This episode does contain some "SPOILERS" as River Song (Alex Kingston) would say, so if you don't want to know what happens before you've watched the episode then DON'T READ!!!!
Thank you BBC for the mid season finale. We never get a mid season break here with this show, or any show and it's really disappointing that the powers that be decided on one now!! When the ep was shown for the first time last year.
Amy (Karen Gillan) wants to tell her baby that she'll be cared for and loved, but she can't lie to Melody now. She'll have to be brave because "there's someone coming, someone who won't let them down and an army can't stop him." Amy wants the Eye-Patch woman (Frances Barber) to leave the baby. Amy continues, "he's the last of his kind and he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years..because this man is your father - the Last Centurion." She's referring to Rory (Arthur Darvill) but she could also be talking about the Doctor (Matt Smith) in another time, another place; but she'd never do that.
Twenty thousand light years away. Rory has a message for the Cybermen from the Doctor and a question from him. "Where is my wife?" The Twelfth Cyber Legion monitors everything in that quadrant. They ask for the Doctor's message, which can be heard outside, viz the explosions. At the army base where Amy is being held, two soldiers talk about the Doctor blowing up an entire legion. A message can be heard reminding them that they cannot interact with the Headless Monks without consent. Lorna Bucket (Christina Chang) tells them the Monk's head meant doubts so they follow their hearts. In which case shouldn't they have been pacifists. Lorna first met the Doctor when she was little in the Gamma Forests and he told her to "run." One of the soldiers is sacrificed to become one of the Headless Monks, as a donation.
London 1888 AD. Parker drives home 'M'lady' in a carriage. (Hey this isn't Thunderbirds.) She is Vastra the Silurian (Neve McIntosh) she tells her maid, Jenny (Catrin Stewart) that Jack the Ripper has taken his last victim. She ate him. The TARDIS appears for her. It's time for her to repay a debt and they'll need swords.
The Battle of Zaruthstra 4037 AD. A nurse is needed and Sontaran, Commander Strax, (Dan Starkey) enters to administer to a boy. The TARDIS appears for him too, he had to pay penance for his past and perhaps his penance is over. (Yes it was over for him.) River returns home to her prison and Rory arrives to ask for her help. The Doctor took her ice-skating in 1814 on the River Thames for her birthday and Stevie Wonder sang for her. Darn, missed the clue when she said it was her birthday! Rory mentions Demons Run. She refuses to go, she can't, not yet. She mentions the Battle of Demons Run being "the Doctor's darkest hour, he'll rise higher than ever and then fall so much further." She can't be there until the end (for her big reveal.) River: "This is the day he finds out who I am." So do the others, or wasn't that important enough to get a mention.
The Eye-Patch woman, named Kovarian asks Dorium (Simon Fischer-Becker) what he knows. They've been waiting for the Doctor for a month. He replies people in the galaxy owe the Doctor a debt and he's raising an army. He knows their base is on an asteroid and they call it Demons Run. There's an old saying: "Demons Run, when a good man goes to war." The TARDIS comes for Dorium too. A colonel gives a speech against the Doctor, rousing his troops. Knew the Doctor had to be one of the Monks. Lorna gives Amy the name patch she was sewing and calls it a Prayer Leaf. If she keeps it, her child will return to her. It says the baby's name in her language. Lorna tells her she met the doctor when she was little, just as Amy did. She tells Lorna the Doctor isn't famous. Lorna: "he's like a dark legend." Amy accepts the leaf.
Colonel Manton (Danny Sapani) spouts on about the Doctor being nothing special, "on this day, in this place, the Doctor will fall." A repetition of what River said about him rising and then falling really. The army is allies with the Monks and the Colonel tells the soldiers why they're Headless, revealing what's under the hoods. The Doctor also reveals himself from under his hood. The Monks can never be, as the Doctor adds, "surprised." The lights go out and he walks away in the dark, spotted by Lorna opening the door with his Sonic. She follows him out and in the chaos a soldier shoots a Monk. The base is taken over by the Doctor's own army. Kovarian tries to flee with the baby, but Rory stops her. She tells him he can't take over her ship. But the Doctor's army can, including Captain Avery (Hugh Bonneville).
The Doctor wants the Colonel to order his army to "run away." So he will be known as 'Colonel Runaway,' and be famous for those words. As it wasn't a good idea to get to the Doctor "through the people I love." Kovarian tells the Colonel to give the order. "Good men have too many rules." The Doctor replies, "Good men don't need rules...today is not the day to find out why I have so many." Rory rescues Amy. But the Colonel and Kovarian wouldn't give up so easily, nothing happens that easily. Amy was right when she said they took the baby away. Rory cries, he wanted to act all cool. She introduces Melody Pond Superhero, not Melody Williams, (Rory's last name) she's a Geography teacher. The Doctor speaks all languages including baby and replies to the baby's gurgling that his bow tie is cool.
