Episode 2: “Day of the Moon”
This week’s episode, “Day of the Moon,” was the second part of the two-part opener. In previews we’d seen watching just about every main character get shot, strange tally markings on the central characters and something involving the moon landing. The episode starts three months after the events of the last one and we’re given more questions than answers.
The team reunites in the Tardis, discussing information they’d gathered on the Silence. Judging by the markings they’d made on their bodies (a tally system to record Silent sightings), the alien beings are numerous. To spare the space, the Doctor takes down the Silence in a surprisingly anti-climactic way that single-handedly turns the human race towards genocide. By flashing a video of a Silent psychically suggesting (ordering) humans to kill his kind on sight, the ultimate enemy is made the ultimate target. Hiding the clip in the iconic footage of the moon landing is a nice touch.
So, every time you have a bruise or cut and you’re not sure what the cause of it is, it’s a battle scar. You just killed a Silent. Good job, soldier!
We have a lot of great moments in this episode. We get to see the Doctor with a beard (loved it). There’s a great exchange between President Nixon and Canton Delaware III about how the rough and tough agent had been booted from the FBI because he wanted to get married. The look on Nixon’s face when Canton tells him about the man he wants to marry is absolutely priceless.
There’s more attention paid to the Doctor and River, specifically The final glimpse of the characters is a goodbye kiss between the two: his first with her and (what we discover to be) her last with him. This is particularly tragic because we’ve discovered their timelines are moving in opposite directions (from her death in the episode “Silence in the Library”) and that River will know the Doctor less and less as the series progresses.
Along with that, there’s the question of Amy’s pregnancy. The Tardis reads that she is both pregnant and not pregnant (most likely a side effect of time travel). The baby issue is pushed more when Amy discovers a photo of herself with an infant while in the abandoned children’s home before being confronted by the astronaut girl again.
To make matters more confusing, the closing scene flashes us to New York City. There, we see the little girl again (this time without her astronaut suit.) She shivers and coughs, announces she’s dying and regenerates. In the single most shocking moment of the episode, regeneration energy shoots from her head and hands the same way the Doctor does when he begins that process. Is this a time-baby, and is she Amy’s?
I’m currently subscribing to the theory that River Song will turn out to be Amy’s baby all grown up and that she is unable to tell Amy and Rory that they are her parents due to the intergalactic “Fight Club” rule I’d discussed last week. Some information can’t be revealed. That’s the danger of “spoilers,” as River would say.
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I want to take some Rory Williams appreciation time. I adore him. To me, he is the perfect Mr. Pond for Amy. In the first episode introducing the companions and the new Doctor, Rory talks about how Amy used to make him dress up as the “raggedy doctor” when they were children. It’s this childhood game with his childhood love that inspires Rory to go into the medical profession as a nurse. His job makes him all at once superior and inferior to the doctor; his grounded position makes him real enough to be a partner for Amy, but his lower title will always leave a bitter taste in his mouth.
Rory will always feel second best when standing next to the Doctor. But, Rory is still the one who waited for Amy when she was in the Pandorica. Rory is the one that promises to always come back for her (something the Doctor failed to do when she was young). No matter how fantastic the Doctor may be, Rory is the real man who can offer her real love.
Also, I’m glad to have heard from many of you who read last week’s column. Feel free to e-mail me with your own crack-pot theories; I have nothing better to do than read about “Doctor Who” anyway.