UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION: UNSUNG CLASSICS - PART 2

I decided that, since I did an UNSUNG CLASSICS post on a Classic Series story, I needed to equalize things and talk about a New Series story, too. So, here we are: doing another UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION essay to re-dress the balance (it could be entirely possible that I also just really enjoy doing these and wanted to do another one!). 


The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

The Doctor dies.    He doesn't, simply, regenerate (though an attempt is made).  He flat-out drops dead and ceases existing.    It's the moment we've all dreaded to see: our hero falling, once and for all.   And it all happens within the first ten minutes of an entire new season.     Never has Doctor Who done a bolder a thing.

Though this is a mind-blowingly effective way to grab our attention, it is far more important that the rest of the story is as equally-compelling.   And that is what truly makes Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon the masterpiece that it is.   Its breath-taking first few moments could have completely overshadowed everything else had the rest of the plot not been just as exciting.    But Moffat is fully aware of this potential pitfall and skirts around it beautifully with a storyline that never stops delivering.   

The whole adventure, for the most part, moves at breakneck speed .  Making only a few brief stops to enjoy wonderful character moments like Rory listening to his wife profess her love to someone and wondering who she's truly talking to.   Or River lamenting the non-linear nature of her relationship with the Doctor.   

It also actually manages to drop a few more bombs along the way. Amy revealing that she's pregnant or the fake deaths of the Ponds and River Song in the pre-titles of Day of the Moon are almost as shocking as that opening sequence at Lake Silencio.  

We also get a new race of creatures that, even though they work in a similar manner to the Weeping Angels, somehow don't feel like a cheap rip-off.   In fact, they are almost as iconic and memorable as the Angels.    And they are definitely just as creepy!  

This is the chief reason Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon ranks so high in my books.   It not only does the most unthinkable thing you can do in Doctor Who - it also remembers to make the rest of plot just as damned good.   If not better.   The fact that it does so for not just one but two full episodes makes me truly stand up and applaud Moffat.    He is the master story-teller that many make him out to be.   And, while Blink and Empty Child/Doctor Dances or even Eleventh Hour all seem to get higher praise from most of fandom, I think this is truly Steven Moffat at his best.    Because he gives himself the greatest challenge as a writer and then lives up to it. And such an act deserves far greater appreciation than it seems to be getting.  

            

But living up to a challenge is not the only positive attribute in this tale that deserves honorable mention in this review.    There's so much more....

            

Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon uses many of the conventions that Moffat is famous for.    We've got a timey-whimey, non-linear central premise.    A monster that plays upon primal fears.    Some naughty double-entendres that almost cause the story to lose its "suitable for family viewing" status.  We've even got another script in which a child has a prominent role in the cast.  While we've seen Moffat play with all these of elements before, he does it most deftly in this tale.    And this is because he needs to make way for a new convention that we haven't really seen him use in Who before - he's actually giving the story a bit of a soap-opera feel.  

            

Soap operas are as popular as they are because they take great time to focus on the relationships between all the characters.  They make those relationships suitably turbulent so that we can't help but become totally engrossed in them.   In most other forms of story-telling - the relationships serve the plot.   But in soaps, we see the reverse: the plot serves the relationships.   

            

And Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon puts far more emphasis on relationships than other Moffat stories have.    Even the underlying story-arch in Series Five of Amy trying to make up her mind over the Doctor or Rory is very much kept in the shadows most of the time.   But, suddenly, Series Six seems to totally change emphasis.    We constantly take breaks to see what's going on between Rory and Amy or the Doctor and River Song.    But never at the expense of the plot.    Unlike the RTD days - where the soap opera element is far too prominent - Moffat knows exactly how to use this device.   Not just in the season opener, but in the rest of the season as well.   But he does this so well in this story that even in the action-packed final minutes of the tale, we are just as excited to hear Amy call Rory "stupid face" as we are to see the Doctor take down the Silence.  

