From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   And the next one...   
      
      
   LET'S KILL HITLER   
      
   1 episode. Approx. 48 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by:   
   Richard Senior. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   Months have passed for Amy and Rory, waiting at home to hear from the   
   Doctor. Finally fed up with their inability to contact him, they   
   decide to attract his attention by creating a crop circle. It works,   
   but it attracts other attention as well. Their friend Mels (Nina   
   Toussaint-White) follows them in a stolen car, then forces her way   
   onto the TARDIS.   
      
   The time machine materializes in late 1930's Germany. Just in time to   
   save Hitler's life - an irony, given that Mels' first thought upon   
   entering the time machine is to "kill Hitler." The German Chancellor   
   was being menaced by the Tesselecta, a time travelling robot from the   
   future staffed by miniaturized officials determined to punish   
   history's most notorious criminals.   
      
   The Doctor's arrival diverts their attention from Hitler. They have   
   found a more interesting war criminal to pursue. Because River Song   
   has just arrived - a River who does not yet know who the Doctor is!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: When he requests a voice interface from his TARDIS, it   
   presents him first with his own image. He rejects that, asking for the   
   image of someone he likes. Taken together with last season's Dream   
   Lord, this statement says a lot about the Doctor's inner emotional   
   state. He is then presented with the images of his recent companions:   
   Rose, Martha, and Donna. He rejects all of these images, each of them   
   filling him with guilt. Rose said of the 9th Doctor that he makes   
   people better than themselves. The 11th Doctor believes the opposite,   
   feeling that he's ruined everyone with whom he's come into contact.   
      
   Amy/Rory: Needing to attract the Doctor's attention, they do it by   
   going big. They create a crop circle spelling out the word "Doctor."   
   Sure enough, he comes - with a copy of a future news magazine in hand.   
   When the Tesselecta prepares to punish River, Amy thinks fast to stop   
   the miniaturized time travellers. Her solution recalls one of her most   
   notable qualities from Series Five: her ability to observe key details   
   and act on them very, very quickly.   
      
   River Song: This would be River's first meeting with the Doctor from   
   her perspective. This version of River is violent, vain, and self-   
   absorbed. These are all traits we have seen in her, to be sure. But   
   here those traits exist with no undercurrent of compassion or even   
   thought. When the Doctor, apparently dying, refuses to give up on   
   saving his companions even in great pain, his struggle impresses her.   
   We also find out who it was that taught River to fly the TARDIS,   
   paying off a line from last season's The Time of Angels as well as   
   recalling an earlier episode from this season.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   Well, that was unexpected!   
      
   ...and in so many ways. I had fully anticipated Let's Kill Hitler   
   being the second half of a story begun in A Good Man Goes to War.   
   Imagine my surprise when it rapidly became clear that this was an   
   entirely different story that happened to follow up on the ending of   
   its predecessor - a sequel, rather than a conclusion.   
      
   This is a Steven Moffat script, with many of the hallmarks. We get the   
   games with time that Moffat loves so much. A new "best friend" is   
   introduced for Rory and Amy, and flashbacks fill in their prior   
   relationship. Then there's a twist that ties that character into the   
   larger season arc. We get to see what is effectively River Song's   
   origin story, and it plays out very differently than I had expected.   
   Finally, we see the Doctor learn of his future death - which, once   
   again, happens very differently than I'd have expected it to.   
      
   All of the twists and turns come in the midst of a story that's   
   lightning-paced and downright bizarre, with miniature time travellers   
   controlling a human-like robot from inside the robot's body. The   
   security system? Antibodies, of course. And the control room is in the   
   brain. It's odd and funny, and more than a little mad.   
      
   Not a bad description of the episode, come to that. The title (not   
   surprisingly) is just there to grab attention. Hitler's barely in the   
   piece, and is treated like a joke by the Doctor and company. A gag   
   that's not in very good taste and isn't funny enough to make up for   
   it. But since it's really a very small part of the story, it's not   
   that hard a thing to get past.   
      
   In addition to structural games - and there's a terrific bit in which   
   we see how the Doctor has evaded multiple assassination attempts by   
   River, all without seeming to have done anything - the episode has   
   another Moffat hallmark: It's audacious. This is a big episode. It   
   follows up on the ending of A Good Man Goes to War. It gives us new   
   information about the Silence, and a new question along with it. It's   
   the episode in which the Doctor and River meet for the first time from   
   her perspective, and it's the episode in which the Doctor learns of   
   his eventual fate. In terms of the overall arc, this is every bit as   
   big an episode as A Good Man Goes to War.   
      
   Yet it feels much smaller, because Moffat has decided that if the last   
   episode was an action film, this one is a comedy. The gags come rapid-   
   fire from the teaser on. Physical comedy, verbal sparring, mild satire   
   - One comedy bit after another. It shouldn't work, and for some it   
   probably doesn't - Comedy in Who is always dicey, doubly so when a   
   "payoff episode" is played so broadly for laughs. But I have to admit,   
   I found myself laughing frequently while watching. It's not the   
   episode I really wanted for this slot. I had imagined something dark   
   and epic. Then again, A Good Man Goes to War filled that bill rather   
   thoroughly. So for the follow up, why not go to the opposite extreme?   
      
   I can't say that this is a great episode. The jokey tone isn't an   
   entirely comfortable fit with the big events, and there's a slight   
   feeling that this episode is meant to tie off emotional arcs that   
   should rightfully play out over the rest of the season. Certainly, the   
   final TARDIS scene seems to suggest that a messy situation is being   
   tied up just a bit too neatly.   
      
   Still, after a season that's been very dark, an episode this light is   
   actually something of a relief. Besides, I laughed, and didn't feel   
   like the episode was insulting my intelligence while making me laugh.   
   I'm not sure there's any better gauge of a comedy episode's success   
   than that.   
      
      
   Rating: 7/10.   
      
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