The Impossible Astronaut

"A Time Lord's body is a miracle, even a dead one."

Writer: Steven Moffat

Format: TV 

Broadcast: 23rd April 2011

Series: 6.01

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory, River

Synopsis 

Space 1969. The moon landing. And the Doctor is up to something. Sending four envelopes to those he holds closest, the receivers meet up in America. An impossible astronaut looms and the moment the universe has been avoiding occurs. The Doctor dies. Could it be possible? 

Verdict 

The Impossible Astronaut is an outstanding season opener and just proved straight away that after a debut season, Matt Smith is perfect for the role of the Doctor and Steven Moffat has the series safe at hand by giving us a season finale quality episode to kickstart the sixth series! The opening is just incredible. It really is and rewatching on the boxset brought back all my memories of watching on broadcast with the utter shock and excitement at what was just getting started. The Doctor's attempts of gaining the attention of Amy and Rory through history is brilliant, although I'm not sure why he can't just run on to their house. The envelopes were intriguing and I liked how Doctor Who was having a fully set story in the States. America has so much opportunity for a great story, even more so in 1969 for obvious reasons, and after watching the prequel I was looking forward to this one. My anticipation was high to say the least, with a little girl calling direct to the President! Something doesn't add up there at all. And speaking of things that don't add up, the Doctor died. What an incredible opening ten minutes. An Apollo astronaut rose from the lake, the Doctor walked over and just accepted his death. He was shot twice and then again during regeneration. His body was already dead and the Time Lord died instantly. At the time I remember just how huge a shock this was to me and now looking back I just sat and admired. The fact the body was set in flames made the death much more believe. After 1103 years, the Doctor's song had ended. But then the Doctor of 194 years previous shows up having also received an invite. A typical confusing but wonderful scenario from Moffat, which would of course be explained or hinted at over the series as it went on. The shock on the faces of the companions when the younger Eleventh Doctor walked out in front of them was outstanding. And I loved the Doctor in the TARDIS when he could see he knew his companions knew who'd sent the invite. I admired how much trust he had in Amy, after referencing The Eleventh Hour beautifully, but wouldn't trust River, because she was still in prison. The sad reference to Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was emotional and River's days were drawing nearer now. She knew that. And of course, she was right. When she'd meet the Doctor and he knew nothing about it, she'd die. The arrival into the White House was fantastic and I loved how the Doctor knew River was messing with the TARDIS controls. It was hilarious when he referred to her as Mrs Robinson too, just fantastic. Canton Dellaware III was a brilliant character, both old and young and I loved how he told Nixon he was his second choice for president. His voice is just perfect for Doctor Who and I loved his reaction to the TARDIS. Him giving the Doctor his time to take on the case was superb and I just loved how the Doctor found the one place in the USA where the girl could be calling from. Once near NASA, the return of the Silence TARDIS attempt was terrific with obvious continuation from The Lodger. The Silence themselves had a scary debut, frightening is an understatement! They're monsters in suits for crying out loud! The concept of forgetting them after you've seen them is magnificent, arguably an even better quality than that of the Weeping Angels. Everything would come full circle by The Time of the Doctor but for now it's all about introduction. They murdered Joy for no apparent reason, they know who Amy is and there's herds of them crawling through an unknown tunnel line that spans the entire planet. Not too shabby. The arrival of the astronaut being the little girl was unexpected to say the least. Was she the one who killed the Doctor? The cliffhanger itself was marvellous with Amy revealing she's pregnant and then shooting the astronaut point blank. A paradox could be created. Overall, an outstanding season opener and I look forward to the concluding part which is where the rating for the overall story will appear.