Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E02 Day of the Moon: Difference between revisions

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Amy is running desperately across a stark red valley, a pen dangling from her neck on a chain and black marks covering her whole body. She's in the Valley of the Gods, Utah. Behind Amy are three black cars. She desperately tries to outrun them, but when she comes to a relatively minor slope, she's forced to stop. Canton Everett Delaware III comes out of the car, carrying a body bag. Amy pleads with him not to kill her. Can he even remember why he's doing this? Can't he remember the night at the warehouse?

 

 

Location: Area 51. In the center of a hanger sits a chained man, bearded and surrounded by black bricks. The Doctor. He's approached by Canton, who drops a photo of Amy before him. He says her whole body was covered in marks, and would he mind explaining why? The Doctor asks Canton to ask her himself, and the agent just looks at him darkly. For a moment, a flicker of sadness passes the Time Lord's face, but he seems far too preoccupied in investigating the bricks. They're encasing him in dwarf star alloy, the strongest material in the universe. The perfect prison. [[Badass Boast|"But it still won't be enough!]]"

Canton comes bursting in with armed agents, guns drawn, asking her to surrender. She babbles about how they're everywhere, across the whole country. The FBI agent replies sarcastically: of course, invisible aliens are invading America. But River knows it's worse than that. They've been here a long time, and America is occupied. It doesn't matter, of course, because Delaware has cornered her at last, and there's no way to escape. River just smiles knowingly at Canton, backs up, and drops gracefully out of a window, falling to her death.

 

 

Location: Area 51. The black prison around the Doctor is nearly complete. Canton pulls in the body bags containing Amy and Rory's dead bodies and takes the time to goad and lecture the Doctor. His friends are captured and dead, River ran off the 50th floor of a building, and he is encased in the densest material in the known universe. Behind him, the door to the prison shuts. It's completely sound proof. "So I guess they won't be able to hear us."

The Doctor and Canton smile at each other. The Doctor slips out of his chains, and Amy and Rory claw their ways out of the body bags. The Doctor leans on an invisible shape, snaps his finger, and the interior of the TARDIS bursts into view. They're all quickly ushered into the vehicle, but Canton still has questions: what about River, who dived off a building?

 

 

He lands the TARDIS sideways on the building, telling Rory and Amy to open the doors to the swimming pool. River gracefully falls down, dropping through the ship's doors with a splash. A few minutes later, the group reassemble on the TARDIS bridge, and they begin to collect information. Does the Doctor have a plan? He does indeed, and the TARDIS lands before Cape Canaveral, the rocket proudly filling the horizon. River is dubious. Apollo 11 is his plan?

 

 

We see a car driving through the rain as it pulls up at an old abandoned looking house. Inside are Canton and Amy, who check their bodies all over for markings, which they use to keep track of their amnesia-inducing {{spoiler|Silence}} sightings. With their skin clear, Amy exits the car, with Canton taking a moment to glance down at his hand.

Flashback to the TARDIS, where Canton's hand is stung by one of the Doctor's devices. He's dancing around, stinging everyone, much to their protest. He explains that it's a recorder, linked right to your brain so it will always pick up your words. You can activate it and record whatever you see when a {{spoiler|Silent}} appears; your palm will blink red if you've left a message. Impressed, Canton straightens the Doctor's bow tie. Everyone stares at him. Canton sees that his hand blinks red.

 

 

He drops Amy and Canton off to try to find where the unknown little girl was taken from, while the rest of them go off to NASA. At the orphanage, they discover that the place looks more and more like it belongs in a horror movie. The man running the place is confused and distracted, and doesn't even seem to know what year it is. On the wall, large red messages are scrawled; "LEAVE ME ALONE" and "GET OUT". Canton goes to talk with the man, while Amy begins investigating, briefly calling the Doctor (who's broken into Apollo 11) to say they think they've found the place. She wanders into an old dorm room where empty beds line the wall. The door closes behind her with a ''thud''. She turns around quickly, desperately trying to open the door, which is locked. Then she notices that her palm is glowing red.

Amy runs up to it, just as the see hole closes. She opens the door, but finds nothing but an empty child's room on the other side. Furthermore, there's nothing on the door but smooth wood. Perturbed, she wanders around. The desk is lined with photographs of a little girl, from every age from baby to toddler to six year old. And a picture of Amy. Amy, holding a newborn baby.

 

 

At NASA, the Doctor had been captured for breaking into Apollo 11, fiddling with the wiring and basically breaking the law. He claims that he's on a mission from the president, but his captors aren't exactly believing him. Until Nixon walks into the room, River and Rory at his sides. He congratulates the men for their good work and dedication to America, and says what fine work the Doctor is doing, even if he is confused by what exactly he's doing. The Doctor is set free, and cheerfully leaves. [[Adorkable|Oh, and Rory manages to break a scale model of the lunar module and can't feign an American accent.]]

