SYNOPSIS: "The search for Melody Pond sees the TARDIS crash-landing in 1930s Berlin, where the Doctor (Matt Smith) comes face-to-face with Hitler, as the time-travelling drama returns." (bbc.co.uk)
We're back again for the second half of this series of 'Doctor Who', picking up proceedings a little while down the line from the events of 'A Good Man Goes To War', much to my relief. Oddly though, 'Let's Kill Hitler' eventually proved to be more 'Let's Leave Hitler In A Cupboard'.
Before Hitler turned up (or rather before the "gang" travel back to Nazi-era Germany), there was a charming flashback to the development of Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory's (Arthur Darvill) romance - along with their friendship with the ragamuffin Mels (Nina Toussaint-White). Then the shape-shifting Nazi full of miniaturised people and tentacled death robots came along...
The Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle 'Timecop' and the Eddie Murphy stinker 'Meet Dave' seemingly the inspiration for this plot device. "Time travel has responsibilities" being the claim, although the Hitler storyline was forgotten soon after. In fact, I'm pretty sure Hitler spent the rest of the episode in a cupboard.
I can see why they dropped that storyline though, with the return of a rather pivotal character. I shan't be risking further spoilers particularly with this twist actually being fairly surprising. The trope of the Doctor dying was much less of a surprise. I really, really wish they'd hold off such things till at least the end of a series. I mean, they already opened this series with a similar gambit.
That self-plagiarism rather took away from much of the episode, which had something of a swashbuckling nature - summed up in one character taking on a whole host of Nazi guards and quipping "Well, I was on my way to this gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah for the disabled..." and our even more likeable than usual, all-action Rory.
The complete character u-turn I could also do without but I guess it sets the scene for the rest of the series, as we learn more about The Silence's war against the Doctor, and hopefully more of the time-travelling justice department. A solid return but one that certainly needs building on.
Watch 'Let's Kill Hitler' on BBC iPlayer until 19:59, 3 September '11.
We're a collaborative British music, film and TV blog. "Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop."
