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savvyliterateSo, I finally saw "Let's Kill Hitler" with one of my co-workers, who came over so we could partake of the episode. Because I missed doing the DVR recording of the BBC America, I bought it off iTunes and tried streaming it to the PS3. I'd been using Nullriver's Medialink for doing other files, but it was the first with one of the iTunes shows. Haha, turns out that it doesn't support the Apple DRM files. Wish I'd figured that out before I paid for the license, but I use it for enough other shows that it was worth the $20.
In the end, despite having two legal means of "Let's Kill Hitler" at my fingertips, I wound up downloading the episode from somewhere else after all so I could stream it to the TV. Technology FTW.
And now I just checked the DVR and saw that it recorded after all. FAIL. *headdesk*
I've noticed a variety of reactions ranging from "ZOMG, Moffat" to "ZOMGWTF, Moffat" to "Noooooo! My ship!"
Personally, I thought the episode was brilliant. Yeah, I realized there's some major plotholes and River's personality change really threw a lot of people, but I'll give her this one. This is the early, early days of River, before she became the BAMF we're all familiar with. But, she was still a BAMF, and for once, it was worth it to see the Doctor know more than River and do such a terrible job at keeping spoilers from her. I know there's a good many people upset that it looks like River is doing what she does because of the Doctor, but the reverse is also true - the Doctor is doing what he's doing because of River. It's one big loop that's feeding into each other. The Doctor is using "spoilers" and such because River was the first to use those with him.
The other thing about River being obsessed about weight, her size, etc., isn't a slam to women either. It was River getting out of the room so she could apply the poison lip gloss that she later used on the Doctor. Plus, the Doctor does this all the time. Look at Ten and Eleven. Heck, look at Romana. She kept changing her appearance when she regenerated on purpose. That entire tango between River and the Doctor was just hilarious from the beginning to where they revealed their "hattricks." And River kept kissing the Doctor, and he didn't blink an eye. No flailing, no blushing, and I think he rather enjoyed them, even though one of them killed him. There was that one scene where River grinded against the Doctor against the desk, when she kept flirting with him, he wound up covering his lap and looking away. Heee ... That was hilarious.
It was sad, but plausible that River used her remaining regenerations to bring the Doctor back. Even though we knew that the Doctor (and River too) could be killed permanently in "Forest of the Dead," this effectively ruled out any retconning of that episode. Plus, from what we can tell, River is apparently the third or fourth regeneration of Melody Pond. Maybe more. We don't know how long Melody actually lived before "growing up" with Rory and Amy in the 90s. Also, it rules out that device for saving the Doctor from the events of "The Impossible Astronaut."
And, I still think River will get a lifetime with the Doctor, heck, multiple lifetimes to us. Time Lords age pretty darn slowly, after all the First Doctor was what ... 600-something when he regenerated? Although we know the actress playing River is in her late 40s (and Alex Kingston was just all sorts of incredible awesome), the newly regenerated River is the human equivalent of Amy's age. There's still plenty of time and adventures for River, both with and without the Doctor. And even though the desire to know more about the Doctor drove River toward archaeology, she's doing it for herself more than anything. She could have chosen anything to try and find out more about the Doctor (I wonder if UNIT was still around in the 52nd century), but I think she chose this particular subject for herself more than anything.
There's still a lot of questions that remain to be answered, and they will be over the next few weeks. But, River is still awesome, Mels was awesome and Doctor/River is still amazing even when the scales are tipped.
I think the only thing off to me was how easily Amy and Rory allowed River/Melody/Mels to come swooping in and out of their lives and back again. I think a lot of it is that for them, the pregnancy happened so fast that they really didn't have the time to make that emotional connection that would bring out the fierce fighting instincts. I think that's going to be revisited later in the series. Rory was awesome as always, and I loved the scene where Amy accused Rory of being gay when it's obvious Rory had a huge crush on Amy. The look Rory gave Amy reminded me very much of the one Gourry gives Lina when she kept denying he was anything more than a bodyguard to her in Evolution-R. Actually, that entire scene could easily be Lina/Gourry.
Folks kept asking why hadn't we seen Mels before, but there's also two versions of Amy's childhood now - pre-Big Bang and post-Big Bang. This one looks to be the post-Big Bang version. It works for me as a prologue to all of this.
The other scene that I found odd that I haven't seen anyone comment on is when the Doctor is going through the voice system in the TARDIS and it cycles through Rose, Martha, and Donna. It's so sad how the Doctor has so much guilt over what happened with them, and also with Amy as he addresses younger Amelia. However, while sad, it's not the emo angst that we've come to associate with the Tenth Doctor. It's a huge part of the reason while even though I was introduced to the series with the Tenth Doctor, I think the Eleventh Doctor is quickly becoming my Doctor.
