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

{{quote|''This is the Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before, then fall so much further. This is the day he finds out who I am.''|'''River Song'''}}

 

''Friendship dies and true love lies, night will fall and the dark will rise... when a good man goes to war''.|'''River Song'''}}

 

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.

 

'''Vastra:''' They've seen ''you''. }}

 

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"}}.

 

'''[[Mood Whiplash|LET'S KILL HITLER]]'''<br />

'''AUTUMN 2011''' }}

** In a blink-and-you-miss-it example, {{spoiler|having your spouse suddenly murdered, when you'd clearly thought that they'd been out for something innocuous and would be back by dinner,}} as the Thin Gay Anglican Marine did. While {{spoiler|being converted to an order of Headless Monks is a bit of a [[Space Whale Aesop]]}}, you could easily apply the situation to something more mundane, like going out to the store or to a meeting at work.

* [[Affably Evil]]: The Sontaran [[Combat Medic]] Strax.

* [[Almost-Dead Guy]]: Both Strax and Lorna live long enough to express regret and drive a knife [[Tear Jerker|right through your heart]].

* [[Ambiguous Syntax]]: "Demon's Run - when a good man goes to war" or "Demons run when a good man goes to war"?

* [[Arc Words]]: "The only water in the forest is the river" refers to {{spoiler|a cultural translation issue. There is no word in the Gamma Forest for a pond, only for a river. Melody Pond becomes River Song.}}

* [[Armor-Piercing Question]]: Not even intended, but this exchange:

'''Vastra''': They've seen ''you''. }}

** The Doctor is so floored by the implications of this he has to sit down.

* [[Army of the Ages]]: See [[Badass Army]] below.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: When Dorium realizes that he's one of the Doctor's draftees.

** Also, when Amy pick up some sort of tool (that looks like an electric toothbrush) in response to a knock on the door of her room

* [[The Atoner]]: It's implied that Madame Vastra was murdering homeless people to avenge her sister before the Doctor found her and convinced her to become a [[Serial Killer Killer]]. Strax is introduced working as a nurse as some ill-defined punishment.

* [[Avengers Assemble]]: We only see a handful of the people the Doctor calls in his marker for, but doing everyone would've been an episode all its own.

* [[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 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 Doctor'': "Amelia Pond, get your coat!" (In context.) }}

* [[Badass Family]]: The Pond-Williams, consisting of Amy, who tells her captors to be very, very afraid of what's coming for them, Rory, who gets up in the grill of an entire Cyber Legion, and Melody, {{spoiler|who grows up to be a woman that makes Daleks beg for mercy.}}

** More immediately, {{spoiler|Madame Kovarian gets away with the real baby}}.

* [[Bait and Switch]]: At the beginning it seems as though Amy is talking about the Doctor when she's telling little Melody about the man who's coming to help them. She's actually talking about Rory:

** When Amy asks the Doctor to please, ''please'' tell them what's going on his head re: Melody, he replies "It's mine," - and then clarifies that he was talking about the cot he found for her in the TARDIS.

* [[Battle Butler]]: Jenny to Madame Vastra. Possibly a [[Ninja Maid|Swashbuckler Maid]]. Not so much [[Les Yay]] as official couple.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: A Sontaran who regrets dying in battle? Talk about playing against your planet's hat.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: It's what the episode title ''means'', so you can expect a lot of it. Rory kicks much ass and the ''entire episode'' is basically showing us this about the Doctor. The 'Colonel Runaway' scene and his [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to River are all about showing the Doctor when he's really at the limit of his restraint.

** As Rory notes in the opening teaser;

'''Rory''': Do you want me to repeat the question? }}

* [[Big-Budget Beef-Up]]: Series 6 has maintained the new programme's reputation for excellent special effects but they take it up a notch for the mid-series finale with appearances from several old enemies and allies, and CG effects galore.

** {{spoiler|and a bit more with gangers, this time having a baby explode into goop.}}

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Amy Pond has to deal with this while she's alone on Demon's Run, mostly involving her baby. Of course, we've seen Amy snap before, so we know this isn't a good idea. Cue [[Beware the Nice Ones]], [[Mama Bear]], and most other revenge tropes.

'''Amy''': "'Cause I've got a feeling you're gonna keep talking." }}

** 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.

* [[Cherry Tapping]]: The Doctor wants Colonel Manton to order his men not to fall back, but to "run away". For the rest of his life, he would be known as Colonel Run-Away - to show what happens when you mess with the people the Doctor cares about.

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

** And of course {{spoiler|Melody/River Song}} as well.

* [[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 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 E4 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.

'''Boy''': ''[Beat]'' "Thanks, nurse." }}

** And:

** And let's not forget the '''other''' nurse who also happens to be the Last Centurion...

* [[Cool Plane]]: Danny Boy and his space spitfires make their return.

