S6 Episode 2: Day of the Moon

Here we are with Part 2 of Moffat's two-part series opener.  When last we left our heroes, Amy had just shot at the little girl in the astronaut outfit.  But now, surprise!  It's three months later and Amy is running through the desert.  Canton appears and pulls out a body bag.  He apparently shoots Amy, who falls to the ground and we see that her arms are covered in black marks.  Canton then corners River, who is writing marks on her skin as she counts the Silence.  She then jumps out of a building.  He also hunts down marker-covered Rory.  Amy and Rory are taken in body bags to the Doctor, who is tied in a straight jacket out in Area 51.  Soldiers have built some kind of magic box around him, and as Canton closes the door, Amy and Rory burst out of their body bags.  The Doctor leans against the invisible TARDIS, and they rush off to save River, who plunges into the TARDIS's swimming pool as she dives off of the building.

Reunited in the TARDIS, the group discusses the Silence, whom they have discovered have been on Earth for thousands of years - it's not an alien invasion, it's been complete domination and no one knows.  Well, except for the Doctor, Rory, Amy, River, and Canton.  No one else remembers after seeing them except for these guys.  WTF.  They've been traveling the US for three months counting how many Silence they see.  Also, Amy tells the Doctor that she's not pregnant after all.

Moving on.  The Doctor injects a little red light in each of their hands - it's kind of a recorder, in which they can leave themselves messages.  If the light is blinking, they've left a message, which is usually "holy crap, the Silence are here!"  In X-Files style, Amy and Canton apparently travel from orphanage to orphanage looking for the missing little girl.  I'm not really sure how they came to the conclusion that they had to go to orphanages, but there you have it.  They find an orphanage that closed down in 1967, but the guy who runs it thinks it's not 1967 yet.  He's clearly messed up.  Amy explores and finds a bunch of Silence hanging from the ceiling sleeping.  She runs out of the room, but forgets right away that there was something there, and she continues to explore.  As she approaches a door, a slot opens in it and a lady wearing an eyepatch looks through and says, "I think she's dreaming".  Amy enters the room and finds a child's room with lots of pictures of the little girl.  She also finds a picture of herself holding a baby.  Ooh.  The astronaut/little girl enters the room, followed by the Silence, and Amy starts screaming.  Canton finds a Silent, too, and when he hears Amy screaming, he shoots it.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has been tinkering in Apollo 11.  He is taken into custody, but Rory and Nixon walk out of the TARDIS and convinces the guards to release him. 

The Doctor shows up and they find that Amy is missing, and the blinking light is laying on the floor.  They can hear Amy through the light, but they don't know where she is.  They find the astronaut suit, which is empty - the girl clawed her way out of it, so she must be super strong ("my kind of girl", the Doctor says.  ::Shudder::)  The Doctor tells them that the Silence are implanting thoughts into people's minds, giving them ideas, advancing the culture (I'm still not seeing the problem with the Silence).  The reason that man decided to go to the moon was because the Silence needed a space suit.  Apparently the Silence are lazy and didn't feel like building one themselves.

Back in Area 51, Canton and Nixon walk out of the super secure bunker thingie to the surprise of everyone.  Inside, Canton uses Amy phone to record the Silent, whom they took hostage, saying "you should kill us all on sight".

The Doctor discovers Amy's location and takes the TARDIS there.  Just as Neil Armstrong starts his famous line, "one small step for man - " the Doctor interrupts the live feed with the video of the Silent saying "you should kill us all on sight" over and over and over.  He tells the Silence that they just ordered their own demise.  The Silence try to give them the Dementor's Kiss, and River opens fire.  They all escape, but only after River's cheesy totally awesome gun skills, where she spins around while firing her gun, take out the rest of the Silence.

The Doctor takes River back to her prison, where she snogs him.  She's shocked and horrified to discover that it's the first time the Doctor has kissed her.  One step closer to death, River dear!  The Doctor then runs a full-body scan on Amy to see if she's pregnant, and the scan keeps oscillating between POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.

The final scene shows us the little girl six months later as she regenerates.  Ta da.

Epic Entrance

At first, you're all like, "whoa!  Why is Canton hunting them down?"  Amy pleads with him, "don't you remember the warehouse?"  River asks him, "why are you doing this?"  And the Doctor is all tied up.  So wow, what made Canton do this?  We don't know!  We never find out!  There is no point to this entrance, other than to demonstrate how awesome Moffat is.  Seriously, there is no reason whatsoever.  It's not like anyone really knew that the Doctor and his companions existed.  No one else certainly knew about the Silence.  Did something happen while they were going all over America looking for the Silence?  Is it just a way for them to be reunited?  What, they couldn't say, "look mates, we'll all reunite back on this spot on July 15"? I think this is not only an unnecessarily epic entrance, it's STUPID. 

