S06E02 - Day of the Moon

What an amazing episode and a fantastic twist in events right at the end? The little girl…! Well, am still in happy shock about it all, so let us try and create some sort of review towards it, eh?

Set three months after the previous episode, a definite reference that time is never an issue in Doctor Who, we have Canton III seemingly hunting for Amy, Rory and River—the latter two whom it is still unknown how they escaped—and apparently kill them! Well two of them, River having fallen off the 50th storey of a tower block in NYC. What a starter and how brilliant was the acting from those three! I cannot stress enough how brilliant the BBC are in picking the best actors for the job; Smith, Gillan, Darvill and Kingston fit the roles made for them with such ease that you can’t help but love them!

And speaking of Smith; how brilliant did he look with beard and long hair? Straightjacket and chains too, such a marvel! Although one has to ask how, in 1969, the American government could get their hands on those self-sealing, unbreakable black blocks, which HAVE to be alien in origins… then again, Area 51 and those parts of the government associated with it must be like Torchwood and UnIT and are able to get their hands on practically anything—and it must have cost Canton III a hell of a lot of power to go through with all the plans the Doctor must have made, seeming to make the Time Team go rouge. Oh, and at this point may I take the opportunity to laugh at those whom believed ‘Beardy Doctor’ to be an evil clone? Okay yes it seems Clones are going to be involved in some way with latter episodes The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People, but no evil Doctor’s just yet… (and I also apologize if I’m laughing at those readers whom actually DID think Beardy Doctor was an evil clone…)


Well, what a jumbled mess of cleverly woven plots this episode turned out to be! I always stand by the theory that Part Two’s are always better than Part One’s (which is why I look forward to Part Twos more, actually) and have to admit this wasn’t any different. Every scene, every second, played an important role within the episode, the split orphanage/TARDIS/NASA scenes were done so perfectly, and the introduction of the Futurama-esque hand chips (though these ones were recorders in the hand, not personalized CVs) was brilliant; a subtle build-up of suspense with the holo-Silent in the TARDIS and the introduction of a better way of ‘scoring’ a sighting of the creatures (as seen in an early scene with River on the run, seeing two Silents and calling to them “I see you…” while marking the sighting on her arm with a pen).

Moving back to the Orphanage though, three simple words: Oh. My. God! So much deducted and introduced from that part alone: that strange ‘eyepatch’ lady—how the hell did that work? The Little Girl’s simple bedroom and the image of Amy with a baby, presumably her own, and of course the girl’s escape from the Astronaut suit. Which then leads me nicely to a latter scene, when River and the Doctor inspect the suit, go and watch it again and tell me there’s something rather ‘Cyber’ about the way the hand moves, the sound of the mechanisms… the moment I watched it I thought ‘oh hello, Cybermen theme’, and we of course have all seen the photo of Rory the Roman facing up to two Cybermen and a Cyberleader, so maybe this could be a subtle plot reference towards that? We all know the Moffat is the KING of plots and plans—I give him that title with no regrets, the clever so-and-so!

Oh, how I lead myself in a merry little timeline in reviews because now I’m going to mention Rory the Roman, or Centurion Rory, or whatever you like to call THAT Rory, because even though that was part of what could only be referred to as an alternate timeline, Rory still remembers it all. A lovely little scene between him and the Doctor reveals this and also reveals how his and the Doctor personal relationship has developed; how Rory knows the Doctor can be very ‘out there’ but also respects the Timelord’s ability to allow privacy and intimacy, keeping out of things he know he could easily stick his nose in. It’s nice to see these little things, mainly to know that it isn’t ALWAYS the Doctor and Amy.


Moving on quickly onto a non-Amy topic—yes, shock horror!—though I do love Amy, I do! I have to mention Canton Three (as I love to call him now thanks to the Doctor in the Impossible Astronaut) and of course President Nixon. Now I know the President had his faults, god knows we all know this, but one can’t help but have a little bit of respect for the man after these two episodes, even though of course they never REALLY happened and Nixon was in fact just played by an actor, and what an actor! If anyone ever needed a Nixon again, Stuart Milligan—who has in face been involved a lot in Doctor Who actually—should be first in line! Then of course there’s Mark Sheppard… Oh boy how brilliant was he? Canton Three was such a brilliantly written character that I would happily welcome a return from him any day, although Mister Sheppard’s American accent did drop back to English on a few occasions, but it’s forgivable.

NOW we can move onto Amy, being caught like any good ol’ Doctor’s Companion, by the main evil of the episode, although still able to be heard from the recording chip which was still connected to her thanks to some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. Poor Rory, confused as to whom Amy wanted to rescue her, although to be honest, anyone’s more likely be rescued by the Doctor and his TARDIS than their husband and what… a mini, maybe? But a fab scene anyway, with Amy all tied up in similar fashion to previous series episode Cold Blood, but with a much greater threat than of that episode and no risk of Rory being wiped from history—I still haven’t completely forgiven the Moff for that…

THEN comes the most clever part of the episode ever: The feed of a wounded Silent (shot by Canton Three in the orphanage then kept by the team) informing the world to ‘Kill us on sight’, though taken out of concept and placed right at the moment Mister Neil Armstrong places his foot upon the rocky surface of the moon—just genius! Although it leave the Silents in a rather angered state but also add to the thought that has the Doctor sealed his own fate in that presented from the last series? The Silents as we saw them in these two episodes are mere parasites, only able to erase themselves from the memory while leaving post-manipulative suggestions within the brain, happy like that, but now forced away from Earth by the message left, does that also force them to evolve? To gain the power to control the TARDIS and explode it, and send the entire universe into complete silence…?


Almost done now, and oh boy this has been a long’un, hasn’t it?! Never mind because we’re about to talk about River’s timeline! Now as has been suggested the Doctor and River are running in opposite directions (just—some episodes may not be directly previous from River’s last adventure with the same Doctor), meaning the Doctor’s ‘first’ is River’s ‘last’, being that the first time the Doctor met the River was the last time (Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead) so suggestively the first time River meets the Doctor will be the last time for him, SO by her kissing in ‘for the last time’ does that lead to the suggestion that their whole relationship is based on an almost-paradox? River’s flirted and of course kissed the Doctor BECAUSE she and he are obviously together in her point of view but aren’t by the Doctor’s—by her kissing the Doctor further suggest to him that it’s going to lead somewhere, but it might not have if she reduced the flirting and didn’t go about the kissing… with me or did I lose you at ‘opposite directions’?

Right! I think I’ve said enough; too much in fact, but a lot was done in 40 minutes of show time, including Amy possible-future child regenerating! But enough of that, time for the important stuff…

• The Time Team (Doctor, Amy and Rory) = 10/10 – Just ever so brilliant, need there be more said?
• River Song = 10/10 – Her plot thickens, doesn’t it?
• Canton Three = 10/10 – I love Mark Sheppard now, too much in fact!
• President Nixon = 10/10 – Nixon was just so brilliant and funny! And his last minute on screen, the expressions at Canton Three’s ‘outing’—brilliant!
• Plot = 10/10 – So many things left unanswered, but DEFINETLY satisfying!

Overall Rating: It’s another 10 out of 10! Now THAT’s what I call a good start!

Is anyone else looking forward to the next episode: The Curse of the Black Spot? Damn right you are! Ciao for now as they say… (Takes a long, satisfied, rest)