Having set up an interesting cliffhanger last week, it was a tad annoying that Steven Moffat did his trick again of taking a swerve with the pre-credits section of this week’s episode, and more supposed shock value with the shootings of Amy and Rory.
It was even more annoying that what exactly was going on here, and how it was influenced by the events of the previous episode, were never exactly explained, leaving the audience to fill in the blanks.
As arguably what happened in Florida could explain the Doctor’s motives towards the Silence, which lacked total consistency apart from if they were all part of some genocidal masterplan against them, this was not the cleverest bit of writing by Moffat.
Indeed apart from a blink-and-you-missed it flashback and a throwaway line from Amy apologising to the mysterious girl for shooting at her and being glad she missed, there was nothing to indicate how events last week ended, and what was going on this week only raised more questions than answers.
For example, I presume that the mysterious markings on Amy, River and Rory were a tally count of meetings with the Silence, but as this was never explained it can only remain as that, rather than a solid affirmation, and there was probably too much of this sort of thing going on this week.
Indeed, Day of the Moon is clearly aimed as an instalment in an over-arching storyline, but it seems this is a storyline that will require the audience’s concentration over many weeks; any casual viewer tuning in this week, and I suspect not a few fans, will have been left baffled by the goings-on.
Who is the woman in the eye-patch who appeared fleetingly in a hallucination of some form at a door? What exactly is Amy’s pregnancy state? Who is the girl, what is her connection with Amy, and why does she appear to regenerate at the end of the episode?
Yes, the episode was interesting and showed just how, when the writers use their imagination, Doctor Who can tell stories in a way little else on television can.
But by leaving so much unresolved it is very hard to take a firm view on this episode until the series as a whole pans out, making it a distinct departure from the generally self-contained stories of recent years.
– Gavin Fuller is a Doctor Who expert and lifelong fan. In 1993 he became the youngest ever champion of Mastermind, with Doctor Who as his specialist subject.
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