Day 777: A Good Man Goes to War

A Good Man Goes to War is the epitome of Steven Moffat's experiment for Series 6, which he ended up partially continuing in Series 7, before abandoning altogether after that. His idea was that a way to structure Doctor Who would be to stagger it throughout the year, with the first half of the series being broadcast in the UK Spring, and the second half in the UK Autumn. Amongst the many reasons that he put forward for this being a worthwhile venture, he stated that this would provide the opportunity for Doctor Who to have two big series openers, and two big series finales, all within the one year. Hence why I refer to this section of Moffat's tenure as the BIG section - there's a clear want to make a lot of Doctor Who episodes feel massive.

And this is mainly achieved in A Good Man Goes to War, where the episode feels appropriately epic. I love the notion that the Doctor is able to win a battle with no blood shed at all (not entirely true, of course, as there's a bit of friendly fire between the Church and the Headless Monks). I also think that the final battle, where it's revealed that the Doctor has managed to lead everyone into a trap, is actually quite well directed, with the camera never remaining entirely fixed and always dashing between two or three settings, giving the impression of chaos in clear contrast to the controlled attack from the Doctor earlier in the episode. There is, at the end of the day, a lot to really enjoy in this episode, but the problem is that it doesn't quite work as a series finale; it's just too Big.

I can't help but feel that the story doesn't give appropriate time to the characters, to how they cope with these big moments. There's a few moments at the end of the story where the Doctor goes and wraps everything up whilst still leaving things open to be covered in the Autumn half of the series, but other than that it all feels like the story just lacks enough of those moments to give a well-rounded episode. And that's kind of my problem with A Good Man Goes to War. As a series finale, it succeeds massively, being appropriately epic and exciting. But as episode 7 of Series 6, it doesn't quite work, and just needs a bit more space to breathe.