A Good Man Goes to War

[auntiemeesh]

I've been a huge fan of Rory since the day we met him. I've put up with him being killed off in almost every episode, being under-utilized by a lot of the writers who seem to have no idea how to write for three people without just making silly love-triangle implications, etc. But in this episode, it all pays off for Rory. He gets to be a big, honkin' hero.

*

That dress that River is wearing, I wants it, precious, I wants it. If I could pull off River Song, that's the outfit I'd use. I'll have to think about that for next year, but I really would have to lose the excess weight and grow my hair out again (and then just resign myself to being a very short River). But seriously, if I could just stick a diet, that's not really a lot of weight to lose over the course of fifteen months. I could be thin by next fall. And if I start saving now, I could afford the fabric by next summer, too, lol.

*

I was oddly annoyed by Maldavar. Mainly because his blue make-up was rubbing off. There's one moment when he lifts his arm and you can see a bit more of the underside of his arm than the make-up people expected and it's all white. It's even wearing thin on his face. Are we meant to think he's just painted himself blue for a lark, or are the make-up people getting careless?

"No. No, no, please. You don't need me. Why would you need meeeee? I'm old. I'm fat. I'm blue. You can't need me!" The best argument ever!

*

Man, Eleven really is fond of speechifying. There's a bit of a parallel here between this moment and the moment in The Pandorica Opens. Then, he was surrounded by all his enemies as he speechified, here, he's brought representatives of all his enemies to be on his side against the Clerics, but he's still giving overblown speeches full of bravado.

*

Wait, are the Silurian and her servant a couple?

"Clever, isn't he?"
"He's rather attractive."
"You do realize he's a man, don't you, ma'am?"
"Mammals, they all look alike."
"Well, thank you!"
"Was I being insensitive again, dear? I don't know why you put up with me."

*

"Oh god, I was gonna be cool. I wanted to be cool. Look at me." Oh, Rory! Do you know how much I love you right now, all sappy over your baby and your wife?

"A crying Roman with a baby, definitely cool." I agree, Amy, I agree.

This whole scene I kept going, "but is it the real baby? Did they check to make sure it's not Flesh?"

*

I absolutely adore the conversation between the Doctor and the Silurian (Vastra?). The Doctor gets very uncomfortable and defensive when Vastra asks if the baby is human. My mind immediately went, again, to the question of whether the baby was the original Melody or a Flesh copy. I was actually a little surprised that wasn't what Vastra was after, although the thread of Time Lord running through her DNA is a nice touch.

"I am trying to be delicate. I know how you can blush. When did this baby..." pause for nose-wrinkling - and may I say I also love how much expression Neve McIntosh is able to show through the Silurian prosthetic/make-up (and now I'm disappointed that we're not actually doing the Silurians this year. Maybe another costume for next year?) ..."begin."

"Well how would I know. That's all humany, private stuff. It just sort of goes on. They don't put up a balloon or anything." Oh Doctor, you are such a ten year old boy with all that squicked out, hand-wavy business. You know, I don't think this discomfort with sex is a Gallifreyan/Time Lord thing. I think it's just a Doctor thing. He's old and tends to be very paternal towards his companions (especially Eleven - there have been a few Doctor-Companion interactions that were rather less paternal), and nobody likes thinking about their children having sex. He's also been on his own, without interacting with a female of his own kind, an equal who could actually be a mate, for so long that he's forgotten how to be comfortable with that sort of thing. Poor River really has her work cut out for her, lol.

And the expression on his face when he works out that the first time they've been together on the TARDIS in this version of reality was on their wedding night, lol. Yep, the baby really was conceived in the time vortex and Amy's concerns about the baby having a time head really were rather spot on.

*

"There should be some plasma pistols somewhere. They left everything."
"Then find them, boy." Apparently all mammals look alike to the Sontarans, as well.
And Vastra's off again. "She's definitely a girl." Jenny elbows her, "Oh, stop it."

*

"Oh Doctor. Fooling you once was a joy. But fooling you twice, the same way? It's a privilege." And there you go. The baby's Flesh. Like Maldavar said, it was far too easy.

*

And now we get the big reveal. River appears. She scolds the Doctor but eases up on him as soon as she's made her point (which was really just hammering home the point Vastra had made a little bit ago).

