Doctor Who: S6 Ep7, A Good Man Goes to War

Doctor Who excels at misdirection. This is kind of the fun of the show and why it, sort of like Lost, is so much fun to talk about. How unlike Lost, Doctor Who also has fewer rules that are hard and fast. Ironically, I guess that is why the Doctor is actually a good man. The misdirection of this episode though was on a more meta level though. What we expected to be a plot heavy episode turned out to be one full of simple yet meaningful character moments.

So the Doctor starts the episode totally pissed off and rallying troops to take over Demon's Run, then takes the place over with the kind of flare we are to expect from the Doctor. Of course, they save Amy, but the baby is in another castle. Oh, and once and for all the air is cleared over just how River and Amy is connected.

The plot of the episode fells even more rushed than that summery, but speeding things up like that let them fit in more character moments than they could have otherwise:

--Amy's story about the man who was coming to save her daughter shows us that the same traits that drew her to the Doctor once before are the same traits that she now sees in Rory.

--As the Doctor forced Colonel Manton to tell his troops to "run away" we have a clear moment of insight into just how the Doctor becomes the stuff of myth. To be punished to become "Colonel Run-Away" is like personally. Sure Manton will have small children mocking him in his old age, but he will also become remembered for all of time by that name. The power of such an action is stronger than any weapon known to man.

--As Commander Strax is dying, Rory tries to comfort him telling him that he is a warrior and might make it yet. Strax simply reminds Rory that he is a nurse, not a warrior but has had a good life. It's easy to forget that companions have lives outsides of the TARDIS (other than Martha did any of 10's companions have a steady job?) so this reminder that Rory was also once a nurse is somewhat unexpected. While he must still search the universe to save Amy, he is probably becoming more aware now that his adventures as the Last Centurian are nearing an end. Soon he will be a father for as long as he can be to River and a good husband to Amy. At one time he would have been happy with this, but now it seems like he might have doubts.

--The Doctor loves a good surprise doesn't he? I think this is part of why he left Demon's Run so quickly. He now understands that the events that have been happening to him since he picked up a bow tie have been more closely connected than he might have once expected. Leaving so quickly just means that he sees something that he doesn't want to explain to everyone else just yet.

This was a short recap, but I am busy thinking about video games and art so TV is taking a bit of a break in my head right now. I did write this out on an iPad using Pages though. If anyone knows of a word processor for the iPad that lets me input basic HTML tags more easily let me know.