That explains a hell of a lot.

It seems I'd forgotten that it was all sorted in the end. Now, perhaps I can understand this error- I take it that the penultimate episode ended with the Doctor imprisoned etc. etc.

I have completely and utterly forgotten what the heck happened after that, so unfortunately assumed that this was the end of the series.

DOH!

Right, after much patience and lots of coffee at a variety of wifi places I have seen the ep.

I FRAKKING LOVED IT!

Classic Moffat, made me grin in numerous places and trod the perfect balance between "I'm just gonna enjoy the ride" and "I really wanna figure it all out". From a lesser writer, I might've been a little frustrated, but call me crazy, I trust that guy to tell a good story.

Well then, that was a little bit of a cliffhanger.

Mark

And still didn't even answer the questions from the first episode.

You thought it would?

What question/s would you like it to have answered?

Mark

We obviously have some sort of 'series arc' going on here. At some point, presumably the last episode, we're going to 'wrap round' again and reach the point where the Doctor and the Astronaut are stood in the lake. Then we will find out who is actually in the suit. My original guess was it's Matt Smith, and the Doctor we see being killed is some sort of clone/aberration/ duplicate. I do hope they do better than that though. My creeping suspicion is we'll finally find out the answer to the question 'Who did River Song kill?' and it turns out to be the Doctor. She's the one in the suit and it explains why she's considered to be such a criminal; the Doctor has saved humanity more times than most of us can count, so imagine the reaction to the Doctor's murderer... What I don't know is why...

As for the girl, it's patently obvious she's half time lord half human. If you remember when that happened to Catherine Tate, it's an unstable state and the effects are fatal - the girl appears to be suffering from that but has enough time lord DNA (or whatever they have that passes for it) to allow for some form of regeneration. The Silence were trying to keep her alive because she's possibly the most valuable thing in the universe - a living, growing source of time lord cells. The obvious question though is - who is she? She's a redhead, but there are two redheads in the Doctor's life at the mo. Amy is pregnant but the Doctor has been away for ages before the story starts, so he can't be the father. But then Rory is technically made of plastic, so how can HE be the father either? My feeling is that's linked, but the girl is not 'Amy's daughter from the future' . The other obvious possibility is at some point River and the Doctor have a daughter somehow. I have no idea how that might be written into the story.

So, just a lot of speculation.

Jon

And so someone else voices the suspicion I've had since we were told she was a convicted murderer.
There's lots of hints now that we could be nearing the end of River's story. (8+(

Mark

We have already seen the end of her story. Mind you, we have, yet again, disembodied voices in technology in this episode. River Songs ends her days in a chip. This time we have Amy’s chip bug carried by Rory. This and the empty space suit links back to the Silence in the Library episode, as does the word silence.

It will be interesting to see how they answer the little girl regenerating question. Thinking back to past stories:

1 - We have three unaccounted for TIme Lords floating about - Romana (last seen in E space - but could have returned), Susan - The Doctor’s granddaughter and the Rani.

2 - We also know that Timelords can choose their appearance during regeneration - Romana’s regeneration involved a fair amount of “trying on bodies” until she settled on something pretty similar to Lala Ward. The Master has been known to regenerate and take over other people’s bodies (I think it was the Keeper of Traken when this happened).

Any of these could somehow be involved. I suspect that plundering the past for such trivialities may not happen - and that there are better, more intriguing ways to tie this up using the four main characters - The Doctor, Rory, Amy and Rover Song. There’s enough there to cause all kinds of temporal paradoxes.

Keen viewers will notice that the Doctor opened the TARDIS door by clicking his fingers.

I also like the nods to real history. The Doctor telling Nixon to record everything was brilliant and hilarious - such a simple comment to make, and we all know the consequences of that suggestion. For those that don’t: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate

While I see what you did there I also know you understand the point I was making.

Mark

It will be shame if she did take a permanent exit from the series - she’s provided an excellent solid plot line for a few years now, and the chemistry between her and The Doctor right now is spot on. Both actors are playing off each other so well.

I just found out that Alex Kingston was in Grange Hill in 1980 for a few episodes.

So, you reckon the photo, in the girl's room, of Amy holding a baby is just a red herring?

When the Doctor ran a scan of Amy it was fluctuating between Positive and negative. What thats all about?

Not exactly, I just think the girl being Amy's daughter is too obvious.


Two words - Schrödinger's cat.

Jon

Well, after making a complete tit of myself, I have to say that I have just watched some of the last episode of the previous series (on my Dad's video) and I had forgotten all of it, up to and including the wedding.

At least that explains why I didn't know where this series was coming from. I thought Rory was still a robot!!!

As for this, most recent story, scary? yes. Weird? definitely. Good? certainly typically entertaining Doctor Who fare. But can someone please tell me WTF is going on?

Yes, I know that I'll have to wait, and/or drive myself (even more) insane with speculation.

Namely the one about the astronaut shooting the Doctor from the first episode.

Like i said previously, whilst i don't mind plot points that go over an entire season (Bad Wolf, Cracks in Time etc.), the fact that they opened with a "major question" (i.e. wtf just happened) and it seems like the answer will be given at the end of the season just seems like a cheap tactic to try and keep viewers watching the entire season (which they didn't actually need to do).

It's always been about the subtle clues and questions in Doctor Who, the little things that crop up here and there (like Bad Wolf and the Saxon references), however this is more like the "Cracks in Time" i.e. blatantly obvious references and whilst that was done more to show that everything was linked and that the cracks were throughout time and space, this current one just seems almost pointless.

That's my opinion at least.

Besides, i do like how they've tried to make it as if The Doctor's now "dealt" with the Silence. However the Astronaut suit and the other unanswered questions ("Silence will Fall") all seem to state that they'll be back again in the near future.