How will this play-out?

So writing before transmission, and amidst lots of speculation, what are the pieces linking up for this episode? As there is so much interest and clues from the BBC (and many others) I have a whole section (next) on my thoughts. Meanwhile as I write the attention is now turning to the naming of a character as Jenny (also the name of the Doctor’s Daughter).

My sense is that the BBC have hyped this up to a scale that it needs to be classic or it will be a disappointment. The trailer looks so much like Star Wars that George Lucas’ lawyers have presumably been consulted and there are more teasers than time in the show to resolve them. We await with bated breath!

Speculation (Thu 2/6/2011)

This is something I posted on a Big Finish forum:

We know:

• Real Amy is pregnant
• Amy has baby called Melody Pond
• Rory is actually Rory Williams though maybe in the 21st century Amy is still Pond as is the baby
• There is a timelord (at least part, or at least can regenerate at least twice) child wandering around who is also female
• We learn who River Song is
• River and the Doctor will be intimate at some level
• River killed someone
• Someone shoots ‘a’ Doctor in Impossible Astronaut
• Flesh gangers are very convincing and may not be self aware.

I think we reasonably suggest:

• Amy loves Rory and wouldn’t be unfaithful (despite the moment with the Doctor in the last series)
• We won’t be treated to a forced pregnancy – not family viewing
• The child Amy has doesn’t have to be the one that can regenerate
• The answer will be based on what we know – though we don’t know when Amy switched out as it happened before the series
• The Silence aren’t wholly defeated.

I also wonder:

• Are all the hooks from last series closed?
• Did we get anywhere with why doesn’t Amy recall the Daleks when she meets the Doctor?
• Do we look back to early Moffat? Blink? Doctor Dances? Empty Child? Girl in the Fireplace? Obviously Library / Forest of the Dead?

Having said all this I am still unclear:

• I like the River descended from Amy idea
• I don’t like the Amy’s baby or River Song is a time lord idea
• Maybe the Doctor’s DNA has been used (e.g. from his daughter?)

Making a call I think the answer is none of the above – I’d like to have Captain Jack appear (maybe he is RTD not SM), a dark enemy fighting the doctor and there being two children. I also expect Nixon to get involved again at some point – the Oval Office was not a cheap set!

Who is River Song? Someone from further in the future (she meets other incarnations yet I think) who knows of Amy or more likely Melody Pond and takes a name in honour of her (maybe she has Amy and Rory’s room in the future).

What do I know!

How was it?

So a big fast moving sequence of aliens, foes, friends, monks and other assorted characters. It flew by and we have to take the Doctor’s capture of Demons Run as his rising high (was it that amazing?). The failure to achieve his main objective is presumably his falling deep which seems to bother him for a couple of minutes until he goes all puppy love over River.

Too many drop in characters for my liking – the space pirates survived for many centuries and we get the crazy spitfire guys. We also get the Victorian Silurian Madame Vastra, her maid Jenny and Strax the Sontaran.

Too many visuals dominating the plotting for my liking.

River is solid, Amy still failing to command on screen and Rory getting really strong compared to last series. The Cybermen sequence was great and lets face it mostly the episode was fun.

The Story Arc

So River is Melody Pond and many loose ends tie up well; as you watch you can see how birthday River is (maybe) seeing her father for the first time in a long time. Yes the baby can regenerate and is on the way to becoming a Time Lord – maybe she will be the mother to all the Time Lords and the whole of Doctor Who will collapse in on a causal loop.

The idea of the Doctor becoming a force for bad by accident is interesting, the next episode seems out of kilter with normal Doctor Who and will need pondering. As suspected the Silence would seem to still up to something.

Now we wait a few months!