Doctor Who 6x01 The Impossible Astronaut

[kerravonsen]

Yes, this is a very belated reaction post, because I've only just watched it. With my sister, who had already seen it, but it was fine, she didn't spoil me or anything. And I am writing this before I see the next part, because I want to be free to make my theories without spoilers.

I didn't check who this one was written by, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was The Moff. It has the hallmark timey-wimeyness and the high creepiness level (and River Song). (checks) Yes, it was written by him.


Oh noes! You can't kill the Doctor, you can't! Nooooooo! Please?
I'm now lending more credence to the theory that The Moff is revisiting things that Rusty did, and saying "This is how you do it properly" (or at least, "This is how I would do it"). This example being, of course, How To Kill The Doctor.

Those aliens are CREEPY! (shudder)
Lots of right notes there: looking a bit like Greys (though not short); shades of Men In Black with both the suits and the making people forget. Also the whole suits/men-in-black trope is very fitting for the setting, with Nixon and 1969 etc.
It taps into the same sort of creepiness as the Weeping Angels - "don't blink". In this case it's "don't look away" - scary on a visceral level because looking at the monster is scary, and not looking at the monster allows it to get you from behind. And they are monsters because they kill random people who weren't a threat.

I like River better in this one. Maybe I like her better when she's angsting than when she's being smug. More sympathetic and less irritating. And this shows that she's had her whole life being influenced by the Doctor. And, ah, the sad foreshadowing - that she's not afraid of death, but she's afraid of the day when she meets the Doctor and he doesn't know her... and she thinks it might kill her. And we've already seen it happen.
I'm puzzled, though - what sort of timey-wimeyness would ensure that the Doctor and River always see each other in backwards order rather than random order? Why would that be so? And I don't think it would be so, either, because we know that the Picnic at Asgard hasn't happened yet! At least, I think it hasn't happened. Sure, River has stated that they're seeing each other in backwards order, but that doesn't mean that she's 100% correct. (shrugs)

Oh, that scene at the start where the Doctor tells River he doesn't trust her, and where Amy swears on fish-sticks and custard... don't tell me that The Moff can't do characterisation!

I like Canton Delaware III; a bit of a diamond-in-the-rough, bit of a gentleman, smart, sufficiently ruthless (well, he hasn't actually done anything ruthless yet, but threatened to do so), practical; he seems like a good bloke.
Oooh! Fascinating piece of trivia (thanks to wikipedia): Old Canton was played by W. Morgan Sheppard, young Canton was played by Mark Sheppard - and they're father and son. Cool!

Some theories and questions:

A. I think the aliens have been there for a long time - they built the tunnels, and they've been unnoticed because they make people forget. How did the alien know Amy's name? Did it read her mind, or something else?

B. Is the death-of-the-Doctor a predestination paradox? Does trying to prevent it cause it to happen?

C. Is this whole thing a trap set up by the aliens in order to kill the Doctor? Is that why the alien wanted Amy to tell the Doctor what she didn't want to tell him? Is the space-suit an infiltration disguise? After all, the aliens wear suits - they must have some means of getting contemporary clothing. The phone calls to the President could merely be bait for the Doctor.

D. Who is the child? Is it a real child, or an illusion, part of the trap? Is the child being set up to kill the Doctor? Is the child River Song? No, that wouldn't make sense, River is a native of the 51st century. However, there's that hint from last season that River killed the Doctor. On the other hand, River did seem as shocked as everyone else when the Doctor got killed.

E. If the aliens have been there for so long, why act now? And what does the space programme have to do with it? What is the connection between 1969 and 2011? Hopefully those questions will be answered next episode. At least The Moff is better at following through on his two-parters than Rusty became.

Comments

[kalypso]

Re Doctor/River meetings, it's also been pointed out that he hasn't given her the screwdriver yet, which suggests that that breaks the sequence.

Apparently they were going to age Mark Sheppard with make-up, and he said "Don't be silly, my Dad can do it."

[kerravonsen]

Re Doctor/River meetings, it's also been pointed out that he hasn't given her the screwdriver yet, which suggests that that breaks the sequence.

Yeah, that was more or less what I meant, even if I hadn't said it, because I think he gave her the screwdriver at the picnic, though I could be remembering wrong.

Apparently they were going to age Mark Sheppard with make-up, and he said "Don't be silly, my Dad can do it."

(grin) Sensible fellow!

[vilakins]

I wondered how he knew Amy too.

I didn't know that about the Canton actors. Cool.

[kerravonsen]

Mind you, if they're virtually invisible to people, they could simply be wandering around and spying on people...

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

With my sister, who had already seen it, but it was fine, she didn't spoil me or anything.

Your sister is clearly a jewel beyond price. :)

There's not really much else that I can say without risking spoilers.

[kerravonsen]

I'd better hurry up and watch the next episode, hadn't I?

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good plan. :)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

River is the sort of character I usually cannot stand... and I love her to pieces.

[kerravonsen]

I'm afraid she usually falls on the "can't stand" side of the equation for me. I'm not one of those people who hated River on sight; I quite liked her in "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", but disliked her quite often in Season 5.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I never saw her before the Eleventh Doctor (because of my antipathy to Ten). As I said in the post I just put up on fandoms, we can't help who we like and don't like...

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

You had many of the same reactions that I did.

Though your "A" point really should have been something I thought; I just didn't latch onto the things you point out in support of it.

[kerravonsen]

Of course, we don't know whether they are actually aliens or non-human terrestrials like the Silurians. But whatever the case, I don't really understand what their ultimate aim is...