mysterious summons from the Doctor--although as it turns out, a future version of himself. Mysterious stuff happens connected to this plot that looks cool and interesting, but never really adds up nor makes any real sense, in much the same way as another TV series: Lost. Like this ultimatlye meaningless exercise in flash over substance storytelling, this episode spins its wheels without over getting anywhere. The most egregious example of this is "Day of The Moon's" opening, which has the characters seperated and on the run, each covered in strange tattoos (for no good reason) being chased, hunted down and executed by friends (for no good reason,) in a JJ Abrams-style intro that's quickly revealled to be an empty, meaningless, time-wasting farce.

This plot never really satisfactorily wraps up or manages to make a sufficient amount of sense and the *actual* main plot (the alien youknowwhatsis) gets short shrift, being solved in a less-satisfying manner. More plot threads are left hanging than are resolved. This is a somewhat annoying trend as I fear that a device that was used once to lend complexity to the show has now decended into gimmickry.

JJ Abrams-style gimmickry.

BLECH!

But, now that I've got that out of my system...did I like it? Yes. Overall, a very strong pair of episodes, with genuine thrills and a high creep-factor. Great character stuff. Just don't begin here if you're a newbie to Doctor Who; instead, start with the Chris Eccleston's version of the Doctor from 2005. He's got this very earthy interpretation of the character, more grounded and "real" than any other. And, his episodes are at the beginning of the show's rebirth.

For you see, if you're new to Doctor Who, then your future should be my past....