Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E08 Let's Kill Hitler: Difference between revisions

The first episode of the second half of series 6. Extremely plot-heavy. '''"Spoilers!"'''

 

 

Amy and Rory are driving a twisty route through a corn field, with Amy doing her best to navigate. After a few turns, it seems that they've reached their destination, and they spot the TARDIS.

It's Amy's and Rory's loud [[Black Best Friend]], Mels. [[Remember the New Guy?|Don't remember her?]] Don't worry just yet.

 

 

{{quote|'''Mels:''' Let's see... You've got a time machine. I've got a gun. What the hell. [[Title Drop|Let's kill Hitler!]]}}

We see a few flashbacks of this Mels girl growing up, always near Amy and always asking about the Doctor. Rory tagged along as their [[Butt Monkey]], as best as he could. In school, Mels would always get in trouble: saying it's the Doctor's fault the Titanic sank and the teacher is stupid for not knowing who he is, for example. And that World War II only happened because the Doctor didn't kill Hitler. As she grew older, she was in jail with some frequency, stealing vehicles and generally being antisocial. And she was always a bit jealous of Amy, because Amy had "Mr. Perfect" all along. Amy protested that her Mr. Perfect wasn't even real. Mels meant ''Rory''. Amy explained that she'd love to be with Rory, but they're just friends and can't be together because [[Mistaken for Gay|Rory's gay]]. He'd never looked at girls, after all. As Rory quickly walked out and Mels burst into giggles, Amy realised for the first time that Rory had just been [[Single-Target Sexuality|Amy-sexual all along]].

 

 

Hitler fires a revolver at the robot to defend himself. Everyone tries to duck out of the way, except Rory, who [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|punches Hitler in the face and then, when Hitler tries to protest, tells him to shut up]]. Rory shoves Hitler into a closet, [[Rule of Funny|not to be seen again in this episode]].

 

 

And Melody ''loves'' her new body. It's so ''mature'' ("[[Shout-Out|hello,]] [[The Graduate|Benjamin]]!"), with hair that just doesn't ''stop'', and a whole new color scheme to work with. She doesn't know why the Doctor is rambling about some other broad named River, though. With that, she disappears for a moment to go weigh herself.

{{quote|'''Melody:''' I was on my way to [[Refuge in Audacity|this gay gypsy Bar-Mitzvah for the disabled]] when I suddenly thought, gosh! The Third Reich's a bit rubbish. I think I'll kill the Führer. Who's with me?}}

 

 

Rory and Amy go after her with the sonic screwdriver, but are stopped by a German soldier. Rory tries to explain, decides not to, and punches the soldier out after saluting. They follow Melody, unaware that the soldier was actually the Teselecta robot.

 

 

 

Melody is [[Refuge in Audacity|merrily trying on]] [[Putting on the Reich|Nazi outfits]] when the robot arrives. She's about to be killed, but the TARDIS appears. This time, it's the Doctor who asks "Doctor Who?". He's leaning on a cane, accessorised with an impeccable [[Marlene Dietrich]] outfit.

And he's cross.

 

 

The Doctor tries to convince them not to take Melody, but he's still dying, and he's slipping rapidly while trying to stay upright with the cane. The Teselecta start to punish Melody, but Amy turns the Teselecta's safeguard wrist watches against its own crew using the sonic screwdriver. The crew is forced to shut down the ship, which automatically cancels Melody's punishment. They then teleport to their mothership, leaving Amy and Rory stranded on-board.

 

 

The Doctor's dying words to Melody, whispered into her ear, are for her to find River Song. Rubbish name, she comments, but she can tell that this River woman means a lot to the Doctor. So she promises to try. Amy, still with family priviledges, commands the Teselecta robot to transform into River Song. Melody is stunned to see that this River the Doctor spoke of so fondly is simply herself. She suffers a massive and acute [[Heel Realization]], rushes towards the [[Only Mostly Dead]] Doctor and kisses him, using her regeneration energy to save his life. ''All'' of her regeneration energy. She'll never be able to regenerate again.

