I’m happy DW has gotten a new streaming home for the US, but nothing was said about new episodes (post-D+ stuff) or the older spin-offs like Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures. I’m a bit concerned, especially since we still know nothing about the Xmas special for this year! I can’t stand the crickets!

Hello people of Reddit, I am on a bit of a side quest to watch all of classic doctor who and rank them. I have previously ranked the Sixth Doctor Serials and now I am back with the 7th and 8th Doctor's Era (combining them because 8 has like 1.5 stories):

1. Curse of Fenric: What a fantastic episode. Everything from this episode was perfect, Sylvester and Fenric feels like they are always one step ahead of each other, the creepy and eerie setting, Ace finding out Fenric bringing her to the ice world and the Doctor new, Ace character development with her mother and finding out that baby is her mother was amazing, and that ending where the doctor had to break her faith in the Doctor to defeat Fenric is one of the cruelest things I have ever seen the doctor done.
2. Remembrance of the Daleks: I mean this is peak Sylvester manipulating and setting the game to trap the enemy. Throughout this story, McCoy is just doing things that I knew was going to head to something but I didn't know what. It was really cool seeing Coal Hill and Totter's Lane again, presumable right after episode 1. This is not even mentioning the Daleks, I feel they are more threatening then Revelation, which I never thought would happen. Also the Dalek civil war was pretty fun.
3. The Happiness Patrol: Creepy episode, the idea that you have to be happy or you will be arrested feels like if the episode Smile was mixed with 1984. The blues guy was cool, the Kandyman was both funny and gross looking, and Hellen A was genuinely one of the creepiest villains in classic who.
4. Survival: I am so sad that this was the last episode of classic who and this story was really good. I thought it was a bit goofy, that people were turning into cats at first but it ended up being pretty compelling.
5. Paradise Towers: I would put this episode along side the Macra Terror for one of the best Dystopian serial of Classic Who. You really feel like this society has eroded away and we are seeing how disconnected everything is, which lends itself to a really nice ending where everyone is united to fight Kroagnon
6. Silver Nemesis: While this isn't the best cybermen story ever and a bit of a mess of an serial, this was such a fun story. I like how three different groups converge to find the Nemesis, and the actors who played Lady Peinforte and Richard were really good
7. Ghost Light: I think that was good? I don't really understand it well. I tried watching a video explaining it but I don't really understand it.
8. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Gods of Ragnarok are pretty good villains, Cook was an asshole, I felt bad for Mags the whole time and the concept is really good. The thing that really makes this episode suffer is just my personal dislike for the circus.
9. Dragonfire: While the ending with the guy Indiana Jones style melting was cool, the story was ok. I think that Mel's character leaving with Glitz was a bad idea, the most baffling clifhanger in doctor who happens, and the 7th doctor just isn't at his strongest this episode. Ace was great however.
10. Battlefield: I always love seeing the Brigadier. Besides that, this serial was weird. The Arthurian elements were just strange. However, just because its weird doesn't mean I didn't enjoyed this serial, it was very much an ok story.
11. Time and the Rani: This was probably the most middle ground story of doctor who. There isn't really anything that I outwardly dislike about the serial, but there isn't really anything I find good. The Rani was fine, McCoy is not at his strongest compared to most stories, the Lakertyan's plot was ok, and the Bat people were more goofy than intimidating
12. Delta and the Bannerman: Besides Ray, I didn't really enjoy this episode. I am usually fine with campy episodes, but this was just too campy. The Bannerman were boring villains and the side characters were just not great.

8th Doctor Stories:

1. Doctor Who TV Movie: I really like the movie. Mcgann's doctor is infectious and he is the doctor that I think of as the doctor who deserves his own spin off series. It has one of the most gorgeous Tardis sets, while not the best Master story I enjoyed Eric Roberts portrayal of the Master, and the plot of trying to close the eye of harmony was fun. I also really like Grace, I thought she was a great companion and its the first time the Doctor is shown as a romantic hero.
2. Night of the Doctor: Really a half episode but what a great mini episode. I like how in less than 7 mins we really get to see how great the wilderness doctor is. The need to adapt and having your old self die in a firey crash during the time of war is such a beautiful concept.

The seventh doctor's stories were great, I really love how he feels menacing and mysterious to a level that you don't really feel with any other doctor's besides Eckelson. I also love Ace, she is such a fun character and the best character arc in Classic who. She feels like a Nuwho companion and her relationship with the doctor is excellent. The 8th doctor feels like a missed opportunity. I really like him but all I can think is that I want more. I know he is prevalent in audio's and I really like him in the ones I have heard however. Now at this moment I have watched every doctor who episode. This was meant for only classic who but do you guys want me to continue to Christopher Eckelson?

