Moffat's Choice

Up to now I have done a great job in not taking part in the 'oh my dear, one of the main characters is going to die in the season opener! Let's write a post about it' -frenzy. Actually, the reason for my lacking enthusiasm is that with Moffat having killed each of the main characters at least once last year it's hard to take him seriously. Moreover we have various other reasons to think that whoever is going to die will not stay dead for long. Maybe the most obvious one is that all three of them have been spotted filming for future episodes. So, the only reasonable possibility of why this could get us excited is that we also know that 'The Impossible Astronaut' 2 parter has a number of flash-forwards. And if the season opener started with the actual finale (don't ask me which one as there seem to be 2 this year) things could get more complicated than they seem to be now. But that is not very likely, for what we can assume that is not what was on Moffat's mind when writing this season's opener.

So, with having told you why not to take the whole thing too seriously, let the speculations begin.
Rory is maybe the first candidate who comes to ones mind when talking about this topic. Still, I don't think that Moffat is going to kill Rory again. I mean, how often can you get rid of him and bring him back before fans start complaining about it. That's why he seems to be out of question.

While Amy isn't. Although it might be bad for the ratings, for what I'm not sure whether Moffat is brave enough to kill her...

In my humble opinion the most likely option is River. And I know that she is supposed to die in The Library. But that's the joke. After all, that is the only thing we are not expecting. Fans would be genuinely shocked. However, with Moffat bringing her back anyway it would not even interfere with canon. Not as if Moffat needed to care about this stuff.

The only character whose death I'm not really taking into account is the Doctor's. It is just not very likely. And I bet it's hard to write a season with having killed the main character in the first episode. Well, Moffat says his choice will make people go 'What the hell?', however, I think that would be a too big bit to swallow.

But no matter whom Moffat chooses to die, maybe the most interesting part of the story is how he is going to bring him or her back again.

Summer of 69

Heaving read some of the reviews (The Guardian, SFX, DenOfGeek

, The Guardian again) I was wondering whether it was the same 'The Impossible Astronaut' we are writing about. Because frankly, I don't understand the overwhelming positive opinions people seem to have about it.

Some of the above mentioned reviews claim that the first ten minutes of the episode were genuinely shocking, however, couldn't they have added some more tension to it? I mean, let's say they would have cut that bit and this season would start with River, Amy and Rory entering the fast-food restaurant. Maybe River mentions that the cards are numbered, see the Doctor's blue envelope lying on one of the tables and a few seconds later they bump into him. They are even more irritated and we are doing our best to figure out what had happened. Just imagine how astounded we would have been to find out about the whole stuff when the three of them are talking in the 'basement' of the TARDIS. After all, it's well known that everything we have to imagine ourselves ends up to be a lot more scary than what we are shown.

However, apart from these things I really enjoyed the episode. The Doctor is back and wittier than ever. I just adore Moffat for having written that scene in the oval office. Loved the bit that by saying his standard line the Doctor can keep Daleks and Cybermen from shooting him, but that it does not work for Americans. Maybe this is supposed to tell us something about mankind...

A thing which keeps me thinking is why Amy, who is supposed to be pregnant, is drinking some wine at the lake. Well, DoctorWhoTv.co.uk have already published their 1o Teasers for next week, and one of their point is that she is not pregnant after all. Is she thinking that the Silence are making her feeling sick. But what was the thing she wanted to tell the Doctor in 'Time and Space' then all about? Nevertheless, let's not forget about River also having similar 'symptoms' but blaming the prison food for it. So apparently, the cause of the whole mess is Big Moff's latest addition to the Whoniverse, which are, by the way, really scary monsters with extraordinarily terrifying abilities.

Speaking of River... We still don't know who she is, but it seems she won't end up killing the Doctor. Or will she? The last time he meets her (before his death) he seems to be on pretty good terms with her.

I'm confused, but I can't help feeling that this is exactly what Moffat wanted to achieve when writing this year's opening episode.

Why the Doctor Won't Die In 2o11...

... in spite of that's what Moffat gave us yesterday on screen.

Let's skip the boring introduction bit and let's start with the interesting part, the 3 most obvious reasons why the Doctor being killed by an Astronaut-like creature is not his final and ultimate cause of death.

Firstly, Matt Smith won't be the last actor playing that role. For, and this leads me to point two, the BBC just can't afford to drop their flag-ship show only because the script writer in charge has come up with a rather unusual, not to say crazy, idea.

I guess there are no news here, but what does this mean on a story level...

...which is point three on my list. Looking at the story the Doctor basically recruited his younger self and the rest of team TARDIS to change something in his past. And why would he do that for? It seems that he was not able to do that himself. Otherwise he would not had to recruit them. They would have just shown up at the right time and place without his interfering. So, whatever is about to happen it will change his first timeline, and if it gets altered enough he won't end up dying at the lake, which actually was the starting-point for the whole incident. I know, this is a paradox. That's also what River said and why she objected to Amy saying Time can be rewritten. But think about it, we had already more or less the same situation in The Lodger, the only other episode that TARDIS-like travel-machine or however you want to call it, showed up; when the Doctor told Amy to put a slice of paper into a window, but without it he would not have ended up at Craig's place, so the whole stuff could not have happened, through what he could not have told Amy to put the piece of paper there... So the act of passing on information seems to have its own timy-whimey-rules. At least in Moffat's Whoniverse.

After all, there is really no need for us to worry about a thing. Not even the first minutes of this otherwise pretty awesome episode.

The Coolest, Sexiest, Smartest Most Stylish Thing ...

on Television.

Is that Doctor Who he is writing about??? I just found this Guardian article and if after reading it you still think it does not matter when you get to see this years opening episode you should go and get a check-up. After having read the closing paragraph (Doctor Who might now be one of the coolest, sexiest, smartest most stylish things on television.) I could not stop grinning. In fact I still can't. I've no idea what Steven Moffat is about to do to our all time favourite series, but it seems to be something new and something everyone thinks that we are going to love. I hope they are right. Luckily, we have only 2 more days till we find out...

Just a short Note on....

...io9's First Impression of this year's season opener.

Here is a spoiler-free review by io9 and it's a good one. Even if we aren't told too many things we don't already know about. Well, I'm not complaining and there are a few pretty nice bits after all... And even if I actually wanted to introduce a few people to Doctor Who this season, I guess Moffat will compensate that for us. After all, the Big Moff seems to know what success is made out of and according to io9 there will be no need for us to miss that easy going cheerfulness paired with genuinely scary story-lines he made us to fall in love with last season.

Just for the Record...

... again.

Maybe it's just me getting old, but last year I was much more excited when the Beeb was so gorgeous to release a glimpse of the upcoming season-opener. And a few days ago the BBC gave us a... promo-something AND a proper prequel, still, somehow I can be hardly bothered to dedicate a post to them. If they had done this with 'The Eleventh Hour' (which is still an odd title in my humble opinion) last year some of us maybe would have needed tranquillisers. Ok, I'm joking. Obviously.

Well, I'm not saying the prequel isn't great, even if it is rather a combination of the 'Silence in the Library' opener and the Blink's storyline: Child's voice is recorded on a tape-recorder to deliver a cryptic message which is part of a future conversation, and therefore, only makes sense at a special point in time. Moreover we know the president is wrong, there is at least one white-ish something in the oval office which seems to be an alien. And there is certainly more from where that one came from. Let's go and poke it with a stick...

Maybe the most exiting news are that there are more and more rumours about episode 2 airing just one day after the season-opener. So it may be not entirely insensible to be looking forward to a Doctor Who Easter-weekend.