Repeat Ideas:

These aren't my typical I-have-beef-with-this repeat ideas.  Just something that I've noticed has been mentioned before.

1)  River says "There's always a way out" - this is what the Doctor says in The Time of Angels.

2)  When Canton is hunting down Rory, he says, "I'm waiting for you to run.  It would look better if I shout you while you were running."  This is very similar to what is said in The Time of Angels about River Song:  "Wait til she runs.  Don't make it look like an execution."

Dislikes:

1)  The writing all over them.  It's creepy, it's shocking, but when you think about it, it's totally unnecessary.  They know that there are countless Silence - do they really think they need to keep a tally?  What are they going to do, take a census?

2)  The flashing red lights in their hands.  Umm ... why didn't the Doctor just give them, I don't know, a journal?  Really, the only answer is to inject the flashing red light?

3)  The Doctor's prison is comprised of zero balance dwarf star alloy.  It's completely impenetrable; the blocks fuse together as they're placed on top of each other, and nothing can get in or out.  Okay, cool.  Wait - WTF?  We haven't even been to the MOON yet - where did they get this supers awesome material?  Again, it's completely ridiculous and its sole purpose is to add to the EPIC ENTRANCE.  I'm more irritated the more I think about it ...

4)  Nixon travels in the TARDIS.  So, he's a companion now?  Just like ALLLLLLL the other characters who have casually traveled in the TARDIS over the last season.  It's like some kind of freaking taxicab.

5)  The Doctor tells Nixon to tape everything that happens in his office.  Sigh.

6)  Since when does the Doctor encourage people to kill?  And again, what did the Silence really do that was so bad?  I feel like we don't have a good reason to get rid of them except they kill people who look at them too long.

7)  I really feel like this whole Silence thing was pulled out of Moffat's rear end.  The Silence clearly was connected to the Crack.  Silence fell.  SILENCE FELL.  There are flashbacks when the Doctor learns what the Silence are called to people in Series 5 saying "Silence will fall" ...  Okay, so are they telling him that the Silence will fall because of the Doctor?  But then the Silent says himself, "and the Silence will fall!"  Does "fall" have another meaning of which I'm unaware?  I feel that the whole concept of the Silence being connected to the Crack is a real stretch.  They could have been called something else and still had the same premise.

8)  When the Doctor broadcasts the Silent saying, "you should kill us all on sight", it interrupts Neil Armstrong saying, "that's one small step for man -" but then picks up again with, "one small step for mankind".  The video of the Silent clearly plays several times (it's not just being repeated for effect, to show that everyone around the world is seeing this).  So what was Neil Armstrong saying in the interim?  Seriously.  It's a LIVE FEED.  Also, you'll notice that after the Silent says that line, everyone turns around to see the Silence.  Wait ... how did they know that the Silence were standing behind them?

Likes:

::crickets::

Okay, fine.  I like Canton.  Actually, to be more specific, I like Mark Sheppard.


Repeat Ideas:

1)  Amy's ghosting.  Yes, that's right, the only purpose for those little red lights are so that Amy can ghost, a la Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.  Oh, and kind of Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.  It just really aggravates me that he can't come up with a new device.

2)  River lands in the swimming pool.  Just like she flew out of that space ship in Time of Angels and the Doctor caught her.  This is aggravating to me because if he can just go back and catch her, then no one can ever truly be in peril.  And seriously, is the Doctor going to keep catching her?  Yawn.

Curiouser and Curiouser:

1)  In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that the Doctor "dropped out of the sky".  When Amy is ghosting, she says, "you dropped out of the sky", and "my life was so boring before you".  We think she's talking about the Doctor, but it turns out she's talking about Rory.  Come on, no she's not.  She's totally talking about the Doctor, exactly in the same way that River was talking about the Doctor when he dropped out of the sky for her (when she was a little girl!  Fancy that!  I'm shocked!  The Doctor visiting one of Moffat's characters when she was a little girl?  Who'd have guessed?  Seriously, though, is Moffat screwed up or what, that this is a running theme in all of his story lines?)  Anyway, I'm so glad that the whole Amy/Doctor/Rory thing has been cleared up.  Right.

2)  The Doctor talks to Rory about when Rory was the Last Centurion.  He asks if Rory remembers that.  Wait ... how could Rory remember it?  The whole universe got rebooted.  How would he remember that if he wasn't plastic anymore?  Is this a setup for what happens later in the series?

These two episodes have me so mad, I kind of wish that every time I looked away from them I'd forget how much they infuriate me.



