Currently I'm blogging some of the past eps I've written and mixing with some new eps of other shows.
Liked the opening teaser with the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his portrait being painted, then hiding under the damsel's dress. Showing us what the Doctor has been up to without his companions. He was also imprisoned in the Tower and escaped in the TARDIS. As well as attempting an escape in a World War Two escape tunnel. As well as in the Laurel and Hardy movie, on the TV. Amy (Karen Gillan) opens the blue envelope which is an unsigned invitation to a planet called America. River (Alex Kingston) also gets one. As for the name, this tells us we're already in the future, since it's no longer Planet Earth. The Doctor waits for them to arrive and now sports a Stetson. "Stetsons are cool." River shoots it from his head. Amy explains that River and the Doctor are time-travellers so they don't meet in the right order; when they compare notes, they're "synchronizing their diaries." The Doctor's been running his whole life and he needs them with him tonight. A trip to 'Space 1969'.
The Doctor mentions Amy's put on weight and she notices a creature on the mountain. He says more happened in 1969 "than anyone remembers." Right, because everyone forgets what they see. He is shot and killed by an astronaut which appears in the lake. River says he was "killed in the middle of his regeneration cycle - his body was already dead." They need to burn his body as empires would take his body apart, even for just one cell. Rory (Arthur Darvill) suggests they give him a Viking's send off. An elderly man approaches who appears to know them. Canton Everett Delaware III, (William Morgan Sheppard) they'll be seeing him. River notices the number on his invite and says there has to be a fourth invite out there. Which has to be the Doctor's. Amy just wants to give up and grieve.
At the diner, they find the Doctor alive and well, he trusted himself the most and his invite is number 1. River slaps him for "something I haven't done yet." River can't tell him what's happening and refers to this as "spoilers." They all agree not to tell him. The version of him on the beach was from the future. River comments if they tell him, it would "rip a hole in the universe." River: "There's a far worse day coming for me." What could be worse for her than death, if death doesn't frighten her - perhaps ending someone else's life, someone she holds dear to her.
8th April 1969. They arrive in Washington DC. The Doctor warns them they're not able to beat him at his own game. The Doctor wants to know who she is and River wants him to trust her. Doctor Who: "...but trust you, seriously." He wouldn't trust her since he doesn't know her. Amy wants him to trust her instead. He has to do this without asking questions and she swears on fish fingers and custard. Doctor: "My life in your hands..." He's done that a few times.
Canton (Mark Sheppard) is ex-FBI and is contacted by President Nixon (Stuart Milligan) who receives a call from a girl (Sydney Wade) asking for help. She's afraid of the 'Space Man'. She gives her name as Jefferson Adams Hamilton, at least he assumes it's her name. The Doctor deduces it's a location in Miami. He's on loan from Scotland Yard; Code name: 'Doctor'. The location is Florida because of NASA. Outside the Oval office, Amy sees the same creature from the mountain, an alien in a suit. She also sees him in the bathroom, where he kills a woman. She feels sick, but has taken a photo of him on her phone, as she can't remember she's seen him. The alien wants her to tell the Doctor "what he must know and what he must never know." Cryptic here, did he mean tell the Doctor about his death in the future, or about the girl.
The names the girl mentioned, Jefferson Adams Hamilton are the surnames of three of America's founding fathers. Doctor: "two of them fancied me." He tells River she's got that face again, "the hot when he's clever face." Seems if he doesn't recall her much, he remembers this face of hers. River says being here, looking for the girl is a trap and she's thinking the same thing as Amy, that if they can kill the astronaut then it won't be around to kill in the future. Adding not all of time can be re-written. River investigates the tunnels under the building and comments she's "quite the screamer. Now there's a spoiler for you." Steady on, X-rated territory here! Doctor has to throw in, she's just a friend. Oh who was he trying to convince, ha. River sees aliens in the tunnels and then forgets.
The tunnels are old and no one has noticed them as River tells Rory. That's because they don't remember them being there. Amy tries to tell the Doctor 'what he must never know' or we assume she's going to. River lets on when she first met the Doctor he knew about her. But everything's "back to front: my past is his future. We're travelling in opposite directions. Everytime we meet I know him more, he knows me less. I live for the days when I see him...day's coming when I will look into that man's eyes, my Doctor and he won't have the faintest idea who I am and I think it's going to kill me." But won't she kill him, perhaps, 'spoilers'. Rory does know what it's like for an impressionable young girl to meet the Doctor since Amy went through the same thing. Rory can picture River and the Doctor together and so can I.
Rory sees the aliens too and then promptly forgets. That's sinister if they've been alive for so long and can make people forget for centuries. When Amy remembers to tell the Doctor, things happen and she ends up saying she's pregnant instead. River feels sick too after she saw the alien, so did Amy, but Rory didn't feel sick when he saw them. So it must be a female thing. Amy can't have been pregnant can she, and if she was, wouldn't she tell Rory first and not the Doctor. The astronaut turns out to be the girl who summoned them here ; hence the trap. Amy shoots her; she's saving the Doctor's life. Strange he didn't ask her what she meant when she said she's shooting her to save him.
River not fearing death, in Silence in the Library and Forests of the Dead, River is killed, but her conscious state remains. This season 6 episode carries on from the season 5 episode, Silence Will Fall. These aliens were more akin to the Weeping Angels, blink and they move. If you turn away from them here, you forget you've seen them.
Intriguing start to the series with aliens having the power to make people forget, thus masking their existence. River always leaves cryptic clues behind which make you think and most of all about the 'big' reveal as to why she's in prison. When we meet River in Silence in the Library - that was in her past - she already knew him, thus her diary. Now what happened in the beginning was in the Doctor's future - if that's the case River should know what's happening in 1969 - how to stop the aliens or is that meant to be left to the Doctor to figure out, as he always does, as she said not all of time can be re-written, or am I going off on a tangent. It's one of those episodes where you just just go along with the ride (as with all Doctor Who episodes) without figuring out, or even trying to figure out what's happening because explaining it will just confuse!
The aliens, called The Silence were based on Edvard Munch painting, The Scream.
Mark Sheppard's father, William, played the older version of Canton. Mark is no stranger to sci-fi having appeared in Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13, as well as in Leverage.
I wanted to add some words about the sad passing of Elisabeth Sladen 1948-2011.
Elisabeth played Sarah Jane Smith, one of the Doctor's best and most loved companions. Her character transcended generations from her appearances with Jon Pertwee, to Tom Baker, she was the companion from my generation and I, like many others, grew up with her on our screens. Then her appearances in the new Doctor Who, alongside David Tennant. She later went on to star in her own TV spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, where Elisabeth brought her lovable character back for more to enjoy. With appearances in this show from both David Tennant and Matt Smith. A great actress; a wonderful person; an icon of our times, she will be sorely missed. RIP. As David Tennant's Doctor said most memorably in the episode School Reunion: "Goodbye, my Sarah Jane."
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