TV Review: Doctor Who, Episode 6.7 – “A Good Man Goes To War”

The Episode:

6.7 “A Good Man Goes To War”

After last week’s startling conclusion, we’re on a mission to rescue Amy and her newborn baby, Melody, from an asteroid base called Demon’s Run.  With the odds against him, the Doctor must bring together a host of old characters, including Vastra, Strax, Captain Avery and more to help put his plan into action.

Guy’s Take:

With this being the last Doctor Who episode before a three month hiatus, it needed to pack the wallop and scope of a season finale to ensure that fans weren’t left disgruntled.  And I’m glad to say that it more or less delivered.

Going into this episode, I wasn’t particularly hopeful.  It often feels very stagey whenever a number of the Doctor’s adversaries come together in a finale (as with last season’s “The Pandorica Opens”).  The trailer, featuring Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians, Judoon and ‘Rory the Roman’ reeked of a “let’s get the costumes out of storage, it’s that time of year again” attitude that makes shows like this feel smaller more than anything.  Thankfully, this time around, they’re generally put to good use and not just here to make up the numbers.

Thankfully, this time around, they’re generally put to good use and not just here to make up the numbers.

Protected by a unit of Cleric soldiers and the Order of the Headless Monks (pleasingly literal) who reside at the base, the Doctor spends the first twenty minutes of the episode off-screen, cashing-in debts and asking for favours amongst those who owe him their gratitude.  While he’s doing that, the show sets up Demon’s Run.  We spend time with a few of the soldiers there and hear them reverentially talking about the Doctor, trading myths and anticipating his arrival.  We also catch-up with Amy, who’s being held captive by Madame Kovarian (Eye-Patch Lady).  After telling Melody about Rory, she’s told to say goodbye to her daughter.  Seeing Amy talking so fondly about her husband is very satisfying – over the last season, the show has taken great care to build the relationship between these two and they’re now the heartbeat of the show.  Gillan is reliably great here.  She’s believably fraught without being annoying.  Not the easiest thing to pull off.

This is a sprawling story crammed into forty five frantic minutes and it’s probably more deserving of a two-parter than ‘the Flesh’ was.  Whilst this left some characters a tad cartoony (Fat One, Thin One, Kovarian), it also afforded the show a dizzying playfulness — Vastra and her lesbian lover Jenny, fighting crime in Victorian London, is as good a cut-away as this show has ever done (I would watch that show).  It’s worth pointing out that the Doctor-less first twenty minutes felt somewhat unengaging without Matt Smith front and center.  The on-screen content was fine, but Smith is lightning and the show felt a little directionless without his presence.

Whilst this left some characters a tad cartoony… it also afforded the show a dizzying playfulness.

Despite its messiness, this was an exhilarating episode, brimming with good ideas and clever developments.  Take for instance, the revelation that since “The Time of Angels”, the word ‘Doctor’ has come to mean ‘warrior’ – not amongst world destroying aliens, but ordinary people.  The Doctor has used his reputation to strike fear into his enemies on numerous occasions, and it’s oddly gratifying to see that this has come back to bite him.  His anger, when properly channelled, can make for compelling television and the scene in which the Doctor berates Colonel Manton, telling him that he wants him to be known as ‘Colonel Runaway’ for years to come, is fantastic.

Viewers had been promised a ‘game-changing’ twist in this episode and they sure got it.  River Song’s true identity is revealed to be Melody Pond.  Any fans who complain that they guessed this should quiet-down and realize that, as Moffat himself says, twists should be guessable.  What’s important here, is that this was a character-developing reveal – rather than pulling the rug out from under us, Moffat’s adding another emotional layer to this story.  He’s always been a strong, visual writer and the discovery of River’s identity was yet another fine example of this.

The question is: where do we go from here?  At the end of the episode, Amy is visibly shattered and appears to resent the Doctor for what has happened to her and Melody.  The Doctor claims that he knows how to find her baby, but I have to wonder whether Amy and Rory will want to continue adventuring through time and space, if and when they get her back.

End Credit:

If the big reveal doesn’t make you want to come back in September, maybe the title of the next instalment will: “Let’s Kill Hitler”.  There’s no way the episode will be able to live up to the greatness of that title.  See you next time, folks.

Rating: 7.7