''*radio static burst* [[Gunship Rescue|Danny Boy to the Doctor! Danny Boy to the Doctor!]]''<br />

'''Doctor''': Give 'em Hell, Danny Boy! }}

* [[The Determinator]]: Rory, of course. Heaven help whoever is between him and Amy this time.

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

** {{spoiler|After he says that, Dorium walks into the back room and, of course, finds the Doctor on ''[[Oh Crap|his]]'' doorstep. "I'm old! I'm fat! I'm [[Crowning Moment of Funny|blue]]! You can't need ''me''!"}}

* [[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]].

'''Dorium:''' That you pricked the side of a mighty beast, Madam Kovarian, and entirely failed to run. }}

** The Cyber-Legion immediately pull their weapons on Rory, who offers them the chance to answer a simple question and he will be on his way. They fail to answer. Cue the ''entire fleet'' exploding.

* [[Double Meaning Title]]: With the "good men don't need rules" business from the Doctor, the title of the episode may very well apply to Rory.

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

* [[Enemy Mine]]: This looks to be the situation for the army the Doctor raises.

* [[Entendre Failure]]: When Vastra and Dorium notice the weird DNA in Melody's scan, they attempt to be tactful and ask in various vague ways if The Doctor and Amy ever.. you know. However the Doctor [[Completely Missing the Point|fails to grasp at what they're on about.]] Once they find out it wasn't his...

'''Madame Vastra''': ''[scoffs]'' "I am trying to be delicate. [[Celibate Hero|I know how you can blush.]]"<br />

''[Dorium chuckles]''<br />

** Although the title is something of a subversion. It, of course, is implied to be the Doctor, but really it may as well be Rory.

* [[Explain, Explain, Oh Crap]]: The Doctor insists that the baby can't have been conceived on the TARDIS. I mean, they spend far too much time running around fighting monsters for...that sort of thing, and anyway, in ''this'' version of reality they were never on the TARDIS together until their w-

'''The Doctor''': Their wedding night. }}

* [[Eyepatch of Power]]: Madame Kovarian packs a [[Electronic Eyes|cyborg version]] of one of these.

* [[False Dichotomy]]: Melody Williams is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: From the Doctor of all people. Let it be said, he's being very [[Tranquil Fury]] at that moment, his levity is clearly hiding the fact we see later that he is ''very'' pissed off.

* [[Fat and Skinny]]: The "thin/fat gay married Anglican marines."

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: The Doctor thoroughly ''trashes'' Colonel Manton into humiliation, in one of his biggest [[Tranquil Fury]] moments yet. And apparently enjoys every second of it.

'''The Doctor''': Those words. Run away. I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run-Away. [[Humiliation Conga|I want children laughing outside your door, 'cos they've found the house of Colonel Run-Away]]. And when people come to you and ask you if trying to get to me through [[Berserk Button|THE PEOPLE]] [[Nakama|I LOVE]] [[Tempting Fate|is in any way a good idea]]... I want you to tell them your name. }}

* [[A Father to His Men]]: Give Colonel Manton his due. When it looks like the {{spoiler|Headless Monks are about to start carving up his troops}}, he's clearly horrified.

** Rory has been suppressing the Centurion's memories for his sanity. Not so much when Amy is missing.

** The Doctor, as usual.

* [[Foil]]: Rory to Colonel Strax, of all people. Rory was a nurse who became a warrior, Strax was a warrior who became a nurse.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Meta-example. From the BBC website:

** The poem has two more lines in the episode.

** "The only water in the forest is the river." The TARDIS said this while she was spouting gibberish, didn't she?

** "'Melody Williams' is a geography teacher, 'Melody Pond' is a superhero." Yes, actually, she is.

** Lorna met the Doctor when she was a kid. He's going to meet her again and have to know {{spoiler|she's going to die in a few years}}.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: It's a Moffat episode, so there are several. Not the least of which is Vastra's [[Power Perversion Potential]].

''[cue a six foot long tongue whiplash to subdue a prisoner]'' }}

** The exchange between River Song and Rory in the Stormcage Prison.

'''River''': "Now... that's a ''whole different'' birthday." }}

** Or before that, when she sees Rory in the shadows and can only make out his Roman soldier outfit. She is delighted and comments that her jailers usually don't read her request memos.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]:

** 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...

THE DOCTOR WILL RETURN IN '''LET'S KILL HITLER''' AUTUMN 2011. }}

** And after all this: {{spoiler|1=a brief clip of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDhmZwiS-0g&feature=feedu a skeletal hand clutching a sonic screwdriver]...}}

* [[Mook Horror Show]]: One gets the impression the Doctor is the monster in this particular episode.

** Even Rory gets this treatment in the [[Cold Open]], particularly with this bit of dialogue:

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Due to the Doctor's influence, Vastra no longer preys upon humans as she once did. On the other hand, she has no qualms about killing and ''eating'' [[Jack the Ripper]].

