The Girl Who Waited

I thought this week’s episode of Doctor Who was brilliant.  I didn’t expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did, mostly because I’m not a fan of hard sci-fi stories.  But a love story that transcends time and space is an irresistible hook.  And while the ending was completely telegraphed, that was only because it was the right ending.

Last week’s show (“Night Terrors”) was a boring, padded mess.  I expected to like it, since anything with creepy dolls is a winner in my book.  However the pacing was way too slow, as if producers had thirty minutes’ worth of material that they stretched into an hour.

This was the polar opposite problem of “Let’s Kill Hitler”, which felt like a two-parter crammed into one episode.  A fantastic storyline all told, minus the robot assassin controlled by tiny time travelers.  I only wish it had more Hitler.

The most important thing “The Girl Who Waited” did was lay the foundation of the season finale, “The Wedding of River Song.”  Keep in mind the Doctor showed up halfway through “Let’s Kill Hitler” in a tuxedo (one assumes the same he wore at the end of “The Big Bang”).  So obviously as he was dying, he first took a jaunt in the Tardis to marry River like he promised. 

Now the idea that there can only be one Amy in the Tardis at once is the crux of the entire season.  It’s very Highlander; there can only be one.  My guess for the finale is that the Doctor creates a parallel timestream by trying to defeat Madam Kovarian (or some such baddie).  His actions create a paradox (pair o’ Docs?), wherein two Doctors can’t exist simultaneously.  So one of them must die . . . at Lake Silencio, in the season opener.  I suppose the Impossible Astronaut who kills the Doctor is the Doctor.  But the Doctor from the “proper” timestream.  Go back and read the debut entry from this blog:  go on, I’ll wait.  (The first entry, written the day after “The Big Bang” aired.)  This notion goes back to the Doctor trying to assassinate himself, although it looks like the same Doctor rather than a future non-Matt Smith one.  And his purposes are for good rather than evil.

We know the Silence are coming back in the finale, and that Silence will fall when the Question is asked.  What question?  Doctor who?  My guess is that the question is his name.  I’m pretty sure that’s what he whispered into River’s ear as he died, for she does the same when she meets the Tenth Doctor and their roles are reversed. 

We’ll see how many of my predictions come true.  I’ve had some hits and some misses in the past; I look forward to seeing how it all plays out.