Silence may be golden but The Silence are the stuff nightmares are made of.
What They Say:
The Doctor is locked in the perfect prison. Amy, Rory and River Song are being hunted down across America by the FBI. With the help of new friend and FBI-insider, Canton Everett Delaware the Third, they reunite to share their discoveries and memories.
The world is occupied by an alien force who controls humanity through post-hypnotic suggestion and no one can be trusted. Aided by President Nixon and Neil Armstrong’s foot, the Doctor must mount a revolution to drive out the enemy and rescue the missing little girl. No one knows why they took her. Or why they have kidnapped Amy Pond…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The episode opens in the Valley of the Gods in Utah three months after the last episode’s end as the Doctor and his companions barely escaped from the warehouse they were in at that time and now have found themselves pursued by the US Government. Agent Canton has tracked Amy down and now has her trapped at the edge of a cliff. Amy attempts to remind him of what they saw and what lead to their escaping the warehouse-which allows for some flashback moments for the audience to get caught up-but Canton shakes the images that appear out of his head and points his gun at Amy and fires . Cut to Area 51 and Canton is interrogating the Doctor who has been bound for sometime as he has grown a beard in captivity. Canton attempts to get information as to why Amy had a number of marks on her arm indicating she was keeping track of something but discovers that the Doctor cannot be persuaded to share information he does not want to.
A quick scene change to New York and the focus changes to Dr. Song as she is using a futuristic tool to look for something in an upper floor of a skyscraper under construction. As she searches she discovers two aliens are also on the floor and as they close in on her she makes an equal number of marks on her arm while repeating she sees them-tallies that look the same as what Amy had on her. Before the aliens can do anything a Government team storms in and Dr. Song attempts to run but is trapped at the end of the unfinished building that does not have its windows set yet. She tries to tell Canton that America has been invaded and what she has discovered but when he tries to take her prisoner she raises her arms and falls backward into the New York skyline. When confronted by Canton with news of Dr. Song’s death the Doctor is more interested in the prison they are building him out of the densest material in the universe which nothing can escape giving the impression that maybe he has gone as mad as his appearance would suggest.
Finally Rory is tracked down on top of the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona where he is covered with marks the same as Amy and Dr. Song’s. Canton gives him the chance to run saying it would look better if he shot Rory while fleeing but when Rory stands his ground Canton shoots him anyway. With this hunt now completed Rory’s body bag is dragged into the Doctor’s newly completed cell as Canton explains nothing can penetrate the walls-not sound, not radio wave, not a tiny particle of anything as he closes the door to the cell as he alone remains within with the Doctor and two body bags. This allows for the trick to end as the Doctor easily slips his bonds and Amy and Rory sit up in their bags. The group exchanges their information on the investigating they have been doing for the past three months and discover the aliens are everywhere. They appear to be sealed in the cell however now and trapped until the doctor leans against air…just to have the air shimmer briefly and reveal a familiar blue box as being inside the cell with them and cloaked. Now their first task is to go save the falling Dr. Song and come up with a plan to fight an enemy no one can remember who can subliminally plant messages in people’s minds. The Doctor’s weapon of choice-Neil Armstrong’s foot.
In an attempt to give them a chance he Doctor has come up with a recording device to implant in their hands so that they can make an audio recording to warn themselves that they have had an encounter. With a plan in place the Doctor send his Companions to find the little girl while he makes a trip to NASA. Life isn’t that easy though as Amy and Canton find themselves in a nightmare children’s home where the director is constantly cleaning off graffiti telling someone to get out-and he is confused as to what year he is currently in as he believes it to be 1967. While the they are at the orphanage the Doctor has been caught breaking into the Apollo 11 command capsule and will need help from a high power to get out himself-luckily he knows the most powerful man in the land but it leaves him unable to spring to the orphanage immediately. As Canton talks with the director Amy finds herself surrounded by an alien hive which she immediately forgets. She winds up in a strange room with an impossible picture and is suddenly confronted with the mysterious astronaut and suddenly she is vanished away as the Doctor arrives too late leaving her recording device which is still linked to her acting as a transmitter for what she says.
Thanks to a bit of luck the Doctor now has one of the aliens in captivity though and learns that they are the called The Silence and are the ones who created fear among many of the creatures the Doctor encountered in the previous season. Now the Doctor has also found the abandoned Apollo suit is and trying to figure out what The Silence needs with the little girl who had been in it. With time running out and the future of mankind in jeopardy it is time for the Doctor to do what he does best-do something clever as he has to figure out how to use mankind’s greatest achievement to win the greatest war they never knew they were part of. What information does Amy share that may challenge her relationship and create ripples in ongoing events? And what of the mysterious girl and what is her connection to the Doctor?
An interesting show can keep people tuning in and talking by feeding them some answers while also stuffing those answers with new questions as well. With the addition of this new threat that even the Doctor can’t fight head on the series reaffirms the Doctor’s nature while also leaving open the door a crack for the current personality expand into new territory. Setting the story in such a familiar time and making a key moment of the central points in human history only adds to the ability to make the story feel more real as well as to drop a few nuggets of both humor and historical fiction to explain some events into the story for those paying particularly close attention to the dialogue.
In Summary:
The second part of the two part season opener does a great job of answering some questions left hanging from the previous season like who The Silence were as well as resolving where the spaceship in The Lodger arrived from and why it was empty. Where it really shines is when it starts dropping threads-some more subtle than others-as to what the future holds for the Doctor and his companions. That the Doctor Who universe can still offer up fresh, nightmarish creatures while also spinning its sci-fi and humor elements shows off how capable the cast and crew are in their roles and gives hope that the whole season will be strong.
Grade: A-
