Spoiler, spoilers, spoilers. Although really, if you're not watching Doctor Who at this point I really question what it is you're doing with your life.
Anyway, let's talk about Let's Kill Hitler shall we?
I have to say that, curiously enough, I did actually have a couple of problems with this episode. Not with the fact that it had Hitler (however briefly). I mean, everybody loves Hitler, right?
Maybe?
Nor even with the fact that the episode is a protected Terminator pastiche, even down to the whole stealing peoples clothes at gunpoint. No, that was all great stuff.
The first major issue I had was with the character of Mels. The problem isn't that she turns out to be River Song. I mean, when that car door opens you're fully expecting it to be River. That's just so her. Nor is the problem that the character will reignite (rather than settle once and for all) the whole "can time lords change ethnicities when they regenerate?" debate. I'm sure you'll agree that anyone who thinks that's a subject that's worth arguing over is best confined to the remote corners of the internet when they can spend all their time tapping out their twisted theories whilst the rest of humanity get's on with it's life.
No, the issue is simply that this is meant to be a character that is so incredibly central to both Amy and Rorys lives and yet has never once been mentioned before. Ever. Even in passing. Never mind the nightmarish paradox that not only is she named after herself but we are shown rather directly that without her influence her parents may never have hooked up in the first place. I initially thought she must be some kind of mind parasite nutter (like in one of the few episodes of Torchwood that didn't completely suck) that had edited itself into their memories or something. Could have been seeded a bit better to make the introduction somewhat less abrupt, though to be fair they probably only thought of it later into the production schedule of this series. Such is life.
My other problem is with how ridiculously easy it is to kill the Doctor. We have a poison which is fatal to Time Lords AND inhibits regeneration AND kills on contact with the tiniest amount. It really puts the amount of effort everyone else puts in into perspective doesn't it? Shouldn't the Daleks be toting dart guns rather than projected energy weapons? Hell, it's not like you even need to break the skin, give them some bloody NERF guns. That or just spray some on the TARDIS handle, pretend to be defeated and just wait for him to leave.
Of course, there does exist the alternative explanation that the Doctor is just trying to catch up to Rory on deaths.
Anyway, aside from the niggly stuff we have an interesting and unexpected episode. I'd had a feeling that River might kill the Doctor the first time she met him, but I really wasn't expecting that to happen quite so soon. The real question is whether or not she's going to do it again at any point, but that remains to be seen.
One of the interesting things with this episode is that there's no real clear villains, at least in the traditional sense. I mean, Hitler's in the cupboard, Rivers brainwashed and in need of saving and even the nutters in the Teselecta aren't really EVIL. That they have a somewhat overzealous security system is more a need for some sort of monster in the episode than anything else.
So, we're certainly sticking with the dark and complicated themes, albeit in quite a fun rompy fashion. The real question is how many episodes Moffat can go for without killing a main character. He is starting to make a habit of it.
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