The mid-series finale for Doctor Who has come and gone and I'm still unsure what to think of it, and I've seen it twice! I am absolutely in love with Rory. Finally he gets a good part instead of dying again. The pre-credit sequence was epic. Marching in to face the cyberman, 'Where is my wife!' Ahh, amazing! Blowing up all the ships behind Rory as a message from the doctor was a cool affect but very un-doctor-like. It felt wrong that he would blow up the cybermen, even though they are his enemy. In RTD era is was all 'let's give them a second chance', Matt Smith's first series was 'Run' and now its 'let's blow them all up so it looks cool and epic.'
I was beginning to like Amy but this episode was quite dull for her. I didn't like the teasing of who's the father of Amy's baby. Mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the The Doctor and Amy dynamic. It's gotten a bit better with Amy and Rory but it's still a little touch and go at times. I didn't think Amy was very convincing as a mother. She doesn't have the maternal instinct about her. Yes, she's young and isn't used to being around a kids and never really held a baby but she's an actress, act! When her baby turns into flesh I did feel the trauma from Amy but it didn't stay with her, except maybe when she was pointing the gun at River. The bottom line is she didn't convince me.
The gathering of old enemies was a little meh. I read somewhere, a facebook comment I believe, that 'It's not exactly the children of time now it is?' and I would have to agree. It lacked the greatness of series four finale. I may be a little bias as series four, RTD, and David Tennant are all my favorites but there you have it. Once again it was the emphasis on fighting, which granted companions did but the Doctor would usually admonish them afterwards.
So yea, I felt the middle dragged a bit but the ending left me speechless with my mouth hanging open for a full minute afterwards. Now I had not really given much thought onto who River Song actually was. I don't go looking for spoilers and would rather find out when the show tells me. Of course I'm horrible at guessing and had absolutely no idea until she said it. I didn't like River when she first appeared in Silence in the Library but she's slowly been growing on me. I think she's a good fit with Matt Smith although she's such a mystery at times that I get kinda bored with her.
The main revelation last night was that River Song is Amy and Rory's daughter who is part timelord because she was conceived in the time vortex. I was shocked and surprised. We still don't have the whole story - I wish I could read Gallifreyan! Some of my favorite parts of Doctor Who are going back and rewatching things after the big reveal has happened so i diligently went back and watch Silence in the Library - but of course Steven Moffat had no way of knowing where her character was going so that doesn't really help. And the more I thought about it the the more I was dissatisfied with it.
I had to watch it again and after the second viewing I was less enthused than the first time around. Yes, it won't be as climatic as the first time since you know what's coming but it was like the questions still weren't answered fully enough. River Song has been a mystery for so long now that I felt like I wanted an answer but was let down. I keep thinking of Donna Noble and her story arch which was brilliant.
From the beginning of the series when the Doctor left the little girl in the astronaut suit something felt wrong. Why would the doctor leave? It's that nagging question that just won't rest and makes the series not sit well. We'll have lots of time to mull over all the facts though as Doctor Who won't be returning until the autumn with 'Let's Kill Hitler' an interesting title to say the least.
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