Laurel and Hardy, the Tower of London, a naked Doctor and four TARDIS-blue envelops: you know you’re in for a good start with all of that in under five minutes, and Amy and Rory able to enjoy it from the comfort of their own home, well mostly all of it as they blatantly missed the Doctor in the L&H film, but never mind! It was exciting, to say the least when it was first announced that Doctor Who was being filmed in America—personally I’d settle for anywhere other than overly-reused dusty Cardiff sets (come on, over five years with the same places, the fans can see these things!) Okay true, that came with the price of Americanizing the series, or at least the episodes being shot in the U.S of A, but preparation was all it took to handle such a situation.
This was all we heard for a while, that and rumour, oh how us Whovian’s like rumours! Of course, one or two slipped through the metaphorical crack of the Moff’s mind to be true, such as Amy’s ‘condition’ but no one was to guess at the true nature of that beach scene. Taking a closer look at the Doctor in those first ten minute, when he’s finally over a thousand years old, one can see how good the makeup department are on the BBC (both Cardiff-based and US-based). And of course, another rumour starts almost instantaneously from that scene, from the Doctor being killed by an unseen ‘impossible’ astronaut: Is the Spaceman actually River? Locked up for killing ‘the greatest man [she’d] ever known’, but then again, not necessarily the Doctor…
Moving more deeply into the episode, though; the Silence/Silents, for that is who they’re speculated as, must be the most brilliant and creepiest aliens in the new series thus far. Inflicting fear from their appearance even from the most confident of space travellers (River Song, for one) then the moment said traveller would look away they’d forget the Silents completely, but the fear remains—that unexplained fear that bubbles in your stomach, could it be that we see the Silents every day, but simply forget? Clever, clever Moffat! Yet of course, their explanation as to WHAT they’re doing in the series not yet known, and possibly never to be found out until the second half of the series, even the finale in October! Oh, how we wish we had a TARDIS of our own…
Speaking previously of River Song, and after a ‘Hello Sweetie’ and a verse of ‘Spoilers’, one has to admire her character, how confident she seems but that scene down in the tunnels with Rory; how fragile she really is, voicing her fear of her relationship with the Doctor, unknowingly mentioning the events of Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, something the viewers looked on with no emotional attachment to River, and possibly with some resentment. But that doesn’t matter; just KNOWING how she’s going to die is enough to place a constant emotional attachment on the character, even wanting to get to know her because, as we know, she’s here to stay…
Now, every single thing of ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ could be covered here, like River knowing the TARDIS more than the Doctor, or the TARDIS having such good cloaking abilities, or how Stuart Milligan did such an excellent Nixon, or how brilliant the set was for the Oval Office, or the Lodger TARDIS present within this episode, or even the fact that Amy is pregnant—yes I called it and it happened; a-go, a-me-a… but what CAN’T be skipped over currently is the Doctor’s final apparent-end-all death! That’s it, killed mid-regeneration and stone dead… could the Eleventh Doctor be the final one, or is time actually, somehow, miraculously, going to get rewritten? Here’s hoping but not speculating—no siree…
Now, I KNOW I haven’t covered all I possibly can, and don’t want to spoil it too much for those of the family and friends who haven’t seen but wanted to read this, so...
The Doctor = 10/10 – Matt Smith does the Doctor and the whole Whoniverse proud! That is all…- Amy Pond = 10/10 – Just that scene of her crying over the Doctor’s body is enough, but add to it the whole issue of the Silents, and the Doctor having to trust her and it’s hard not to give her a 20/10!
- Rory Pond = 9/10 – He seems somewhat ‘different’ currently, not completely noticeably different, but definitely not entirely the same as from Series 5, not that there are any complaints, it’s just something to get used to; maybe he’s simply gotten braver…
- River Song = 10/10 – Need I say any more than I have already mentioned?
- Canton Delaware III = 8/10 - Not mentioned him in this review! But a great character, not much TO say about him as yet, but he’s bound to shine in the next episode.
- President Nixon = 9/10 – Not too much seen of him, but his presence within the episode, and his reason for even appearing brings, and keeps, the ever-unfolding plot perfectly together.
- Plot = 10/10 – Simply, one of the best openers since the new series began; need I say more?
Overall Episodic Rating: 10 out of an astounding 10!
And on one final note: The sudden loss of one of the greatest companions the Doctor has ever known came as a shocker earlier this week, but Elisabeth Sladen was loved and will be missed; her tribute on CBBC was lovely and it was wonderful to see The Impossible Astronaut dedicated to her (I will certainly miss her AND the Sarah Jane Adventures)… but what about the late Nicolas ‘The Brig’ Courtney? No dedication to him? :( Just sayin’…
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