Who Review: Let’s Kill Hitler
This will just be a quickie review–not too many spoilers I hope. If you haven’t seen the episode and don’t want anything spoiled, please don’t read. Otherwise… first I thought the episode was fun, with some clever Who fan fodder. For example, did you catch The Doctor’s comment about the TARDIS’ “state of temporal grace” (which means that weapons supposedly can’t fire inside her)? Was this Moffat’s way of getting Eric Saward off-the-hook for having The Doctor kill a cyberman in the TARDIS in Earthshock? There were also some holographic past character cameos that I’m sure brought a smile to many faces.
It does seem that the episode served a) to give more River Song backstory, b) provide some comic relief after the heavy mid-season finale, and c) throw in some arc elements that I’m sure will prove to be important later. That’s the thing about Steven Moffat–you can’t always take his stories at face value–especially when he’s writing the season arcs. While it seems that the episode only serves purpose a) (and that did seem to be a large reason for the story), I’m sure there’s more to it than that. The trouble is, we won’t know until episode 13 airs! For example, why Berlin 1938? The whole “Let’s Kill Hitler” idea seemed to be launched and rested after 10-15 minutes, meaning that more than two-thirds of the story had nothing to do with murdering the Führer. So, what was the point? Was this merely a teaser? Or will the whole Hitler thing come back later? Again, we’ll have to wait and see.
Also, I have to say, I wonder if Moffat also read The Beano comic when he was a kid. Remember The Numskulls? That’s what came to mind when I saw the Teselecta!
So, to sum up–a good fun jaunt, with twists and turns, whetting the appetite for what’s to come. Questions answered? Yes. Questions left unresolved? Of course! Stay tuned…
Who are the Numskulls? I liked the story; I thought it was fun.
I’ve updated the post to include a link so you can see for yourself! 🙂
I thought the Numbskulls too! Although I don’t think it would have worked as well in the Beano if their ‘host’ had been a shape-shifting, time traveling justice robot.
Did you pick up on the reference to Kennedy? The ‘Numbskulls’ mention something about being at the wrong point in Hitler’s timestream and not wanting to change history ‘… remember what happened with Kennedy?’ As the only reference to JFK (if it is that Kennedy) in the series has been the Ninth Doctor being in the crowd in Dallas, I wonder if there is going to be an alternate time-line story?
I did catch the Kennedy reference, though I don’t think we’re to read too much into it. The statement could equally mean that Kennedy *wasn’t* supposed to die and did (normal history), as it could he *was* and somehow he didn’t (alternative history).