Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E01 The Impossible Astronaut: Difference between revisions

The message leads them all to Utah, where they meet up with the Doctor. Even more time has passed for him since Amy saw him last. He's nearly two hundred years older, and he talks merrily about the moon landing in 1969, stating that they're going to see it now.

The answer, to their shock and disbelief, is the Doctor himself -- buthimself—but a younger version, only slightly older than when he left Amy and Rory last series. And he's having milk shakes at the little cafe where they all met up earlier that day. After getting past their initial reaction of shock and anger (and after River slaps him in the face), they're able to convince him to travel to 1969. Although hesitant, the Doctor is willing to blindly trust Amy (but not River) after making sure she isn't being compelled or threatened somehow.

The Doctor is able to convince the President -- afterPresident—after some difficulties with the Secret Service -- thatService—that he is capable of solving the mystery. He realises that the child's "name", Jefferson Hamilton Adams, was actually answering the President's question "Where are you?". It's a little girl, and she's is at an intersection of streets each named after these of the founding fathers. (Two of which, the Doctor remarks, [[Ho Yay|fancied him]].)

Our heroes and Canton travel to the location that the Doctor deduced, finding strange alien technology there -- includingthere—including an astronaut suit. The Doctor realises that when the little girl said she was scared of a space man coming to "eat me", she probably meant the suit. River and Rory investigate an underground passage, unaware that it is full of the strange aliens which they keep seeing and forgetting. River tells Rory that she lives her whole life hoping to find the Doctor again, but that each time she sees him, he's younger and he recognises her less and less. One day, she says, [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E9S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|she'll look into his eyes and he won't know who she is]]. [[Tear Jerker|And her sheer grief might kill her.]]

They discover a weird, TARDIS-like vessel which [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E11 The Lodger|Amy and the Doctor might have recognised,]] but before they can discover anything about it, something unseen happens to Rory.

Next time: ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E2/E02 Day of the Moon|Day of the Moon]].''

=== Tropes ===

* [[Added Alliterative AppealAlliteration]]: "Rory the Roman."

** {{spoiler|Not so ambiguous any more, as the next episode shows.}}

* [[Call Back]]: In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzglkLEJFI "prequel"] there is a tape rolling while a child is talking creepily just like in [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S1 E9S27/E09 The Empty Child|"The Empty Child"]].

** The TARDIS "decloaking" effect recalls the TARDIS being pulled into the Capitol in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S14 E3/E03 The Deadly Assassin|"The Deadly Assassin"]].

** The Astronaut rises out of the lake like the Dalek rose out of the river in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S2 E2/E02 The Dalek Invasion of Earth|"The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]].

*** Or the way Ace rises out of the lake in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26 E1/E01 Battlefield|Battlefield]]".

** The Doctor's meeting on the lake with the Astronaut resembles the meeting with the Watcher on Tower Bridge in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S18 E7/E07 Logopolis|"Logopolis"]].

** Creepy astronaut that may not be an astronaut? Can we say [[Doctor Who/Recap/S7 E3/E03 The Ambassadors of Death|"The Ambassadors of Death"]]?

** Rory pokes the Doctor in disbelief and asks "How can you be here?" the same way the Doctor did to Rory in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E12 The Pandorica Opens|"The Pandorica Opens"]].

** The TARDIS has been invisible before, in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E3/E03 The Invasion|The Invasion]]".

** "Human beings. I thought I'd never be done saving you." A line straight out (tense-shifted) of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E04 The Time of Angels|The Time Of Angels]]".

** The above mentioned [[Badass Boast]] recalls a similar response by the Doctor in when [[Winston Churchill]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E03 Victory of the Daleks|threatened to take the TARDIS key by force]].

** The Doctor in the diner [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E1S29/E01 Smith and Jones|even brought his own straw]].

** [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E13 The Big Bang|The last time]] a future version of 11 died it was Rory who made sure the body was respected by draping his coat over him like a shroud. This time he makes sure to give him a [[Viking Funeral]].

** Funny that the Doctor doesn't like wine now; [[Doctor Who/Recap/S17 E2/E02 City of Death|he used to like red wine quite a bit]].

* [[Call Forward]]: River's talk with Rory towards the end of the episode perfectly predicts what happens when she meets the Doctor for [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E9S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|the final time.]]

** Apart from her fearing it more than death -- anddeath—and we know it's her death too. Kind of. In a reversed way. Only not really reversed.

* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Stormcage is starting to look like one -- thisone—this is the second time River breaks out. One wonders if she's only there because she wants to be.

** River and The (Tenth)Doctor had a similar bit of dialogue back in [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E8S30/E08 Silence in Thethe Library|Silence in The Library]]:

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Back in [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E17 E18 The End of Time|The End of Time]], the Doctor told Wilf that if he was killed before his regeneration could be completed, he would be fully dead. Over a year later (in our time), the astronaut {{spoiler|kills the Doctor before his regeneration is complete.}}

* [[Continuity Nod]]: When the companions tell the Doctor they're going to have to trust him and not ask who gave them the summons, he asks Amy to prove it by swearing on something that matters. Her choice? [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E01 The Eleventh Hour|"Fish-fingers and custard."]]