Though unfamiliar with many of the serials of Hartnell's time before the start of my recent journey, I was aware that a significant number of early stories were 'Historicals'. I did not have high hopes for these. I'm not entirely sure why, as I love history. I guess I just assumed that a familiar setting, especially without the production values to really elevate it, would feel mundane compared to the more creative sci-fi stories.

Anyway, with an Unearthly Child not on iPlayer, and Marco Polo currently lost, the Aztecs was the first story to test this suspicion. Turns out I was wrong, and the Aztecs is comfortably the best serial in the run to this point.

Part of this is the 4-episode nature of the serial meaning the pacing is naturally better the The Daleks, for example. But that's not all the story has going for it, by any means. The plot is simple but effective, and actually takes advantage of it's historical nature to comment on some sci-fi themes, i.e the dangers of messing with history.. The characters are fun - even though he's portrayed in almost a hammy way, I really enjoyed Tlotoxl as a villain. 'Villain' may not even be the correct word - antagonist would be more appropriate as, yes, he's conniving and nasty, and I'm not condoning human sacrifice, but the sacrifice element of his 'evil' is just a product of his culture, and as for trying to expose Barbara as a false god, well, he's not wrong!

The humorous aspects worked well too, with the Doctor inadvertently getting engaged: I laughed out loud at 'Yes, I made some Cocoa and got engaged'. Overall, it was great fun.

The negative I'll mention here isn't specifically a fault of The Aztecs, but it's this story when it became very apparent that Susan just really wasn't doing it as a character for me. One of the only Hartnell-era stories I'd seen before now was 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' where she leaves. Having seen that, and knowing that she was the Doctor's granddaughter, I'd always assumed that she was an important presence in the early stories and her departure was the shows loss. Sadly, this seems to not be the case. But I don't want this negative note to take away from how much I enjoyed this story!

Thoughts:

• I presume Aztec histories make mention of the legendary warrior 'Ian'? Seriously, this is where we fell in love with him - I know the show would probably rather people appreciate character for aspects other than combat prowess, but him repeatedly flooring the Aztec champion multiple times *whilst poisoned* was great.

Before I fully got into 5 I always heard that he was the kind, gentle Doctor as was common knowledge in the fan base

But the more I listened to his stories in big finish and watched the occasional stories this incarnation was reframed

The Fifth Doctor is less so kind and gentle, he wants to present himself as such but I see him as more a frustrated pushover. (not in a derogatory way mind you)

Why does the doctor even need to regenerate? We all saw him die and get revived over and over again in Heaven Sent without changing his face.

So lovely people, we all know each era is just as memorable and unique as the Doctor it features; those of you cutting deeper also know Big Finish productions are very minutious at remaking those eras in the audio format;

Can someone who's consumed DW from a tin can bigger on the inside help me figure out just what is it that makes the following eras unique?

• The Sylvester McCoy eras (all three of them - the goofy one, the Cartmel/ Aaronovitch one, the Wilderness VNA one with Bernice)

• The RTD1 era (this is tougher than I though; so far all I figured out was that there were even more 2000s London adventures in series 1 than the rest)

• The R2TD era (which as far as I gathered feels like RTD trying to reach Moffat-era spectacle, for better or worse)

I need all the technical writing features of these series, not just "Seven was manipulative" or "RTDoctor was going through trauma", I want style, themes, overaching plots, cinematography, how "deep" they cut into the times they were made (*The Happiness Patrol* is a clear cut example)

I want my stories to be entertaining, dark, thrilling, high-concept, heartfelt, "woke" in the best, most memorable of ways and, of course, rather silly and/ or frightening from time to time ^ ^

The rest of Classic Who, early BF with Gary Russel & Nicholas Briggs & Moffat era were much easier to crack than this, I've never seen such an incredible bunch, feels like the Time Lords are gonna exile me on Earth :/

...also, do you think "Ace of Spades" is a good title for a Tenth Doctor/ Ace reunion?

On this day, 20 May 2006, 20 Years ago, I was changing channels and stopped on BBC One for 'The Age of Steel', Part Two of the Cybermen's return to Doctor Who in Series 2. I hadn't a clue what was going on but something about this program was reeling me in.

It took a while before I'd cemented the Saturday night routine but no joke, the program changed my life for the better.

It helped me step outside my comfort zone, which isn't an easy thing to do when you're autistic, it gave me my two best friends, and it consistently inspired me creatively. (I've been writing my Big Finish Competition entries since 2020. Fingers crossed I catch lightning in a bottle one day.)

The true never-ending story is travelling in the TARDIS. I'm grateful to have spent so much time with The Time Lord. I have two hearts worth of love for Dear Doctor Who.

Hi! Some of you might know me as the writer of The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews, and this is a different post from me from my usual postings to this community.

