New Who Review: The Impossible Astronaut
Posted By Kathleen David on April 25, 2011
Since this is the first episode of the next season, I am going to repeat the ground rules I created for the NWR.
1) Above the cut are my opinions on the show without spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode but once behind the cut and in comments spoilers may abound.
2) We are only discussing episodes that have aired. I am trying to keep myself spoiler free from the rest of the season. I know there is a lot of true facts and a lot of speculation out there. I do allow you to express your theories on what is going to happen next but I really don’t care for “On X site they said Y because they were talking to the make-up artist who worked on Episode 6”
3) If you disagree with something that’s fair but be polite about it.
So general thoughts on the episodes
It was nice to see the old gang back together again. I like how they are using Rory and the actor is doing a great job with the little he is given. They do reference the Red Noses piece but it is subtle which was nice. Amy Pond is becoming a favorite companion and she is such a nice fit for this Doctor. I don’t think she would have worked as well with Tennant.
Most of the episode for me was edge of your seat Set-Up. I honestly don’t know how much will be solved next week or at the end of the season but Moffat set up both threads within the first 5 minutes. And as annoying as some parts were to the storytelling part of my brain, I will give it a go and see what he is up to.
In the end I was happy to see this set of characters again interacting and reacting to things around them and I want to know what happens next which, in my mind, is good episodic television.
I am grateful that Doctor Who is back on the air and that it is playing on both sides of the pond.
So we are going to probably be playing the “who’s in the Astronaut Suit” for the rest of the season. I am serious thinking that this won’t be tied up by next week.
I understand that they don’t have scenery like Utah in England but I wonder why they took the expense to do what they did unless there is a heck of a lot more footage that we are going to see over the course of this season.
Stetsons are cooler than Fezs.
River talking to Rory about how she and the Doctor interact was played beautifully by both actors. It was sweet but sad and you (as the viewer) know that she is right because we are following the Doctor’s path not River’s which made it more poignant.
Yeah Nixon didn’t look like Nixon but it really didn’t matter since he was a set piece for why Canton Everett Delaware III was introduced into the mix. And how cool was it that the character was played by a Father (William Morgan Sheppard) and Son (Mark Sheppard) team? That just added something to the whole character. Both actors have impressed me over the years and continue to do so.
The Silence is an interesting Doctor Who creature. I honestly having decided if they are good, bad or ill informed. I have a feeling we are learning more next week but not everything. Creepiest critter since the Stone Angels.
So we’ll see what we see when we have “a Day on the Moon”.
Wow. I never actually realised that Mark Shepherd and William Morgan Shepherd were related, though I did recognize him as the older CED III. On a slightly unrelated note, have you checked out the Doctor Pooh t-shirts over at Red Bubble? They are just the cutest mashup!!
The first ten minutes knocked me for a loop. Very powerful. Not a typical season opener in that we were expected to know the characters. I wonder how newbies felt about the episode.
I enjoyed the episode. Good start to the season.
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Not a complaint, per se, but wish the future Doctor (200 years older) hadn’t been wearing the same outfit as his present incarnation. Unless there’s a to be revealed plot reason why he dug it out of mothballs, the suggestion that the Doctor would wear the exact same suit for so long implies a return to the John Nathan-Turner era of the Doctor and companions in more-or-less costumes, rather than clothes.
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Unless the 11th Doctor is established as being like Einstein in that he has multiple copies of the same suit. But having the future Doctor in a different suit (though of the same style) shouldn’t have “given anything away.” It would have been no different than Jon Pertwee wearing different fancy outfits or Tom Baker wearing different colored coats in various early adventures, or David Tennant alternating between a brown suit and a blue one.
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Speaking of the Nathan-Turner era, he should have used the question mark motif (on the collar, not as a pattern on a sweater, though I did like the seventh Doctor’s question mark-shaped umbrella handle) for only one Doctor. My choice would have been Colin Baker. They’d fit his Doctor’s personality. How so? Here’s a hypothetical exchange:
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Peri: “Doctor, why does your collar have question marks on it?”
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Doctor (a bit defensive): “I like them.”
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Later, a guest character asks the same question and Peri offers her theory: “Ask me, it’s because he likes to affect an aura of mystery.” If this hypothetical exchange occurred after “The Two Doctors”, Peri could have said she’d heard (from Jamie) how the Doctor used to slip away at the end without waiting for thanks, like the Lone Ranger. Which probably would have led to a comparison with the Sixth Doctor’s less than humble persona.
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For the fourth Doctor to suddenly start sporting question marks on his clothes, and for three subsequent incarnations to retain that affectation, never made sense.
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Back to “The Impossible Astronaut.” As I write this, the first three episodes have been broadcast, and near the end of “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, the audience is reminded, via a brief flashback, that Amy and Rory are keeping a key event of the Doctor’s future from him. I suspect we’re being reminded to foreshadow the return of someone or something from the first two episodes. This year, the season is divided into two parts, with a mid-season cliffhanger at episode seven, then a summer break and the rest of the season in the fall. I suspect that cliffhanger will relate to the events which Amy, Rory and River are keeping from the Doctor.
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Unless the cliffhanger involves the Doctor finding himself in a hat shop which carries both fezes and stetsons; and he only has enough money for one.
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I’m not mentioning what happened in “The Impossible Astronaut” in specific terms to avoid spoilers for people who haven’t yet watched the episode. Speaking in generalities, I suspect the future Doctor’s reason for sending out the invitations is neither to “get revenge” or to prevent the incident from occurring. Well, he’d obviously want to prevent the incident from occurring, but I suspect that would be a side effect of his true goal(s). Which is probably some minor thing, like saving all of creation.
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As River said last year, “The Doctor lies.” If Amy, Rory and River (and we) are ever told why the invitations were sent out, that may not necessarily be the real reason or the whole truth.
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I’m looking forward to seeing how the season unfolds.
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Rick