Not reading any posts yet, but what happened to Rory’s Paddy Hopkirk Replica? A plain, gold Mini? Really? Is this what being married has done to him?
It didn’t work for me. Why couldn’t The Doctor regenerate? So that River could lose her regenerations (and thus die in the library)? If so, that is lazy writing, but I couldn’t fathom a better reason.
Not to mention an unknown, very important question that would have disastrous results if it were ever asked.
Another important detail revealed in this episode, The Silence are not the gray memory erasing guys. The Silence is a group that they, along with eye-patch lady, are a part of.
ETA: Or maybe not! Did they ever actually say “We are the Silence”? Maybe they’re trying to stop the Silence.
She didn’t need to lose her regenerations to die in the library. When the Doctor was gonna die saving everyone in the library she said that he wouldn’t be able to regenerate after it.
There are many, many ways to prevent a Regeneration.
I don’t think the Judas Tree was specifically mentioned as one of them before now, but if you were sending an assassin after a Time Lord, would you give them a weapon that wouldn’t actually work?
Stopping both hearts at the same time, or in rapid succession is one known way to do so - easily done with toxins.
No, what’s surprising isn’t that the Doctor couldn’t regenerate on his own, it’s that Melody’s regeneration energy could work in place of his own. And that’s a surprise, not a breaker of suspension of disbelief.
Not that I recall. When did she say that?
So: (i) In that case, why couldn’t The Doctor regenerate. Even simple plot necessity can’t explain it, which makes it seem even more arbitrary to me.
(ii) I don’t recall the exchange you’re referring to, but that just makes it worse from my point of view. Is regeneration (and when it can be performed) a feature of the Who universe, or is it something that is varied to suit the scriptwriter?
True. Never said specifically.
They said “silence will fall” which could mean they oppose it. They did say, though, that they honored Amy for “bringing the silence”.
51st century. Wonder if River went to school with Captain Jack?
I’m loving Rory more and more. “Hitler. Cupboard.” (shrug) “Ok.”
I enjoyed the episode a lot. And I’m not sad that not all questions were answered. The story continues to unfold.
Next week’s episode, written by Mark Gatiss, seems to be a standalone. (Not that standalone episodes must be devoid of clues about the ongoing arcs.)
“Killing Hitler” is one of the great Time Travel Story bait-and-switches. The 1963 Twilight Zone episode “No Time Like the Past” has a time-travelling assassin putting Hitler in his crosshairs, then failing to kill the Fuhrer
Then the second revival of The Twilight Zone from 2002, “Cradle of Darkness”, had another failed attempt to kill Hitler:
I’ve seen the idea elsewhere, too. It never works, and you end up doing something else instead.
Heck, it’s got its own TV Trope page:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlekz83hawz?from=Main.HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct
The sudden introduction of Mels/River seemed kind of jarring. Also, why did the people controlling the robot just let Amy use her sonic screwdriver to shut off their wrist devices? No-one fought to stop her or anything.
If it wouldn’t upset my wife and daughter so, I would be quite happy to stop watching this series after the latest episode. I haven’t read this thread yet, but is anybody else as fuckin’ confused as I am? Which Amy was in this episode: real Amy or Milk Amy? Where’d this “Mel” character come from, and why the idiotic back story? Am I forgetting the entire resolution to the Amy giving birth in the bizarre hospital ward plot? I thought Rory was sandy blonde? (Not to mention a trained nurse - “I think he’s injured, Doctor!” And etc, etc, etc.
52nd, I think - I wasn’t paying that much attention to that detail, but I’m pretty sure the date was 51XX, not 50XX.
In short, I don’t want Lost season 3, but that’s what we now have.
I’ve never watched a single episode of Lost. What don’t we want?
Uh, yes I think you are forgetting the entire resolution to the Amy giving birth plot. Ganger Amy was melted back before they went to Demon’s Run. Mel was one of Melody’s regenerations, sometime after Amy gave birth to her but before she became River Song.
I thought it was a great episode.
[spoiler]The Tardis taught River/Melody to fly the Tardis? Brilliant!
I liked the brief appearances by the former companions.
Where did the Doctor get the longer jacket? The short jacket was still hanging inside the Tardis.
[/spoiler]
A bunch of damned plot points that confuse the casual audience and end up never* getting resolved.
*Asterisk placed here because the season is still progressing, so there’s still hope.
My first thought was that it felt like things resolved too quickly, actually.
The 30-second transformation from psycopath-Melody to ethical River seemed a bit quick, just on an emotional level, and storytellingwise, it felt like everything was wrapped up a little too quickly.
At least Rory didn’t die this episode, for a change.