Series 6 (2011)

Episode title: A Good Man goes to War
Featuring: Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
First shown: 4th June 2011
Related articles: Sontarans, Silurians, Cybermen, Judoon
Guide: Amelia Pond, alive and awake in a medical facility, holds her baby in her arms as she tells her a story of a man who’s coming to save them, a man who is the father of the child, a man who the people of Earth call, the last centurion. Enter Rory Williams, as intruder alerts are announced on a Cyberman base, who comes with a message from the Doctor, and a question from himself. The Cybermen raise their guns but allow Rory to ask, “Where is my wife?” but they do not answer. Rory walks in front of a window and the Cybermen ask about what the Doctor’s message was. Behind Rory, the whole Cyber-fleet explodes, and Rory merely asks if they would like him to repeat his question. Meanwhile, on a facility on an asteroid in space, soldiers comment on the Doctor’s actions, but are told that they’re being paid to fight him, not praise him. Along with the soldiers, headless monks are also working against the Doctor, and one of the soldiers is told to go with them. In their room, he is told that it is customary of the army they are allying with to offer them one of their own to convert to their faith. The soldier asks what is in the boxes, but is merely shown an empty one large enough for a head to reside.

Rory confronts the Cybermen

Meanwhile, in London, 1888, a woman returns to her house and tells the maid to send a telegram to Scotland Yard and inform him that the hunt for Jack the Ripper is over. The lady lowers her hood and reveals herself to be a Silurian, and comments on how tasty Jack the Ripper tasted. Upstairs in the drawing room however, resides a big blue police box, arrived that afternoon out of nowhere. The Silurian tells her maid to pack the cases and get the swords ready. In 4037, on the field of battle, a man calls for a nurse to assist in healing a boy injured in battle. A Sontaran steps into the medical bay and assists in healing the child, while explaining that it is the Sontaran’s greatest punishment to have to help heal the sick and weak. The man asks him who caused him to serve such a punishment, when the sound of the TARDIS can be heard and a blue box appears on the hill, to which the Sontaran merely comments that his penance could now be over. Rory also goes to recruit River Song, but she tells him that she cannot be there until the very end, as Demon’s Run is the day the Doctor finds out who she is.

Meanwhile, a large blue man is approached by the eye-patch lady (Madam Kovarian) and Colonel Manton, who knows what they’re up to. He also knows that they’re base in on the asteroid called the Demon’s Run, so called as it’s the place where demon’s run when a good man goes to war. He also says that the Doctor will be gathering an army, by calling on his debts from the people he’s helped over the years, and god help them if he does bring his army to Demon’s Run. After they’ve left, the TARDIS materialises and the large blue man begs not to be recruited as a shadow of the Doctor is seen. Back in Amy’s prison, Lorna, one of the soldiers, presents her with a prayer leaf with her daughter’s name written on it in the language of the Gamma Forest people, where Lorna is from. Lorna knows she met the Doctor when she was a child, and Amy warns her to make sure she’s on the right side when the Doctor does arrive. Meanwhile, outside, Colonel Manton gives a rousing speech to his troops about why they’re fighting the Doctor and why they will do well. He also says that for the first time, he is allowed to remove the hoods of three of the headless monks, an action usually punishable by death, to show his troops why they allied themselves with the headless monks. He lowers the hood of the first monk, to reveal that they are indeed headless, with a knot where their neck should be, as opposed to the metaphorical headless philosophised about earlier.

The Silurian warriors assist the Doctor in A Good Man Goes to War

As Manton lowers the hoods, he says that the headless monks cannot be afraid, and cannot show any fear for they have no heads, until he reaches the third monk, who lowers his own hood and shouts that the headless monks are also unable to be surprised. The third monk is of course, the Doctor, come to rescue Amy Pond. He stands on the platform and tells the soldiers to point their guns at him if it helps them to relax, before telling Amy to get her coat as they’re leaving. Manton orders the Doctor to surrender and points a gun at his head. Meanwhile, in the control room, the Silurian and her maid take over after forcing the two soldiers to reveal which buttons controlled the lights and tying them up. Back in the main room, the Doctor puts his hood back on and shouts for the lights, and darkness falls in the room. The lights come back up and the Doctor is nowhere to be seen, least of all because he now looks identical to the headless monks. One of the soldiers becomes convinced that one of the other monks is the Doctor, and shoots it, but it was just a monk. The monks retaliate and begin shooting the soldiers before Manton calls for order, and surrenders his gun and tells his men to do the same, chanting that they are not fools, so that the monks won’t attack them. Meanwhile, the Doctor slips out through a side door.

