Episode #222: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon

"Safe? No! Of course you're not safe! There's about a billion other things out there just waiting to burn your whole world, but if you want to pretend you're safe just so you can sleep at night, then, OK, you're safe. But you're not really."

Episode #222:      The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, River Song, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              23rd to 30th April 2011.

Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song and the Eleventh Doctor receive a mysterious summons that takes them on an adventure to 21st century Utah and Florida in 1969. Along the way they meet Richard Nixon, president of the United States of America, and former FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III.

With this story the newest series kicks off with an excellent adventure. It begins the adventures that deal with the mysterious "Silence". These were first referenced in the 11th Doctor's first adventure, The Eleventh Hour, with the phrase "Silence will fall". These aliens resemble tall, thing creatures reminiscent of Grey aliens from UFO lore. At this time we don't learn a lot about them other than they seem to be everywhere in 1969 Earth and that no one can remember them unless they are looking directly at them.

We are also introduced abut very briefly to the mysterious eye patch lady who plays a bigger part at the end of the series. Her appearance her opens up some intriguing questions (assuming you haven't seen the later episodes).

Another reference we have goes back to the previous season with an episode called The Lodger. the mysterious time ship on the roof either reappears or there is at least another one. A nice tie in to connect the series.

There is a lot of strange cross time line elements to this story, mainly dealing with the Doctor and his companions trying to stop his death sometime in 2011 at the hands of a mysterious astronaut who is also present in 1969. It works in this story as the writers have taken the opportunity to make sure everything fits together. As a future element we also learn that Amy is pregnant.

I really enjoy this one because other the very beginning it keeps a steady pace of action and adventure going all the way to the end. It also has a nice science fiction horror vibe that works spot on. A sort of alien psychological horror I would call it.

The final culmination to the story is really rather inspired and, at least in myself, generated a very exciting sensation. In some elements this adventure could be better but I have no real grumbles about it. Very well done.

Episode #221 : Space & Time

"Oh, so this is how it all ends, Pond flirting with herself. True love at last."

Episode #221:      Space / Time.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              18th March 2011.

The Eleventh Doctor is doing repairs on the TARDIS with Rory Williams' help, but thanks to Amy Pond they make a mistake that could leave them trapped in the TARDIS forever.

This was a special episode created for the BBC charity telethon Comic Relief back in 2011. Although created as a bit of fun for the show it has been accepted as canonical to the show. The story is simply that the Doctor and Rory are making repairs to the TARDIS in flight but something goes wrong when Rory looks up and see's up Amy's skirt through the glass floor above, and pulls the wrong cable out. There follows some comical time travel high jinks as they use the temporal situation to tell their future selves how to fix the problem. Despite the potential paradoxes they fix the situation and get under way.

I love these little filler episodes because it condenses down well and in this case is genuinely funny. It holds the fun elements that younger viewers enjoy but also contains enough disguised rude elements to have the teenagers and adults laughing along.

As the whole thing rocks in at under 9 minutes there isn't much more to say than enjoy this slice of Doctor Who fun.