Dec 19, 20246 min read

Doctor Who Series 6, Episodes 1 & 2 Review: The Impossible Astronaut & Day of the Moon

Updated: 4 days ago

What did you think of these episodes?

Sonic!
Good!
Bumpy-wumpy!
Exterminate!

This is some top tier shit here!! I lost my mind watching these episodes when they aired, I was already hyped by the GOAT trailer for series 6 - after I watched this I was high on life, the episodes were actually even better than the trailer itself. Honestly, I thought this was so good, and I still do. Actually, let's just have a watch of it now.

Did the series eventually do these episodes and the trailer justice? Well that's up for debate. I am interested to see how I take it all in on a full rewatch. I was always baffled by after all the mysteries and twists that we only got a single episode finale, but that is for another day, lets focus on these two bangers for now with a review of The Impossible Astronaut and The Day of the Moon.

Everyone's games have been upped!! Big time!! Karen Gillan and Arthur were so good, and Matt Smith was a delight. Murray Gold dropping bangers, Moffat teasing and dropping a great villain, so good!!

"Hey, of course I’m okay. I’m always okay. I’m the king of okay. Oh, that’s a rubbish title. Forget that title. Rory the Roman! That’s a good title! Hello Rory. And Doctor River Song. Oh you bad bad girl. What trouble have you got for me this time?"

I always pop some quotes in my review, but honestly I would of quoted pretty much 90% of these two episodes if I could. There are so many amazing moments.

Where should I start?

I have already mentioned Matt Smith, but I will mention him again as I think he is in top, top form here. His Doctor is more polished, more brilliant, more mysterious, more everything really.

Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston are immense as well. These seem like better versions of all their characters to me. I bonded with them more from here on. Amy didn't seem to tell people to shut up as much which was a plus for me, it was great to see how emotional and lost she was after the Doctor was killed.

The main gang had good support from the rest of the cast as well. I love Mark Sheppard as Canton Everett Delaware III, and Stuart Milligan was great as Nixon, and I give him extra points for still making me smile by seeing Adam Klaus from Jonathan Creek through his makeup.

The music is so, so good in these episodes. It is normally so, so good but fucking hell Murray Gold must of been on something when he wrote this stuff. I don't think it has been topped as yet.

The villains - oh I love the Silence. I would enjoy seeing them come back at some point - maybe they have and I forgot?! I am going to be slightly controversial here, I think they are better than the Weeping Angels. Now that would be a good blog actually, ranking every Moffat monster. I have wrote that down, that is something I am definitely going to do. It will be a tricky list to rank, he has produced some iconic baddies put of his brilliant brain.

"Rory. Is everybody cross with me for some reason?"

So now I should talk about the actual story I guess. We all knew the Doctor wasn't going to die in the end, even so, when he rocks up with his special straw it is still exciting. I guess the thrill of the story is why it happened, and who was doing the killing.

As I mentioned there are so many memorable moments in this episode, take the gang being in the TARDIS for example. We have Rory checking if the women are cross with the Doctor, we have the Doctor being a cold mother hubbard telling them they aren't capable of playing games with him, we have the Doctor telling River he doesn't trust her and we have fish fingers and custard. Come on, we have only just started the episode, the Doctor died, came back, and we are getting scene after scene of pure fucking theatre.

Don't get me started on the Oblong Room. Good grief, Matt Smith is so good in this. After all that is going on, the fact that the Silence are creepy AF, he still manages to make me laugh

Canton is recruited, and he is a great addition to team TARDIS/the Pond's. River and Rory have their chat which is so good, and Rory comparing River to Amy during it is really well done. We have cool aliens and spacesuits and then Amy drops in a quick pregnancy scare. The astronaut comes back and bang...

In true Moffat style Day of the Moon is quite different to The Impossible Astronaut, we get the chases at the beginnings and then the horror of the childrens home. I love this, it is a great setting for the Silence. The man that runs the home melts your heart - poor guy!!

"Trust you. Sure. But first of all, Doctor Song, just one thing. Who are you? You’re someone from my future, getting that, but who? Okay. Why are you in prison? Who did you kill? Hm? Now I love a bad girl, me. But trust you? Seriously?"

I loved how this was resolved. I honestly think it is one of the most clever resolutions we have had. The minute the TARDIS lands and the Doctor steps out to confront the Silence is peak with a capital P, E, A and K. Murray Gold casually drops possibly the greatest song in Who history (excluding the theme tune of course) and Matt Smith and Alex Kingston are on absolute fire.

The flirting is fucking epic, the Doctor taking no shit is cool as fuck, the speech from the TV as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin prepare to set foot on the moon adds to the drama, oh wow wow wow. This has to be one of the greatest scenes in Doctor Who history. I am getting carried away I know, but it is certainly one of the greatest scenes for me.

I'll leave this with you to listen to with the rest of the review, if you don't get goosebumps whilst listening to it I seriously think you may be a Dalek.

I am all hot under the collar now!

Thank you to everyone involved in this wonderfully silly show, when I get moments like this, when I just feel complete and total joy that I cannot capture in any other show, it makes me so happy!

I haven't even got to the bit where River shoots the shit out of all the Silence - well I have now and yes, I loved it! What a woman!

"Now, come on. A bit of history for you. Aren’t you proud, ’cause you helped. Now. Do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion. And that’s nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars—you just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years. And every single one of them at some point in their lives will look back at this man taking that very first step and they will never ever forget it."

Shitting hell, emergency!!! Someone call nerdorotic and all the other cunts, a character is gay, I repeat a character is gay. Cancel the show. RIP Doctor Who 1963-2011. How fucking dare they!!! Grrrrrr!!!! Tell Elon, make Elon love me, please Elon, you are the best. Hang on, now I seem a bit gay.