32.01: The Impossible Astronaut

[Lenny]

The Doctor is summoned to assist President Nixon in saving a terrified little girl.

---

The Doctor is back in mere minutes for the first half of a new series (don't forget, Whovians, that this series is being split into two parts - the first to be shown from today and the second in the Autumn) which promises to be exciting - will we finally learn who River Song really is? Will the Doctor get to the bottom of the cracks in time and the Silence? How long are we going to count both Amy and Rory as his companions? Only time will tell!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Squeeee.

I've heard rumours that a major character gets killed off in this first episode. I can't think who...Not Rory for the third (fourth...fifth?) time. We know how River dies. Amy? Or maybe it'll be one of those cheat deaths where everything turns out well at the end.

Oh, well, over to watching it!

 

[HoopyFrood]

What, me again?

Well, someone did indeed die...Was all "HE IS NOT REGENERATING!" when it started. Crazy stuff. The episode really rattled along at great speed, kept you right on the edge all the time. Especially those damn aliens that keep being forgotten every time you look away.

I totally knew she was gonna say she was pregnant *smug* So that begs the question whether River was just also having a reaction to the aliens, or there's also something about her, too...

RANDOM GUESSES: At first I thought the Doctor was going to be in the suit, but then when he came through the door in the diner, that changed. Then I thought River, seeing as she kills a very good man, etc etc. Now I'm thinking...Amy's Child! Why it's American and in a suit and everything I'm sure will all be worked out...

Twelve jammy dodgers and a fez!

 

[thaddeus6th]

They didn't bring him a fez

Very much enjoyed this episode

Longer review, with spoilers galore:

http://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2011/04/doctor-who-impossible-astronaut.html

 

[Lenny]

A wonderful beginning to the new series, and a masterful beginning to the episode! It's not every day that we're left with a dead Doctor who's somehow aged two hundred years in a few months.

Some nice bits of comedy for the kids: "She's packing again, sir. Says she's going to a planet called... 'America'" and River handling the TARDIS controls better than the Doctor.

It seems to me that Moffat has a thing for disembodied voices. And quite threatening aliens (I'm rarely on edge in a DW episode, but I was for periods in this one).

Various interesting bits and bobs throughout the episode - the disused warehouse with a smattering of alien and future-human technology (just what is that table with the helmet thing? Money on it being used next episode?), River alluding to what we all know will be the Silence in the Library episode and, of course, what looks, not only like a TARDIS, but the TARDIS from The Lodger episode with James Corden:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/07/doctor-who-season-5-episode-11-the-lodger/

In fact, it is the same TARDIS (or one from the same factory):

I wonder if there's a connection? I think I'll hunt down that episode and see if anything is mentioned that relates to this episode.

And just how many times has Rory nearly died, now?

EDIT: Oh, and there's something else - is it just me, or was more or less everything from a couple of the recent trailers taken from this episode?

 

[HoopyFrood]

I did wonder if that was the same TARDIS thingy from that episode. The white globey thing looked especially familiar.

He got turned to dust that time. And then when he got sucked into the crack and disappeared completely. Does getting turned into plastic count as dying (or not technically alive)?

 

[Ursa major]

And that was another episode where The Doctor sent a message to himself (albeit using a message in a shop window).



EDIT: In checking out that episode on Wiki, I found this text:

Corden will return to play Craig during an episode of the sixth series in 2011.

 

[Lenny]

And he's said he also wants to return a third time, which will kind of ruin any "OMG! He's going to die!!" suspense in the episode...

As for Rory, wasn't he also killed rather horribly in the Dreamlord episode?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Yeah, that's what I meant, getting turned to dust.

And yes, when you know that Matt Smith is starring in the entire series (I assume -- I've read the small plot synopses for each of the first half) it does take away any "he's regenerating!" "He's completely dead!" aspect.

 

[PTeppic]

At least it wasn't a "36 hours earlier" type beginning, a minute after the non-regeneration. That conceit's been done to death, so to speak.

It'll be interesting to see at what point Amelia finds the photo on the phone and the memory-wipe thing is overcome. And, perhaps more importantly, is his personal timeline now actually fixed with an end, or is this yet another wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey instance where he'll create a paradox and fix it so he doesn't end up there...?

 

[Perpetual Man]

Very, very good opener to the season, with some good twists and turns and that is without the timey-wimey stuff.

Just for a moment I thought we were going to see a major twist when the Doctor had his first run in with the astronaut...

Thought the aliens were very well done, and creepy to boot. (Don't think Perp Jr. will be watching these episodes...).

Good catch by Hoopy that Amy being sick because of a pregnancy id fair enough, but why is River being sick? Is there some kind of sympathetic link - could (as has been suggested in the past) Amy be River...