And the big unanswered question of the episode ... so, how long was Hitler in the cupboard anyhow?
In the end, despite having two legal means of "Let's Kill Hitler" at my fingertips, I wound up downloading the episode from somewhere else after all so I could stream it to the TV. Technology FTW.
And now I just checked the DVR and saw that it recorded after all. FAIL. *headdesk*
I've noticed a variety of reactions ranging from "ZOMG, Moffat" to "ZOMGWTF, Moffat" to "Noooooo! My ship!"
Personally, I thought the episode was brilliant. Yeah, I realized there's some major plotholes and River's personality change really threw a lot of people, but I'll give her this one. This is the early, early days of River, before she became the BAMF we're all familiar with. But, she was still a BAMF, and for once, it was worth it to see the Doctor know more than River and do such a terrible job at keeping spoilers from her. I know there's a good many people upset that it looks like River is doing what she does because of the Doctor, but the reverse is also true - the Doctor is doing what he's doing because of River. It's one big loop that's feeding into each other. The Doctor is using "spoilers" and such because River was the first to use those with him.
The other thing about River being obsessed about weight, her size, etc., isn't a slam to women either. It was River getting out of the room so she could apply the poison lip gloss that she later used on the Doctor. Plus, the Doctor does this all the time. Look at Ten and Eleven. Heck, look at Romana. She kept changing her appearance when she regenerated on purpose. That entire tango between River and the Doctor was just hilarious from the beginning to where they revealed their "hattricks." And River kept kissing the Doctor, and he didn't blink an eye. No flailing, no blushing, and I think he rather enjoyed them, even though one of them killed him. There was that one scene where River grinded against the Doctor against the desk, when she kept flirting with him, he wound up covering his lap and looking away. Heee ... That was hilarious.
It was sad, but plausible that River used her remaining regenerations to bring the Doctor back. Even though we knew that the Doctor (and River too) could be killed permanently in "Forest of the Dead," this effectively ruled out any retconning of that episode. Plus, from what we can tell, River is apparently the third or fourth regeneration of Melody Pond. Maybe more. We don't know how long Melody actually lived before "growing up" with Rory and Amy in the 90s. Also, it rules out that device for saving the Doctor from the events of "The Impossible Astronaut."
And, I still think River will get a lifetime with the Doctor, heck, multiple lifetimes to us. Time Lords age pretty darn slowly, after all the First Doctor was what ... 600-something when he regenerated? Although we know the actress playing River is in her late 40s (and Alex Kingston was just all sorts of incredible awesome), the newly regenerated River is the human equivalent of Amy's age. There's still plenty of time and adventures for River, both with and without the Doctor. And even though the desire to know more about the Doctor drove River toward archaeology, she's doing it for herself more than anything. She could have chosen anything to try and find out more about the Doctor (I wonder if UNIT was still around in the 52nd century), but I think she chose this particular subject for herself more than anything.
There's still a lot of questions that remain to be answered, and they will be over the next few weeks. But, River is still awesome, Mels was awesome and Doctor/River is still amazing even when the scales are tipped.
I think the only thing off to me was how easily Amy and Rory allowed River/Melody/Mels to come swooping in and out of their lives and back again. I think a lot of it is that for them, the pregnancy happened so fast that they really didn't have the time to make that emotional connection that would bring out the fierce fighting instincts. I think that's going to be revisited later in the series. Rory was awesome as always, and I loved the scene where Amy accused Rory of being gay when it's obvious Rory had a huge crush on Amy. The look Rory gave Amy reminded me very much of the one Gourry gives Lina when she kept denying he was anything more than a bodyguard to her in Evolution-R. Actually, that entire scene could easily be Lina/Gourry.
Folks kept asking why hadn't we seen Mels before, but there's also two versions of Amy's childhood now - pre-Big Bang and post-Big Bang. This one looks to be the post-Big Bang version. It works for me as a prologue to all of this.
The other scene that I found odd that I haven't seen anyone comment on is when the Doctor is going through the voice system in the TARDIS and it cycles through Rose, Martha, and Donna. It's so sad how the Doctor has so much guilt over what happened with them, and also with Amy as he addresses younger Amelia. However, while sad, it's not the emo angst that we've come to associate with the Tenth Doctor. It's a huge part of the reason while even though I was introduced to the series with the Tenth Doctor, I think the Eleventh Doctor is quickly becoming my Doctor.
And the big unanswered question of the episode ... so, how long was Hitler in the cupboard anyhow?