Doctor Who 6x02 Review

[iaria]

Day of the Moon

• The biggest question this episode left me with was – who the hell is the little girl? I was pretty sure before those last few moments that she was Amy and Rory’s child. The picture Amy found of her and a baby halfway through the episode seemed to confirm it. But then she regenerated and now I don’t know what to think. If she’s regenerating then she’s a time lord, right? So she can’t be Amy and Rory’s child. Amy brought up the possibility that her child could be different because of all her travel in space/time while pregnant but I’m very sceptical about that idea.

First it doesn’t make much sense because Amy hadn’t been travelling with the Doctor for four months at the start of the season and she couldn’t have been that much more pregnant since she wasn’t showing so it wasn’t like she really was travelling the entire time she was pregnant. Plus I just don’t love the idea that travelling in the TARDIS would change a pregnancy so much. I could maybe accept it as an explanation as the little girl’s greater strength depending on the explanation but as for regeneration I just can’t. I just don’t buy Amy and Rory having a child that can regenerate.

But if she isn’t Amy and Rory’s child – and if not then what is going on with Amy’s pregnancy? – who exactly is the child? Is she another time lord? How? Could it be Jenny? I could buy the child being the Doctor’s. But then who is the mother? Amy (I don’t like that) or River? Actually I could get behind the idea of the child being the Doctor and River’s. The show is apparently really going to go in an explicit sexual/romantic direction with them so that opens up the possibility of it happening. Going back to that line in TFotD where the Doctor says “the only way you could know my name...” perhaps the only time the Doctor can say his name is at the birth of his child, or something similar?

• The other big moment, for me, was the River/Doctor kiss. I guess I just wasn’t expecting them to be made canon so explicitly but it makes me really happy. It was a really long kiss at that. And he really wasn’t fighting it. I wish that we could get to see more of River’s timeline in comparison to the Doctor’s. I mean she spent the entire premiere in a mental place where she and the Doctor kiss all the time. That was kind of unexpected to me. The way she said “We haven’t” made me want to hug her. Oh, River. She looked so heartbroken when he revealed that it was his first kiss between them.

• “Oh, and this is my friend River. Nice hair, clever, has her own gun and unlike me she really doesn’t mind shooting people. I shouldn’t like that; kind of do a bit.” Of course the Doctor would mention her nice hair first, and would mention her being clever because he does so love clever people. I really love that he hates guns and killing people but he can’t help but find River shooting people hot. (It made me think of his complete non-reaction to Rose having a huge gun at the end of season 4. The Doctor can be kind of a hyprocrite.)

• “Is this really importing flirting because I feel like I should be higher on the list right now.” – Amy. Heh. That really amused me.

• I loved all the River/Doctor flirting in the last episode but their exchange just before the above line didn’t work for me as well. It started all right but then it just felt a bit forced and too much for me. On the other hand this exchange really did work for me:

“You’ve got a screwdriver! Go build a cabinet.”
“That’s really rude!”
“Shut up and drive!”

LOL. I loved her bumping him with her butt. I loved how he’s the one trying to help, and not being that great at it, and then being told to go away and drive. I also quite liked River immediately starting to help the Doctor to fly the TARDIS as soon as she got in. His “You could let me fly it!” and her response of “Yeah, or we could go where we’re supposed to.” felt very them. I also liked River’s “My old fella didn’t see that, did he? He gets ever so cross.” I thought with that they were getting pretty explicit with the River/Doctor relationship. I loved how competent she was. I loved her casually shooting the Silence behind her and her bland ‘archaeology’ answer to Rory’s incredulous wondering what kind of Doctor she was.

• The Rory/Amy B-plot this episode was kind of unexpected but I ended up loving it. I had thought with the wedding the uncertainly in their relationship was settled but on further thought I think this was really needed. Rory has always felt uncertain about his place in Amy’s heart, with reason, and it’s clear that’s still there. He needed to know that he truly was the one she chose. His expression when she said “Just get your stupid face out of here” was the most moving moment in the episode for me. He was just so shocked to realise that she had been talking about him, that she wanted him, not the Doctor, as much as he did her, that I wanted to hug him.

• “She can always hear me, Doctor. Always. Wherever she is she and she always knows that I am coming for her. Do you understand me? Always.” Oh, Rory. This was a beautiful moment. His devotion to Amy makes me love him (I have such a huge devotion kink). Her then calling for the Doctor was kind of painful but I loved that Rory’s reaction was to immediately promise to bring the Doctor to her and then he kissed the recording device. Oh, Rory. How is he so wonderful. I am so very glad that Amy did choose him, that she is devoted to him too.

• If the little girl does end up being Amy and Rory’s I hope there will be some way to remake time to take her back to being a baby because it makes me sad to think of Amy and Rory only finding their daughter when she’s nine or so. They would be terrific parents and that child probably had a horrible childhood.

• “You’re my best friend.” – Amy. Aw. Except that made me think of Donna who was Ten’s best friend and how much I loved them and then I was all sad for a moment.

• The whole ‘mark your body with lines when you see one’ turned out to be far more disturbing than I’d ever have thought it could be. The scene with Amy trapped in the dorm at the orphanage and slowly panicking as more lines appear on her, and then the reveal of all the aliens sleeping on the roof was terrifically creepy and suspenseful.

• Moffat reusing his ideas over and over doesn’t usually bother me. I find the ideas themselves very interesting and he writes them well. But when the Doctor said “You’re building me the perfect prison” I literally rolled my eyes and thought ‘we just did this’. That was a huge plot point in the season five finale so reusing it for the season six premiere was a bit much for me.

• I really liked that Rory listening in and overhearing the Doctor and Amy discussing her pregnancy was dealt with right then. He didn’t keep it a secret that he knew and there was no angst over it from any of them.

• I was amused with how Nixon was used. Specifically how the Doctor and gang kept grabbing him to use as a free pass to do what they needed to and the way he, awkwardly, went along with them. He sort of became this episodes dues ex machina that popped up to solve various problems while they dealt with the real issue. I liked it.

• I liked River diving off the building – Canton being all worried about it, the Doctor’s casual “don’t worry she does that” and then sending Amy and Rory to open the swimming pool doors and River diving into the pool all worked for me – and I really do like the way that River trusts the Doctor so much and expects him to always be there, and he always is, but realistically speaking it makes no sense. I mean she jumped off the building so presumably the other cops would expect her to land. The fact that she never landed at the bottom of the building but just disappeared probably should have caused at least some consternation! It would still work if the building was on the water’s edge but the building was completely land locked so in the end it just ended up bothering me.

• Another moment that didn’t make much sense was Amy finding the little girl’s bedroom and seeing her dresser top full of photos – of herself. And the one picture not of herself was of Amy with a baby (her?) and it was tucked in behind the other pictures. If that was the little girl’s room why did she have all those pictures of herself? Why would Amy’s picture be hidden away?