Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E07 A Good Man Goes to War: Difference between revisions

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Last episode, we found out that the Amy we've been seeing was not, in fact, Amy. It was an avatar, making her constantly believe that she was walking around unharmed, while her real self was held captive in a place called Demon's Run. She's given birth there to a baby girl named Melody, guided by Madame Kovarian -- theKovarian—the eyepatch lady -- andlady—and surrounded by an entire military. But she's not scared. Because she knows that the baby's real father will come for them. A man who has travelled across the galaxy. A man who has lived for centuries. A man [[Ship Tease|known as the]]... Last Centurion.

The soldiers are quite nice, actually, and simply believe that the Doctor is a fearsome warrior that should be killed. That doesn't mean they can't be his fanboys, too. One of them, Lorna from the Gamma Forest, met him once when she was young and only joined so she could see him again. She's happily embroidering a little piece of cloth with the words "Melody Pond", as a religious good luck charm for Amy.

The Doctor and Rory (dressed magnificently in his Last Centurion gear) prepare to raise an army. On his quest, Rory defeats a random Cybermen fleet without even a hint of fear. In her cell in Stormcage, River Song sadly acknowledges that the time has come at last. Today will mark the Battle of Demon's Run and the Doctor's darkest hour. Both sides will make their sacrifices and River Song must finally reveal her most closely guarded secret to the Doctor: her identity. She's unusually happy to see Rory, but she can't come with him.

The Doctor gathers friends with old debts in his TARDIS: a Silurian woman named Vastra from Victorian London and her human girlfriend, a [[Badass]] Sontaran nurse whose clone batch [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E4S30/E04 The Sontaran Stratagem|met the Doctor once]], Captain Avery and Toby, the Judoon of the Shadow Proclamation, Churchill's spitfire fighters, and [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E12 The Pandorica Opens|Dorium Maldovar, the owner of the Maldovarium]].

Lorna sneaks out, finds Amy and hands her the little embroidered cloth. Amy is too traumatised to talk to her much.

Chaos quickly ensues again, however, and the Doctor is questioned by everyone on whether or not he's responsible for the child. Because [[Wham! Line|it's got Time Lord DNA]]. And there are not a whole lot of ways for little babies to become half Time Lord. Simply put, when a girl travelling with a Time Lord has a half Time Lord baby, people tend to draw conclusions.

Oh.

The Doctor realises quite suddenly why Amy was so worried about her baby being messed up by the time stream or having a "time head" or something. Little Melody was conceived on the TARDIS, and the TARDIS added quite a bit of her own creative influence to the baby's DNA. And now this Time Lord baby will be raised as a weapon against him.

As the Doctor's makeshift army confronts the soldiers of Demon's Run, Lorna is shot. The Doctor rushes to her side and tells her to be brave. Of ''course'' he remembers her. They ran together, years ago. She dies in his arms. He quietly has to ask who she was, because he hasn't met her yet and he remembers everyone.

And then, just as the Doctor's friends are dying all around him again, River appears. And the Doctor is ''very'' genuinely angry with her. He's beyond [[Tranquil Fury]] and gone off into plain old rage. Why did she wait this long to show up? Why did she do ''nothing'' to prevent all this? Why is she just standing there? This carnage, this drama, this ''isn't him''. River quietly replies that he's wrong. This is him. [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E13 Journeys End|Gathering people around him, changing their lives, making them sacrifice themselves for him]]. As for the Demon's Run army: in the Gamma Forest language, "Doctor" has become the word for "Mighty Warrior". The Doctor's reputation has made him into a demon in the eyes of entire cultures. He's a true [[Memetic Badass]], and they've become so scared of him, they're going to kill him out of sheer terror.

Almost blind with anger, he orders her to stop lying to him and to finally explain who she is. She takes his hands and leads him towards the baby cot. He looks down at his old cot, at the Gallifreyan text, at his little kinetic baby toy mobile. He looks up at River. He looks down again. And he starts to happily make incoherent [[Squee]] noises while she grins and nods at him.

It's all still a bit confusing to him -- theyhim—they've kissed and everything, and that's just ''weird'' now -- butnow—but he's too busy being flabbergasted to even care anymore. He waves goodbye to the Ponds, promises to find little Melody, gets in the TARDIS and gives River one final [[Squee]] before dashing off. River can take the others home.

Amy has a full-on [[Heroic BSOD]] at that. She picks up a gun and prepares to shoot River right then and there. River calms her down with some effort, and tells her to take another look at the Doctor's cot. Because with written text, the TARDIS translation matrix can take a while to kick in. No, not the Gallifreyan text on the cot -- [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E04 The Time of Angels|the TARDIS doesn't translate ancient Gallifreyan anyway]]. River means Lorna's beautifully embroidered cloth, and she shows it to Amy and Rory. [[Arc Words|The only water in the forest is the river]]. In Lorna's Gamma Forest language, the elaborate embroidered text says "Pond" on one side, and "Melody" on the other. {{spoiler|"River", and "Song"}}.

