Season 6, Episode 2
The second half of a two-parter comes back even stronger than the first
“We are not fighting an alien invasion. We’re leading a revolution.”
-The Doctor
And now we know just why Mark Sheppard was cast in the role of Canton. Not to slight the work that Sheppard did last week, but he is always at his most enjoyable when he get to play a dickish sort of character – like Badger or Lampkin – and he got to play those same beats in the opening minutes. And it’s a positive thing I think, since seeing Canton hunting down our heroes (who are all Mr. Zsasz-ed out with all those hash marks on their bodies) was so believable that the twist that it was all a long con actually became more shocking than it might have been with another actor.
“Day of the Moon” managed to be a much better episode than “The Impossible Astronaut,” mostly as it was able to draw a much clearer line between the short and long term stories early within the hour. The short-term story (for now at least) focused on The Silence, those creepy aliens (?) that we saw last week. The show took full measure of these creatures nature to give us some great moments, as it would switch back and forth between omnipresent and unreliable narration, so that we were able to get thrills out of both seeing The Silence and realizing that the characters has just interacted with them in unseen moments.
But – and here is where my Bachelor’s Degree rears its head once again – I was most impressed with the way that Moffat was able to logically ingrain this story with actual moments of history. Having Canton broadcast the video of The Silence during the moon landing so that humanity would kill the creature whenever they see them, yet never be able to remember neither the broadcast nor the murders, was just a brilliant storytelling maneuver. (Although now that I think about it, one human using post-hypnotic suggestion to have other humans unknowingly kill another sentient species is a really dark way to end this story.) Plus, the show found a way to ingrain Area 51 into the narrative (without making it feel superfluous), and that’s just awesome.
“Get your stupid face out of here.”
-Amy
The show also continued to deliver quite strongly – actually, even stronger – on the emotional beats, even as it relied on the Amy-Rory-Doctor love triangle (though this set of relationships should really get its own unique term) that we saw plenty of last season. The show made it work here however by playing it close to Rory’s chest, and using his feelings of thinking he loves someone who doesn’t love him back to tug at our heartstrings. But luckily the show walked away from this one (I’m not sure how much more suggestion of “Amy’s in love with the doctor” I can take), and they did it in a way that makes sense. Not only is Amy the kind of character who can use the words “stupid” and “moron” to express love, but Karen Gillian is the kind of actress who can make those moments work. Such dichotomy of language has been used in other shows and movies before, but never has it felt as honest as it did here, and the show somehow managed to make it all feel fresh.
Less interesting, at least for now, was the brief moment that the Doctor and River shares at the end of the episode. Though River’s little speech last week about how she and the Doctor have inverse timelines to one another was itself moving, and I enjoyed how this week’s moment played into that one, it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, and since it’s quite obvious that there will be more, much better moments to come, this one felt a bit unnecessary. Till next time…
“I’m dying. But that’s okay. I can fix it.”
-The Girl
Then there’s the season ling arc, and holy shit is it awesome. Luckily the show moved away from the moment of Amy having to shot the girl, as the twist was a bit of a non-starter. But everything else was just fantastically intriguing, especially since it was all couched in these events relation to Amy, who is the show’s most emotionally open and moving character. Questions like is Amy really pregnant, is The Girl (for lack of a better character name) Amy’s daughter, why did she have to stay in that suit, and IS SHE A FUCKING NEW TIME LORD will obviously been bouncing around our heads for weeks, but if the show can keep these larger questions relatable to the characters until they get answered, then all of this should go down quite smoothly, and be far less frustrating if we don’t get the answers the we’re expecting.
Oh, and what was up with that lady with the eye patch? Me thinks Amy has a few secrets that even she doesn’t know about herself. At this point, anything and everything that we see has the potential to be important later in the story, and Steven Moffet deserves the highest of praise for creating a world in which every moment deserves to be mulled over, and show that just might be able to compete with Lost in terms of mythology. Bravo, sir, bravo.
Next week: Pirates. Fuck yeah.
Quotes, Etc.:
Anybody check out the “Doctor Who is America” special that aired after this episode? I had it on in the background when I typed up this review, and I rather enjoyed it. Apparently Mark Shepard’s father played the older version of canton, and Karen Gillian likes acting like she just got shot
Also according to the special, that was Matt Smith’s actual beard. That’s just impressive.
That advertisement for the Doctor Who action figures just might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
“We have no need of weapons.” “Yeah, welcome to America.”
“Hello, fellas. I’m….President Nixon.”
“This is a video phone. Whatever a video phone is.”
“You are Amelia Pond.” “You are ugly, hasn’t anyone ever mentioned that to you?”
Dr. Song just loves a good tomb.
“If you want to pretend you’re safe so that you may sleep at night, then you’re safe. But you’re not.”
“Say hi to David Frost for me.”
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