Another week, and more Who! The Doctor returns for the second part of the series premiere as he, Amy, Rory, and our new friend Canton attempt to incite a revolution against the Silents (or is that Silence?) – an enemy they can’t even remember seeing that has infested the Earth. It’s time-travel wonkyness and smoke and mirrors galore in this episode, so let’s hop behind the cut and talk about it a bit, yes?
As a note: spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.
I think, in general, some people were a little bit disappointed with last week’s premiere. While I enjoyed it, a general survey of the world wide internet found that a lot of people were let down that it wasn’t an immediately “out of the gate” heart stopper like the premiere of the previous season that introduced Smith in the first place. It’s a fair argument all things considered, but as is the way of things – this is a two parter. Yes, we are supposed to weigh things for the individual parts, but I would imagine that those who watched the second part would hopefully feel much more rewarded for their efforts, becuase holy cow!
So let’s start with the bad bits first. If there is one thing INCREDIBLY noticable about the episode – let alone the show’s entire last season run once Moffat took over from Davies – it’s that the show has received a much more light hearted tone. While the Doctor was always fairly comical, Davies managed to have his run of the series decidedly be more serious than funny, pulling off many-a-feat that one would not think possible on a show watched by millions across the world. Davies was the man who made running water scary in a way that M. Night Shymalan can only jealously envy from across the sea. However, Moffat’s duties as show-runner (while rather decidedly good) have really taken the show’s humorous side and hammed it up quite a bit, to a rather noticable degree with this episode. It’s one of the few times while watching I’ve sat up in the episode just to tilt my head at a joke made. The Doctor getting arrested in the space shuttle? Great pay-off in the episode, but a scene that’s a bit dragged on, if you ask me. River Song swan diving into the TARDIS pool? Funny, but a bit forced. While I’m not opposed to humor in my Doctor Who, especially since 11 fits that so well, his time hopping escapades do put him in quite serious positions. I love when Moffat gives the Doctor a nicely timed rant (that Smith always nails in the performance), but as much as this is the “new Generation” of the show, the old guard certainly were doing their part right when they put some of the focus on the drama and sci-fi horror over humor.
Then again, this new season is being written with the fact that Americans are watching it as it airs (because no one ever downloaded it), so there is probably a fair amount of pressure to appeal to that extended audience.
Aside from some awkward jokes, this episode definitely steps it up a notch as far as the premiere goes. Last week’s episode was still damn good, but this week definitely hits the home run given that it is not just build up. No, this episode represents the pay-off. The Doctor takes on the Silence (Silents?) and, with a rather bombastic speech, turns the entire human race into a weapon that will never even remember it’s violence. There’s something rather brilliant in the Doctor turning humanity into a weapon, which reminds one of Davros’ rant in the season 4 finale. The episode also features quite a few scenes that will assumedly be much more important as the season, such as Amy’s abduction and odd pregnancy, the revelation that the Silents have been pushing human history along, and the big reveal of – oh yes – a brand new child Time Lord. As far as setting up a season goes, Moffat has certainly primed everything to push it to 11 (pun intended).
Continued belowThis episode proves Moffat’s talent as a writer as much as any other. Moffat wrote what is considered one of the best Doctor Who episodes (at least here) with “Blink”, which was an intense time-travel laden episode as the Doctor attempted to communicate to a brand new character backwards through time. Moffat has certainly begun the series with similar mechanisms, but the second episode shows just how well Moffat can set things up to play out in the final act of a given episode. While the episode starts with the Doctor breaking out of a prison he put himself in, he stares off at Apollo 11 and remarks that his weapon is Neil Armstrong’s foot. An admittedly odd thing to say, but the eventual pay-off is revealed that it’s in the timing of the moon-landing and the fact that the whole world is watching, allowing the Doctor to use a broadcast against the Silents in helping humanity revolt against it’s unseen opressor. Moffat weaves the story in and out of it’s own path quickly and frantically, carefully balancing two main plot threads with ease. The amount he leaves open at the end is almost rather shocking, but it’ll make for quite an edge of your seat season, to say the least.
You see, Moffat proved with the last season that his style of showrunning is decidedly different than Davies. Davies would always begin a season rather low key and unassuming, and things would only really come together with the last three episodes of any given season. Davies was Moffat’s mentor for the show, and when Moffat took over he followed similar trends until he threw it all away with the season finale and decidedly did his own thing, ending with a cliffhanger as opposed to a solid seasonal resolution. It looks like Moffat has brought that back for this season, because there is a lot of open ended mysteries that will continue on through the show’s season, assumedly until the mid-season cliffhanger (since it has been reported this season will be comprised of two mini-seasons). It’s an interesting way of handling things, considering that Doctor Who has been mainly one-and-done episodes, aside from a few two-parters. While I think it’s safe to assume not all the other writers will be working with the same mysteries Moffat has put in place, it’s going to be interesting watch the season unfold as you can assume most fans will just want answers, and most episodes won’t give any.
So what are we left with? Quite a bit, really. Questions are flying up all over the place. Who is the new Time Lord? Is she Amy’s daughter, and if so how is she a Time Lord? Is that a result of the Silents interference and Amy’s “many days” unaware, or perhaps a result of TARDIS radiation? If the Silents are no longer ruling humanity in the shadows, what does that mean for humanity? And what about that voice from season 5, that declared “Silence will fall”? Was that the voice of a friend or an enemy? Doctor Who is off to quite a start with it’s new season, and now the whole world really is watching. Let’s see what kind of trouble he gets into this time.
Additionally, I feel like it’s time that someone provide the internet (let alone just me) with a definitive map that shows the timelines between River Song and the Doctor. Considering how important her story is to his at this point, I’d love to pass the burden onto someone else to create a visual representation of their story so far. Just saying.
