Three or so years ago when Journey’s End aired we wrote that Somewhere JN-T Must be Smiling About Now… noting at the time the similarity of feeling between that story and portions of the JN-T era of production. There’s a bit more than a bit of that going on in thinking about A Good Man Goes to War in relation to Journey’s End and other RTD season ending stories. Certainly the inclusion of so many “monster elements” echoes not only The Pandorica Opens but other nu-Who styled stories, even though it’s mostly a bluff, just a glorified excuse to empty out the costume closet.
But what an episode, taking the top spot on this season’s Dynamic Ratings Table. The story breezed along, doing that canny trick that The Christmas Invasion employed of holding back the Doctor to make his eventual appearance all-the-more meaningful. The moment where the story turned against the Doctor, and you know what that was, was truly breathtaking. Matt Smith never flags and his anger, and the consequences of it, are all well-earned.
Images and caps for A Good Man Goes to War are now online.
This is it until the fall. Even the website will be taking a bit of break while we catch our collective breath. We’ll be around, just a bit more in the background until the mid-season site-wide update descends.
