Ultimate Doctor Who Madness

[frazzledog]

I haven't watched it myself yet, but apparently the Confidential episode for the Almost People said that Amy was a ganger in episode 1. I would LOVE to find out when she was switched, and why Rory didn't know

[Jim North]

Personally I would have pegged her abduction during the three month period between The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. She doesn't see the Creepy Eye Lady in TIA and she's still under the impression that she's pregnant at that point, so I figured it would make sense.

But if DWC says she was abducted before the current season began, it must be so!

[kleptoman]

Presumably, she got abducted before or shortly after she got preggers. Anyone know any time of timescale of when what happened?

[Jim North]

Not with any kind of precision. Presumably it happened after the wedding but before The Impossible Astronaut, so possibly sometime during their extended honeymoon. From the dialogue in both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, Amy and Rory were out and about on their own for a good while.

[Agrajag]

I would say it happened before TIA, just because she already seems confused by her pregnancy even in the first episode. I think? Maybe not, maybe she only starts being confused about it in DotM. In which case between those two is likely. I'll have to rewatch.

[frazzledog]

there is a theory going around tumblr that she was actually taken during the bizathium (That is probably spelled horribly wrong). You know, "The only water in the Forest is River". Which is soooo much of a mind freak if its true (During "Flesh and Stone" is when people are saying) but my friend RUINED it, saying the universe reset >.> But can anyone think of any other forest that both River and Pond were in?

[Agrajag]

I doubt that's true, because I doubt real Amy would have had a change to get pregnant that far back. Unless Rory and Amy were getting married partly because she was already pregnant, but then that would have come up at some point during the story (and Rory wouldn't have been surprised when Amy mentioned it this season). I feel like it has to have occurred after her marriage.

Also I feel like it has to have occurred pre-Impossible Astronaut now. That three-month gap in the beginning of this season is strange and kinda unnecessary, unless they want to stall for time so that she could be reasonably be nine-months in at this point in the season, maybe?

[Jim North]

That three-month gap in the beginning of this season is strange and kinda unnecessary, unless they want to stall for time so that she could be reasonably be nine-months in at this point in the season, maybe?

The gap was partially to show just how bad things were all over regarding the silence, that they could go running around for that long and that far and still be tallying up new sightings.

But yah, it was probably also to help along the timing of the birth. Not that they really needed it so much . . . any amount of time could be said to be happening between episodes, and it's pretty much what one has to assume considering that none of the other episodes in the season have such a massive, clearly denoted gap.

[frazzledog]

A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR SPOILERS. DO NOT READ ANYTHING UNTIL YOU GO WATCH THAT EPISODE

Ok, you can't say I didn't warn you

So if River's real name is Melody, why did she never use her real name? (Even translated, her name is Song River, not the other way around) Why is she in prison? When and why did she shoot the doctor? (When on her timeline... like how old will she be).

So the end, I totally screamed out loud... woke my mother up and everything. I need to rewatch the episode with sound this time, and then rewatch season 5 and 6

[kleptoman]

OH MAN

[Leetmuffin]

Oh man, I love Last Centurion Rory. That early scene with him and the cybermen is fantastic. I also loved the backup characters, especially the samurai victorian lesbians and the sontaran nurse.

[Agrajag]

Everything in this episode was awesome except that River is Melody. I mean I figured she was. It's just annoying cause I'm not super crazy about River and I hoped Amy and Rory would have had a cooler child than her.

Also I'm pretty sure it's implied that Rory is the one River kills, and not the Doctor? Because in Flesh and Stone River says she kills a good man, and in the little speech about rules the Doctor basically says he's not a good man. And there's the intro bit when they're misleading you about what Amy is saying and she's really talking about Rory. So I think the idea is supposed to be that Rory is the Good Man who Goes to War. But we'll see.

Maybe River will regenerate into someone who's less obnoxious.

EDIT: Also in retrospect, River having regeneration powers is the only way her character makes sense logistically. Because now they can show her when she's younger in her own timeline with a different, younger actress, and have it all be explained.

[Jim North]

Everything in this episode was awesome except that River is Melody.

It didn't sink the episode for me entirely, but it did manage to bring it down from super-amazing-totally-freaking-awesome to just a sort of neutral feeling.

Bleh.

Oh, wait, I just realized that the Doctor totally snogged Amy and Rory's kid. Now I'm feeling a bit queasy.

[kleptoman]

So that bit where there's a little girl who regenerates at the end of an episode is river then?

[Jim North]

So that bit where there's a little girl who regenerates at the end of an episode is river then?

Ayup. Unfortunately.

And the more I think about this whole situation, the more unhappy I am with it. Moffat has already admitted that much of River's stuff he's been pulling out of his ass since he just kind of threw her in during the library incident, but this really reeks of asspull. The whole thing where its been building up and building up that River has this TERRIBLE HORRIBLE SECRET that will change everything for the Doctor . . . and it's this? All that angst and worry and nonsense, and we get this. All the great and amazing reveals and twists we've been thrown already this season, and the one that's supposed to be the greatest and amazingest and twistiest turns out to be one of the flattest and most disappointing. Hell, the reveal that the little baby cot was actually the Doctor's from when he was a littlun was better.

And besides the whole The-Doctor-Gets-It-On-With-Rory-And-Amy's-Daughter thing, the worst part is that I get the feeling that this was supposed to make us like River Song even more. But it doesn't make me like River Song. All it does is make me hate Rory and Amy's daughter. I hope the Doctor doesn't find her and that she disappears forever so we can retroactively never have to had dealt with River in the first place.