11.21: A Good Man Goes To War
In which Doctor Who walks into a trap, and the New Adventures are an influence.
Broadcast: June 2011
Watched: December 2021
“He’s sort of like a dark legend...”
I think, if I were to ever write a Black Archive, this would be the one I’d do. It’s one of those real Moffat statement episodes, there’s so much to say.
You could write a thesis about that intro alone. More effectively than in Day of the Moon, Amy seems to be talking about the Doctor when she’s actually talking about Rory (Lorna Bucket, wordlessly uncomfortable in the background). I think the only way this works in a literal sense is if you imagine she’s kind of conflated the two as a coping strategy...
...but then again I’m not sure the literal sense is what matters here, because Rory getting away with walking into a base full of cybermen to shout at them doesn’t make literal sense either. (You have to assume that the centurion is a part he’s playing for self-confidence reasons and that he’s wearing some kind of shield I think?) The point is we know the others are stopping at nothing to get Amy back.
“Would you like me to repeat the question?”
I’ve always thought this is quite an underwhelming title. I can see Moffat is going for one of his “The Doctor Does Something” type titles that look good in the Radio Times but I can’t help but think the original suggestion of “Demons Run” is better.
In the New Adventures novel version of this story, of course, they’d both have been used for different parts of the book. One would be set up, one the battle, there’d be a third bit of the poem for the twist in the tale, probably “Count The Cost” or something.
And I can’t stop thinking about the NA version because this episode is the single most NA thing ever put on screen. The Doctor doesn’t appear until nearly halfway through: until then he’s just a force and a shadow and some disembodied hands. At the same time, he’s manipulative and hubristic and going around collecting on debts. The aliens are no longer monsters, but people and his allies. Like Austin Powers, we’re seeing what it’s like to be one of the faceless henchmen or extras who the Doctor whirls past. (We’re given just enough on the thin fat gay married Anglican marines to find the fact one of them gets their head chopped off about 7 minutes in really upsetting.) I love the idea that Lorna only joined up in the hope of meeting him. Casually, in the middle of a season, we’re given an entirely new view of the Doctor.
“...the Papal Mainframe herself...”
And like many NAs, there’s a clear attempt to use the full canvas. The scale of this thing is just *massive*. In the first half we just casually nip all over the place: Victorian London, some future space battle, Stormcage. Then we get an army of monsters, only this time they’re the Doctor’s allies, in what must be a conscious inversion of Pandorica (plus, oddly, spitfires and pirates). More than any other writer, Moffat seems determined to use the show’s full potential.
I’m conscious of how much I’ve written without even getting into the hubris stuff which is the actual meat of the episode. In the scene where Rory goes to recruit River, and she greets him in a strange way before refusing to help in a manner that is genuinely weirdly unnerving, she gives away exactly what’s going to happen (“He’ll rise higher than he evet has before, and then fall so much further...”) In fact, if you’ve seen the trailer for the season, you’ve known that for months. And yet, as with all the best tragedies, you get so caught up in the action that you forget.
Actually, I think the key moment is the Doctor’s bullying of Colonel Manton. Firstly, he uses his courage against him, by tricking him into disarming. Then he’s genuinely cruel in the “Colonel Runaway” bit, hence Vastra growling at him. (Despite the fact we’ve never seen this character before, she is very neatly set up as someone who can speak truth to the Doctor.) Manton, best we can tell, is a decent man on the wrong side – we’ve no reason to think he even knows of Kovarian’s true plans, and the Doctor’s behaviour towards him does justify the whole “no he’s actually a terrifying warrior” reading the church is pushing. And the Doctor chooses to humiliate him.
That last half is just a series of amazing moments one after another. Amy looking genuinely scared to tell Rory she’s lost the baby, and Rory crying as he brings her back (a quite wonderful moment that utterly cuts against fact they’re going to have to not care for the next half season). Rory telling the Doctor to join the hug, his insecurity finally gone. Melody seeing Kovarian. The devastating simplicity of, “Yeah, we know.”
Starkey is so amazing in Strax’s death scene that it’s almost a shame the character comes back. (Presumably the fact that, in the Doctor, Rory and Strax, we’ve got three warrior/healer characters in here is deliberate, even if it is, I fear, meaningless?). Ditto the way the Doctor pretends to remember Lorna just to comfort her as she dies, and the way you hear her death rattle.
“They’re always brave. They’re always brave.”
The regulars are also amazing in that final confrontation, with Kingston giving the distinct impression that River is using this crisis as therapy and Smith managing to turn, “Who are you?” into a sort of threat. The way he starts rubbing his hands when he realises who Melody is is a lot less cool. Amy aiming a gun at River while Rory tries to talk her down is also great. The whole thing still gives me proper shivers.
So, it’s amazing. And that final caption...
“The Doctor Will Return In... Let’s Kill Hitler”
...is one of the most amazing moments of the lot.
The problem is, it’s not going anywhere. We never find out where the Doctor thinks he’s running off to. But we don’t know any of that yet. Within its own boundaries, it’s great.
Blimey, I’ve gone on. Other things, quickly.
It’s a bit Star Wars, this, isn’t it? Glowing swords, warrior monks, etc.
“...that man is your father” is a brief fake out that Amy’s been shagging the Doctor behind Rory’s back. Which is momentarily uncomfortable. Anyway, it is objectively hilarious that the reason for no hanky panky in the TARDIS turns out to be “if you have sex inside it you will accidentally create a Time Lord who can be used as a weapon against the Doctor”.
While we’re on such matters: this episode gives us two committed gay relationships, one inter-species one, an incredibly dirty joke about Vastra’s tongue and a strong implication that River has banged two Doctors at once. Most upsettingly , Strax can lactate.
The Doctor can speak baby, refuses to talk about children, but still has his old cot. Sure, why not.
“Probably just before America”... Why not “during”? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
“How else do you meet a great warrior?” Moffat finally canonises the RADW post from like 1994 or something. [I can’t find it now, but somewhere on the Rec.Arts.Drwho forum during the wilderness years, Steven Moffat once posted his suggestion that we get the word Doctor from the character, not the other war around. A couple of decades later he managed to get it onto the show.]
Vastra’s first story, in which she’s eating people in the London Underground, sounds amazing and I’m amazed Big Finish haven’t done it yet.
The Doctor’s summary of Rory’s story is hilarious.
Vastra says “Mr Maldovar”, Rory shouts “Dorium”. Nothing to say, I just like the character note.
I also like the double revelation, so you can think you’re clever working out that Melody was the little girl in the opening two parter, but then it holds back “Oh, she’s also River” for the very last moment.
Lastly, I absolutely love that “this endless, bitter war, against you” sounds like it means something cosmic, maybe the Doctor’s adventures in general, but actually just means “One specific story we’ll get to in a couple of years’ time”.