Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes to War

[strontium71]

I thought that River was going to be the Doctors mother! What with the crib and the fact she always calls him sweetie.

[Steve Green]

A couple of things

[spoiler]I wonder if the implication that she can regenerate is going to mean that her death earlier may not be as permanent as first thought, and also it raises the possibility of re-casting the character if that was the case.[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

Okay I'll take the possibilities and test there elasticity by stretching a theory to breaking point.

Melody [spoiler]/River[/spoiler] is born not just of Amy and Rory but also the Tardis and 'her' link to the Matrix.

The Tardis is the Doctor's 'Wife' as we've learnt.

So if Melody has a child (and we don't know this yet of course) might she be called Susan?

Yep well I did say stretching things to breaking point!

[Leigh S]

I was a bit disappointed in it - for every good thing, there was a bad thing.

The bad things were mainly, as pointed out above, that fannish treatment of old standards, putting a "twist" on an established  in a Kroton the Cyberman kind of style

The Lesbian Silurian consulting detective felt like they'd stepped out of the BBC books range  - now I havent read amny of said range, mainly because I'd read reviews that mentioned something along the lines of "lesbian silurian consulting detective" and wrote them off as indulging in fannish wish fulfillment - amazing to think thats now possible in prime time TV - I'd always assumed it was that kind of self absorbtion that killed off the show in the 80s. That said, self absorbtion is a lot bigger these days - what else explains Robbie Williams?

Now, if she'd been a Draconian that would have been another matter...!

[Buddy]

Liked this but.... Why was Rory asking the cibermen where his wife was?

What did they have to do with it?

And why was he dressed as a roman?

All in all a great half series... Roll on part 2!

[M.I.K.]

Okay I'll take the possibilities and test there elasticity by stretching a theory to breaking point.

Melody [spoiler]/River[/spoiler] is born not just of Amy and Rory but also the Tardis and 'her' link to the Matrix.

The Tardis is the Doctor's 'Wife' as we've learnt.

So if Melody has a child (and we don't know this yet of course) might she be called Susan?

Yep well I did say stretching things to breaking point!

Wouldn't it make more sense if [spoiler]River's daughter's daughter was called Susan[/spoiler]?

[Paul faplad Finch]

Wouldn't it make more sense if [spoiler]River's daughter's daughter was called Susan[/spoiler]?

No, I think Colin was right the first time. Wasn't he? Or am I missing your point?

[Leigh S]

That was the other thing that weound me up - the machismo - esp from Roray(!) with the whole dressing as a Centurion to do what exactly?  I'm pretty confused as to the whole Auton Rory thing being something carried through to the rebooted universe, but thats another issue.

I hear the bravado thing and teh Doctor as famous super hero is something Moffat intends to move from, but im not getting that very strongly from this - i know its mentioned that teh Doctor is getting too far from his roots here..but RTD did similar and never went anywhere with it, just making teh Doctor mor famous and more unstoppable with each "epic"

[M.I.K.]

Wouldn't it make more sense if [spoiler]River's daughter's daughter was called Susan[/spoiler]?

No, I think Colin was right the first time. Wasn't he? Or am I missing your point?

Yes.

[Emperor]

Generally really enjoyed the episode, but was I the only one who found the silurian/sontaran/spitfires all a bit... wanky? As in fanwanky, and not in a good way. Like the sort of stuff that makes most spin-off fiction seem so cringeworthy to me, where the continuity all becomes a bit smug and self-congratulatory - more like, I dunno, Buffy or any random american sci-fi show you'd care to mention than the more quirky, low-key British stuff. Hmm, I don't think I'm articulating this well.

No I get what you are saying.

I wasn't disappointed in that specifically but it felt like there was a tonne of back story was there to explain how he managed to get the various forces on his side because some of them were openly hostile to the Doctor and others were, at best, neutral (the ending here shows why all those species would be so anti-Doctor and why some of them turned up at the end of the last series). I jump on Wikipedia (and the Dr Who wiki) to see which episode it was in which, for example, Tom Baker encountered the sapphic Silurian sleuth and he hadn't. Somehow I think it would have been better to have all the characters drawn in because we already know they owe the Doctor a favour, but perhaps they didn't want it to be so obvious (wanting to elude to other as yet untold stories, as there is no reason they can't be told in the future as long as they are in the other character's past) and saved those we know about for sudden surprise appearances like [spoiler]the space pirates[/spoiler].

The only problem I had was that [spoiler]if river was amy's daughter she should have been acting very OMG your my mum and dad before i was born to them throughout the series. However, River has been all I love the doctor and hardly given her parents a look. [/spoiler]I must rewatch but I think I'm right.

[spoiler]Well if River is travelling through time in the opposite direction to the Doctor, then she's probably already met Amy and Rory lots of times already and the OMG stuff would happen in Rory and Amy's future. Unless I've got all this time travel malarkey wrapped round my head.[/spoiler]

Have I got that right?

No that is spot on - she met them first (as River Song, not obviously their daughter) a while back when they would all know who she was, so it would be more significant for her because it would be the first time in a very long time that she had met her parents.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Wouldn't it make more sense if [spoiler]River's daughter's daughter was called Susan[/spoiler]?

No, I think Colin was right the first time. Wasn't he? Or am I missing your point?

Yes.

Fair enough then.

[chris_askham]

Wouldn't it make more sense if [spoiler]River's daughter's daughter was called Susan[/spoiler]?

No, I think Colin was right the first time. Wasn't he? Or am I missing your point?

I'm glad that's all sorted then.
Yes.

Fair enough then.

[Bluecube]

I'm also not all that sure why those guys actually want to defeat the doctor, but maybe that will become more clear later. Sure, River made her big 'you're responsible for all this speech' but I didn't think the majority of people saw him as a threat. Apart from the usual adversaries, and some of those actually turned up as allies in this episode!

I thought it was fairly obvious in that they are against the Doctor not necessarily because they are evil but because they are afraid of him. The Doctor has over the years destroyed entire Dalek armies with side dishes in Cybermen, Sontarans and loads else. The perfect was example was right at the beginning when an entire Cyberlegion was vanquished in what was probably a flick of the hair and a wave of the sonic screwdriver... Who else can do something like that without a huge army behind them? I would prefer it further explained who these humans(oid) actually are but I'm hopeful that will come about later on.

The concept of the Doctor as someone who has achieved almost mythical and God like status is one that has been developed well since the Christopher Eccleston said boo to the Daleks. It dragged a wee bit in the RTD days but Steven Moffat is going great guns with the concept. The only thing that disconcerts me is that all this build up has to end - one can only climb so high before the fall!

[Colin YNWA]

More importantly it was a bit of fan-wanky speculation on my part and not really worth thinking about at any depth!

[Tiplodocus]

Thoroughly enjoyable, far from perfect but the reveal worked on everyone in our household and the next episode title had me laughing out loud.

Lots of highlights but I think the whole "I talk Baby" was just the thing for me.