** Rory's nickname: [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E12 The Pandorica Opens|"Rory the]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E13 The Big Bang|Roman"]].

** [[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E3/E03 The Invasion|The Doctor is having trouble remembering exactly where he parked the cloaked TARDIS again...]]

*** It also sheds light on the Doctor's decision to give the Master a funeral pyre in "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 S29/E13 Last of the Time Lords|Last of the Time Lords]]".

** The [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E13 The Big Bang|fez]] in the [[Laurel and Hardy]] film.

** The Doctor's request for [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E03 Victory of the Daleks|"twelve Jammie Dodgers]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E13 The Big Bang|and a fez"]].

** Why did the Tenth Doctor burn the Master's body in ''[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 S29/E13 Last of the Time Lords|Last of the Time Lords]]''? Even dead, a Time Lord's body is a miracle...

** Although [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E7/E07 A Good Man Goes to War|a later episode]] suggests that it refers to {{spoiler|the TARDIS making her infant self cry.}}

* [[Harsher in Hindsight]] : River's shooting off the Doctor's hat seems like a funny bit, until you learn that [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 /E12 Closing Time|it was given to him by his mate]] in a rather sweet scene.

** {{spoiler|The Stetson lives! [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 /E13 The Wedding of River Song|Safe inside the Tesselecta...]] }}

** BBC America also made one other change to their version of the [[In Memoriam]] card. Rather than just the black slate, they added a shot from "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S2 E3S28/E03 School Reunion|School Reunion]]" of [[Elisabeth Sladen]] walking away from the camera, [[Tear Jerker|only to turn around and wave at the audience before the card faded to black.]]

* [[Like You Would Really Do It]]: Raise your hand if you think {{spoiler|the Doctor}} is going to stay dead.

** Ditto goes for Rory... who already has his name in the opening credits.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The scene in the bathroom, flipping between comedy and horror each time the woman turns her head. She asks {{spoiler|the Silent}} if he is wearing a ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' mask, and is then electrocuted.

* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]:

* [[Mythology Gag]]: "A lot more happens in 1969 than anyone remembers" may be a reference to [[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E7/E07 The War Games|the 1969 episode where Jamie and Zoe get their memories wiped]].

** Not to mention, this isn't the only Moffat episode set in 1969. Ten and Martha got stuck in that year in [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 S29/E10 Blink|"Blink"]], and Martha mentions that they went to see the moon landings four times.

* [[Nausea Fuel]]: An encounter with a member of {{spoiler|the Silence}} seems to elicit this reaction in people {{spoiler|after their memories have been wiped}}.

** The first minutes of the episode are filled with references to the [[Noodle Incident|Noodle Incidents]]s the {{spoiler|Future!}}Doctor gets into after seemingly dropping Amy and Rory off for a while.

* [[Not So Invincible After All]]: [[Word of God|Word of Moff]] has this trope as part of the reason behind {{spoiler|killing the Doctor. Regeneration is more like a saving throw than anything else: Time Lords can be killed (almost) as simply as humans, and the Doctor has only survived so long through [[Guile Hero|guile and wit]].}}<ref> Or hiding in the TARDIS, as a good 80% of his regenerations have taken place there.</ref>

* [[The Power of Trust]]: Subverted; when River tells the Doctor that he has to trust her not to reveal what's going on, he bluntly points out that, as much as he likes her, he knows barely anything about her -- andher—and what he ''does'' know suggests that she's a murderer, and has possibly murdered ''him'' at some point. She might be many things, but 'trustworthy' isn't exactly one of them. He is, however, willing to trust Amy.

* [[Shout-Out]]: {{spoiler|Joy asks the Silence in front of her whether it's "some kind of [[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]] thing".}}

** The [[Viking Funeral]] resembles Darth Vader's funeral at the end of ''[[Star Wars]] Episode VI: [[Return of the Jedi]]'', using the same shot, except with {{spoiler|the Doctor's face}} instead of Vader's helmet.

*** It also closely parallels the Master's funeral a couple of seasons ago.

* [[Tonight Someone Dies]]: It was rumoured that someone on the main cast would die. Amy? Rory? River? The Doct -- noDoct—no, wait, Matt Smith still has the rest of the season on his contract. {{spoiler|It's the Doctor. Specifically, one 200 years older than the usual one. Team TARDIS has to convince Current Doctor to try and save Future Doctor without Current Doctor knowing who he's saving or why.}} [[Timey-Wimey Ball|If you're confused]], blame Moffat.

** To elaborate: {{spoiler|the Doctor is [[Killed Off for Real|killed mid-regeneration]] by the Astronaut}}; the {{spoiler|[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E11 The Lodger|fake TARDIS]]}} returns, probably connected with {{spoiler|the Silence}}; and {{spoiler|Amy is ''pregnant''}}.