My future child right here. [video=youtube;XUDsDhNKiBg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XUDsDhNKiBg[/video]
The Mel thing was really really really stupid. If you read the Nerdist and Gizmodo reviews of "Let's Kill Hitler" You will find that I agree with them in all the negatives that they point out. Other than that, they were both great. I liked Night Terrors the better of the two, while I did find LKH the more comedic.
I thought it would have been better if she'd been introduced before. Like, in one of the episodes set in Leadworth there could have been a brief appearance by her or someone just mentioning someone called Mels off-hand. That would have improved all of the twists massively. Still, for me it was done well enough and with enough style that I didn't spend the episode thinking about how she'd been introduced just so she can turn out to be River, even though that was pretty much what happened.
The only thing I can think of to make her being River make sense is her not existing in that capacity until exactly that moment in time where they saw her, which means they would not remember Mel because she was never there, until she was, due to some timey-whimy sort of thing. Yeah, so I couldn't stop thinking about it and I still find it extremely stupid.. haha
There are the reasons they gave in the episode as well, about how she was pretty much always in some kind of trouble.
That's a stupid reason, if she was always in trouble they would have mentioned it before. She came out of nowhere, without any build up and a craptacular flash back scene in the very episode that she was introduced in. That's weak writing and weak story telling. The whole Mel thing was dumb, and I am going to be very adamant about that. It is only after the fact that she is revealed to be river that the episode got good. Why Hitler anyway? I mean sure he's an evil son of a bitch but who just up and says, "What the hell, let's kill Hitler?" so randomly. If she were introduced 3 episodes prior, 2 episodes that feature her and one that doesn't and brought back in "LKH" it would make a bit of sense, but as it is it does not. It's lazy and I don't like it. The rest, is great.
I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm just trying to help you rationalise it. The "let's kill Hitler" line was just a wisecrack. It's always hypothesised that if backwards time travel were possible that would be the first thing plenty of people would want to do, hence the line.
I get that but, no matter how I try to justify it I do not like it and even if it's rationalized it feels a bit forced and it urks me. So, how about those Night Terrors, it was a very predictable episode but it was fun as hell. Reminded me a bit of the x-files for some reason...
I would say it was the best stand-alone episode for a while but then I think pretty much all of those episodes going back to Amy's Choice, besides Curse of the Black Spot, have been really good.
It was the first time I've felt disappointed by the show in a while. Apparently we're in the minority of people who didn't like it though.
It was alright. On paper it wasn't really that good, but I thought the actors did well with what they were given, especially Karen and Arthur. I agree "Night Terrors" was really fun. I like it when the show dips a little into horror territory.
I'm guessing this was an episode where Moffat himself came up with the idea then ended up delegating the actual writing to someone else. That's the impression I get anyway. It's his sort of concept, it's just that he generally executes it far better. It was probably the first time I've been that disappointed by the show this year... Curse of the Black Spot doesn't count because my expectations weren't high in the first place there.
That's surprising to hear, The Girl Who Waited was really well-executed in my opinion and encapsulated exactly why the Doctor feels guilty taking on companions. I feel like this aspect has been building up all season, and obviously we got the climax this week. The God Complex is, in my opinion, one of the best written episodes this whole season. The actors handled it wonderfully too; it was engaging, creepy, funny and emotional all in one. The obvious answer for who's in the Doctor's room is himself, but that's too straightforward to be true. Amy and Rory will probably be back for the finale but I think thsi was their last episode as proper full-time companions, which I'm sad to see as episodes like TGWW have really warmed me up to them.