With the first episode of the new series of any show that's as established as Doctor Who, you need to let your audience know that you're well and truly back. And you've got to keep pushing, keep achieving, keep shocking and wowing them and confirming again and again why you're the most amazing show on British TV. And Doctor Who somehow managed to do all that and more with
The Impossible Astronaut.
I've only ever felt down once by a Doctor Who series opener and that was
Partners in Crime. That episode felt so utterly grounded in the trivial, comedy laced world of the everyday that in so many ways it just fell flat - but The Impossible Astronaut couldn't have been further away from all that. Indeed, at any other time, it might have almost felt like
too much. Sweeping us along in a series of riotous twists and turns that delve deep into both the Doctor's present and his future, you're never quite sure what's going to happen next. This is about as far from a 'straight' Doctor Who story as you could get, and coming from the brain of the genius Steven Moffat, it's a prime example of him winning on every level, once again.
This was bold and ambitious, wonderfully powerful - the very essence of what Doctor Who is. To put something this challenging out on TV at 6pm highlights just how adored this show is. What other show would be afforded the luxury to do something like this with its plot? We all saw what happened to Outcasts, but with Doctor Who, we take all this in our stride and follow Matt Smith and Co. along for the ride.
There were so great moments in this episode it's hard to single a handful out, but special mention has to be given to The Silents. It's fair to say they represent the show's best and most scary new monsters since the Weeping Angels (another Moffat creation). In their eerie black suits and almost 'classical' alien appearance, they melded old and new to conjure up something that seemed utterly terrifying. Their power to make all who see them forget about it instatly is a brilliant plot device, but for me, just the look of the things and the way they were framed in the camera won me over.
You'd see them in the distance, the lens blurred - almost as if you were only seeing them out of the corner of your eye. And then when one emerges, threateningly close to Amy in the bathroom, you almost leap back from your TV. Their cold, calculated, silent menace is the kind of stuff Doctor Who has always done at its very best, but injected into these new, terrifying monsters, those chills and thrills feel reinvigorated and new. When The Silent zaps the woman in the bathroom, my mouth fell open in sheer awe - this felt raw, untamed, far more visceral than the show had gone in a long time. As the scraps of the woman's flesh drifted to the floor, you knew in an instant that this series of the show would take things to new heights.
And that it did: The Doctor died. Properly. He actually, fully died. This was the first time we had ever seen the 'if you kill him quickly enough, he won't have time to regenerate' theory put to the test. And boy did it come as a shock. Again, the cinematography was spot on - we saw the Doctor in a tortuously far away long-shot, framed against the beautiful expanse of the lake. And then suddenly the astronaut reaches out and blasts him. And as the energy flowed around his hands and face, despite everything we knew about Matt Smith staying on in the role, I still almost thought for a second that we would see him regenerate. The Doctor couldn't actually die, could he? But then came the next blast and he crumples to the ground. Dead. It was a card we never expect the show to deal, but there we had it. And it was this little plot device, coupled with his casual return in the cafe, that mark this episode out as a true landmark.
When the trailers for this series first started appearing on TV, I talked a little about how Doctor Who going to America was the greatest of all his adventures. Forget time and space, this was the real unexplored land. And with its wide, sweeping vistas of desert and the immaculately recreated Oval Office, it really felt like it. There was an ever-present sense throughout the episode that we were visiting somewhere new and exciting. President Richard Nixon was brilliantly cast, as was Canton Everett Delaware. Their presence reminded me, in a way, of when Captain Jack first appeared back in 2005. It's the American feel; for a show as ingrained in Britishness as Doctor Who is, there's something exciting about hearing American voices in it - (and speaking of America, how brilliant were the Star Trek references in the bathroom scene).
I haven't been River Song's biggest fan, but in this episode, she did finally begin to win me around. Her cockiness seemed toned done as she found herself in unknown territory. She feels her coming death encroaching and it transforms her as a character. The cheekiness is still there, but now it is textured with some genuinely touching and emotional scenes.
And what a cliffhanger! Kicking off the new series with a two-parter was inspired. Cliffhangers are a real forte of Doctor Who, and this episode went into it with all guns blazing - quite literally. I'm already counting down the days till next Saturday...