            

Although, let's talk about those final moments a bit more.    The Doctor finally "taking down the bad guy" is often my favorite part of a Who story.   Even in something like Timelash, I still like watching the Doctor cry out "Nobody loves you!    Nobody needs you!   Nobody cares!" as he hurls that nasty Borad into the Kontron Tunnel!   Those sequences in Who where Good triumphs over Evil and rubs its face in it a bit are always enjoyable for me.   In some instances, they're even enough to cause a weaker story to rise a bit in my appreciation of it.    If that climactic scene where the Doctor tells off a bad guy and then hands him his just-desserts is well done - it can really save the whole adventure.  

            

Astronaut/Moon's victorious villain tell-off moment is, without a doubt, the best of its kind.   The Doctor's total confidence as he offers the Silence a chance to surrender is played pitch-perfect by Smith.    The dialogue he's given to create that smugness is perfect, too.    Of course, the way the rest of the TARDIS crew plays off of him just adds to the wonder of it all.    River Song is hilarious as she, somehow, causes her death threats to sound like proclamations of love  for the Doctor.   And I laugh at Amy's "Is this important flirting..." line no matter how many times I watch the episode.    The whole thing is a masterpiece, really.  

            

The fact that the Doctor uses a "hoisted by their own petards" technique to defeat the Silence is the icing on the cake, here.   In fact, this is one of my favorite methods of seeing the villain get taken down.   Sadly, creating this sort of conflict resolution can be a very tricky piece of writing. So we only see it come along so often in the show. On some occasions, it's not even all that well-handled.   The ending of New Earth, for instance, uses a similar principle.    But folks weren't so excited about that one!    But here we have to stand in awe of Moffat's wonderful way of causing the Silence's own powers to bring about their demise.    It's a really brilliant piece of writing.   That Smith and all the other actors in the scene understand that they've got something really good here and play it to absolute perfection just makes it all the more awesome.  

            

But, of course, the brilliant ending of The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon is only one of its many great elements.    There are so many other great things that this story accomplishes.    All those lovely twists and turns in the plot, the super-creepy monsters, the actual death of the Doctor, even the comic relief of Richard Nixon coming along every so often to bail out our protagonists are wonderful attributes to this story.   But let's not forget that this tale also sets up a whole slew of delightful mysteries that will, slowly but surely, get solved throughout the course of the season.   The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon is not only a piece of magnificence, it also lays some wonderful foundations.    Without a doubt, one of the best season openers Doctor Who has ever produced.      

AFTERTHOUGHTS: WHY IT'S NOT AS WELL-APPRECIATED AS IT SHOULD BE

I think that, while Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon is a great thing when it stands up on its own, there's some stuff that occurs after it was shown that has lessened its effectiveness.

Series Six, itself, is very complicated. Even Moff admits he may have made it too contrived. To be honest, I love a really a complex story arch like the one Series Six had, but I can see the point others are trying to make. It is possible to go too far with how you're layering your stories. Which means that the Series Opener gets lumped in with the rest of the season. It may have been brilliant and pretty straightforward in the way it presents itself - but it's now considered just part of the over-complexity. And, because of that, it's not as revered as well as it should be.

The second major factor that depreciates its value is the fact that it involved the Doctor feeling certain that he's going to die. It's the first time we've seen this in the New Series and it's handled magnificently. But, in a short while, we'll see Time of the Doctor roll out. Once more, the Doctor is sure he's going to perish. And then, again, in The Magician's Apprentice/Witch's Familiar, he's convinced he's about to meet his end. The Doctor facing his ultimate demise has happened just a little too frequently over the last few seasons. Again, Astronaut/Moon becomes part of this problem and we remember it less fondly because of it. We shouldn't, really. But, somehow, its shine is dulled.

So, really, if we can just forget what comes afterwards then we can appreciate this story for the gem that it is.

All right. Balance is restored. We can move away from UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION essays for a bit. In fact, let's get ready for Pretentious Doctor Who Essays' Second Anniversary Celebration.