Day 778: Let's Kill Hitler

I think that I like Let's Kill Hitler. It's a very funny episode, filled with fantastic one liners (I'm still giggling at "You will feel a slight tingling sensation, then death") and it provides an excellent continuation to the saga of River Song. There's something incredibly satisfying about seeing the Doctor put in the situation where he is ahead of River, a stark contrast to their earlier adventures (except for the brief moment at the start of The Impossible Astronaut where they compare diaries, which was also similarly satisfying). The direction from first time director Richard Senior (Let's Kill Hitler was the first television episode that Senior had ever directed) is also surprisingly strong for a first time, with some nice touches that stand this episode out (the moment where the Mels throws the TARDIS model in the air, only for it to transition into the real TARDIS is quite visually impressive). The only problem with this episode, though, is that it lacks resolution.

The previous episode, A Good Man Goes to War, ended with the dual revelations that Amy and Rory's baby daughter had been kidnapped by some evil collection of people as well as River Song revealing that she was in fact that baby, i.e. she is Amy and Rory's daughter. And coming into Let's Kill Hitler, we see that the Doctor has made no headway into finding young River, but all of that gets thrown out of the window when it turns out young River was secretly the school friend of Amy and Rory, and the story becomes about the young version of River trying to kill the Doctor. Which, I suppose, acts as a bit of a resolution to those two plot lines. We find out that the young version of River grew up safely and we see that she got to spend some valuable time with her parents throughout her life. The only problem, however, is that we don't really spend enough time on that particular part of the story. It's all there, lurking away in the undercurrents of the adventure, but there's no moment of stillness for the four characters to sit and talk about what's happened to them. It turns what could have been a great series return, into something that's easy to like, but begins to fall apart when you try to examine it more closely.

But still, what other episode of Doctor Who could nonchalantly put Hitler in a cupboard and then forget about him for the rest of the episode?