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: The Doctor has this combined with a [[Heroic Blue Screen of Death]] when he realizes just how much he's made people fear and hate him over the years, and what that's cost him and his loved ones.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: We can imply that the whole reason {{spoiler|River Song}} was taken from {{spoiler|Amy and Rory}} and became who she is today is because the Doctor has a love for theatrics and likes to make his enemies afraid of him. During the [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech given to him near the end by {{spoiler|River}} he seems to be having a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment when he realizes that he's partly culpable for the creation of a [[Child Soldier]] [[Tyke Bomb]]. Yeah, [[Sarcasm Mode|great going there]] Doctor.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: [[They Fight Crime|Crime-fighting]] [[Serial Killer Killer|serial-killer-hunting]] [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana-wielding]] [[Victorian Britain|Victorian]] [[Interspecies Romance|interspecies]] [[Les Yay|lesbians]].

* [[Not So Different]]: Rory and the Doctor. When the chips are down, Rory will destroy anything in his path to get back the people who were taken from him. Despite being the person who usually tries to save everyone, you do NOT want to piss off Rory and underestimate the fury of the Last Centurion. ''Sound familiar?''

** "''When A Good Man Goes To War''", the title proves equally true of both Rory and the Doctor.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: A number of the Doctor's allies, including {{spoiler|[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E1 Smith and Jones|the Judoon,]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E03 Victory of the Daleks|the Space Spitfires]] and [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E3 The Curse of the Black Spot|the pirate captain and his son]].}}

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: The Thin One and the Fat One. [[Lampshaded]].

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Rory.

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]:

* [[Prop Recycling]]: [http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/eviltwin5311/DoctorCorridors.jpg Those corridors on Demon's Run look awfully familiar.]

* [[Punctuated for Emphasis]]:

* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: Definitely one for the Doctor. He raised an army, kicked the ass of the bad guys with them, took control of the army and even got back the real Amy [[Everybody Lives|without a single fatality]] {{spoiler|up to that point}}. However, part of the mission was to save Amy and Rory's newborn daughter with them, which they failed and even some of the lives of the Doctor's army were lost in the battle. However, after finding out who [[The Reveal|River Song really is]], the Doctor is reinvigorated to rescue {{spoiler|her infant self}}. The battle may have been lost (or won, as the case may be), but the war is far from over.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Given to the Doctor {{spoiler|by River Song no less.}} It basically consists of "you're so successful at what you do that it's starting to scare people, so that whole non-violent schtick of yours is starting to seem kinda flimsy from where everyone else is standing".

** As always, the Stormcage is a [[Cardboard Prison]].

** Bowties are what?

'''The Doctor''': "No it's not." \*adjusts bowtie\* "It's cool." }}

* [[Scary Black Man]]: Colonel Manton.

** The Doctor's victory at Demon's Run in a little over three minutes is perhaps a reference to Asuka's final fight in ''[[End of Evangelion]]'' .

* [[Smug Snake]]: Kovarian positively oozes this trope near the end.

* [[Space Is Noisy]]: A couple of times, each involving Dalek Spitfires.

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

** Dorium pointing out that there are people all over the galaxy who owe the Doctor a favor, and now he's calling them in. {{spoiler|Seems Dorium owes one as well.}}

** From the Fat One's conversion, just before {{spoiler|he loses his head.}}

* [[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]]!

* [[This Is My Name on Foreign]]: {{spoiler|In the language of the forest people, which lacks a word for a still body of water and clearly ain't that complex about music either, 'Melody Pond' becomes 'River Song.'}} [[Translator Microbes]] + averting [[Eternal English]] = [[Wham! Episode]]. Who knew?

* [[Those Two Guys]]: More specifically, Those Two "thin/fat gay married Anglican Marines" Guys, who [[Lampshade Hanging|don't need names]].

* [[Title Drop]]: Twice, both fitted in nicely. River's voice-over gives it context, but Dorium's one does it best:

* [[Trailers Always Lie]]: The preview for the episode sure made it seem like Amy's kid was the Doctor's.

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: Rory facing the Cyber legions.

** {{spoiler|The Doctor and company manage to save the baby, but it turns out to be a double bluff as the baby is Flesh. [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Which completely makes things weird, as Little!River is still somewhere out there in the hands of Madame Kovarian.]] [[Fridge Horror|Wait, what?!]]}}

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: River and the Doctor actually exchange these speeches with one another at the end. {{spoiler|In fact, it could well be said that the entire, desperate attempt by the Clerics to create a weapon usable against the Doctor served as an enormous one of these}}.

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: The "we are not fools" ploy might have worked had the Doctor been working alone as usual. Too bad he has an army.

** The [[Those Two Guys|fat/thin gay married Anglican marines]] seem to assume that they are quirky enough to outlive the story. [[Nominal Importance|They don't even need names!]] Unfortunately, in this series [[Anyone Can Die]].

* [[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 Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With]]: Near the beginning, Dorium attempts to educate the villains about the reality of their situation.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: The Doctor's old acquaintences Strax and Vastra, even though we've never seen them before -- 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.