Canton is in a office, asking the forgetful orphanage man questions. He barely seems to know why he's here. He knows that he must take care of the girl, because "that's important. Yes." He talks to someone through a crack in the door, but when Canton asks who, the man has forgotten what just happened. A {{spoiler|Silent}} comes in, and Canton subtly turns on the recorder in his hand, and begins asking the creature questions. How long have they been here? Do they have weapons?

 

 

Canton hears Amy scream in the background, and decides that Americans ''do'' need weapons. He shoots the {{spoiler|Silent}} and runs after Amy. He hears her screaming behind the door, and is about to break it down, before the Doctor appears and opens it with the sonic screwdriver. They burst through, but find Amy nowhere in sight, although her screams fill the whole room. The astronaut's spacesuit lies on the ground, ripped open. On the ground, a little red light beeps. They pulled the chip out of the hand, and the feed is still going live; they can hear her screaming and pleading as it happens. Rory vows that he will save her, and that she knows he will, because Amy should always know.

 

 

Rory shakes his head, pain etched on his face.

On the television, Neil Armstrong steps out. The Doctor calls Canton, who connects Amy's phone to a device. On the screen appears the film of the captured {{spoiler|Silent}}: "You should kill us all on sight!" It's repeated and repeated, while across the world everyone sees the clip, promptly forgetting it. But the suggestion remains. Everyone has been ordered by post-hypnotic suggestion to kill any {{spoiler|Silenc}}e they see. {{spoiler|The Silence}} signed their own death warrant.

 

 

 

Once in the TARDIS, Amy tells Rory that he's a moron: of course it's him she loves. He challenges her about the "dropped out of the sky" line, and she tells him she was talking metaphorically.

They drop River off at the Stormcage prison, and she and the Doctor flirt some more. Finally, River pulls him in for a kiss. He reciprocates after a moment, looking rather flustered and confused, and extremely undecided on where to put his hands. (He settles on hiding them behind his back.) River says he's acting like they've never done that before. [[First Kiss|"We haven't,"]] he replies. As the Doctor backs away in the TARDIS, he says there's a first time for everything. The ship dematerializes, and River simply looks mournful. [[Last Kiss|"And a last."]]

 

 

"Oi, stupid face." Rory looks surprised, and comes out of hiding. Turns out they knew he was listening, and he really shouldn't spy on them. Rory accepts that, but come on, he's a nurse. He's ''good'' with pregnancies. Glad that they're all settled, the Doctor asks, what should they do next? Find the mysterious little girl? Or go have wacky adventures? He settles for wacky adventures, pausing just briefly to have the TARDIS scan Amy to see if she's pregnant. The screen says positive.

"Six Months Later". Cut to a dark back alley, where a homeless man wanders around looking for food. The girl from the astronaut suit appears out of the shadows, clutching her chest. The man looks concerned, and asks the little girl if she's alright. She's quite fine, thank you. She's just dying. But that's okay, because she can fix it. It's easy, really. See?

 

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* [[Action Girl]]: River Song.

* [[Alien Invasion]]: [[No Except Yes|It's]] ''[[No Except Yes|not]]'' [[No Except Yes|an invasion. It's an occupation]].

* [["Alone with Prisoner" Ploy]]: At Area 51, Canton Delaware walls the Doctor up in a "perfect prison" from which no sound or particle can escape. Which of course is what the Doctor wants.

* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: The messages from Amy's transmitter.

* [[Arc Words]]: "Silence will fall."

* [[Badass Beard]]: The Doctor grows one during his time in Area 51.

* [[Badass Boast]]

** ''Silence'': "This world is ours. We have ruled it since the wheel and the fire. We have no need of weapons".

* [[Badass Bystander]]: The entire Human Race end up becoming this.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: That Silent really should have chosen its words more carefully.

** River's "suicide" can be seen this way. She jumps with the knowledge that Canton will tell the Doctor what she did, thus enabling the Doctor to save her through time travel. This is a habit of hers.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Eleven in a nutshell.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: The TARDIS and crew arrive right in the Silence's inner sanctum just when they think they've won. Of course.

** "Love a tomb."

* [[Buffy-Speak]]: The Doctor did a "clever thing" to Apollo 11.

* [[Casual Danger Dialog]]: River and the Doctor repeatedly do this.

* [[Ceiling Cling]]: The Silence hang upside-down from the ceiling in the orphanage, in an early contender for "Most fucking disturbing thing seen this season."

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Canton. Also, River.

* [[Cool Car]]: The Jeeps.

* [[Cool Spaceship]]: The Saturn V rocket and Apollo 11.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: River vs the Silence. Game, set, match.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: [[Mark Sheppard]], as usual:

'''Canton''': Never had any complaints before. }}

* [[Don't Be Ridiculous]]

'''The Doctor''': No, no it's not Apollo 11. That would be silly. It's Neil Armstrong's foot. }}

* [[Eagle Land]]: There is an ''awful'' lot of gunplay in this episode...

* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: Eventually River is just twirling around and firing seemingly at random.

* [[Exact Words]]: The Doctor assures Nixon that people will never forget him...then adds "Say hello to David Frost for me". Nixon doesn't really look reassured.

* [[Faking the Dead]]: {{spoiler|Canton smuggles Amy and Rory into the Doctor's cell in body bags.}}

* [[Fan Nickname]]: Fans refer to the captured Silence as "Steve".

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Subverted.

* [[Irony]]: One line of River's dialogue, in light of "A Good Man Goes to War."

* [[The Men in Black]]: The episode opens with our heroes being hunted down by government agents in black suits and dark glasses and taken to [[Area 51]] to keep the aliens secret. The aliens themselves have many MIB-ish qualities, and can probably be assumed to be the in-universe inspiration for the trope.

* [[Mind Screw]]: [[No Name Given|The Eye-Patch Lady]].

* [[Mysterious Waif]]: The girl.

* [[Nightmare Face]]: The Silence. Sweet Jesus...

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: Dr Renfrew's entire existence [[Brainwashed and Crazy|under the control]] of the Silence. The fact he has literally covered the walls with variations of "LEAVE ME ALONE!" speak of the terror he's going through.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Apparently they scouted every state in the 3 months they were running from the FBI. We still don't know how long the Doctor was a prisoner, how he got the TARDIS there... and why was Rory at a dam, of all places?

* [[No Name Given]]: The girl.

** And, technically, the Eye-Patch Lady.

** Bonus points for saluting them with the "British" style.

* [[Offhand Backhand]]: River shoots a Silent without turning her head.

'''River:''' Archaeology. Love a tomb. }}

* [[Oh Crap]]: {{spoiler|The Silence have a truly epic moment when they realise that they have effectively written their own death warrant as a result of the Doctor's plan.}}

** Also, when River realizes that she and the Doctor just shared his first kiss with her. Thus it's her last with him.

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: Rory cannot hide his English accent when he tells the scientists "America salutes you."

** He follows this statement with an [[Military Salute|actual salute]] ... of the British variety. Check the picture on the [[Military Salute]] page.

* [[Orphanage of Fear]]: Well, it might be if there were any actual kids. As it stands there's one little girl, one poor guy whose brain has been wiped so often he doesn't know what the year is (or [[What the Hell Is That Accent?|what accent he's supposed to have]]), and a small horde of malevolent aliens.

* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: Many times, we don't realise that the team has seen {{spoiler|the Silence}} until ''after'' they've seen them, forgotten about it and recorded the a message. Also counts as a [[Mind Screw]] for the audience.

* [[Paranoia Fuel]]: There could be any number of Silents in the room with you right now and you wouldn't even know it. The fact that they are not in any way invisible and can simply hide in plain sight, lurking around with their creepy non-faces and enormous hands that are too big too fit into those suits and ''reading over your shoulder right now'' is bloody terrifying.

* [[Running Gag]]: Whenever the Doctor or the people working with him are in trouble with the personnel at the base, they bring out [[Richard Nixon]] to tell them to reconsider their actions.

** River confidently making a seemingly suicidal jump, only to be caught by the TARDIS.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: {{spoiler|The little girl is still out there and may be a Time Lady and/or Amy's daughter, and we don't know what the Silence wanted from either her or Amy. Meanwhile, not even the TARDIS can decide whether Amy is pregnant or not.}}

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Amy and Rory choose amazingly picturesque places to get captured by the FBI.

* [[Ship Tease]]: River/Doctor. Of course. The [[Ship Tease]] between Amy and the Doctor is also very strong.

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** When River falls off the skyscraper, she is caught by the TARDIS, which is parked sideways on the wall. This sequence is shot the same way as [[Superman]] catching the wall-climbing thief in [[Superman (film)|the 1979 ''Superman'' film]].

** The Doctor's idea to implant transmitters in his companions' hands is reminiscent of ''[[A Beautiful Mind]]''.

** The ending in the alleyway is shot like the beginning of ''[[The Terminator]]''.

* [[The Space Race]]: Our heroes go to Cape Kennedy in Florida (now called Cape Canaveral) and manage to use the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing to save the world. The Doctor predicts that humanity will colonize space in the far future, and will always remember Apollo 11.

* [[Stock Footage]]: Of the moon landing.

* [[Suicidal Gotcha]]: River jumps off a New York skyscraper, apparently to her death... and is caught by the TARDIS.

* [[Tailor-Made Prison]]: The Doctor's prison cell.

* [[Time Skip]]: This episode picks up three months after the previous episode finished. {{spoiler|The [[Wham! Episode]] detailed below occurs six months later.}}

* [[Trigger Happy]]: River and Canton.

* [[Wham! Episode]]: {{spoiler|It is implied the girl is Amy's daughter, and she ''regenerates'' at the end of the episode}}.

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: What happened to poor Dr. Renfrew? Is he still in that orphanage?

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Recap]]