1)"Mels" is kind of obviously Melody.
2)"A state of temporal grace" - a callback to "The Hand of Fear".
3)A shape-shifting mecha?
4)"Remain calm, while your life is extracted."
5)"I haven't memorized every room in the universe, yet - I had yesterday off."
6)"Shut up, Hitler!"
7)"You named your daughter after your daughter."
8)Where are all the other Nazis while they're swanning about in Hitler's office?
9)"Time can be re-written - remember Kennedy?"
10)"I'm trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife - I'm really trying not to see this as a metaphor.
11)"Doctor Who?" Oh, that old gag.
12)Kind of a crappy security system where the only two settings are "Pass, friend" and "You die, Joe!"
13)"Apparently you used all your remianing regenerations in one go." Thus explaining why she didn't regenerate in the Library.
14)"Rule One: The Doctor lies."
Overall: Well, that was a fairly insubstantial bit of fluff. Gosh, the River Song storyline can't end and be forgotten soon enough for me. Kingston's an OK actress, but this whole character idea is an unworkable mistake.
It's interesting that just as Mickey Smith rapidly became a much more interesting character than Rose Tyler, so Rory is rapidly becoming a more interesting character than Amy.
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"Time can be re-written - remember Kennedy?"
According to an episode of Quantum Leap, yes.
"Kingston's an OK actress..."
I'd watch Alex Kingston fold laundry.
I'd watch Alex Kingston fold laundry.
I'll flip you for who goes first.
That’s become a catchphrase around our house (mainly when addressing the cat).
"Doctor Who?" Oh, that old gag.
Maybe a bit more that a gag (as I’m sure you’ve learned by now.)
Gosh, the River Song storyline can't end and be forgotten soon enough for me. Kingston's an OK actress, but this whole character idea is an unworkable mistake.
River Song had a limited shelf-life to begin with. In every subsequent appearance she must appear younger than she did in “Silence in the Library,” and Kingston’s already added a few lines around the eyes. There was a line in this episode that paid lip service to making herself appear gradually younger as she “ages,” but with her burning through her regeneration cycle in one go, I’d say that bet is off. I call shananigans.
Rory is rapidly becoming a more interesting character than Amy.
See, to me, it’s Rory and Amy together that I find most interesting, their relationship.
We usually don’t watch Doctor Who episodes more than one until some time has passed (we still haven’t re-watched anything from the previous season, for example), but we just happened to watch this one twice. Both times I considered writing “Bob-style” comments, and waiting until you had the chance to watch the episodes before I posted. I wish now I would have. There were two exchanges of dialogue I thought you would have commented on for sure. Working from memory (always a risky proposition in my case), the first is:
“He fainted.”
“Yes, it was a perfect feint.”
And the second:
“It was a reducing ray.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, there was a ray and we’ve been reduced.”
(I think Rory’s learned his first lesson from the Doctor: “State the obvious and speak with authority.”
[SPOILERS not only for “Let’s Kill Hitler” but for “Day of the Moon” as well.]
After (the original, space-suited) Melody Pond escapes from Graystark Hall (in 1969), she regenerates in a NYC alley. We don’t see who she becomes, but I’m guessing (based on a line of dialogue from “Let’s Kill Hitler”) it was Mels Zucher.
POSSIBILITY #1: Melody regenerates into an identity we have not yet seen, grows to adulthood from 1969 until sometime prior to regenerating into Mels Zucher and growing up (again) with Amy and Rory in Leadworth circa the mid ‘90s. Having an as-yet-unexplored identity opens up future story possibilities, but I don’t think that’s the way it happened, based on what Mels said in this episode, namely that she once regenerated into an infant in a NYC alleyway. It’s the bit about the alley being in NYC specifically which leads me to believe that Mels Zucher is Melody’s first regeneration and river Song her second (unless she regenerated in a NYC alley on two occasions).
POSSIBILITY #2: Melody regenerated into an infant Mels Zucher in a NYC alley in 1969, then retarded her aging so that she was still a child when she met Amy and Rory when they were little.
I missed a lot of the episodes relating to River. There's a line in one of the episodes that represents her as having been raised by Amy in the form of having grown up with her as her best friend. For that idea to work she can't have had a full life between her initial self and her regeneration into Mels, but I don't know how old she was before she regenerated in New York.
The episode you’re thinking of, Luke, is the one under discussion. “Let’s Kill Hitler”, which basically outlines Mel Zucher’s life from the time Amy was approximately 9 years old (approximately 1996), until the present day (2010) when she is approximately 23. We don’t know how long before Amy was nine (and Mels appears to be nine) that they knew each other, nor how Mels got to Leadworth, who raised her, etc. Prior to taking note of that line about regenerating as an infant in a NYC alley (emphasis mine), I would have guessed she grew to adulthood, somehow arranged for her our adoption in Lead worth, then regenerated as Mels relative to Amy and Rory’s age. I don’t think living a full life prior to “growing up tighter” invalidates the premise.
The [what I’m assuming to be the original incarnation of] Melody Pond appears to be approximately 8 years old when she regenerated in 1969 (“Day of the Moon”). She had to have lived through the intervening years somehow, whether as a normally (for a human) aging child grown to adulthood before regenerating a second time prior to “growing up” with Amy and Rory, or as a child who has suspended her aging due to her timelord abilities.
There are about 25 “mystery years” (from 1969 until the early to mid nineties) unaccounted for.