Doctor Who, Series 6 - Episode 7 - A Good Man Goes To War

THE PLOT

The title says it all really.

Forming an army out of various beings from across time and space who owe him favors, The Doctor leads an attack against the forces who had kidnapped Amy Pond. But who is ultimately behind the kidnapping? What sinister plans do they have for Amy and Rory's daughter? And why is River Song absent from the final battle?


THE GOOD PARTS

* One of the greatest thing about Doctor Who - to my mind anyway - is its' rich universe. There has always been a suggestion in all of the shows, comics, novels, radio plays and what not that there is a whole, big universe out there full of wonders we haven't seen yet. By that token, there are adventures that The Doctor has experienced that we haven't seen. This episode runs wild with that concept, introducing a host of characters that we've never seen before who we are told have adventured with The Doctor before. Among these are a Sontarnan soldier forced to work as a nurse and a lesbian Silurian from Victorian London, who was apparently responsible for killing Jack The Ripper. (Well, if you ignore Doctor Who Comics #2, #3 & #4, anyway...)

* Rory gets the most bad-ass moment in the history of bad-ass moments at the start of the episode. Indeed, this has inspired some to declare him The New Chuck Norris.

* The twist at the end, while obvious in retrospect, is pulled off well. And the clues were there for us to figure it out the whole time. Mind you, I suspect it's going to make rewatching a lot of the last two seasons interesting... just watching the reaction of River Song in response to things happening to Amy and Rory...

* Miraculously, there's actually a sense of suspense going into the next episode. We KNOW The Doctor is going to be successful. The proof is standing right there. But we don't know just how he's going to do it.


THE PROBLEMS

* If anything, this episode tries to do a little too much. The quick cameos are fun as are the new characters we are introduced. And yet somehow, it isn't enough. Hopefully we'll be seeing some of these new characters again later on.

* It's a small thing, but I would like to have seen more interplay between Rory and the Sontaran Medic. A nurse who becomes a warrior and a warrior who becomes a nurse? Hell, they should get their own spin-off!


The Final Verdict: One of Steven Moffat's best scripts ever. And that is saying something! Virtually flawless, with its' only real flaw being that this story deserved two episodes rather than the story told in The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People. There's just too much going on and we could really have used more time with all of these characters as The Doctor built his army.