=== Tropes ===

* [[Action Prologue]]: The first four minutes of the episode has Rory infiltrate a Cyber-man fleet, and the destruction of said fleet. All before the title runs.

* [[Badass Army]]: Lets see, the Doctor brought alongside with him an army of Silurians including the one in Victorian England with a female human partner, the Judoon who are basically an intergalactic SWAT team, a Sontaran as a [[Combat Medic]], [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E3/E03 The Curse of the Black Spot|Captain Avery and his son]], an intergalactic black market dealer, with [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E03 Victory of the Daleks|the Space Spitfires covering the skies]], Rory/"[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E13 The Big Bang|The Lone Centurion]]" and of course, the The Doctor himself who is a [[One-Man Army]] by himself, all there just to take back Amy's baby! Good Lord! The Doctor really outdid himself there!

* [[Badass Boast]]: The Moff delivers as usual.

* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: Think about it. {{spoiler|Whatever nefarious purpose Madame Kovarian wanted to achieve by kidnapping Baby!River set a chain of events that makes her a terrifying [[Action Girl]] whose mere name even causes fear in the heart of a freaking Dalek. River will still kill that good man, who in all likelihood, was Kovarian's target to begin with.}}

* [[Body Horror]]: Dear mother of God, the ''Monks''.

** Also:

* [[Call Back]]: The hooded men with the [[Laser Sword|laser swords]] are the Headless Monks. Their future final resting place is the Delirium Archive where [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E04 The Time of Angels|River once left a message for the Doctor]].

** Also several characters and groups from previous episodes make a return to help the Doctor.

** {{spoiler|[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E2/E02 Day of the Moon|The baby has a Time Head.]]}}

** {{spoiler|The logo on the banners of Madame Kovarian's army contains the same logo we saw on [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E04 The Time of Angels|the Church's uniforms]].}}

** The shot near the end of {{spoiler|Amy and Rory looking on as the Doctor takes off without them}} is very similar to one from [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E01 The Eleventh Hour|"The Eleventh Hour"]].

** The speech that Colonel Manton made to his army on the legends surrounding the Doctor as an exaggeration is a clear reference to "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E12 The Pandorica Opens|The Pandorica Opens]]".

** [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E2/E02 Day of the Moon|This is not the first time this season]] Amy has made a speech that sounds at first like it's about the Doctor, [[Bait and Switch|when it's really about Rory]].

** When the gay married couple talk about the Doctor, they mention the time he [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E01 The Eleventh Hour|sent the Atraxi off and then called them back for a "scolding"]].

** The Doctor addressing an army with [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E12 The Pandorica Opens|"Guess who" ]], like in the scene on Stonehenge. [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Even the music agrees with the epicness!]]

** Amy refers to Rory and The Doctor as "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E06 The Vampires of Venice|my]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E07 AmysAmy's Choice|boys]]".

** Amy arming herself with a toothbrush is even funnier when you remember the time the Doctor [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E11 The Lodger|held a toothbrush in the same intimidating manner.]]

** When listing the reasons its impossible that Amy and Rory would have had time to produce a baby on the Tardis the Doctor mentions [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E06 The Vampires of Venice|"sexy fish vampires"]].

* [[Child Soldiers]]: Sontarans, sort of; as a cloned race of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]]s, they skip past anything we would recognize as childhood, both physically and mentally.

* [[Christianity Is Catholic]]: Averted. Even though the sect called the Headless Monks follow decisions made by a "Papal mainframe", their Anglican allies are portrayed as a different sect where, if one of their number needs to join the former, they must first convert.<ref>In the most literal sense of the word.</ref>.

* [[Church Militant]]: Similar to "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E04 The Time of Angels|The Time Of Angels]]" -- though—though Colonel Manton has a military rank rather than a clerical one.

* [[Combat Medic]]: A Sontaran nurse. It started out as a punishment for [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E4S30/E04 The Sontaran Stratagem|something his clone-batch did]], as taking care of the sick and weak is a Sontaran's idea of the perfect humiliation. In spite of that, he seems to have grown to like it.

* [[Gondor Calls for Aid|The Doctor Calls For Aid]]: The Doctor raises an army to help him.

* [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu]]: Remember, the Doctor is considered a [[Memetic Badass]] demigod in-universe. See Dorium's quote above, and his many [[Badass Boast|Badass Boasts]]s.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: [[Word of God]] is that the Headless Monks are the [[Church Militant]]'s special forces. Possibly [[Elite Zombie|Elite Zombies]]s as well, since the detectors don't register them as alive.

