cy-pedant wrote:
It's been two days and no-one's commented on the new episode? Huh.
All in all it was okay, aside from the generic situation (though at least they acknowledged it as such), but I felt they covered too much in one episode, what with Revealing Megs' identity, bringing in River, having her assassinate the Doctor, then turn good all in one episode. I just feel it would have flowed better had they split these events up over several episodes (e.g. have Megs accompany them on a couple of adventures before dying, though that could be a little out of character, or have River chasing after them for a few episodes before successfully 'killing' the Doctor). Still, there were some fantastic bits about it ("Shut up, Hitler, and get in the cupboard"; the scenes with the guns with them 'outsmarting' each other; the sonic cane and suit (no "Top hats are cool" though...)) so overall a good episode. Those antibodies looked ridiculous though.
I have a few qualms with the continuity of the episode's events, mostly because in a prior episode River explicitly said that "The Tenth wasn't her Doctor" but has never REALLY made it feel like The Eleventh was aside from a single facebattle. Other than that, it was only playful flirting and nothing more.
Also,
Mels was ridiculously obvious, but there was one incredible flaw in that idea. She said blatantly "last time I did this I wound up a toddler in the middle of New York." while also saying "It took me ages to find you." in regards to finding Amy/Rory. So... between her little girl regen that died at the end of Day Of The Moon and the toddler in NY, she was able to locate Amy/Rory, and insert herself into their lives as kids? Would Amy/Rory not ever question or try to find her "parents" after being punished so much? Wouldn't the school system she was in need a legal guardian to enroll her there in the first place or need a legal guardian to speak to after being in detention or imprisoned? Not to mention, when Amy told The Doctor River's name was "Melody Pond" for the first time after her rescue in "A Good Man Goes To War", it would be a common thing to say "We named her after our best friend Mels growing up." when the Doctor looked confused as to why they named her Melody.
A lot of common sense mistakes like that kind of made me slowly dislike the River Song character. She's been far too over-exposed now and has lost any and all meaning to me. I hope with the Doctor's sentiments of "no, we can't ever look for her. We have too much foreknowledge and that's too dangerous to her at this point in her timeline" that we don't get any more River Song until at least two Series from now when everyone forgets her, maybe skip her entirely next Series and save her for a big return in the 50th Anniversary Series.
Also one other small annoyance to me was the Hitler being put into the cupboard thing. This man is a genius in his own right, not morally correct, but a genius. You're telling me during the 5 or 10 minutes of the Doctor/Melody back and forth of the gun switching this man couldn't find a way to bust down a freaking flimsy wooden door of a cupboard? A man known for his rage over defiance?