Ahhhh ... Ianto ...

S6 Episode 1: The Impossible Astronaut

I'm baaaaack! I finally got around to rewatching the first two episodes; I'll be putting them in separate posts. The first episode of the series is The Impossible Astronaut. Ooooh. We know that the first time we met River Song, in Silence in the Library, she was dressed as an astronaut. Wait a minute - does that mean that the Silence were in the library? Dun dun DUN!

All of the companions (and by "all", I mean River Song and the Ponds) are sent an invitation in a TARDIS blue envelope to come to the USA.  There, they meet the Doctor, who tells them that they're going back to 1969, and offhandedly mentions that he's 1,103 years old.  Amy thinks she sees something on the hill, but when she turns away she seems to forget.  Someone pulls up in a truck, and just then they notice that there is an astronaut standing in the nearby lake.  The Doctor tells the companions that they are not to interfere, and he goes to talk to the astronaut, who then shoots him.  As the Doctor begins to regenerate, the astronaut shoots him again, killing him.  They all rush to him, and River attempts to shoot the astronaut.  When she is unsuccessful, she murmurs, "of course not".

So, the Doctor is dead, and the man in the truck gives them gasoline to destroy the body.  He says his name is Canton Everett Delaware III, and that while he won't see them again, they'll see him (cause of time travel!)  He also has a TARDIS blue invitation, and it is numbered "4".  River's invite is numbered "2", and Amy's is "3".

Devastated by the loss of their friends, the companions trudge back into the cafe where they had sat with the Doctor a few short hours earlier.  They find another invitation in TARDIS blue numbered "1".  Turns out it belongs to the Doctor - the 908-year-old Doctor.  He has no idea who sent him the invitation, but when he is told about Canton and 1969, he plugs the information into the TARDIS and it comes up with Florida.

The TARDIS lands them in the Oval Office, where Nixon and Canton Everett Delaware III are talking about mysterious phone calls that Nixon has been receiving.  They notice the Doctor, all hell breaks loose, and he convinces them that he and the companions are from Scotland Yard.

During this time, Amy suddenly sees the mysterious figure again and feels like she is going to be sick.  Does anyone else know at this point that she's pregnant?  I thought it was pretty obvious.  She is taken to the bathroom, where she sees ANOTHER mysterious figure - the Silence.  It vaporizes a woman named Joy, and Amy takes a picture of the Silence.  Wait a minute, in the credits it says "The Silent".  So, is one of them a Silent, and as a group they're the Silence?  I'm confused.

As soon as she leaves the bathroom, she forgets.  She also forgets that she needed to use the bathroom.  Oh well.  They discover the location of the little girl who has been calling Nixon, and they take off in the TARDIS with Canton in tow.  They find an abandoned warehouse, and there are a lot of Silence lurking around in the basement!  Of course, everyone forgets, because as soon as you look away, you forget.  Amy tells the Doctor that she's pregnant, but just then, the astronaut shows up, and Amy shoots it in an effort to save the future Doctor's life.  As she shoots, we realize that it's a little girl.


Dislikes:

1)  The episode starts off with the Doctor inserting himself into various points in history, and Rory and Amy discuss that he is trying to get their attention. In fact, while they discuss it, the Doctor shows up in a Laurel and Hardy film. To paraphrase Graham Chapman, "stop, stop, too silly!" It's a cute idea, but really - no one notices that a crazy ape in a fez has just gone up and waved at the camera, then started dancing with Laurel and Hardy? No one has noticed him on set? No one has noticed him ever in watching it before? I like my clever ideas in Doctor Who to be, you know, CLEVER. 

2)  River tells Rory that the Doctor can't interact with his past self or it will rip a hole in the universe.  Rory says that it did once before (right before the Doctor reset it all).  What I'm wondering is - why is it okay for Amy and Amelia to interact - was that part of the "hole in the universe" thing?  Okay, let's forget that.  Why could Young Kazran interact with Old Kazran in A Christmas Carol?  I think Moffat is just making shit up as he goes along, and it pisses me off to no end.  If rules can be broken, then what's the point of having rules?

3)  River is still correcting the Doctor.  She's less patronizing about it now, but it still aggravates me.  Although, it is funny when the Doctor yells, "River, did you get my scanners working yet?"

4)  When Joy first sees the Silent, she thinks it's someone in a Star Trek costume.  She turns away, turns back, and it's like she's seeing it for the first time.  This happens again, right before it kills her.  How come Amy can remember the Silent, but not Joy?  Why is this the first time that anyone is noticing these creatures?  It's awfully convenient, don't you think?

