In one of the most complex and interesting episodes of the season to date, the Doctor and his companions crash-land in 1938 Berlin, accidentally save Hitler from a time-traveling assassin, and then hastily shove Hitler aside as they become embroiled in an assassination plot of their own. The episode focuses heavily on the main characters’ relationships with each other, delving deeper into Amy’s, River’s, and Rory’s history.
“Let’s Kill Hitler” pays homage to the science fiction trope in which a time traveler attempts to seek justice by killing Hitler, despite the possibility of damaging time itself. For example, the short story “Wikihistory” by Desmond Warzel is one of my favorite stories to use this trope. “Let’s Kill Hitler” works because it uses this trope as a jumping-off point to tell an original story of its own, rather than rehashing familiar ground. Hitler’s would-be assassin, a human-sized shape-shifting robot piloted by people shrunk by miniaturization ray, soon turns its attention from Hitler to River Song as the robot’s pilots realize that killing the woman who kills the Doctor will bring them higher accolades.
Meanwhile, Amy and Rory’s daughter Melody Pond, the woman who will one day become River Song, carries out the mission that the Silence has brainwashed her to perform–kill the Doctor. She poisons him with a kiss, leaving the Doctor with only half an hour to figure out how to save himself. Eventually, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory show Melody that she has a better future ahead of her, and that she will become more than a mere pawn of the Silence–she will become River Song, the woman that the Doctor loves and one of Amy and Rory’s best friends. This realization inspires Melody to sacrifice her ability to regenerate to bring the Doctor back to life, and the Doctor, Amy, and Rory leave Melody/River in the future to recuperate and find her own destiny.
Although the episode tells us more about Melody Pond/River Song, I feel that writer and show-runner Steven Moffat has not given Rory and Amy’s search for their child the emotional weight that it deserves. Rory and Amy learn that their childhood friend Mels is in fact their daughter Melody, but the episode does not give them much time to deal with the implications of that realization: although they solve the mystery of their missing daughter, they will never have the experience of raising her.
However, I did enjoy seeing another side of River Song, one of my favorite characters on the show. River Song has always been sassy and dangerous, but her younger self is less mature and a lot more reckless. River Song has always seemed to know a lot more than she lets on, and to have many secrets hidden away, but her younger self seems a bit more lost and vulnerable at times in this episode, especially when she tells Amy and Rory that she can pilot the Doctor’s TARDIS because the ship spoke to her. Seeing River Song as a bit of a brat, I could believe that she is truly Amy and Rory’s child, and seeing Amy and Rory race after River, I could believe that they are her parents.
“Let’s Kill Hitler” has plenty of amusing moments that make the episode an enjoyable experience overall, such as Amy and Rory driving through a wheat field signal the Doctor via crop circle, or the Doctor switching River’s gun with a banana in a call back to the episode “The Doctor Dances.” River had one of the best moments, telling the Nazi holding her at gunpoint “I was on my way to this gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I suddenly thought, ‘Gosh, the Third Reich’s a bit rubbish, I think I’ll kill the Fuhrer.” These funny moments, along with the mind-bending plot twists requiring multiple viewings to sink in, make “Let’s Kill Hitler” one of the best episodes of Doctor Who yet.
Next week, Doctor Who will send viewers cowering behind the proverbial sofa with the episode “Night Terrors,” written by Mark Gatiss.
Sources:
Desmond Warzel, “Wikihistory,” Abyss & Apex, Issue 24.