N-S6E7: A Good Man Goes to War

If you haven't found it yet, watch it here.
I'm not sure if the Grand Moff still has it or not.
As such, I'm going to get my complaining out of the way.

We open with yet another time gap.  As far as plot devices go, this was probably the most well executed for the current series.  However, having the mid-series finale jump time in the future really gives it a feeling of floating off in space, disconnected from everything else that's gone on.  Most of this series has felt disjointed in that manner, though.  Because of the jump and then the jumping around from location to location and person to person, the episode feels very choppy and is just a tad difficult to follow.

And then the beating begins.  No, not the war spoken of in the episode title.  I mean the beating of the audience, over the head, regarding the big reveal promised in this episode.  Let's start with the baby's name: Melody Pond.  Hmmm... that doesn't sound similar to any other names so far in the show, nope, not at all.  Then they toss the fact that it's River's birthday at us.  Really?  REALLY?  This was actually the breaking point for me.  I've been trying to deny the end result (and sticking by my TARDIS theory), but that just killed it for me.  Couldn't deny it any longer.

Slightly less obvious beatings include that River couldn't be there for the battle (she'd be crossing her own time stream, of course, but couldn't tell Rory that) and that Melody didn't like the TARDIS noise.  That could be taken a couple different ways; most obvious that the noise was the breaks and River had previously mentioned that the Doctor leaves the parking break on... less obvious that the TARDIS is her main rival for the Doctor's love.

Getting away from that, there's all the play at the Doctor being Melody's father.  Starting with Amy at the beginning of the episode, describing a father who'll never let her down, who an army can't stop, who's the last of his kind, who looks young but is hundreds of years old, who has a name but is better known to the universe as... the last Centurion.  The Silurian asking how the baby started, the Time Lord DNA having made its way into Melody's genes...  That was the fish the audience was slapped with after being beaten over the head.

Little things seemed out of touch, too.  Like Jenny.  Who is she?  It was implied that she was a regeneration of the Doctor's daughter from Tennant's time, but she didn't know what the TARDIS was and wasn't acknowledged by the Doctor.  Last he saw her, she was most definitely dead according to him.  I'm hoping she's someone else and that we weren't stuck with the end result of deleted scenes.

I think I'm done complaining.  No promises.

Quotes!
I loved the Headless Monks.  They're cool.  They should show up more often in the future.
They believe the "domain of faith is the heart and the domain of doubt is the head," according to Lorna.

River and her relationship with Stormcage has always amused me, especially when she picked up the phone and told the guards, "Oh, turn it off.  I'm breaking in, not out."  That whole scene was brilliant, including the exchange between her and Rory before the mood shifted:
Rory: "Unless there are two of them."
River: "No, that's a whole different birthday."
...all I've got to say to that is oh my.  And fanservice.  Copious amounts of fanservice.  A grand number of fangirls across the globe just had heart attacks and died of dreams come true.

Not quite sure what to make of it yet, but during the confusion with the Headless Monks, the Doctor's voice can be heard: "I'm not a phantom, I'm not a trickster.  I'm a monk."  Another good one, though mostly with how it was delivered, was, "Oh look, I'm angry.  That's new."

The Sontaran nurse Strax was amazing.  He had absolutely fantastic lines, including, "Don't slump, it's bad for your spine" and "I have gene-spliced myself for all nursing duties.  I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic fluid!"  Loved it, 100%.

Finally, we can never have an episode without some mention of something being cool.  Best one was definitely when Amy said, "Crying Roman with a baby.  Definitely cool."  The Doctor's affecting their speech habits.

Oh, and I suppose the voice-over bit River did toward the end of the battle was good:
"Demons run when a good man goes to war.  Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war.  Friendship dies and true love lies.  Night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war.  Demons run but count the cost; the battle's won but the child's lost."

Other things of note!
Badass Rory continues!  Moving up from "the big guns," he now has sword and gun for massive damage.

Sith Lord Monks!  Those swords they had looked an awful lot like lightsabers, though I'd have to admit these ones are a bit more intimidating and less whooshy.

"We are not fools!"  What a pathetic rally cry.  I mean, I suppose they're a religious army, so a certain amount of misplaced ego is acceptable, but still.  Really sad rally cry.  Maybe it was all part of the plan to lull the Doctor into a false sense of security?

There were a lot of debts called in, as noted, and we saw a lot of different faces, spanning the Cybermen (who should have had a larger role, in my opinion, but maybe that means we'll see them again in the second half of the season), the Sontarans, the Silurians (haven't heard anything about them since series 5, but seems they're doing well), the Judoon and even the newly created space pirates!  Nothing says [mid]series finale like multiple races coming together.  Missed the Daleks, though.

Things to think about:
-Who is Lorna Bucket?  She's from the Gamma Forests and has run with the Doctor, that much is obvious, but she's also apparently from his future, since he doesn't know who she is.  Maybe that's the big twist coming up - everything the Doctor does from now on will be in reverse to his time stream?  Naaah.  Not even the Moff would go that far... would he?

-Who is Madame Kovarian and why does she want Melody/River?  There was a comment during the episode that implied she was from the Gamma Forests as well, so that'll likely be explained in the near future.

-This is probably from further back in the series, something I haven't seen yet, but what debt did Dorium owe the Doctor and why was he so terrified of paying it back?  Something of a moot point, seeing as he became headless, but still something I'd like to know.

-When Rory entered the room Amy was in, he Soniced the door open (you can hear it).  But when he came in, he didn't have the Sonic and it wasn't shown that he gave it back to the Doctor.  In fact, the Doctor had the Sonic recently (when he was in the monk's robes during the morale rally), so I'm not sure when he gave it to Rory.  That aside, since when does the Doctor trust him enough to give him the Sonic?  He was rawr enough when River had it in Silence in the Library.

-And of course, the big reveal, which I've skirted around.  River Song = Melody Pond.  I loved that we got some of the squirmy Doctor in that reveal (mostly looks to the potential parents-in-law); that much made me happy.  But my question: why are the names reversed?  Why is she River Song instead of Song River as the in-order translation demands?  Is the Gamma Forest like the Japanese in that the last name comes first?  Slightly off that train, do we have to call her Melody now or can we keep calling her River (I much prefer the latter).

Until September!