So, How Was It For You? (part II)

Last Saturday night saw the mid-season finale (who came up with that particular twist?) of Doctor Who, Series Six: A Good Man Goes To War.

Actually, because we had visitors, I didn’t get to see it until the repeat on Sunday, and then I watched it straight through, twice, without stopping.

While it seems to have divided the viewers, I loved it from beginning to end. Yes, there was an awful lot going on, the sounds of multiple kitchen sinks being thrown in, but they all seemed to have a purpose. The anchor is the quality of Steven Moffat’s writing: the plotting, the one-liners, the sly references to things outside the Who Universe. And then add into that actors who can deliver the lines with believability and panache, and I was on the edge of my seat with a huge grin, and/or tears, on my face.

I particularly savoured the “Lady Penelope” exchange between the Victorian Silurian, and lesbian, Madame Vastra and her hansom-cab driver:

“Thank you Parker, I won’t be needing you again tonight.”

“Yis Me Lady.”

There was Moffat’s playing to the gallery humour of “by special dispensation of the Papal Mainframe, Herself” from Colonel Manton of the Clerics, and then there was the look on Rory’s face as he attempts to offer some comfort to the dying Commander Strax, the Sontaran warrior, and Strax spits back the fact that instead of dying as a warrior, he dies forced to be a nurse as penance for his crimes. Rory is, of course, a nurse.

There’s lots more in there. The episode repays multiple viewings and I look forward to doing just that. And the final joke by Moffat is the next episode to follow this one in the Autumn. He seems to have deliberately invoked Godwin’s Law. The episode’s title? Let’s Kill Hitler.