6x01 The Impossible Astronaut (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!!)

[Jax]

This whole Americanized thing is a weird remark, the episode is set in America. In Classic Who wasn't most Doctor Who arc stories spread over several episodes. After 6 years its doubtful your going to attract a horde of new fans so there is nothing wrogn with a more arc theme to the show and its nothing knew because RTD did the same but Moffat is mroe direct about it in his writing thats all.

 

[Skellington]

Loved it. Great one-liners, wonderful and charming Doctor/River moments and an overarching sense of fun. On the minus side, I don't think much of the Silents so far and Amy's sorrow over the Doctor's death seemed a tad unconvincing. Smith, Darvill and Kingston were on great form, though.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Hm. Not bad, though a little more low-key than could have been expected (the trailer suggests next week will be more epic).

The big thing that happened earlier on, of course will prove to be retconned/worked around sooner or later. Nice to see W Morgan Sheppard in DW (and his son, of course). It was pretty funny, had some good dramatic moments, and so on.

TBH, the post-modern self-awareness is getting old. I mean, the "Doctor...who" gag three fucking times in one episode? Enough. More than enough. "Anything can happen on saturdays"? The equivalent blackadder gag was funny 20 years ago. The "who is River" stuff is getting wearing too, given that the level of hype means no answer will be satisfactory.

(Oh, I may sound negative, though I do enjoy it - I'm just kind of reacting against the hype - but I imagine we'll get a good rant out of Lawrence Miles about the reference to a Dead Doc's body being worth a lot to so many empires...)

Um, so... a high 7 or low 8 out of 10, I guess.

Speculation - I bet the girl in the spacesuit is Amy and Rory's daughter.

oh, and those of you amazed by this week's twist, just wait till the boards explode after next week's mindfuck twist...

 

[Phily B]

One liners were about the only good thing.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Brilliant stuff from beginning to end, loving the dark elements to it.

Geronimo for me.(Although i was a bit disppointed that the trailer gave away what happened after Amy shot the gun)...but i can live with that.

Roll on next week..

 

[captcalhoun]

they said on Confidential, 'it's really him, he's really dead' and i said to the TV: 'BULLSHIT!'

the episode was good though.

 

[Phily B]

he is really dead until they crash the TARDIS into the reset button

 

[Lonemagpie]

they said on Confidential, 'it's really him, he's really dead' and i said to the TV:

"until the 12th Doctor is cast."

I mean, he got killed in last season's finale as well (exterminated by the Stone Dalek) and that was worked around.

 

[Rarewolf]

Nice to see W Morgan Sheppard in DW (and his son, of course).

It never occured to me that they were related! I didn't even know he was going to be in the episode as well.

Not for the first time, but my initial impression was oh well it was good while it lasted. I last thought this after New Earth and Tooth And Claw.

Its the same as Tooth And Claw, I saw people rave about that too.

I dunno Steven Moffat seems to be trying to be too clever all the time. I'm sure I hope I'll look back differently one day, if the show survives him.

 

[Brent]

To be honest I don't really get the too "Americanized" comments. Note I haven't seen the episode yet. However, there have been episodes that were supposed to have taken place in America before, for example "Dalek" and "Daleks in Manhattan" and they had American speaking people, even if it was brits faking american accents.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

(Oh, I may sound negative, though I do enjoy it - I'm just kind of reacting against the hype - but I imagine we'll get a good rant out of Lawrence Miles about the reference to a Dead Doc's body being worth a lot to so many empires...)

Miles doesn't seem to care anymore, though for all of his protestations that he doesn't watch Who, he's quite well informed. As an example, even though I think it's woefully misguided, his blog post from today equating Matt Smith's Doctor to Jar-Jar Binks in the narratives of Moffat and Lucas was cogently argued.

Maybe a dead Doctor will bring out Miles' inner Ranty McRantRant. But I don't expect it. Torchwood riffs heavily on Miles' UNISYC (from Alien Bodies and Interference), and I don't think Miles ever peeped about that.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

To be honest I don't really get the too "Americanized" comments. Note I haven't seen the episode yet. However, there have been episodes that were supposed to have taken place in America before, for example "Dalek" and "Daleks in Manhattan" and they had American speaking people, even if it was brits faking american accents.

Welsh agenda, Scottish agenda, gay agenda and now the American agenda........where will it all end.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Are both parts airing in the UK today?

Hope not - I've missed part two if they were!

 

[Captain Shaw]

Did anyone think Matt smith looked older in some scenes?

 

[Csalem]

Not bad. It is certainly not the usual bright and breezy first episode we usually get to ease us back into Who. Hard to judge on its own, need to see part 2.

 

[RevdKathy]

A bunch of us were looking at the Easter references in the picnic scene. It takes place on Good Friday 2011.

The leader, knowing that he is going to die gathers his friends around him where they share a meal (at the lakeside - very Biblical). He makes a comment about 'I thought I'd never be done with saving you'. Specific reference is made to his drinking wine (he never drinks wine, apparently).

He then goes a little apart from his friends, asking them to watch, and instructing them not to interfere with whatever happens. An individual comes, and he gets killed. (Suggestion that he is betrayed by one of his friends? - is the child in the suit River Song, who is jailed indefinitely for killing a good man?)

There follows a conversation about Saturdays being temporal tipping points (this broadcast on Holy Saturday) and they land on Easter Tuesday (two days after Easter) in 1969.

Are we heading for a resurrection on a Sunday?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

A bunch of us were looking at the Easter references in the picnic scene. It takes place on Good Friday 2011.

The leader, knowing that he is going to die gathers his friends around him where they share a meal (at the lakeside - very Biblical). He makes a comment about 'I thought I'd never be done with saving you'. Specific reference is made to his drinking wine (he never drinks wine, apparently).

He then goes a little apart from his friends, asking them to watch, and instructing them not to interfere with whatever happens. An individual comes, and he gets killed. (Suggestion that he is betrayed by one of his friends? - is the child in the suit River Song, who is jailed indefinitely for killing a good man?)

There follows a conversation about Saturdays being temporal tipping points (this broadcast on Holy Saturday) and they land on Easter Tuesday (two days after Easter) in 1969.

Are we heading for a resurrection on a Sunday?

You know, I thought something like that myself...

 

[Count Zero]

Is it bad that my first thought after the Doctor gets killed was, "Hooray, they're getting rid of Matt Smith!"? Probably. He has his moments but overall I just don't really care about him. It's weird because I like all the other Doctors I've seen so far (1-4, 9, 10). I somehow suspect we won't see the solution to this until the midseason or season finale.

Anyway, it took me some time to get into this episode but once I did it was rather good. The dialogue was pretty good and funny, though there were a few lines that made me think someone was trying too hard. I liked the insight we got into River's emotional plight regarding her relationship with the Doctor.

What a cliffhanger! I hope the second episode can live up to this.

 

[Crewman47]

Something I was wondering about that didn't get noticed, but where was the future Doctors Tardis? We saw a glimpse of the Present Doctors Tardis in the Diner but no mention or any idea if the Future one is about?

 

[Count Zero]

No, indeed we don't know that.