I recently watched the fantastic The Robots of Death which, as a huge fan of murder mysteries, I absolutely loved. That alongside me finishing up my The Talons of Weng-Chiang review got me thinking of other Doctor Who stories that are murder mysteries, as the mystery genre is my all time favorite genre and I adore whenever Doctor Who decides to do this kind of story. I was hoping for recommendations for other Doctor Who stories that are murder mysteries since I was hoping to add more to my list to either review or just check out on my own time; primarily those involving The Doctor, since I love seeing them play detective in a story.

Note that it doesn't have to be a strictly be a whodunnit murder mystery, though those would of course be appreciated, any investigations into crimes and such by The Doctor would be appreciated. Like The Talons of Weng-Chiang isn't a strict murder mystery but it is still very much a detective story, and stories like that are more so along the lines of what I'm thinking alongside convential murder mysteries. Even stories tied somewhat to murder mysteries I'd be happy to see, as it's always fun to see it as a part of a story even if it isn't the main thing. Like The Power of the Daleks isn't primarily a murder mystery but it has those elements with the investigation into the death of the Earth Inspector which even more to my love for that story. I would love any recommendations or just shout outs to more obscure stories that one could give, I'm accepting whatever medium be it novels, audios, or comics, I'm looking to explore the EU so whatever medium is no problem for me; doesn't matter it their considered good or bad, I'd be interested in at least checking them out all the same.

I'm already familar with most of the mystery episodes from the main Doctor Who show, having been working through a watch through of the series. With stories like Black Orchid, Trial of a Timelord: Terror of the Vervoids, and The Unicorn and the Wasp being the main mystery stories following on from The Robots of Death. With there even being other detective stories which while not stirctly mystery I do consider counting as detective mystery stories like The End of the World, The Crimson Horror, and Deep Breath. What other stories would you consider detective stories?

Also familiar with the usual suspects of mystery audio like The Chimes of Midnight and Master, and was wondering what other good mystery stories, or ones you'd consider as such, are in audio outside of those main two. Would be happy to hear about any novel and comic mysteries as well since their two mediums I'm especially curious about getting into.

Thank you so much in advance to all of you who do comment. Murder Mysteries are my favorite genre, as I said, and I truly do love it whenever Doctor Who does one so any recommendations for these kinds of Who stories would be greatly appreciated.

From what I've heard, the franchise became even more popular in North America during the Smith era and the 50th Anniversary was the peak of the popularity.

Quality-wise, I haven't seen beyond Whittaker's first episode, which was solid, but considering the Moffat era dominated the 2010s with him being showrunner from 2010-2017, I find the idea that there was a decline in quality questionable.

Yes, Moffat's era had its high and lows, but so does every era. Are Series 6, 7, or 8 really that noticeable of a drop when the peak in quality people are referencing includes Series 2? I personally find Series 4 to be the only standout and 1-3 are mixed bags. 6-8 at least feel more tonally consistent. I watched Series 1's first three episodes and found them dated. Series 5 was what made me a fan and emboldened me to go through 1-4.

Many of the best episodes of RTD1 were written by Moffat. His era reduced the camp and soap opera and was more daring. Capaldi's run may have seen a ratings drop and Series 8 wasn't the best transition, but Series 9 and 10's quality cannot be understated.

The fact that she's so close to being an interesting character and then ends up just getting captured every episode is so frustrating. Any of the identity Peri has is due to the actress, Nicola Bryant, literally having to write her own character's personality and backstory because they never gave her anything. Much like Colin Baker, Nicola put all of her effort into a show that didn't care about her.

When talking about the material the show gave her, JNT saw the success of The Caves of Androzani and decided to make Peri suffer more than any other companion in the show up to this point. He explicitly stated that the only purpose of Peri was to be a sex object, and what we got ended up being toned down from his original vision (making her wear bikinis and leotards the whole time). Regardless, Nicola still ended up getting sexually harassed around the studio.

The 6th doctor's bold personality requires a companion with a personality that plays off of it. Say what you want about Mel but at least she has a consistent character that clashes well with the doctor in the form of being a bubbly optimistic inversion of him, and once the writers just fully embraced the screaming child idea it actually looped around and became entertaining. Peri and the 6th doctor are incompatible and this is one of the major reasons for the show's quality falling off a cliff as soon as The Twin Dilemma hits. Both characters are murdered as far as writing goes in 6's first story and they never recover. I actually don't hate where they were going in theory with their characters in that episode but if you don't have the writing skills to pull it off you get... well... that.

A few previous companions had good basic character arcs (e.g. Adric, Tegan), but the writing always left something to be desired. There was so much potential for something interesting with Peri, and none of the writers gave a shit. In the end, the show doesn't even bother trying to explain what happens to her. If you add in the Big Finish stuff I think there's like 5 different explanations.

