h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh-oh-oh - idea!

The suit had "life-support" systems inside.

Perhaps The silence wanted / needed to prevent her regenerating?

I think I'm starting to catch a trend in my thinking when I watch confusing things: I've seen so many really clever stories (in movies, TV, books, etc.) that start off 'confusing' but end up being wrapped up neatly, that I'm now overly prepared to suspend judgement. When the finale comes, and it doesn't explain things after all, I've forgotten enough of them that I'm left feeling falsely satisfied. Now, people point out gaping plot holes to me, and I suddenly realize that I spotted them, expected them to be resolved, and left it at that.
The whole plot point with Amy and the child was totally unresolved. The photographs point clearly in the direction of Amy being the child's mother, but WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! How old was the child? Nine-ish, I'd guess. Maybe 11. And then it appears to have Time Lord heritage. Did The Doctor father a child with Amy?!
On the other hand, Amy brought up the idea of the child being affected by their time travels, as if by some kind of 'time radiation'. I found this idea silly, since it bears an uncomfortable resemblence to the kind of ignorant hysteria bandied about by people who know nothing about science. When the Doctor mocked it, I dismissed it, but what followed appeared to give it credence.
Then again, maybe the whole "Amy's child" idea is a red herring (either on the part of the writers, or as a deliberate deception by The Silents, or even someone else). The Doctor's clone-daughter did spring to mind...
I think some of my vitriol towards Moon River has cooled, but I still think she's a character out of place. The hint of Indiana Jones/Lara Croft at the end is apt, and it's a jarring difference to the way I see the Doctor. The way she is portrayed, I feel like there should be more conflict between her and the Doctor: as has been said, he shouldn't have been okay with the firefight!

I noticed an increase in the archaeologist references regarding River. Reminded me of Benny in the New Adventures (and the DT Doctor comment 'I'm a Time Lord, I laugh at archaeologists). I'm also wondering if the young girl will turn out to be Susan, or her mother. The yes/no Pond pregnancy is somehow time crack related, probably, and I'm not convinced that River isn't also in a similar state to Amy, given her 'feeling sick' comment in the tunnels (Moffat doesn't tend to go for irrelevant comments).

I don't think Amy would be having the Doctor's child, the 'are they, aren't they' speculation about the Doctor and his companions is one of the things that have fired the imaginations of the viewers for all these years. To finally state 'yes, they are' would kill off the magic and I can't see Moffat doing that. RTD would have, but that's because he couldn't see the bigger picture the way Steven Moffat does. I still don't get the 'covering themselves with magic marker' bit but maybe when I've watched it a few more times...

I'm hoping that we don't get another episode with so much thrown in. Casual viewers of the show must be turning off in droves. Imagine if that was the first Doctor Who you had ever watched. I doubt you would watch a second.

I see Radox's point about casual viewers.

Luckily for me I am not one so can say with absolute confidence:-

"OMFG That was amazing!"

Which is how I felt about it. What the hell was the hatch bit? Deary I am so excited about the rest of the series I am actually shaking a bit.

FB

Things I love about Who under Moffat:-

It is frightening, really properly pant wettingly tense at times. How Dr Who should be.

The series arc stuff is actually constructed properly as part of a long term developing thing unlike the bolt on rubbish that RTD did. I fully expect there to be little bits in Moffats 3rd or 4th series that have payoffs from things that happened in the first couple of episodes of his first series. Maybe even some of the eps he wrote under RTD.

He uses time travel, properly. Under RTD the time travel was just a macguffin to get people to where the peisode had to happen. Moffat uses it intimately into the plot devices of the characters and stories. That they can travel in Time is surely the most interesting thing about Time Lords.

Amy Pond

FB

I agree with the first three parts.

Doctor to Nixon: "Record everything you say in this room"

Nixon got into considerable trouble for precisely that reason, as a recall.


Geggs

Was the revolver that River fired at the space-suit the same one that Amy fired at the child in the space-suit? I got a feeling that when River said "Of course", it was because she had only had 5 rounds left and she suddenly realised what had happened to the 6th.

I think that the two Doctors, River and the child have converged on these episodes from variety of time-lines.

I thought that Amy fired Canton's gun, which she picked up when he was knocked out. And the Silence are throughout the Galaxy, which is why the fishy vampires fled to Earth in the Vampires of Venice.

I'm going back and re-watching last series to see how many Silence references there are.

If you kill a Time Lord, can you steal his regenerations?

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OOh, that's interesting!

"Say hello to David Frost for me."

^ That was in reference to Silicon Dioxide's theory.

"It's okay, I can fix that"

Said by the Doctor to Amy at the end of The Eleventh Hour, because Amy had grown up. Also said by the dying girl at the end of Day Of The Moon just before she re-generates.

Hmm... there's something in that, but I'm not sure what yet.


Geggs

The Silence win the Mr. D Award For Most Original Take On Grey Aliens. Well done Mr. Moffat.

My thoughts: I loved the eps. But I'm wondering about 'Silence/Silents will fall'. It would appear that the downfall of the Silence has now happened due to the Doctor's interference - but isn't the fall of the Silents the Big Bad Thing we're all dreading, the thing that will cause the TARDIS to explode?

In other words, how bad were the Silents actually? They don't seem to have actually hurt anyone (other than that lady in the loos), despite dozens of opportunities to do so. Perhaps the Doctor will find that destroying the Silents was a mistake, or at least not as simple as he thought.

And yes, many plot threads unresolved. I thought the hatch in the door indicated Amy was dreaming, but thinking back I'm not so sure. And there's still the small matter of the Doc dying at the start.

I'd really need to watch both eps again - the earlier time means I need to keep pausing to persuade my 2-yr-old to go play quietly in her bedroom...

Gif

http://lunchtimelegend.co.uk/2011/05/why-i-love-stephen-moffats-dr-who/



FB

I do realise that as Dr Who is the adventures of a time lord, there is going to be some time travel in it! trouble is time travel is confusing and full of paradoxes. I was confused.
Hopefully the rest of the series will be a bit more adventure and a bit less confusing. Still enjoyed it mind.

FB - while I agree with all of your blog points about what Moffat does so well ... something about it doesn't work for me ... it's just a little too complex and clever ...

There were some good stories last year but equally some really dire stuff (Daleks, Vampires, Angels 1&2) spring to mind. Didn't enjoy Silurian episodes. Quite liked The Lodger, quite liked Vincent - yet they weren't the greatest Who fare ...

Which reminds me ... did we ever understand what the waving Amy & Rory in the Silurian first parter were about?

I don't think we id exactly. I mean, the obvious reason they were there was to imply that Amy and Rory have a future together, and so make the death of Rory come as a complete surprise, but that's just a writing trick.

But yes, we haven't seen that scene from the other way around yet.


Geggs

I wouldn't say it's too complex or clever just quite a few unanswered questions. I'm not bothering to try to work out what could be happening just keeping the facts we know in my head and the unanswered questions and then just watching the story unfold.

I am sure the explanations will not be that complicated as stories don;t tend to be when you get to the nub of it and there are a few strands in this one.

The Silence have to be a bit bad for the fishy vampires from Saturnyne to have fled to Earth to escape them, and they are behind the cracks in the Tardis which ended all life in the universe (even if temporarily), so what with that and being literal kill-Joys, their CV does seem to be quite bad so far...

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