 

 

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor consults the information on his death in 2011 from the Teselecta, but hides it from Rory and Amy. In the year 5123, River enrolls as an archaeology student at Luna University on Earth's Moon. After all, archaeology is one hell of a good way to find the Doctor.

 

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* [[Acting for Two]]: The Teselecta as the Nazi officer, {{spoiler|Amy, and River}}.

* [[Actor Allusion]]: This is not the first time [[Matt Smith]] has gone to [[Nazi Germany]]. In the TV movie ''Christopher and His Kind'', Smith played Christopher Isherwood, a homosexual writer who came to freewheeling [[Weimar Republic]] Berlin, but became disillusioned and left when [[Nazi Germany]] was formed.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: Rory pulls one on {{spoiler|a Nazi [[Mook]] by doing a Nazi salute while shouting "Heil" and then catching him with a sucker punch when he salutes back.}} {{spoiler|Subverted in that the Nazi is actually the Teselecta, who let them go and followed Melody instead.}}

** An earlier one (which backfires) happens offscreen. The Doctor tells Mels that guns don't work inside the Tardis. Unfortunately, Mels, being insane, decides to test this, resulting in a broken console.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Combined with [[Freeze-Frame Bonus]]. The name of the lake where {{spoiler|the Doctor dies}} is called Lake Silencio, which is Spanish for Silence.

* [[Bits of Me Keep Passing Out]]: The Doctor after being poisoned.

* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: River, who was brought up to {{spoiler|kill the Doctor}}.

* [[Brick Joke]]:

{{quote|[[Ms. Fanservice|Hellooo Benjamin...]]}}

** Hitler gets locked in the cupboard and [[What Happened to the Mouse?|sort of disappears out of the story]], but...

** Also, For the five or so minutes around Rory, Hitler.

* [[Call Back]]:

** {{spoiler|River's}} comment that her hair "just doesn't stop" immediately after her {{spoiler|regeneration}} is the same comment Amy made about the Doctor's hair in a DVD-only extra scene.

** "As first dates go, I’d say that was mixed signals" is a reference to Amy complaining about getting "[[Celibate Hero|mixed signals]]" from the Doctor in a "Meanwhile in the TARDIS" extra.

* [[Captain Obvious]]:

{{quote|''You never said I was hot?''}}

* [[Continuity Nod]]: So, so many.

** ** In "Time Of The Angels," we learn how River learned to fly the TARDIS from "The Best TARDIS Pilot in the universe", and that "The Doctor was sick that day." Who is a better pilot of the TARDIS than the TARDIS itself? And wasn't the Doctor ''very'' sick this day?

** The re-appearances of {{spoiler|companions Rose, Martha and Donna}} as holograms, and the Doctor's response to them being "guilt" or "more guilt!".

* [[Cool Bike]]: The big motorcycles.

* [[Cool Car]]:

* [[Didn't See That Coming]]: The Doctor to Teselecta-Amy:

{{quote|"At least I'm not a time-traveling, shape-shifting robot operated by tiny cross people, which I've got to admit, I ''didn't'' see coming."}}

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]:

** "Remain calm while your life is extracted."

* [[Dynamic Entry]]: The TARDIS crashes through the window into Hitler's office.

* [[Elephant in the Living Room]]: This is the first ''Who'' episode to air after ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'' was broadcast, and it's essentially said that the Ponds have been waiting all summer for the Doctor to come back. You'd think Amy and Rory would mention something about them becoming immortal for a time.

* [[Eureka Moment]]: "Fish fingers and custard."

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: {{spoiler|Mels}}.

'''Rory:''' [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Well, there was a ray, and then we were miniaturized...]] }}

* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The Justice Department point out that the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio is a fixed point in time, so the poisoning could never kill him.

** Also, Rory worrying that Mels will {{spoiler|end up in prison. And, as River Song, she does.}}

** Plus, the Doctor encouraging Mels, "If you stay alive, {{spoiler|I'll marry you." Also fulfilled with her regenerated self.}}

* [[Henpecked Husband]]: Rory, once again. And, from what we can see, it's been like this for a looong time.