At least the classic run of the show ended up getting a well-written companion at the very end.

Or /r/Gallifrey's NSQ-MMFPBTAA:TRQTDDTOTT for short. No more suggestions of things to be added? ;)

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I'm working on a YouTube video where I criticise the most recent series finale - The Reality War - and, in the hope of covering everything, I would love to hear from the Doctor Who fandom specific things you thought were bad in the episode. So, what didn't you like about 'The Reality War'? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I'm obviously gonna address the CGI Omega monster. I'd be really interested to hear less discussed points, especially anything concerning the Poppy storyline.

Hi There

So what’s the lore behind this version of the master?

2 different actors in 2 episodes of Classic Who which were The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken so did this master appear any Big Finish stuff besides the 2 episodes because Peter Pratt gave a good performance through that mask tbh and Geoffrey Beevers gave a good performance in not a favorite 4th era story tbh.

There’s couid be more I’m missing then their respective episodes but these set of incarnations of The Master is a bit of a blind spot for me as a Who Fan.

If you were to put some characters together, who would that be and why? And I do mean go full on „mashing action figures together” mode. Big Finish already exceeded my expectations with 6, Harry Sullivan and Jackie lmao

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here) and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant page here). Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Story Information

• Episode: Series 6, Episode 8
• Airdate: 27th August 2011
• Doctor: 11th
• Companions: Amy, Rory
• Other Notable Characters: Amelia Pond, River Song, Mels (Maya Glace-Green, Nina Toussaint-White)
• Writer: Steven Moffat
• Director: Richard Senior
• Showrunner: Steven Moffat

Review

Well she did kill me. Then she used her remaining lives to bring me back. As first dates go, I'd say that was mixed signals. – The Doctor, on River

So the last episode I reviewed was of an episode that's generally well-liked, and I gave it a fairly negative review. It's not my most negative review ever, but it does go against the grain somewhat. I think that, at the very least, I did a decent job of giving my case for why it didn't quite land for me. And even if I didn't, I certainly think it's a defensible position.

I'm going to have a lot more trouble defending my opinion on this episode.

"Let's Kill Hitler" is a weird-ass story. Maybe that's part of why I enjoy it, every choice that is being made here feels like it's the most counterintuitive one imaginable, and the fact that that works at all is kind of a wonder. But there's two really big flaws, flaws that, frankly, I can't really defend, and wouldn't even want to try.

The first is that, well, Nazi Germany is just kind of a weird backdrop within which to tell this particular story. There's not much in the way of thematic resonance between the actual plot of the episode and the horrors of Nazi Germany or the insidiousness of fascism. Sure you can maybe get tenuous links here and there – fascism as a form of brainwashing linking to the brainwashing of River, the Nazis as war criminals and River being described as such, a third thing that I'm sure someone smarter than me could think of, but the problem is is that none of that is substantive. I don't mind treating the Nazis with ridicule, as this episode ultimately does. But I don't think it's a setting that can be treated as frivolously as this episode does. There's no getting around it. Nazi Germany could be substituted for just about any setting and this episode would largely remain intact. And that's an issue.

And point number two is that, well, this episode is sexist. As with the last point, there's no getting around it. And look, as I always say, I don't want this to reflect on the writer. Steven Moffat seems like a decent person all told, and honestly a lot of his later work suggests to me a maturing on his views of women. But he was a sitcom writer, and, frankly, a lot of the "jokes" in this episode feel like lazy sitcom writing. The first thing that the woman has to do after regenerating is to weigh herself. The Doctor, explaining River's somewhat inconsistent behavior includes a legitimate explanation: she's been brainwashed, and then adds "plus she's a woman". When Amy, rightfully, gives him a look, he says "shut up I'm dying". Again, there's no defending this. It's easily the worst thing about this episode. The above point you can at least argue isn't that much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. This is just unbridled sexism.

So okay, we've mentioned those issues, but if you can look past that –

Okay, but should we?

This obviously isn't the first time I've covered a story with questionable politics. But I give the 1960s stories a pass because, honestly, they're pretty progressive for their time (seriously, compare how women are handled on Doctor Who in the 60s with the original Star Trek). The most obvious example of bigotry on Doctor Who is always going to be The Talons of Weng-Chiang but I just generally enjoyed that story more as it moved away from Li H'sen Chang over to Magnus Greel and stripped away the faux Chinese mysticism for some excellent worldbuilding, which made it easier to talk about. How do you deal with an episode you genuinely enjoyed but has these gigantic issues baked into even the stuff you liked?

Here's what I'll do. I'm going to try to make the case for "Let's Kill Hitler" being a good episode aside from its two big issues and then I'll come back to them at the end when I'm evaluating this episode as a whole. Is that a good approach? God I have no idea. But it's the best way for me to actually talk about the stuff I like in this episode without getting bogged down in its problems.