On the point of the pregnancy, why is it so important that Amy had to tell the Doctor there and then? Yeah, it's big, especially for Amy, but is it so big that she had to do it with everything going on?

Is it her knowing there was something important she HAD to tell the Doctor, but with her memory being infringed by the aliens she blurted the only important thing she could latch onto.

River perhaps the daughter if not Amy?

Loved the reappearance of the Time Ship from the Lodger was interesting - is it actually a TARDIS and if so could the tunnels all over the Earth be the TARDIS unfolded somehow (if you get my drift).

All in all then, cracking start to the season. Can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[Lenny]

So it was, Hoops. Methinks I need to pay more attention to Rory and his deaths.

Loved the reappearance of the Time Ship from the Lodger was interesting - is it actually a TARDIS and if so could the tunnels all over the Earth be the TARDIS unfolded somehow (if you get my drift).

Going back through the thread for "The Lodger", a couple of people mentioned the Doctor saying "Someone's trying to build a TARDIS".

Whilst it might not be a TARDIS specifically, I think it's strongly suggested that it has time-travel capabilities.

EDIT: Watching "The Lodger" now (well, the relevant part):

DW: He's got a time engine in the room upstairs.

. . .​

DW: Oh, of course! The time engine isn't in the flat, the time engine is the flat... someone's attempt to build a TARDIS!

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I think you all must have been watching a different episode to me.

A couple of things.

I thought the nonsense about the brief sightings of the doc through history ruined the established MO of the character. IE keep a low profile and don't rock the paradox boat.

If the dead doctor was indeed 200 years older than his original self; then that has to be the longest period he has gone without regenerating. Plus it means this is the last version of the doctor ever. A bit of a continuity killer as far as future series are concerned.

The guy with the petrol can. Why?

(Obviously the BBC have seriously upped the budget for this series if they can afford to just burn petrol at it's current value. Given the economic situation it makes one wonder if the license fees couldn't suffer a little shaving.)


Since when has the TARDIS had a cloaking device. Never! The TARDIS' were hidden by having the ability to hide in plain site by reconfiguring their outer shape. The Master's TARDIS often looked like a grandfather clock.
Introducing 'fashionable' changes to the established rules just jar.

The Oval office scene was total crap. God, are they so desperate to appeal to the US audience they have to sink to that level. Plus have you ever seen a more none Nixon like, Nixon.

What was the point of killing the woman in the toilet?

River announced that the tunnels run under all the planets surface. Strange we haven't run across them before.

The nonsense River came out with about the doctor knowing everything about her when she was born. What was there to know - that she'd just been born.

Throwing in my 2c (for our American cousins) I reckon the good man River kills is the doctor (or Ford Prefect). Amy is pregnant with River as a result of that night out with the doctor. The girl in the suit is also River.

The aliens were good but a bit too like the angels.

On the whole it just about kept me interested enough to see what happens. I don't hold any great hopes though.

 

[PTeppic]

I think you all must have been watching a different episode to me.

[snip]

On the whole it just about kept me interested enough to see what happens. I don't hold any great hopes though.

One thing I found about last season, the first of the Moffatt years, is that it pays to watch them a second time... often much better on a repeat viewing.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I think you all must have been watching a different episode to me.

Well no, it was the same episode...

A couple of things.

I thought the nonsense about the brief sightings of the doc through history ruined the established MO of the character. IE keep a low profile and don't rock the paradox boat.

I agree with you here TEIN, I was really surprised by this bit and I did not see the point of it really...


If the dead doctor was indeed 200 years older than his original self; then that has to be the longest period he has gone without regenerating. Plus it means this is the last version of the doctor ever. A bit of a continuity killer as far as future series are concerned.

Well I think it is a safe bet that we're not going to see the ending portrayed as it happened here. But the longest period without regenerating? Not quite. The Doctor is stated to be 900+ years and has been since the series restarted. Back In Tom Bakers run he was 700+ years, and the inference has been that the incarnations live a little longer than real time. Due to the age and all I'm guessing William Hartnell had been around a bit longer than 200 years. I hope.

The guy with the petrol can. Why?

Because the Doctor asked him too, so they could burn the body... which just made me realize that younger Doctor must have known he was going to die, or at least someone was going to die. Of course the old guy is in fact the FBI Agent only older, and played by the younger actors (Mark Sheppard) dad (Morgan Sheppard) both who have good records in US SF, Morgan being in Babylon 5, and Mark in just about everything...