* [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act]]: Subverted, seemingly averted, then subverted again, then played straight and enforced (see below).

* [[Ho Yay]]: The Doctor danced with everyone at the wedding. The women were wonderful, the men a bit shy.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: {{spoiler|Amy saves River from the Teselecta by shorting out all the devices that make the Antibodies leave them alone, forcing them to teleport away when they can't shut the Antibodies down quickly enough.}}

* [[I Know You Know I Know]]: Between The Doctor and {{spoiler|Melody}} as the latter attempts to kill the former. The Doctor even says the trope's name.

* [[It Works Better with Bullets]]: The Doctor anticipates being shot by {{spoiler|Melody}} by disarming all the guns in Hitler's office. Or swapping them with bananas.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: The crew of the Teselecta aims to prevent this, by travelling to the end of said person's timeline... and killing them painfully.

** [[Kiss of Life]]: {{spoiler|A bit later on}}.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: When Melody regenerates, she mentions she might adjust the age later on, this being an explanation for why [[Alex Kingston]] was obviously youngest in the episode set chronologically last in her personal timeline, "Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead".

* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Melody says she wants to take her ageing down gradually, to freak people out, which explains why she appears younger in episodes where her character should be older.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The Teselecta is derived from the word "tesseract", which refers to higher dimensions in geometry, a relevant bit of [[Techno Babble]] to help explain a miniaturisation field.

* [[Mercy Invincibility]]: Immediately after regenerating, {{spoiler|Melody Pond}} is [[Immune to Bullets]] for a limited time.

* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: Amy originally thought Rory was gay before they hooked up, her reasoning being that he's shown no interest for any girl in his life... except her, as she finally realizes.

* [[Mobile Suit Human]]: The Teselecta.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: "Well, I was on my way to this gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah for the disabled..."

* [[The Nth Doctor]]: {{spoiler|Mels, Amy and Rory's ex-con friend, actually ''regenerates'' into [[Alex Kingston]]}}. Averted in the Doctor's case. {{spoiler|Melody gives her remaining regenerations to save him}}.

** {{spoiler|One wonders whether this "donation" of her remaining regenerations might be one way of explaining how the Doctor himself continues to regenerate beyond his Thirteenth incarnation, when the time comes. Other alternative explanations are possible, but this could be a handy one.}}

*** Alternatively, rule one: the Doctor lies.

*** Professor Candy is a known, if involuntary, time traveller; the Afterword of ''Decalog 2'' reveals that the Doctor dumped him in 1996 to stop him giving his lecture.

** The "I had yesterday off" joke is also from "[[Continuity Errors]]".

** The Judas Tree (name of the poison used on the doctor) was the name of the last episode of Jonathan Creek, featuring both Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith, who plays the 8th Doctor's companion Lucy Miller, in the Big Finish produced BBC Radio 7 seasons of Doctor Who.

** {{spoiler|Melody getting her own parents together}} may qualify as one to ''[[Back to The Future]]''.

** The Ponds make the crop circle to get the Doctor's attention. This technique of leaving dramatic messages in history is probably inspired by their previous interactions with River Song. But since {{spoiler|Mels is River}}, this incident is probably what taught River that this technique can be used to contact the Doctor.

* [[Stealth Pun]]: The Tesselecta's "faint." When Rory [[Captain Obvious|points out]] "I think he just fainted," the Doctor looks visibly suspicious, and says, "Yes, that was a faint." Faint? Or feint?

* [["Take That!" Kiss]]: Melody gives the Doctor one, but of course it turns out to be {{spoiler|her poisoning him with her lipstick}}.

* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: River uses her post-regeneration power rush so effectively that it is quite possibly part of her plan. It wouldn't have been hard to deliberately move so Hitler's shots would hit her, or even shoot herself during the confusion.

** The old "Doctor Who?" gag pops up again, this time done by ''The Doctor himself''...

{{quote|'''The Doctor''': You said she killed The Doctor...''Doctor Who?''}}

{{quote|'''First Doctor''': Eh? ''Doctor Who?'' Who's she talking about?}}

* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]:

 

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