Which isn't to say we're done talking about problems. But for a while now, the problems are going to be a lot less…heavy. For instance, let's talk about this plot.

I'm not sure this plot makes sense. It's an ongoing problem with Series 6. Thing is, I'm also not sure that that matters. At least not taking this episode in isolation. I guess it's like the "Impossible Astronaut" two parter where the episode gets hurt by being part of a larger story that doesn't ever really come together. For the purposes of this episode though, we get to meet Amy and Rory's childhood friend Mels, who was constantly getting in trouble, with the Doctor's future companions generally coming to her aid, and being the responsible ones. Still, the three of them remained close, with Amy even naming her daughter Melody, after Mels.

So, obvious problem here, we've never met this character before. Honestly, this isn't something that bugs me too much, but Mels absolutely should have been integrated into Amy and Rory's lives from the beginning. Part of this is definitely a consequence of Steven Moffat putting less work into his companions than Russell T Davies used to, as they never had the recurring casts associated with them that past Revival-era companions tended to (see also: Amy's parents and everybody who attended Rory's stag party). However, even if this had been the case, Mels has the feeling of a character that was come up with very last minute.

Still, as I said, this never bugged me all that much. Since Series 5 never showed us that much of Amy and Rory's everyday lives, I can completely believe that they have a close friend we never met. Hell, I wouldn't have guessed that Mels wasn't actually at their wedding if the Doctor hadn't pointed it out, I would have just assumed that she was there and we never saw her on camera (apparently she's "not a wedding person"). And the montage of Mels growing up with Amy and Rory is undeniably charming.

It's especially charming with the context that Mels…is Melody Pond. This was an intentional decision by Moffat to try and diminish the sting of Rory and Amy not getting to raise their daughter. Because, as shown in the flashback they kind of did. And this actually works for me. It does raise some questions mind. Was Mels adopted by anyone? Given that we saw her regenerating at the end of "The Day of the Moon" in 1969, how did she end up growing up with the Millennial pair of Amy and Rory. And did Amy and Rory just end up taking care of Mels out of…I don't know…weird parental instinct towards someone they saw as a peer? You can come up with answers to these questions, but that's not really the audience's job, and it does cause issues. But I don't know, I kind of love this idea all the same. Hell, Mels helps her parents get together in a really cute scene (although I'd hardly describe it as Rory "dropping out of the sky" because that bit in "Impossible Astronaut" is completely nonsensical).

We actually get to Nazi Germany because Mels pulls a gun on the Doctor and decides she's gonna kill Hitler. That's not what ends up happening (can't change the past that much, fixed points in time and all that). Instead Hitler shoots her, which is where, as Mels puts it, the penny drops, as she regenerates into Alex Kingston. And I just love the shellshocked looks on Amy and Rory's faces as they put the pieces together. And try to ignore the sound of Adolf Hitler banging on the cupboard that Rory shoved him in.

Running in parallel to all of this is the story of the Tesselecta, a robot that can mimic people and is being piloted by a miniaturized staff. I love this thing. It's a really inventive idea, and the episode gets some good comedy out of the staff running around and trying to respond to situations without giving the game away. Their whole thing is traveling back in time, finding histories greatest monsters at the point they'll no longer have any effect on history and giving them a tortuous death. Which is why the "anti-body" robots inside the Tesselecta seem to have been programmed to give darkly humorous quips about how their victims "will experience a tingling sensation and then death" and the like. Naturally, Nazi Germany is fertile ground for victims to this group, although how they messed up their targeting of Hitler so badly that they arrived in 1938 is a question for another day. Anyway, when they realize that they've got River Song and she's somehow managed to assassinate the Doctor ahead of schedule, they readjust to targeting her.

Wait, what was that about River/Melody killing the Doctor?

Yup, it would seem that the conditioning that Kovarian's group gave baby Melody hasn't worn off as much as you'd hope, and she's determined to kill the Doctor. What follows is a very fun game of cat and mouse, as River pulls out a truly ridiculous number of guns, only to discover that the Doctor has removed the ammo from each of them. River, apparently having planned it this way all along, instead gets the Doctor with a poisoned kiss, before running off into the streets to find some clothes (okay, this part isn't sexism, it's pretty much what the Doctor does every other time they regenerate, although the Doctor fixates on stealing from hospitals for some reason. But yeah, looking for a new outfit is part and parcel of regenerating it would seem).

