Review of Let’s Kill Hitler
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

There was a lot going on in this episode. People (aka “fans,” aka “bloggers”) complain a lot about the sense of pacing in Moffat’s writing – how he seems to cram too much into the second half of a two-parter, for example – and I don’t see that changing in regards to Hitler. But for the front end of River Song’s story – from her perspective, anyway – we can hardly expect anything else.

I’ll admit it: by the time the opening credits rolled, I was thinking, “oh, god… this one’s going to be rubbish.” I certainly didn’t buy into the best-friend-we’ve-never-come-across-before thing, either. Before I could get too cranky about that, though, Moffat threw a bone to fandom with the temporal grace comment. “Hmmm…” I thought. “Maybe there’s hope for the episode yet.”

Once Rory got not only to punch Hitler but also to tell him to shut up, I was ready to roll with it. Anything that allows me to see Rory the Badass Roman lurking under that modern exterior is going to earn a few squee!‘s from me (e.g., tricking an officer into saluting long enough to deck him and steal his bike, or even just taking the mickey out of his wife a bit by mimicking her accent back at her (“‘Clues‘? What kind of ‘clues‘?”)). I like that the character development we’ve seen has been kept and expanded, so that he’s really a full-on, capable Companion now.

On the note of Hitler, though, he really had very little to do with the episode. Once he’d been locked in a cupboard 15 minutes in, we never had so much as another whisper of him. So he’s relegated to the ranks of Plot Devices (there had to be some reason the teselecta was there to notice Mels) and Excuses for Clever Titles. A fitting punishment for war crimes, perhaps…

Speaking of war crimes, why is the Doctor (and his “fixed point” death – ugh! – let’s not go there…) a part of the collective consciousness of whatever culture spawned the teselecta (with its super-cool morphing effect) and its sponsoring Justice Department? Clearly they originate from a time after the end of “this endless, bitter war” against the Doctor, if they’re ready to carry out a sentence on Melody Pond for killing him. (As an aside, I’m starting to wonder if the Astronaut was either some sort of duplicate (Flesh? alternate universe?) of River or a back-to-brainwashed version of her. If she was framed for the murder, that might be why she reacted with an “of course” after failing to hit it with her gun…)

Whoever they are, they all know the Doctor. Somehow, that seems very wrong, especially thinking back to instances like The Next Doctor, in which he gets his first-ever accolades for saving the world. Any reality in which the Doctor is a household name (~ahem~) is not one in which he is acting like the Doctor I’ve come to know and love (that’s One through early Eleven, by the way). So I don’t know what that’s all about, but I hope it’s something that gets “fixed” by the end of the series.

The main thrust of the story, of course, is learning the origins of River Song (and she seems so different at first, it’s like she is from a different universe). Moffat’s so busy tying up loose ends from her future/history, it’s like watching a highly caffeinated person do macrame. Let’s take a look at the things that were addressed:

• why she chose to study archaeology
• where she got the ubiquitous journal
• the origin of her use of the word “spoilers”
• when she learned his name, and in what situation he “could” tell her
• the origin of the “Rules” (not least, Rule #1: the Doctor lies – which I’ve applied to my own purposes elsewhere)
• how River learns to fly the TARDIS (“It’s a shame you were busy that day…”)
• what she meant when she told the Doctor that “everything changes”
• the fact that the actress (isn’t Alex Kingston bloody brilliant?) is aging in the same direction as the Doctor’s timeline, but River’s supposed to be going the other direction (“I might take the age down a little. Just gradually… to freak people out.”)

There are, however, still plenty of things unresolved. To wit:

• “Are you married?” “Are you asking?” “Yes.” “Yes.”
• undocumented adventures:
  • picnic at Asgard
  • the Bone Meadows
  • Easter Island
  • Jim the Fish
  • the Singing Towers on Derillium
• why she’s in the Storm Cage – exactly who did she kill, and why (it still seems too straightforward that she was the Astronaut)

What I want to know most, though, is this: why would River say she and the Doctor were “back to front,” in terms of timelines?  If Hitler is River’s beginning, then that can’t be strictly true, because we know (thanks to trailers) she’ll be back later in this series. Since we experience events along the Doctor’s timeline, from here on out ought to be where things start to go all wahoonie-shaped in terms of keeping track of who’s experienced what.

Perhaps the most important long-term plot point in the entire episode is the fact that she gave up “all [her] remaining regenerations” to save the Doctor – that’s ten of them, if I’m counting right. I guess the Grand Moff has neatly solved the pending problem of how to keep the Doctor going past two more actors. It seems I got that aspect right after all!

Though it was flawed, in the end, Hitler delivered (River Song fans will certainly be glad to watch it over and over). I heartily applaud the return of Caitlin Blackwood as Amelia Pond, and there were a slew of little toss-off’s that just made me smile. Of course, a classic post-regeneration scene was given a new twist because the person regenerating was female and steeped in the 20th/21st Century culture that’s so focused on appearance. And how can you not love Rory’s reaction to boarding the teselecta (“OK… I’m trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I’m really trying not to see this as a metaphor…”)? Then there was the way Moffat reached into his own bag of tricks to reprise the banana-as-gun gag and, obliquely, gave a nod to The Movie – when Mels-not-yet-River exclaimed, “You’re dying! And you stopped to change?!?”, I couldn’t help but think of how the Master claimed he “always dress[ed] for the occasion!”

We’ve been given more on the Series Six story arc, too. For example, Melody/River’s supposed to have done the deed “on the orders of the movement known as The Silence and Academy of the Question.” Further, it’s clarified that The Silence is a religious order who believe “that silence will fall when the Question is asked. … The oldest Question in the universe – hidden in plain sight.” Since they clearly can’t use “what do you get if you multiply six by nine?“, I suppose we’ll be hearing more about The First Question ’round about Episode 13.