From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt@aol.com
Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews

And the next one...


LET'S KILL HITLER

1 episode. Approx. 48 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by:
Richard Senior. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.


THE PLOT

Months have passed for Amy and Rory, waiting at home to hear from the
Doctor. Finally fed up with their inability to contact him, they
decide to attract his attention by creating a crop circle. It works,
but it attracts other attention as well. Their friend Mels (Nina
Toussaint-White) follows them in a stolen car, then forces her way
onto the TARDIS.

The time machine materializes in late 1930's Germany. Just in time to
save Hitler's life - an irony, given that Mels' first thought upon
entering the time machine is to "kill Hitler." The German Chancellor
was being menaced by the Tesselecta, a time travelling robot from the
future staffed by miniaturized officials determined to punish
history's most notorious criminals.

The Doctor's arrival diverts their attention from Hitler. They have
found a more interesting war criminal to pursue. Because River Song
has just arrived - a River who does not yet know who the Doctor is!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: When he requests a voice interface from his TARDIS, it
presents him first with his own image. He rejects that, asking for the
image of someone he likes. Taken together with last season's Dream
Lord, this statement says a lot about the Doctor's inner emotional
state. He is then presented with the images of his recent companions:
Rose, Martha, and Donna. He rejects all of these images, each of them
filling him with guilt. Rose said of the 9th Doctor that he makes
people better than themselves. The 11th Doctor believes the opposite,
feeling that he's ruined everyone with whom he's come into contact.

Amy/Rory: Needing to attract the Doctor's attention, they do it by
going big. They create a crop circle spelling out the word "Doctor."
Sure enough, he comes - with a copy of a future news magazine in hand.
When the Tesselecta prepares to punish River, Amy thinks fast to stop
the miniaturized time travellers. Her solution recalls one of her most
notable qualities from Series Five: her ability to observe key details
and act on them very, very quickly.

River Song: This would be River's first meeting with the Doctor from
her perspective. This version of River is violent, vain, and self-
absorbed. These are all traits we have seen in her, to be sure. But
here those traits exist with no undercurrent of compassion or even
thought. When the Doctor, apparently dying, refuses to give up on
saving his companions even in great pain, his struggle impresses her.
We also find out who it was that taught River to fly the TARDIS,
paying off a line from last season's The Time of Angels as well as
recalling an earlier episode from this season.


THOUGHTS

Well, that was unexpected!

...and in so many ways. I had fully anticipated Let's Kill Hitler
being the second half of a story begun in A Good Man Goes to War.
Imagine my surprise when it rapidly became clear that this was an
entirely different story that happened to follow up on the ending of
its predecessor - a sequel, rather than a conclusion.

This is a Steven Moffat script, with many of the hallmarks. We get the
games with time that Moffat loves so much. A new "best friend" is
introduced for Rory and Amy, and flashbacks fill in their prior
relationship. Then there's a twist that ties that character into the
larger season arc. We get to see what is effectively River Song's
origin story, and it plays out very differently than I had expected.
Finally, we see the Doctor learn of his future death - which, once
again, happens very differently than I'd have expected it to.

All of the twists and turns come in the midst of a story that's
lightning-paced and downright bizarre, with miniature time travellers
controlling a human-like robot from inside the robot's body. The
security system? Antibodies, of course. And the control room is in the
brain. It's odd and funny, and more than a little mad.

Not a bad description of the episode, come to that. The title (not
surprisingly) is just there to grab attention. Hitler's barely in the
piece, and is treated like a joke by the Doctor and company. A gag
that's not in very good taste and isn't funny enough to make up for
it. But since it's really a very small part of the story, it's not
that hard a thing to get past.

In addition to structural games - and there's a terrific bit in which
we see how the Doctor has evaded multiple assassination attempts by
River, all without seeming to have done anything - the episode has
another Moffat hallmark: It's audacious. This is a big episode. It
follows up on the ending of A Good Man Goes to War. It gives us new
information about the Silence, and a new question along with it. It's
the episode in which the Doctor and River meet for the first time from
her perspective, and it's the episode in which the Doctor learns of
his eventual fate. In terms of the overall arc, this is every bit as
big an episode as A Good Man Goes to War.

Yet it feels much smaller, because Moffat has decided that if the last
episode was an action film, this one is a comedy. The gags come rapid-
fire from the teaser on. Physical comedy, verbal sparring, mild satire
- One comedy bit after another. It shouldn't work, and for some it
probably doesn't - Comedy in Who is always dicey, doubly so when a
"payoff episode" is played so broadly for laughs. But I have to admit,
I found myself laughing frequently while watching. It's not the
episode I really wanted for this slot. I had imagined something dark
and epic. Then again, A Good Man Goes to War filled that bill rather
thoroughly. So for the follow up, why not go to the opposite extreme?

I can't say that this is a great episode. The jokey tone isn't an
entirely comfortable fit with the big events, and there's a slight
feeling that this episode is meant to tie off emotional arcs that
should rightfully play out over the rest of the season. Certainly, the
final TARDIS scene seems to suggest that a messy situation is being
tied up just a bit too neatly.

Still, after a season that's been very dark, an episode this light is
actually something of a relief. Besides, I laughed, and didn't feel
like the episode was insulting my intelligence while making me laugh.
I'm not sure there's any better gauge of a comedy episode's success
than that.


Rating: 7/10.

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