And yeah, all of this is very fun. "Fun" is perhaps not the word you'd expect to use to describe the followup to the very serious "A Good Man Goes to War", but it kind of works. Things do gradually get more serious, in spite of the Doctor's best efforts to go out joking, as slowly Melody Pond morphs into River. And it's simultaneously slow…and too quick. On one hand, Alex Kingston does a really good job demonstrating Melody growing more and more impressed by the Doctor and coming around to admire and even like him. But it just feels like the episode wants to have its cake and eat it too. We simultaneously want to understand that Melody's conditioning is so deep that she pretty much immediately tries to kill the Doctor upon meeting him, and yet the conditioning is apparently overwritten rather quickly and easily. But, in terms of episode time it plays out slowly. I think this is where the episode's light-hearted tone does allow it to get away with more than it would otherwise.

Eventually Melody pilots the TARDIS, having the information implanted in her because she's the "child of the TARDIS". You know what, fine. It might seem like a plot contrivance, but between what we know about Melody's birth and what we know about the TARDIS it works well enough. She's piloting the TARDIS to save her parents from the anti-bodies in the Tesselecta who have, inevitably, turned hostile (this one was Amy's fault actually). One final moment to have her realize that the "River" that the Doctor keeps talking about is, in fact, herself, and she uses up her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor from her poison.

So, obviously, River is at the center of this episode, as tends to happen with River Song stories, especially in Series 6. As, effectively, River's origin story, "Let's Kill Hitler" does okay. As mentioned above, it does feel like we rush a bit of her character development, but that's a natural consequence of cramming a lot of this stuff into a single episode. And Alex Kingston, as usual, nails her material. Hell, Nina Toussaint-White, who plays Mels, absolutely nails her material as well. You can completely believe that this is a past incarnation of River in retrospect. She has a similar troublemaking attitude, but is different enough to feel like her own character. It's a real shame that this episode is all we got of her. Imagine if someone had had the foresight to include this character in earlier episodes.

Really, what this episode is showing is the birth of the River Song persona. A character who will resort to more morally questionable actions than the Doctor but is still ultimately going to try and do what is best. Born out of the ashes of Melody Pond, the girl conditioned to kill the Doctor. At the end of the episode she's heading off to get her archaeology degree…so that she can find the Doctor again (yeah, we'll get back to that later). We also get to see River (or Melody) really treat Amy and Rory as her parents, something that in the past she's always kept close to her chest, which is kind of a fun twist on their existing relationship.

Amy and Rory, for their part, are really acting in concert throughout this episode. From the beginning where they're spelling out "Doctor" with a car and some crops, to working together to save their daughter from the Tesselecta crew these two have never presented a more unified front. Scenes of the pair as kids (including Ezekiel Wigglesworth being very cute as young Rory) are just kind of fun to see. They do also spend the entire episode kind of in a perpetual state of shell shock, which Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill portray wonderfully. To fully cement this episode's absurdity there's a bit where Rory first tricks a Nazi official (who turns out to be the Tesselecta in disguise) in to doing a Sieg Heil so Rory can punch him to steal his motorcycle, then when Amy asks if he can actually ride the thing he deadpans "I expect so. It's that sort of day".

But there are more serious moments. Amy is genuinely hurt to hear Melody describe herself as a "psychopath". In fact throughout the episode Rory and Amy are very concerned for their daughter's mental state. It's odd, they've met River enough to know she turns out okay, but it still makes sense that they're going to be worried. After all, "time can be rewritten" means that nothing is guaranteed. And it's distressing to see in the moment. Amy gets most of the shine in this regard, including some clever moments and eventually showing her daughter "River Song" to make the point, and fully complete the transformation. When River wakes up after giving her regenerations away, it's probably the most parental Amy and Rory will ever be towards her, and it's just kind of a sweet moment.

And then there's the Doctor. No character is riding between the serious elements of this episode that will tie into the series arc and the more comedic stuff more than him. And it's something he does intentionally. Once Mels regenerates and then poisons him, the Doctor has an odd moment inside the TARDIS where he tries to summon the strength to continue by talking to the TARDIS' voice interface. So on one hand it kind of undermines the tragedy of "The Doctor's Wife" if the Doctor can just talk to an avatar of the TARDIS like this. Sure it's just a voice interface and not nearly as personable as Idris was, but that still bugged me. But on the other hand this scene does continue us down our path of the 11th Doctor's self-hatred and self-pity. The voice interface initially appears as the 11th Doctor himself, to which the Doctor replies "give me someone I like". It then cycles through the main companions of the RTD era, but those just give the Doctor guilt. And that, to be fair, makes sense, after all, Rose was abandoned to an alternate universe (twice), Martha just generally got treated poorly by the Doctor not to mention her "year that never was" and Donna got her memory erased. It helps explain why the 11th Doctor in particular has this streak of self-hatred.

