Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E01 The Impossible Astronaut: Difference between revisions

The answer, to their shock and disbelief, is the Doctor himself -- buthimself—but a younger version, only slightly older than when he left Amy and Rory last series. And he's having milk shakes at the little cafe where they all met up earlier that day. After getting past their initial reaction of shock and anger (and after River slaps him in the face), they're able to convince him to travel to 1969. Although hesitant, the Doctor is willing to blindly trust Amy (but not River) after making sure she isn't being compelled or threatened somehow.

The Doctor is able to convince the President -- afterPresident—after some difficulties with the Secret Service -- thatService—that he is capable of solving the mystery. He realises that the child's "name", Jefferson Hamilton Adams, was actually answering the President's question "Where are you?". It's a little girl, and she's is at an intersection of streets each named after these of the founding fathers. (Two of which, the Doctor remarks, [[Ho Yay|fancied him]].)

Our heroes and Canton travel to the location that the Doctor deduced, finding strange alien technology there -- includingthere—including an astronaut suit. The Doctor realises that when the little girl said she was scared of a space man coming to "eat me", she probably meant the suit. River and Rory investigate an underground passage, unaware that it is full of the strange aliens which they keep seeing and forgetting. River tells Rory that she lives her whole life hoping to find the Doctor again, but that each time she sees him, he's younger and he recognises her less and less. One day, she says, [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|she'll look into his eyes and he won't know who she is]]. [[Tear Jerker|And her sheer grief might kill her.]]

=== Tropes ===

** Apart from her fearing it more than death -- anddeath—and we know it's her death too. Kind of. In a reversed way. Only not really reversed.

* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Stormcage is starting to look like one -- thisone—this is the second time River breaks out. One wonders if she's only there because she wants to be.

** The first minutes of the episode are filled with references to the [[Noodle Incident|Noodle Incidents]]s the {{spoiler|Future!}}Doctor gets into after seemingly dropping Amy and Rory off for a while.

* [[Not So Invincible After All]]: [[Word of God|Word of Moff]] has this trope as part of the reason behind {{spoiler|killing the Doctor. Regeneration is more like a saving throw than anything else: Time Lords can be killed (almost) as simply as humans, and the Doctor has only survived so long through [[Guile Hero|guile and wit]].}}<ref> Or hiding in the TARDIS, as a good 80% of his regenerations have taken place there.</ref>

* [[Power of Trust]]: Subverted; when River tells the Doctor that he has to trust her not to reveal what's going on, he bluntly points out that, as much as he likes her, he knows barely anything about her -- andher—and what he ''does'' know suggests that she's a murderer, and has possibly murdered ''him'' at some point. She might be many things, but 'trustworthy' isn't exactly one of them. He is, however, willing to trust Amy.

* [[Tonight Someone Dies]]: It was rumoured that someone on the main cast would die. Amy? Rory? River? The Doct -- noDoct—no, wait, Matt Smith still has the rest of the season on his contract. {{spoiler|It's the Doctor. Specifically, one 200 years older than the usual one. Team TARDIS has to convince Current Doctor to try and save Future Doctor without Current Doctor knowing who he's saving or why.}} [[Timey-Wimey Ball|If you're confused]], blame Moffat.