* [[Evil Knockoff]]: This is why Kovarian wants Amy's child: so she can make her into an [[Evil Knockoff]] of {{spoiler|the Doctor.}}

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: The Headless Monks, [[Captain Obvious|monks who don't have heads.]] Also the episode title itself.

** Dorium's savviness seems to degrade some {{spoiler|when he walks up to the menacing Headless Monks, thinking that because they know him, they'll let him go}}. He does this after observing that ''they're chanting their war hymn.''

* [[Good -Looking Privates]]: The Centurion uniform is back on Rory to much delight, and there's also Lorna.

* [[Let's Get Dangerous]] / [[Take a Level In Badass|Regained Several Levels of Badass]]: The baddies -- notbaddies—not to mention the audience -- getaudience—get a vicious reminder that between being a nurse and being a companion, Rory was the Lone Centurion. Begins the episode by scaring the crap out of {{spoiler|a legion of Cybermen to determine Amy's location}}, and only gets better from there.

** As for the Doctor himself, this is not one of those episodes where he scares off his enemies by saying [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E9S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|"You're in a library, look me up."]] No, this is one of the times when he shows exactly ''why'' everyone's so scared of him.

** River and the Doctor trade [[What the Hell, Hero?|WhatTheHellHeros]] and the audience is quite caught up in it. Then the Doctor looks at the crib and he's giddy as a schoolboy. He bounces out of the room and...

* [[Name's the Same]]: The inclusion of a character called Jenny made fans assume [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E6S30/E06 The DoctorsDoctor's Daughter|the Doctor's Daughter]] was returning.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: A number of the Doctor's allies, including {{spoiler|[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E1S29/E01 Smith and Jones|the Judoon,]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E03 Victory of the Daleks|the Space Spitfires]] and [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E3/E03 The Curse of the Black Spot|the pirate captain and his son]].}}

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]:

* [[Punctuated! forFor! Emphasis!]]:

* [[Red Baron]]: Rory, the Lone/Last Centurion. Post Big Bang 2, his standing guard over the Pandorica has become part of the Earth's official mythology, and will never be forgotten.

* [[Red Herring]]: A ''magnificent'' one that had been building up for a year: whether or not the Doctor and Amy were doing it. Everyone around them assumed that they were, and it would have very neatly explained the baby. While everyone was busy fretting and [[Star BoardingStarboarding]] over that, the ''real'' secret of the baby is something completely different.

** Since the cot is the Doctor's, and River seems to point at its engraved Gallifreyan text when the Doctor asks her who she is, there are also hints that River could be a future incarnation of him. This was already hinted at in "The Doctor's Wife" when it was revealed that Time Lords can change sex when regenerating. It was [[David Tennant]]'s personal pet theory while filming River's first appearance, and when he revealed that to [[Steven Moffat]] during the audio commentary, Moffat was amused enough to tease the fans with it a little in this episode.

** The Doctor makes a point by ''blowing the ever-loving crap out of an entire Cyber Legion''.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: The Doctor is more than happy to use explosions to make a point.

* [[They Fight Crime]]: Madam Vastra's a Silurian [[Great Detective|detective]] with [[Katanas Are Just Better|a katana]] who [[I Am a Humanitarian|eats people]]. Jenny's a [[Battle Butler]] / [[Ninja Maid]]. [[They Fight Crime]] in [[Victorian London]]!

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: The bad guys of this episode seem to be this--theythis—they genuinely think that the Doctor is a threat to everyone, and are willing {{spoiler|to turn Melody into a [[Child Soldier]] to stop him.}} Madame Kovarian [[Knight Templar|at least thinks she is.]] [[Hidden Agenda Villain|Probably.]]

* [[Xanatos Gambit]] / [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: The Doctor's plan to take Demons Run. {{spoiler|Disguise himself as a Headless Monk and start an [[Enemy Civil War]] amongst the enemy factions. Colonel Manton gets around this by ordering his forces to lay down their arms to get the Monks to back off... leading the Doctor to call in the Judoon and Silurian forces to capture them in one fell swoop}}. Manton tries to counter ''this'' by using the base's automatic distress signal... at which point the Doctor {{spoiler|orders in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 /E03 Victory of the Daleks|the air force of Spitfires armed with Dalek weaponry]] to blow their communications array sky high.}} How much of this he planned and how much he [[Indy Ploy|improvised along the way]] is anyone's guess.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: The Doctor's old acquaintences Strax and Vastra, even though we've never seen them before -- butbefore—but we have seen that actor playing a Sontaran and that actor playing a Silurian.

** In Strax's case the two characters were clones so naturally they look alike.