I’m going to warn you right off the bat that this review/recap will be full fo spoilers (with one crazy theory attached at the end). If you haven’t seen the episode yet, you are probably going to want to stop here and wait until you do. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The first episode of season 6 of Doctor Who starts with the whole gang being reunited… in Utah. The Doctor wants them all to take a trip – to 1969, which is the year of the moon landing.
The only thing we knew going in to this episode was that someone was supposed to die. Less than 10 minutes in and we see that it is the Doctor. Obviously this has to be some kind of cheat episode where we kill him but then find a way to bring him back or make it so it never happens (or does it?). Whether this all sorts itself out or not, it’s still a phenomenal way to start a season, killing off the title character.
Or so it seems…
It would seem a future incarnation of the Doctor recruited Rory, Amy, River, and a past version of himself to work together – but for what?! All I can say is Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey. I love time travel!
The rest of the episode drops our group in the middle of the White House and a problem Nixon is having with a mystery caller. The sight of the Doctor sitting behind the desk in the oval office, looking like he runs the whole country is absolutely brilliant!
The Silence is our recurring villain, which was introduced last season and is finally being revealed now. They are truly terrifying creatures that seem to play with people’s memories. The person only seems to be able to remember the Silence if they are face-to-face. This is mostly likely going to be a recurring theme for this season, so we’re going to have to pay special attention to each detail.
The end of the episode has two big reveals – 1) Amy tells the Doctor that she is pregnant. 2) It turns out that the astronaut is the same little girl that has been President Nixon’s mystery caller. There’s almost definitely more to this story, but we’re going to have to wait until next week to find out what it is.
Now, after seeing the episode, my question is – could the astronaut be River when she is a young girl? She says at one point that she kills “a very good man”. She also says they meet for the first time when she is “very young”. We see at the end of this episode that it is a little girl in the astronaut suit. Finally, it has been hinted (if not explicitly said) that the Doctor comes to River when he knows he is going to die. (Sorry, I would have to watch Silence in the Library again to get everything exactly right). Going back to my theory though – Does it fit in River’s timeline if somehow she is the astronaut, and the Doctor knows she is the one meant to kill him in that time and place? I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve thought it through and it all seems to fit. I would love to hear your thoughts on this possibly crazy theory.