(Obviously the BBC have seriously upped the budget for this series if they can afford to just burn petrol at it's current value. Given the economic situation it makes one wonder if the license fees couldn't suffer a little shaving.) Made me laugh


Since when has the TARDIS had a cloaking device. Never! The TARDIS' were hidden by having the ability to hide in plain site by reconfiguring their outer shape. The Master's TARDIS often looked like a grandfather clock.
Introducing 'fashionable' changes to the established rules just jar.

I'm pretty sure the cloaking device has been used in the past to make it invisible, but I could well be wrong, although in the original series specs, it was meant to go invisible when it landed rather than change shape.

The Oval office scene was total crap. God, are they so desperate to appeal to the US audience they have to sink to that level. Plus have you ever seen a more none Nixon like, Nixon.

I really tried to see him as Nixon. I really did. But didn't

What was the point of killing the woman in the toilet?

To show they were prepared to kill to protect their identity. Yes, when she turned away she forgot, but Amy kept making her look again. It needed to happen because it would have gone on for ever, to make the aliens a bit more of a threat, and because she was a bit annoying.

River announced that the tunnels run under all the planets surface. Strange we haven't run across them before.

Whenever people found the tunnels the aliens blanked their minds. Bit of a stretch but that's all I can think of. Or ( a new thought as I type) The tunnels are centuries old, as old as the time ship perhaps (or came with it) so they only appeared when the time ship appeared... they weren't there before but can still be ancient.

The nonsense River came out with about the doctor knowing everything about her when she was born. What was there to know - that she'd just been born.

Because the first time the Doctor met River (Silence in the Library) was the end of her life and each time he has met her since she has been getting younger, until the last time the Doctor meets her is at her birth, by which time he knows just how life turns out. For her though, it's the first time...

Oh, it's complicated timey-wimey stuff.

Throwing in my 2c (for our American cousins) I reckon the good man River kills is the doctor (or Ford Prefect). Amy is pregnant with River as a result of that night out with the doctor. The girl in the suit is also River.

I was going this way too, but my only thought against this is the way River talks to the Doctor on occasion - not really like a daughter... but I still think it is a possibility...

The aliens were good but a bit too like the angels.

Agreed, thought they were at the best when they opened their mouths though

On the whole it just about kept me interested enough to see what happens. I don't hold any great hopes though.

Lenny know what you mean about the Time Ship/TARDIS but I find it very hard to see a TARDIS as anything other than what the Time Lords made, everything else is just a Time Ship.

Of course in the Unearthly Child, Susan says that TARDIS is a name she made up from the initials (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) machine, so on that principle, anything bigger on the inside and capable of traveling in time and space would classify as a TARDIS....

I'll shut up now

 

[Dave]

You all keep mentioning seeing aliens, but there were no aliens!!!

That part, at least was a good idea. I think Doctor Who has returned to being for kids and for them it works perfectly well. Series Continuity was broken a long time ago. My own kids enjoy it, though they are practically grown up. For younger children I suspect this episode was a little too complicated.

I thought the nonsense about the brief sightings of the doc through history ruined the established MO of the character.

Not sure the Doctor could ever be said to have kept a low profile - large alien spaceships over London - aliens walking through London streets - happened on many occasions. Any big international project or major event and the Doctor was there. However, if he had appeared in Sons of the Desert I think I would have spotted him before. It seems like I have always lived in an alternative reality to that of the various Doctors.

If the dead Doctor was indeed 200 years older than his original self; then that has to be the longest period he has gone without regenerating. Plus it means this is the last version of the doctor ever. A bit of a continuity killer as far as future series are concerned.

I didn't like that only because you know that it will not be true. Matt Smith will regenerate in a few years time and it will be conveniently forgotten. When he first revealed that he was 200 years older I thought that was great. That kind of jump has supposedly happened before, but only alluded to, and we rarely got to find out what happened in between. Then they skipped back again and the chance was lost.

Since when has the TARDIS had a cloaking device. Never! The TARDIS' were hidden by having the ability to hide in plain site by reconfiguring their outer shape. The Master's TARDIS often looked like a grandfather clock. Introducing 'fashionable' changes to the established rules just jar.

I think I agree. The TARDIS capabilities are pretty well established and that was NOT one on them. Also, there is no need, it could easily have appeared as a 'Hong Kong Phooey' filing cabinet inside the Oval Office. In Remembrance of the Daleks it was a steam organ in the Totter's Lane junkyard. Much cleverer, and much more in the spirit of Doctor Who.

River announced that the tunnels run under all the planets surface. Strange we haven't run across them before.

But you have done; frequently, on a daily basis even, you just don't remember them. That concept is brilliant.

I don't know why the woman in the toilet had to die either. I think it just raised the stakes as regards the danger Amy was in, but no real need to do that if the woman could never remember anything.

