5. Who Is River Song / The Death Of The Doctor (Series Six)
This arc couldn't be more different than the previous two; for his second series Moffat seemed to fancy attempting an American style arc-heavy run. The problem with that is that this is Doctor Who - a show whose standalone nature is part of its appeal, which is also why it didn't quite work for me. The River Song mystery was tantalisingly set up all the way back in David Tennant's final series, and was mused upon by the Doctor and Amy in series five but nothing more then. Finally, with the blistering two-part opener to series six, the question was ready to be tackled. Mysterious, one-eyed women appearing in the walls, children that can regenerate like Time Lords and Amy being a slimy doppleganger all this time! THIS is how you do an arc, Russell. Pay attention. However, it is the episodes that
don't address the arc that let this series down. The first half of series six was onto a promise dull pirate runaround aside, there was development upon development and the surprise death of the Doctor at the very beginning of it all hung over Rory and Amy like a bad smell, while the younger version of the Time Lord was blissfully unaware of it. But then came Demon's Run and Hitler, and it all went to pot. At the close of mid-series finale A Good Man Goes To War, Amy and Rory's baby (who turns out to have been River all along) is kidnapped by the Silence. The Doctor parts ways with a promise to find baby Melody and viewers are left with a long break in which to wonder if he succeeded. It isn't the Doctor's ultimate failure that is the problem here he's broken plenty of promises before. Its' the fact that Amy and Rory don't seem to care. They can never see their baby again because they've crossed paths with adult River too often they've essentially suffered the temporal equivalent of a miscarriage and they're off gleefully running around having adventures, neither of them eliciting a single hint of sadness. Barely any further mention is made of their loss following Let's Kill Hitler and it's actually quite unsettling to see supposedly loveable characters not displaying a shred of concern for their trauma. And then came the finale; and the attempt to tie up a million loose ends in one 45 minute episode. Series six introduced two things to New Who: the mid-series split and the single-part finale, and neither did the series many favours.