Doctor Who – The Impossible Astronaut

Director: Toby Haynes
Writer: Steven Moffat

It’s been too long since our last adventure through time and space, but the wait is finally over as we’re flung headfirst back into the thick of things. Moffat’s new Who turns it up to 11, shrouded with mystery, oozing with confidence, dripping with libido, and packing enough frights to send the kids back behind the couch where they belong. 

 

In the first few seconds we’re hit by scene after scene of the Doctor whizzing around time and space. The subtly is gone. This Doctor doesn’t waste time. From naked under an Englishwoman’s petticoats to an extra dancing in a classic black and white film, Moffat’s bombastic script delivers the laughs, as long as one does not think too deeply about the absurdity of the Doctor’s adventures.

 Four mysterious letters are sent to the Doctor’s companions, with only a set of co-ordinates and a time. Cramming in as much John Wayne American scenery as possible, the companions assemble on a dusty road in the middle of the US of A, there to meet the Doctor (the two hundred years he’s spent doing his thing throughout the universe no doubt to be documented in the infinite amount of novels and audio dramas). Their reunion is cut short when a perfect replica of an Apollo 11 astronaut emerges from a nearby lake. The Doctor explains to his friends why they’re there in his normal way of not explaining anything at all, before the astronaut suddenly turns its laser on him, first wounding him, initiating the regeneration cycle, and then killing him. 

This shock beginning, although aimed to remind viewers of the Doctor’s mortality – that he can actually die instead of just regenerating – does precisely the opposite, in the same way as the Daleks and the Cybermen – they always come back. The BBC would not dare kill off the titular character of one of the most loved (and profitable) franchises in history, especially in the first episode. Still, the Doctor’s companions don’t know this, and it’s tragic watching their interactions in the wake of their best friend’s death. Yet who should appear right at that moment? The younger version of himself. 

So begins the story proper: The Doctor and companions in the White House, with Romo Lampkin and a brilliantly prostheticised Nixon, fighting aliens they don’t even remember when they’re not looking right at them. Although appearing rather tame and generic in the promotional pictures, The Silence are brilliantly realised. When their mouths open up like a vagina, the Freudian parallels are terrifying.

Although it’s more unnerving than it has been before, the characters seem to be having more fun than ever. Mr. Pond seems to have finally found his role on board the TARDIS, instead of just being a waste of space who complains a lot before getting killed. River Song and the Doctor flirt unabashedly with each other, but if you know you’re going to die then what better thing to do? It feels good to finally see a TARDIS family again.

 

Though expertly written, it unfortunately seems that Moffat is running out of ideas. This episode masquerades as a culmination of every story he has contributed. The mysterious astronaut is a bizarre hybrid of “Are you my mummy?” (The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances) and “Hey, who turned out the lights?!” (Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead). The terror that The Silence inflicts is based on the same principle as the Weeping Angels. The ending shares a *big* similarity with Amy’s Choice. Amy also has the worst case of amnesia ever (Flesh and Stone). Hopefully this is only a reorientation with past ideas, and they will be greatly developed in the future. Moffat obviously has something big up his sleeve in order to justify recycling so early on.

The Impossible Astronaut feels more like the end of a series. Instead of dilly-dallying around with a beginning and a middle, Moffat utilises the entire previous series as build-up and lunges right into the thick of it. This ominous sense of danger and the brutal cliff-hanger create a refreshing change to a plot-based direction, and this should pay off as the stakes build higher and higher towards the mid season finale, and then build even higher still with the second half of the Series. Even if the ideas are a bit samey, we’re glad it’s back. It’s been a long time.

4 / 5

RIP Sarah Jane. Your stipey overalls were always the best. ♥