When all of the soldiers have disarmed themselves, the room fills with Silurians, Judoon and Sontarans pointing their weapons at the soldiers. Manton realises they are fools because they disarmed themselves and then the enemy appeared. The Sontaran commander from 4037 tells Manton that they are now in charge of the base. Meanwhile, Kovarian tries to escape with Amy and Rory’s baby, but is stopped by Rory. Kovarian tells Rory that she has 23 people on board her escape ship and that he can’t stop them all. As she says that, out of the main door steps Captain Henry Avery and Toby (from The Curse of the Black Spot (Series 6 : Episode 3)) and says that the ship is theirs. Kovarian is taken to the Doctor where he is ordering Manton give the order to his soldiers to run away. The Doctor taunts Manton that he will become the man they call Colonel Run-Away and that kids will laugh at him in the street when they see him. The Colonel gives the orders and the soldiers begin to leave as Rory returns to Amy with their baby.

After the happy reunion and the Doctor has given Rory and Amy the use of his old cot, he goes back to the main control room where the large blue man (Dorium) and the Silurian (Madame Vastra) are working out why Kovarian wanted the baby. The look at the child’s DNA, which the Doctor states 100% would be human, but on closer inspection reveals that some time lord DNA is mixed in as well, due to the baby being conceived on the TARDIS while it was in the time vortex. Vastra tells the Doctor that they did it because of the stories about him, that they wish to raise the baby to become a weapon against him. Aghast at the thought, Dorium and Vastra both agree that Kovarian gave up too quickly, just as Lorna is found in the hold and tries to warn Rory and Amy, who ignore her. However, the lights then go out as the Sontaran (Commander Strax) informs the group that they are the only life forms on Demon’s Run. Lorna tries to warn the group that the headless monks are already dead and won’t show up but it’s too late as the monks begin to kill the Silurian warriors. Dorium goes forward, saying he can reason with them as he’s sold things to them before but they decapitate him instead.

Rory and Commander Starx prepare to fight the hoodless monks

Rory tells Amy to hide as he and the others prepare to fight the monks to protect the baby while the Doctor has a conversation with Kovarian, who tells the Doctor that to trick him once was good, but to trick him twice with the same trick was a privilege. The Doctor rushes back to the hold as the baby Melody Pond dissolves into the liquid flesh in Amy’s arms. The Doctor arrives as the battle ends and everyone knows that the baby was fake. Rory comforts Starx who remarks that dying isn’t as fun as he’d dreamed while the Doctor goes to try and comfort Amy but she doesn’t want anything to do with him, though Vastra’s maid reminds her that it’s not his fault. Vastra says that Lorna tried to warn them and the Doctor thanks her for helping his friends, but she dies thought the Doctor remembers them running in the Gamma Forests when she was a child. Then River Song arrives and the Doctor explodes at her, saying that he came every time she called and asks why she didn’t come when he asked. She says that she’s sorry and asks if he ever saw himself becoming what he’s become, but he replies asking who she is. She asks if he can read and he looks at the side of his cot and reads the Gallifreyan written on it, and immediately becomes happier. He thanks Vastra, tells Amy and Rory that he’ll see them later and tells River to make sure everyone gets home safe before bounding into the TARDIS and leaving.

River Song tells the Doctor who she really is

Amy however isn’t happy that he’s just left, and picks up a gun and orders River to tell them what she told the Doctor. River asks if she can read the side of the cot but Amy can’t and River says that Gallifreyan doesn’t translate with the TARDIS’ translation matrix, but the writing on the prayer leaf does. River mentions that the people of the Gamma Forests have no word for Pond, as their only water is from the rivers. Amy picks up the prayer leaf, as River says that the Doctor will save her daughter, because the name on the leaf is translated for Amy and reads “River Song”. Amy looks at River who confirms that she is indeed Melody Pond, Amy and Rory’s daughter. The episode then ends on this cliff hanger.

This episode is the first of a two part storyline. You can read the second episode guide of the two parter by clicking here.

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