5)  I don't find the Silence scary.  I just don't.  The Angels were way more terrifying.  I guess the idea that you forget about them when you look away is scary, but it's not like they go around killing people.  I'm not really sure why they killed Joy.  I'm guessing it was Amy's fault, because she kept drawing the woman's attention to the Silent.  But really, not that scary.

6)  When Amy shoots at the astronaut, the Doctor says, "what are you doing?" and she says, "saving your life!"  But that last part happens in slow motion.  I thought it was tacky.

Likes:

1)  When Canton enters the TARDIS, it is Rory who explains it all to him.  I love how he just stands there and watches Canton's reaction, like he is some old hand at the TARDIS now.  Yeah, Rory's cool.

2)  Mark Sheppard's character is Canton.  That's hilarious, as Sheppard played Badger on Firefly, and in Firefly, Jayne is the hero of Canton.

3)  Amy's hair is a vast improvement over the last series, but I still don't like her.


Curiouser and Curiouser:

1)  When River murmurs, "of course not", is this because she knows she's the astronaut, and cannot kill herself?

2)  Interestingly, after the Doctor is burning in a boat out on the lake, Rory walks out of the lake right from the spot where the astronaut had been.  Maybe RORY is the astronaut!

3) River tells Rory that "my past is his future" ... she knows that a day will come when she'll "look into that man's eyes", and he won't have any idea who she is.  And she thinks that it will kill her.  Wow.  Could it get any more sappy?  Because we already know River's fate, we KNOW that this actually happens.  Hang on, I have to go hurl.

Let's think about this - tall, bald dudes wearing suits and ties and don't really talk much?  Of what does that remind me?

Can't even shout
Can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by
Knocking on windows
Knocking on doors
They need to take seven
And they might take yours
Can't call to mom
Can't say a word
You're gonna die screamin'
But you won't be heard...

The Music of the Eleventh Doctor

I'm trying to psych myself up to blog about Series 6.  I just finished it the other day, and I have no desire to go back right now and rewatch them, but I do want to talk about them very badly.  In the meantime, I want to discuss something that I really, REALLY like about the new seasons:  the music. This isn't going to be a huge, in-depth assessment. If you want to listen to a really interesting podcast about the music of Doctor Who, you should check out Adventures in Time, Space and Music.

There have been a few times during the fifth and six series that I have thought, "wow, I really like the Doctor right now!" I think that it really comes down to the music.  It's very driving, it's passionate, and it's unlike anything we heard with the previous Doctors.

Here's the theme for the original series, which was created by Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer. According to Wikipedia, "Each and every note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment ... Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels."



Here is the theme for Doctors 9 and 10, arranged by Murray Gold. As you can see, it still has that very electronic element to it, with an added orchestral sound.



And the Eleventh Doctor theme, which is a complete reworking by Murray Gold, of course uses the original theme, but also adds in even more elements, plus vocals.



The original series didn't really have any notable incidental music or character themes. However, the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors all have very recognizable music. I'll talk about my favorites.

We've got the Doctor's Theme, which runs through both Nine and Ten, and is very mysterious and minor. It's my favorite Ninth/Tenth Doctor music.



Rose's Theme is very orchestral and moving.



Martha' Theme is very similar to the haunting Doctor's Theme:



Interestingly, Amy Pond also has a similar sound to her theme. It has a music box feel to it, which I think emphasizes that the Doctor is her childhood friend.



Something else I should point out is that Donna's theme is a huge departure from all of the other companion themes. I feel like hers is more of a 60's romantic comedy action sequence sound. It just feels like it could be something from a Cary Grant movie. What do you think?



This is the Eleventh Doctor's Action Theme, which tells you that Series 5 and 6 is definitely an action show. I think it is amazing and absolutely love it. To me, this adds to the show significantly.



And my absolute favorite music: The Eleventh Doctor's theme! I feel like a traitor to Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, but there you have it. I think this is fantastic! It's my favorite Eleventh Doctor music. I honestly feel that it makes me like the Eleventh Doctor more! As a matter of fact, I just ran off and pulled out my viola and played it on there. I think my sister-in-law will kill me if I add it to our ever-increasing list of viola/flute duets, but it is fun to play!



So there you have it - the one thing that I LOVE about the Eleventh Doctor. I could listen to that music all day. In fact, I think I'm going to go download it now and put it in my running playlist on my iPhone. Then I can say, "oh good, we're doing the running thing!" Okay, I wouldn't say that. Who am I kidding? I totally would, just like every time I get to the spot in The Two Towers soundtrack, I say, "they run as if the very whips of their masters were behind them!" (But not when people are around.) God, I'm a huge dork.