Not too surprisingly, the reveal answers far fewer questions than it leads to. How does this all go together? How do all the bits and pieces that we know fit and work together? Is the child in the space suit a young River? What is her connection to the Gamma Forest? Did she really kill the Doctor as a child? If so, how long has she been living in the Stormcage? How old is she (she looks relatively young, but that tricky business of regeneration makes age really hard to guess).

This is the crossroads that River's been talking about for a long while. The moment when the Doctor learns who she is. And she's always made it sound like a terrible thing, while at the same time it's been pretty clear that for the Doctor, it doesn't do anything to change their relationship negatively, which always confused me a bit. But I was looking at it from the wrong direction. It's for River that it's a terrible change. Up until this moment in her life, the Doctor has known all about her, who she is, and he's in love with her (I'm assuming, from the kissing and other hints). After this moment, in her life, from her perspective, she and the Doctor no longer have that same relationship because he doesn't know her yet. So she's lost, in effect, the love of her life, even though they're still meeting and interacting. This is, from her perspective, really and truly a terrible moment. Every time she meets with a version of the Doctor from before this moment in his timeline, he will know less about her, he will not be in love with her, she will in fact be a somewhat scary person to him, someone he actively tries to avoid, until finally, she'll just be some random stranger he meets in a library.

But, there's something tricky here. Because it seems to me that River doesn't just point to the prayer leaf in the cradle, when she's telling him who she is. She's also pointing him to the writing on the cradle itself. Which would imply that she knew him long, long ago in his own timeline. Like, before he'd ever regenerated, when he traveled with his granddaughter Susan. If he's kept that cradle all this time, it's not just because it was his when he was a baby. It's because it was his child's and his grandchild's. And if River wrote that inscription on it, that would in my mind tend to mean that she must have been the mother/grandmother of those children. So, when Ten meets her in the Library, it's not the first time he meets her. Just the first time in a very long time, and perhaps he doesn't allow himself to think about or remember those early days.

I don't know. There are inconsistencies here, partly due to the fact that River's character could not possibly have been fully and completely conceived during that first two-part appearance and so there's a certain amount of retconning and/or hand waving that has to be done in order to make everything fit together. Or maybe I'm just completely off-base and misinterpreting a lot of stuff.

Either way, I teared up a little bit when River introduced herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. It really does change everything.

And of course, that explains why she couldn't be there earlier. She would have to be extremely careful to avoid interacting with herself as a baby. It's a bit unclear how the Doctor avoids the same in all of those old stories where several regenerations of himself end up in the same place at the same time. Maybe I'm just missing something? Wouldn't be the first time (or the last, I imagine).

Comments

[eve11]

This whole scene I kept going, "but is it the real baby? Did they check to make sure it's not Flesh?"

Ha, you were way ahead of me. I was like, WHAT?

Also was baby Melody not the cutest baby you've ever seen on a TV show? Seriously, tiny babies like that are not supposed to be cute; they really did get one who looks only about 2 months old!

There are inconsistencies here, partly due to the fact that River's character could not possibly have been fully and completely conceived during that first two-part appearance and so there's a certain amount of retconning and/or hand waving that has to be done in order to make everything fit together.

Yeah I definitely get the idea that River in the Library was not a fully baked River, and there is a certain amount of retconning going on. Which is frustrating. But I like your theory about River and the Doctor not sharing all at that moment. She puts his hand on the cot and says "Can't you read?" and he's definitely reading the Gallifreyan there isn't he? Or maybe he's reading the prayer leaf, but did Amy even tell him what that prayer leaf was?

So yes, I get the idea that he's not letting on all he knows about River. Maybe the theories that say the little girl from TIA/DoTM is not River but River & the Doctor's daughter are more spot on.

I also want to know why the Doctor was being so secretive and not telling Amy and Rory everything when he brought the cradle out. I don't know that I believe him when he says it's his, either.

I wonder why the Doctor felt he needed to go off and find River on his own though. Why leave Amy and Rory behind? I mean, okay, aside from the fact that having a relationship with their daughter while they were there would just be too weird. But it seems cruel because no matter how everything gets sorted, Amy and Rory have in essence lost their little girl. Even if she comes back years later they will have missed out on so much :(

I wonder if ANY of these questions are going to be addressed or answered in part 2.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I worry about Amy and Rory and what's going to happen to them and their little girl. From what we've seen it doesn't seem likely that they're going to get a lot of time together as Melody is growing up and becoming River. It's a very sad thought.