He eventually settles on someone he hasn't "screwed up yet" – young Amelia. This is interesting for a couple reasons. First of all, the idea that when seeing Amelia he can at least pretend that everything that happened to Amy afterwards never actually happened. And on the second point when he sees Amelia he says that it's her "before I got it all wrong". The Doctor feels like he's screwed things up with Amy. Is it the accidental waiting for 14 years? The near sabotage of her marriage? His failure to save baby Melody? What's weird is that Amy has actually ended up in a pretty decent spot all things considered. But the 11th Doctor always fixates on the negative consequences of his actions.

I suppose I should mention the episode does briefly stop for a whole bunch of arc stuff that won't really make sense down the line. The Doctor asks the Tesslecta database to tell him who wants him dead. What we get is a lot of vague hints that will just lead to more nonsense in the future. It doesn't impact this episode quite as much as it did the opening two parter, but I still can't watch these scenes without being reminded of just how disappointing these answers are going to be.

And okay, good. We've gotten through the easy part. So far what we've described is a fun episode that maybe doesn't quite live up to what it needed to be, but that was the risk in following up "A Good Man Goes to War" with something so lighthearted. Let's get back to the other stuff.

Starting with Nazi Germany again, there's moments where this is working for me. Shoving Hitler in a closet is quite funny. And more seriously, the way the Doctor reacts to seeing Hitler really lands for me. He sort of freezes up for a second and his tone of voice suggests he's trying to keep himself calm. Good stuff. But then, other than a fun line from River (which sadly contains a slur for Romani people, though I'm sure this was a case of ignorance), there's nothing else that really uses the time period to any effect. And I'd argue that any historical that could be set in any time period is inherently flawed. But this especially goes for a setting like Nazi Germany. That's just a moment in time that does mean more than most others.

As for the sexism, there's not much more to say that I didn't say up above. I guess I should address River only becoming an archaeologist to find the Doctor. It's far from the worst thing in the episode, but it does still feel uncomfortable. Like, why not let a woman become an academic for her own reasons, why does it have to be about "a good man"? This is something that is just done with women way more than it's done with men and it's frustrating. Beyond that though, it's kind of shocking just how sexist this episode gets sometimes.

So what do these elements do to our really fun if slightly flawed episode? Well, they don't quite sink it, at least for me. But they do taint it a lot. I wish I could enjoy this episode more, because at its best it seems like a good time. But then the Doctor makes an offhanded sexist remark and I just don't know what to do with that. This episode's biggest flaws are just too big to ignore. I guess you can shove Hitler in a cupboard for a while but he's still going to be Hitler at the end of the day.

Score: 6/10

Yikes, is that really how I'm ending the review? I mean I guess it's a decent analogy but ^(it definitely feels like it's pushing the borders. Which is sort of the point but…)

Stray Observations

• Around the time that this episode aired, the fourth series of Torchwood, subtitled Miracle Day was airing. That series featured a world-wide situation where nobody could die anymore. As far as I, or anyone else, can tell, the Ponds at the very least lived through this situation and it's possible that "Let's Kill Hitler" takes place before it's resolved. In either case, feels like a big thing to just…not get talked about at any point.
• The cast seem to have enjoyed this one. Before it aired (which in fairness, could just be publicity talk), Matt Smith said it was "maybe my favorite episode to date". Arthur Darvill enjoyed that Rory got to be more of an action hero.
• This was the last thing that Caitlin Blackwood shot for Doctor Who, though later episode "The God Complex" was shot earlier, which Blackwood also cameoed in.
• The Anti-Bodies were originally written as humanoid robots. This was changed because it too much resembled the Hand-Bots, from later episode "The Girl Who Waited".
• Steven Moffat intentionally decided that Adolf Hitler should be written as a comical and belittled figure, citing inspiration from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
• Among those who auditioned for the part of Mels was an actor by the name of Jenna Louise-Coleman…who we will of course be hearing more from soon.
• Outfit change! Yeah, the Doctor has now replaced his tweed jacket with a longer pea-green coat. On one hand I do like a long coat and it does suit the darker turn the show started taking in Series 6. On the other hand, there was something special about the tweed. I think the fact that, while standing out, it also made the Doctor feel a bit comical, the kind of person you wouldn't necessarily take seriously, really worked for the 11th Doctor.
• The Doctor lies, claiming that the TARDIS exists in a State of Temporal Grace to prevent Mels from shooting it. The State of Temporal Grace as a concept was introduced in The Hand of Fear and seemed to be working then, though by Arc of Infinity it had stopped working.
• Weirdly, Mels seems to have had a catch phrase of "penny in the air…penny drops". We only see her use it twice, but it's odd to think that use of catchphrases across a single incarnation is something common to regenerating individuals.
• One of the Tesselecta operators mentions that "time can be rewritten", specifically referencing something to do with "Kennedy". Did…these people somehow cause Kennedy's assassination?
• The still images of Rose, Martha, and Donna were sourced from promotional materials from Series 3 and 4.
• The Doctor suggests getting out of his poisoning by regenerating, to which the TARDIS voice interface replies "regeneration disabled". So I'm sure at the time that line was meant to suggest that said poison had done that, but in retrospect, he couldn't regenerate because he was at the end of his regeneration cycle. Although I would assume that the poison in question was chosen because it could prevent regeneration, seems like the sort of thing you'd do when trying to kill a Time Lord, and it's not like River or her masters would have known about the War Doctor at that time.
• River suggests she might lower her apparent age over time, just to "freak people out". Of course this is used to explain why River does seem to be getting older as we get earlier in her timeline. Now the idea that Time Lords (or similar beings like River) can do this has its own set of implications, but it's a funny line regardless.
• This might be just me, but the Doctor's line about River at the end of the episode in response to "she'll be fine", "no she won't, she'll be amazing" reminds me a lot of the 4th Doctor's line about Romana after leaving her in E-Space at the end of Warriors' Gate: "Alright, she'll be superb". It feels appropriate, given that Romana and River are somewhat similar characters.
• While never stated on screen, the name of River's professor at the end of the episode is Professor Candy. That's a character Steven Moffat created for his very first Doctor Who work, a short story for Virgin Publishing's third Decalog anthology series. Appropriately that short story featured Bernice Summerfield, a character with even more similarities to River.

