It’s here! Our first commentary of the new (half) series.
And what an episode it was – shock regenerations, miniature people, shape shifting robots, killer squid things, young Amelia and, of course, Adolf Hitler. Plenty to like, plenty to disagree about, so click below to find out what we all thought.
This edition’s commentators: Swithun, Peter, Gwen and Anna.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:47 — 52.9MB)
Was this episode worth the wait? And were you playing Moffat Bingo with the rest of us? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and on our Facebook page!
Great stuff guys, really enjoyed your commentary!
Just to pick up on a couple of points you discussed – you didn't think that the Amelia Voice Interface saying "Fish fingers and custard" went anywhere, but that's a reference back to the Doctor's post-regeneration cravings – surely a whopping big hint to the resolution where River uses her post-regenerative energies to save the Doctor.
Also, you forgot that Mark Gatiss wrote "Victory of the Daleks" last series, though I don't blame you if you've tried to forget that one! Here's hoping this one makes a bit more sense.
As I mentioned in my spoiler-free review, my biggest concern with the episode was the characterisation of River Song. She was simply "programmed" to kill the Doctor, rather than having any understandable motive for killing him.
From her point of view, killing the Doctor should have been the equivalent of killing Hitler: she ought to have believed that he was an evil figure who deserved death before he could do any more damage to the universe. This would have made her decision to save the Doctor much more interesting (though it would also have needed to be better explained and motivated).
Another point of characterisation that didn't work for me was Amy and Rory's reactions. We didn't really get the sense that they were parents who had lost their baby. It would be hard to go into that too much in such a comedic episode, but would they really just accept what the Doctor says at the end about preserving River's timeline? If I were them, I'd be shouting at the Doctor to find my baby so I can bring her up properly, rather than as a Doctor-killing psychopath, and the web of time can go hang!
And although it was a fun episode on its own terms, I found it disappointing as River's origin story. It now seems that her entire life revolves around the Doctor, and we've seen all her regenerations. When she was introduced in "Silence in the Library", we had all these hints and suggestions about her, and it seemed like she was an adventurer in her own right, who happened to cross paths with the Doctor across time and space, and have a mysterious relationship with him. When we discovered in "A Good Man Goes to War" that she could regenerate, that opened up new possibilities for her character. This episode didn't just disappoint in terms of her character development, but also shut down many of the intriguing possibilities by joining many of the dots. It's great that we're getting proper answers, but I felt a lot of the mystery was needlessly removed.
"Let's Kill Hitler" worked brilliantly as a comedy sketch show, but fell short as drama.
Our commentary is up on my blog Caleb, feel free to pinch the videos for your post and YouTube chanel.