A Good Man Goes To War: Ranking - 120

   A Good Man Goes To War

(Series 6, Dr 11 with Amy and Rory, 4/6/2011, showrunner: Steven Moffat, writer: Steven Moffat, director: Peter Hoar) 

Rank: 120

  'You know what my name is in Ice Warrior? Drip Jingle. But I keep that quiet' or 'Ring Ring...' 'Whose that? Little girl? What are you doing phoning and interrupting the bathtime of the 27th president of the United States? I didn't even know there was a phone in here - dagnabbit new contraption, it just gets in the way of the important things in life. Like sleeping and eating. I'll see what I can do to help you though or my name's not William Howard Taft and I...hello? Hello? Where'dyou go?'

 

 By the time this episode in series six of new-Who came around fans have been teased with so many clues about River Song’s origins and at the start of the year the mysterious astronaut whose just killed the Doctor in the future which were then ignored for four episodes that fan patience was at breaking point. Finally, at the midway point in the season, before an unprecedented two month break in the season (something which they never tried again past series 7 but which I thought worked rather well) at last we get some answers in the dying moments and they’re the brightest parts by far of what’s really a very simple episode. In many ways its the most impressive DW has ever looked on screen – the series budget was quite healthy in this era and they skimped and saved on other episodes to make this one look good and it feels every bit as big and epic and huge as befits an episode full of answers we’d been waiting to hear for so long. If I was giving marks solely for how a story turned out on screen this one would be a top ten for sure: practically every frame is beautiful, the massed hordes of extras impressive, the amount of returning friends as regulars or in cameo delightful, extending on the idea of ‘Journey’s End’ of just how many friends this loner timelord has and how many people are more than willing to give their lives to help him after all he’s done for them. Really, though, the brilliance of this story lies not in the battle but in what happens right at the end. River Song is (huge mega spoilers that will ruin at least fifteen other stories if you don’t already know) Amy and Rory’s child, part-timelord not because she’s related to the Doctor (as we assumed) but because Amy and Rory made love while travelling on the Tardis. This revelation is beautifully crafted and one that’s actually worthy of the elongated wait we had for it, without – as far as I know – any fans guessing correctly despite all the years of speculation: The Doctor’s face as he ‘gets’ it before Amy Rory or we at home do before running off with glee, River’s guilt that she couldn’t be there at the scene of the Doctor’s biggest battle (because she was already there as the baby and couldn’t cross her own timelines), the sweet guard who hands over a handkerchief with the baby’s name in Gallifreyan (with the unlikely name of Lorna Bucket - presumably that works better in timelordese), the cot the Doctor still has lying round the Tardis from his own childhood days (because of course he has – he’s the ultimate hoarder and has a spaceship that’s infinitely bigger on the inside). Steven Moffat has the reputation amongst fans for being too clever by half and that’s true more often than its not to be honest, but here, with a revelation years in the making that’s had to survive years of fans debating back and forth online while still seeming like a ‘moment’, is sheer poetry. I’d love to know how early he came up with the idea: apparently he had an inkling ever since creating River Song three years earlier when he wasn’t even showrunner yet(and deliberately gave Amy her ‘Pond’ surname from the first to make the link) in which case its the single most impressive cases of patience for an idea to pay off in a series full of them. Forget ‘bad Wolf’ or ‘missing bees’ this is how you do story arcs: everything we thought we knew we didn’t, the revelation changes everything for every member of the Tardis crew we’ve come to care so much for and the story that seemed to have run its course has a whole new avenue to run off in. That’s very DW. The trouble is that revelation comes after the rest of the story which isn’t like DW at all, one which just does the sort of things ‘other’ scifi series do all the time but still feels ‘wrong’. The episode is basically a big ol’ battle, one where the Doctor charges in to save Amy and her newborn with the help of all the friends he’s made during the past years. It’s the first time, in many ways the only time, that the Doctor starts a war rather than solves it and its so out of character: Steven Moffat’s starting point was wondering what would force a pacifist to turn to war and decided that kidnapping Amy would be enough to do it. I’m not sure I agree though: while the Doctor has been encouraging others to fight for themselves from as early as the second story (the first to have the Daleks in it) our Doctor would never ask anyone to risk life or limb for him or his friends – indeed – he has enough sleepless nights already when his companions risk theirs for big fights when necessary. Following the time war (fought by Drs 8 through War in a burden carried so heavily by 9 and 10) a war is the last thing this particular Doctor would risk, even for Amy and it feels odd indeed to hear people talking about the more childish and playful 11^th Doctor as this vicious warmonger, despite all the flashes of this we’ve seen in his character.. Even though the Doctor fights by stealth and uses every trick in the book not to fight at all this is still the closest new-Who ever came to repeating the one-off ‘Dominators’ story that equated pacifists with cowardice. Besides, it’s an idea that’s already been done just a few episodes earlier in ‘The Big Bang’ in reverse, where the Doctor was trapped by all his enemies working together and again ‘Journey’s End’ did something similar with friends albeit on a much smaller scale. To give him his due Matt Smith is a lot more comfortable with anger in this episode than we’ve seen from him before and the plot makes the Doctor ‘win’ without ever picking up a gun up himself. He’s also haunted by the people lost in battle who showed up to help him – you can see exactly why he’s always refused to do this sort of thing before. Even so, as the title says, he’s still a man at war even if he’s at hearts a ‘good man’ doing this for the right reasons – and that still doesn’t fit with his ethos. At least if they had to do this, though, they do it well: the build up across the battle is intense, with the Doctor steps ahead of the audience never mind the baddies throughout, until it turns out they were one step ahead even of that. Demon’s Run itself looks like the sort of thing a Hollywood blockbuster film would do not a humble BBC series (they used a real military hangar, but one in Cardiff, not in space – or so we’re told anyway...) However wrong it seemed then and now, I have to admit I was gripped and the twists and turns and revelations across the plot are first-class. In other words its a blooming brilliant bit of television whatever it is, with a superb finale, but that’s not necessarily the same thing as saying its a brilliant bit of DW.

+ That very final twist and turn, right when you think they can’t possibly do any more: it was all a matter of misdirection from the baddies. Amy’s baby isn’t real but a ganger and disappears in her mother’s arms just when everyone has given so much to save her. Needless to say, mum is not happy. Surrounded by deaths and sacrifices for nothing, this is one of the few times the Doctor truly, un-debatedly, categorically, definitively loses. Rory’s look of panic, the Doctor’s guilt and Amy’s unadulterated anger at the person who promised to save her and failed are all brilliantly delivered. Forget what I said earlier: while other scifi shows would do battle episodes none would end it like this, with the goodies so defeated and demoralised.

- Over on the baddy side of the base Madame Kovarian is hopeless though, not the match for the Doctor the script seems to think she is. Frances Barber is from the hammier side of the DW acting school and doesn’t get much to do except gloat in any case. Her plan for Amy is unclear too: its a trap for the Doctor of course, but what made her think of this one? Frustratingly they kill her off before we ever properly find out, even with several future appearances.