1) Mels' introduction. Spoilerphobe that I am, I had no idea who Mels was supposed to be, other than that there had been some vague talk of a 'new addition to the TARDIS' so I was quite bemused when she screeched into view. The montage that follows, of Mels growing up with the Ponds, is charming and lovely, but at the time it felt like a curious bit of retro-justification for a new character. On any of the many, many subsequent viewings, it becomes totally wonderful: the weird side-by-side life of Amy and Rory with their daughter, is a wonderful temporal finesse that Moffat could have made the centrepiece of a whole episode. Instead it is gracefully, nonchalantly inserted here. I haven't said this before, and I should have done, but Caitlin Blackwood is excellent as Amelia, and her performance is so important for connecting past and present and convincing us that young and old Amy are the same person. Her contribution is very important indeed and a significant factor in the overall success of the Pond years. This neat sequence culminates in a beautiful shot that switches from Amy's toy TARDIS being flung into the air, to the real thing, out of control in a blue sky.
2) The Teselecta. Yes, it's a Star Trek version of the Numskulls, but that's a brilliant idea and surely one that only Doctor Who could get away with. Star Trek has always had a tendency for po-faced moralising that Who has managed to avoid - the Teselecta takes that self-importance (they travel through time judging people by their own values) and then gleefully splashes it with some good old fashioned British silliness, literally shrinking them down to size. The result is a craft that should be ridiculous but isn't, filled with people who want to be taken seriously but aren't. The realisation is excellent. The effect shots are very satisfying, the movement of the actors playing the Teselecta are superb, stilted but trying to fit in. Best of all: the dialogue of the crew. A little thing perhaps, but their internal business talk of skin tones, adjusting height and so forth is essential in convincing the audience that this is actually happening. Every word, is spot on.
3) Hitler. I was worried about the title, remember? I was worried about the show trying to visit Hitler. Stupid of me, because Moffat never had any intention of actually engaging with the man: this episode has got so much else on its plate. The title is a brick through a window, something to get our attention - but it is misdirection. As soon as the TARDIS turns up, Hitler is a joke, and then an irrelevance, shut in away in the cupboard.
4) The Death of Melody Pond. So I didn't see this coming. Watching it back, it becomes obvious just how much like River Mels is (a nice performance from Nina Toussaint-White) but then part of the fun is having things hidden in plain sight. When did I work it out? I can't remember, but certainly no earlier than Mels getting shot, and no later than her line "Shouldn't you ask my parents' permission?" The joy of it is that regardless of whether you knew or guessed, we are given a wonderful few seconds here to anticipate what happens next, like a slowly opening door. She is coming, heralded with that marvellous line "Shut up Dad! I'm focussing on a dress size!" A regeneration is always a shot in the arm, but this is a particularly good one that ends with the fearsome energies of the Time Lords transferred in a kinetic bounce to Kingston's magnificent curls. The aftermath of all this, as the new Melody spars with the Doctor, trading a succession of one-upmanship flashbacks, is scintillating. As usual, the Doctor anticipates everything except a kiss.
5) Rory, for once, gets all the best moments, and Darvill makes the most of them with a gloriously dry, slightly weary sense of humour. Not only does Rory get to punch Hitler in the face, disarm him and lock him in the cupboard, he does it all in that beautiful way that suggests he is just about keeping a grip on his own sanity. "Is anybody else finding today just a bit difficult? I'm getting a sort of banging in my head." "Yeah, I think that's Hitler in the cupboard," says Amy. Later, having been abducted by the Teselecta: "Okay, I'm trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I'm really not trying to see this as a metaphor." When Amy asks him why he thinks they have been hit by a miniaturisation ray, he responds: "Well, there was a ray, and we were miniaturised." Best of all, having punched out another Nazi, Rory takes his motorcycle. "Can you ride a motorbike?" asks his wife. "I expect so," he replies. "It's that sort of day."
6) The Doctor in Trouble. Another blistering performance from Matt Smith, this time as a vulnerable Doctor, desperately trying to save the woman who has just murdered him. Why does the Doctor get changed? Perhaps it's a kind of armour, perhaps the white tie and tails gives him an excuse to use the cane. Whatever the reason, it gives the beautiful sense of a dying man trying to put on a show. His inability to give in, to succumb to bitterness even as his body succumbs to the poison of the Judas Tree, eventually inspires Melody to do something good herself.
7) The Birth of River Song. A marvellous conclusion, moving and emotionally satisfying, that also tidies up a lot of loose ends. In just a few minutes we see Melody's Damascene conversion, her learning to fly the TARDIS, her adoption of the name River Song, the beginning of her relationship with the Doctor, the sacrifice of her regenerative powers, the Doctor giving her the blue diary, and the beginnings of her archaeology degree. It's an amazing amount to sort out, but it never feels like housekeeping and it is the emotions of the moment that are always preeminent. And then those beautiful last lines that make me wish they had never stuck the Next Time trailers on the DVDs for Series Six - that last shot of River deserves to be a proper ending all by itself. Actually I think this should have been the series finale, swapped with The Wedding of River Song - it could easily be rejigged so that the Lake Silencio thing got cleared up mid-season but with the knowledge that an earlier River was still planning to kill the Doctor and destroy causality in the process. Ah well, it hardly matters - wherever Let's Kill Hitler fits, it is superb.
NEXT TIME...
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