Doctor Who - Farewell Matt: Let's Kill Hitler

Doctor Who 

Let's Kill Hitler 

By Steven Moffat

"What did you say? Fish fingers and custard? Oh, Amelia Pond. Fish fingers and custard. Fish fingers and custard!"

The second half premiere of Series 6 was Let’s Kill hitler and it really was a bit of a disappointment. Well I'll tell you it could have been better without the Hitler angle which was just a gimmick.   If anything it got people talking about Doctor Who.  But anyway Let's Kill Hitler was very interesting to say the least with a story about the origins of River Song.  Since we know how River Song dies it would be only logical to see how she became the River we all know now.  Well what a beginning as Amy's childhood friend turns out and actually regenerates into the River Song we actually know.  But it turns out that she is programmed to kill the Doctor and is successful.

Let’s Kill Hitler had an interesting alien or robot the Teselecta.  I thought the Teselecta was pretty cool and different as they used a robot with a miniature crew.  I really thought it was cool idea but they never explained why you got killed if you didn't have a green light on your wrist band.  Not a major problem but really it would be nice.   The other problem I had with this is did we really need Hitler. I mean they just literally pushed him into the closet and that’s it.  They could have made up some space criminal to go after.  But I guess for shock value it worked pretty well.

What I did not like and is my chief complaint is that Steve Moffat used a stupid gimmick that really had nothing to do with the story at all.  It was a gimmick to get people to watch after the summer hiatus and it was pretty stupid in my honest opinion.  Why not let the story rest on the laurels of the story.  He could easily have titled it something else or at least centered on River.  The whole Hitler thing was pretty stupid and pretty much killed the story which would have been a pretty good story about River’s origin and the result of her being programmed to kill The Doctor.

I sort of liked this episode, besides the whole stupid Nazi thing and crazy River shooting at them, and everything that it accomplished.  It tied up the loose end of the girl in NYC regenerating and it gave us more insight on who the Silence are. I also liked how they made River use up her regenerations to save the Doctor keeping her death intact. I liked the emotional struggle the Doctor had with the hologram of little Amy Pond.  Matt Smith was brilliant in that scene.  You could really see and feel the emotion and hurt on the Doctors face. I thought Rory was excellent in this story.  Especially when he delivered the lines of what happened to him and Amy.

Let's Kill Hitler will be known less for its title and more on the origin of River Song and her relationship with the Doctor.  Plus now we know where she got that diary of hers.  In all a mediocre story that used a gimmick to get everyone to watch instead of resting on the laurels of the story. Grade D