Next Time: Boy the 11th Doctor sure does run into a lot of children

In the 70s Victor Pemberton wrote a story for doctor who called: The Slide, that never got made, it inspired the Fury from the Deep. However, he would go on to adapt the story for a 7 part BBC audio play starring Roger Delgado. this story feels so insanely like a Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story and I highly recommend listening to it.

Not only is Roger Delgado in this but also Maurice Denham (the voice of the animals in the original animal farm) and Miriam Margolyes.

Let's be honest, the companions of the last few years haven't been greatly served. Gone are the days when the Doctor's friends had rich backstories or ongoing character arcs or complex relationships. Instead we ended the most recent series with a companion having their entire character retconned in their last episode. Fun!

So let's compare two of the worst offenders.

Yaz: Poor Yaz. The fact that she is one of the longest serving companions is perhaps itself a damning indictment of how little character time she's given across her four years on the show. She starts off with a lot of promise: a fledgling police officer, perhaps a little green and naive, suddenly thrown into an unpredictable and uncompromising world. But after her first episode things start heading downhill.

For much of her first series she's...there, certainly. Mostly reminding people that she's a police officer and that she's from Sheffield, just like normal humans do. She's a little drowned out by the Graham and Ryan storyline (even in Demons of the Punjab which by all accounts should be her episode) and is mainly just there to fill the default 'But what's that Doctor?' role. By the second series she's starting to be defined as the 'Doctor diehard', putting unrelenting faith in the Doctor no matter what, and even making some weird shrine thing for her in Revolution of the Daleks. She's still not really getting much to do, and the one bit of backstory and character work we do get in Can You Hear Me? is almost instantly forgotten about.

Then we get to Flux and Yaz gets the pleasure of playing second fiddle to yet another white middle-aged man. To be fair, there is work to make her into more of the 'Doctor-lite' self-assured companion in a Clara-esque way, but it all starts feeling a bit too little too late. Speaking of which, she then declares her love for the Doctor and then she's gone. (BTW I will never subscribe to the theory that the breadcrumbs of the romance we're being laid from the beginning. It was a last-minute decision to play into fan theories in an attempt to get an easy win - I refuse to believe otherwise).

Belinda: Poor Belinda. I remember after the first episode a lot of fans were in love with her and rightly so. She presented as intelligent, strong, and not willing to put up with any of the Doctor's schtick. She was the first companion in a very long time that wasn't travelling in the TARDIS 'by choice' and it felt refreshing, for the first couple of episodes, to have someone literally begging to go home because this wasn't for them. And then somewhere around episode three something weird happens. Blame it on the reduced episode count, blame it on RTD not giving other writers enough character info, blame it on whatever the hell was generally going on behind the scenes, but the interesting, layered character from episode one seemingly dissolves and kind of leaves...nothing.

This is nothing against Varada Sethu who I think does a whole lot with very little, but suddenly Belinda just gets to stand there for most episodes. And even worse than that, in The Interstellar Song Contest (Happy anniversary, by the way) the character who formerly chastised the Doctor for scanning her without her permission happily embraces and comforts him after he just tortured someone. And then we get The Reality War, and if you needed any more of a reminder that nothing about Belinda or her story mattered, everything about her is rewritten and she's now 'A Mum'. The imagery of her literally being placed in a sealed box for almost an entire episode is just some beautiful irony.

But which is more egregious? And when did showrunners forget how to create compelling companions?