The Doctor and River meeting in opposite directions in Time was very well covered last year. Repeating it over and over again like we didn't get it then (or we never read The Time Traveller's Wife) is insulting our intelligence.

 

[Tillane]

Okay, missed this last night, so playing catch-up. Here goes...

Interesting stuff. Older doctor (much older doctor) - or is he? We only have his word for it and, as has been mentioned before - rule number one, according to River - the Doctor lies. Then again, why would he lie about his age? Hmm. Going to have to think on that one.

"Lots more happened in 1969 that anyone remembers." Hmm again. Not a throwaway line, methinks.

Ooh, and now dead Doctor. Or is he? Apparently so, but then we know he can't be, so there'll be an out somewhere. Not the first time he's died, after all - though how he gets away from that pseudo-Viking burial... And the astronaut, whom he knows and was expecting and whom, presumably, he was expecting to kill him. Thrice hmm.

Ah. Here's our Doctor! Very much alive. And more out of the loop than the others, for once. Ha-ha!

Stuart Milligan. Bad choice as Nixon. Bad voice. Bad actor. Bad bad bad. Like Canton, though.

River knows the Tardis better than the Doctor again. Silent running and invisibility - odd that the Tardis would need invisibility, given its perception filter, but maybe in such a small, enclosed space like the Oval Office? Harder to miss, perhaps. Ah, no. It's just for the reveal. Hokey dokey.

Nasty alien in one of the White House bathrooms. Amy has to tell the Doctor "what he must know and what he must never know". Assuming the latter is about his death, but then maybe that's too obvious. Oh, and she's forgotten anyway. Heigh-ho.

And away to save the little girl, assuming that's what she is. And more aliens, and lots of tunnels under a warehouse...and the sort-of Tardis from The Lodger. And the tunnels aren't just under the warehouse. And something's happened to Rory. Bad something. Yay!

Amy's pregnant! Again! For real, this time? And why so important to tell him now? Oh, no time for that, here comes the spaceman...and it's the little girl! And Amy's shot her! Has she? No, can't have. Oh, and roll credits.

Well. Quite the opener. Lots to get the old teeth into, lots of things that can't be and things that might be and things we kind-of knew from before. And at least one thing that Amy still has to tell the Doctor, maybe. Good stuff! Like it!

And relax.

 

[Lenny]

Regarding the TARDIS appearing as a filing cabinet, it's not possible for the Doctor's TARDIS which, I believe was mentioned in the original run, was old and decommissioned when he stole it. It's was also explained in the original run, and again in NuWho, that the chameleon circuit is broken (or, at least, stuck) leaving the TARDIS looking like a blue phone box all the time - Ecclestone's Doctor even said that he'd given up trying to fix it as he was rather fond of the police box.

Any other TARDIS could have done (I've heard things about the Master's TARDIS showing up as a grandfather clock), but not this one.

As for invisible, the Doctor effectively made it invisible in The End of Time, Part One (with a keyfob...) by shifting it out of time be a second.

(Playing devil's advocate On the new features in general, I'm pretty sure Matt Smith said, at the beginning of his tenure, that the TARDIS was rebuilding herself. Any reason why she couldn't have rebuilt herself with a cloaking device?

 

[Dave]

On the new features in general, I'm pretty sure Matt Smith said, at the beginning of his tenure, that the TARDIS was rebuilding herself.

Which is precisely why the chameleon circuit could have been fixed and it could have appeared as a filing cabinet. I'm sorry to contradict you, but it did appear as a pipe organ in the original series run, as I already mentioned, and additionally it was a welsh dresser under Colin Baker, and an elaborate gateway. It was also mentioned in "The Sound of Drums", that it generates a "perception filter" to reinforce the idea that it is perfectly ordinary. To also have an additional "cloaking device" just seems over-engineering in the extreme.

 

[Lenny]

It's not a contradiction when we're both correct.

It was fixed a couple of times (it was shown as working during the times of the fifth and sixth Doctors), but always ended up broken again - after the pipe organ, Welsh dresser and gateway it returned to being a police box. The Ninth Doctor implied that it the circuit was broken and I'm pretty sure the Eighth Doctor did too, so somewhere in the reign of the Sixth, Seventh or even the Eighth Doctors, it broke.

EDIT: Bah to continuity... a quick Google tells me that Donna, in her Doctor form, began to tell the Tenth Doctor how to fix the circuit but her brain began to overlord before she could complete the instruction (Journey's End episode). In an interview for the Series 5 DVD extras, the Eleventh Doctor said that the circuit scans the surroundings as it should, but chooses to always disguise itself as a police box, regardless of location...

I give up.