Vastra repeats what River said: "...you have never risen higher" and now he's going to fall. Strax says he can feed and change Melody. The Doctor senses she's tired and brings out his cot. Amy asks if he has, or has he ever had, children. She was on this base the entire time. The Doctor hugs Amy, her heart, soul and mind were on the TARDIS. When she saw the Eye-Patch woman, that he explains was "reality bleeding through." Last episode he said they were remnants of a time memory. Rory asks if the signal was being projected into the TARDIS the whole time. He couldn't say Amy wasn't real since they could have been listening. He answers the cot is his.
Vastra repeats what he once told her, "anger is the shortest distance to a mistake." Dorium tells him they found what they were looking for. Melody has human and Time Lord DNA. Lorna warns them it's a trap, as she heard Kovarian talking about it. Lorna wanted to meet the Doctor again, "a great warrior." Amy says he's not a warrior and Lorna asks why he's called a Doctor then. (River will explain this soon.) The Doctor insists Melody is human and doesn't know how this happened, or when. The child 'began' after Amy and Rory's first time on the TARDIS together on their wedding night. He refers to sexy fish vampires ( season 5's Vampires in Venice episode) and running about.
Lorna explains the Headless Monks aren't alive so they're not registered as life forms on the scanners. Doctor: "...can't cook themselves a Time Lord...why would a Time Lord be a weapon." See they surrendered too readily, too late. The Monks attack. There's a flashback to 6.2 Day of the Moon, when River mentions the girl was a human in the suit. Kovarian calls the child "hope in this endless bitter war" against the Doctor. There's a forcefield around the TARDIS and the Monks take over the base. As they fight, River explains:
"Demons Run when a good man goes to war.
Night will fall and drown the sun
When a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies
Night will fall and the dark will rise
When a good man goes to war.
Demons Run but count the cost
The battle's won but the child is lost."
When everything is revealed at the end, it had to be River who narrates this, which is of significance.
Kovarian tells the Doctor, she fooled him once - with Amy, as Flesh and she didn't realize it would be so easy" to fool him again with the baby." Melody was flesh, at least the baby Rory rescued. Strax is a nurse, not a warrior and he dies, just like Rory is a nurse and not a Centurion. Lorna warned them. She met him once in the Gamma Forests, he doesn't remember her, but lies "I remember everyone" and says they ran. They always do. River arrives and he gets angry at her. He questions where she was when he's been there for her all the time she wanted him to be. She couldn't have prevented this. River could have tried.
River: "So my love could you."
Doctor: "This wasn't me." River insists this was his doing. He makes them all afraid. He's able to turn an army around, just by using his name. She explains Doctor means "healer and wiseman throughout the universe." To the Gamma people, Doctor means "mighty warrior." As Lorna said. River claims they will turn Melody into a weapon as they fear him. River evades answering the question of who she is, focusing on the cot. The Doctor reads the cot and realizes who she is and does a smooching action with his lips, indicating they kissed.
The Doctor will find Melody. River tells Amy to concentrate on the cot, but it's Gallifrayan and that can't be translated. She shows Amy the leaf. There's no word for "the only water in the forest is the river." The Leaf reads 'River'. River: "It's me - I'm Melody. I'm your daughter..."
When do they get Melody/River back? Great episode and what a reveal. At least I said that's what Idris meant in episode 4 (The Doctor's Wife) when she told Rory "the river's in the forest." Knew it was about our River. Also if that was River in the future, his future (her past) as a girl, she kills the doctor as the weapon she's been turned into. Is that why she's in prison now. I used to say that in the episode Silence in the Library when River was first introduced , that she must have killed someone, or done something to get her into prison. Thus far it's never been revealed what she's done. Also, ironically, she dons a spacesuit in her first ever scene. As did the child who kills the Doctor in the season 6 opener, The Impossible Astronaut.
What an exceptional twist though, to have River as their daughter and her falling for the Doctor. Being used as a weapon, it begins to fall into place now. At least some of it. Though you can tell it was a bit of an afterthought, as Amy and Rory only appeared in the show in season 5 and River's been here a lot longer. The Silurian sister Vastra talked about was from The Hungry Faith and Cold Blood episodes. The Spitfires which attack the base, flown by Danny Boy, were in Victory of the Daleks. Dorium first appeared in The Pandorica Opens, last season. The Headless Monks were alluded to in season 5's The Time of Angels. A pity the Daleks will no longer be appearing in the show anymore!
Matt Smith has been quite dark in his portrayal of the Doctor, especially these past three episodes, as well as interjecting with funny moments. Then running off at the end of the episode, conveniently leaving River to explain who she is to Rory and Amy. Knowing Amy was Flesh all along, no wonder he gave her all those suspicious looks, especially everytime she wanted to tell him about his future. Apparently Amy hadn't been Amy since before they went to America. So maybe, just maybe he knew about his death anyway. Maybe it's just me but I like to think he did.
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