NuWho Review: Series 6 Episode 8 "Let's Kill Hitler"

By: Steven Moffat

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

        You know, sometimes there are episodes that really make me question myself, both as a reviewer and as a fan. Episodes that all of my knowledge about writing and characters tell me are TERRIBLE, and yet the inner fangirl in me gets bossy and starts shoving to the forefront and demanding that I enjoy it and squee over it and ignore all of the problems. (Rather like those who still enjoy the wanton destruction and zany badness of the Transformers franchise, I suspect.) Those episodes are troublesome because they really bring forth the question of what is more valuable - the quality of the product or the amount of enjoyment that it brings?

      This is my relationship with Let's Kill Hitler. My brain tells me that this is an absolute train wreck of an episode that contains false advertising, a convoluted plot, and is basically Moffat's version of a Mary-Sue fanfic. That is what my brain tells me. However, the fangirl in me is all heart eyes and uncontrollable giggles the whole way through. See my problem?

      Let's start at the beginning. 

Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I absolutely LOVE the start of the episode with Amy and Rory making a crop circle to contact The Doctor. Funny stuff. Shame Mels ruins it the minute she Mary-Sue's her way into the episode.

- Okay, so I THINK I should explain a bit what I mean whenever I say that Mels is a Mary-Sue because I know sometimes people will just accuse female characters they don't like of being one and, no, I don't do that. Mary-Sue is a fanfiction term that arose from the Star Trek fandom. It is used to describe OC's (original characters) in fanfiction that are just a little bit too perfect in the eyes of their creators. These characters are usually sassy, strong, independent women with a penchant for inserting themselves into the past lives of the actual main characters where they weren't before, warping reality to revolve around them, being extremely flawed but always having an excuse, being flashy and over-the-top just for the sake of it, having long descriptions of their appearance in the most flattering tones, being someone that the audience is just EXPECTED to love, breaking the rules but rarely getting in real trouble, and basically hooking up with the main character and being someone that the author WISHES they either were or that they could date. Mary-Sue's can also appear in original fiction. 

- That describes Mels. She comes right out of nowhere, is over-the-top rebellious, has an attitude that any sensible person would call her out on, is obsessed with her appearance, falls in love with The Doctor, is shot and everybody instantly sympathizes, warps reality by being inserted into Amy and Rory's childhood where she wasn't before, and there is literally no explanation for why she has never been mentioned before or seen whenever we are in Amy's home town. Everything about her just feels like I'm torturing myself with a bad fanfic. They could use her scenes as a PUNISHMENT in The Matrix! 

- Yes I just said that. I really do loathe her character that much. It gets a little bit better once we're back to Alex Kingston (because her performance is less bratty) but Mels is still just about unbearable.

Awww...widdle baby Rory!

- That being said, I really do enjoy the little peek we're given back into Amy and Rory's childhood (also what a great friend Amy is) and the adorable way that they grow up together. Rory is just so totally besotted...but he's so sure that Amy could never notice him that he never says anything. Which, to be fair, I don't really mind that Mels was the one to get them together. I get the feeling that both Amy and Rory would be so equally oblivious and awkward that they wouldn't go and confess their feelings for each other without a bit of help. So that wasn't out of character. It's nice to have little Miss Blackwood back as young!Amy too. Those parts were just adorable and I kind of regret that we didn't get to see more of Amy and Rory when they were kids. That would have been enjoyable.

- Mels shot the TARDIS. Why? What was the purpose of that?

- "That's right, Adolph. The British are coming!" Haha...okay. That line was pretty funny.

- And it was highly satisfying to watch Rory sock ol' Hitler in the jaw, sass him, and then lock him in a closet for the rest of the episode. Good on you, Rory!

- Unfortunately, Hitler being locked in a closet is a pretty good indicator of the rest of this episode. It has almost nothing to do with Nazi Germany or the time-travel-kill-Hitler-when-he-was-a-baby question. The story could take place in 78'th Century Poosh and still be almost exactly the same.

- Rory did get a chance to be a real awesome husband and father in this episode. I'm glad to see that all of the character development building up to that UTTERLY EPIC entrance in A Good Man Goes To War was not squandered. He punches Hitler and steals motorcycles from Nazi's and takes being sucked into a giant, robotic version of Amy in a matter-of-fact, cool-as-a-cucumber way that is just so RORY.

- I think I'm in love...

- Matt Smith and Alex Kingston were as on-point as ever. They really have a lot of chemistry on-screen and they make the banter between River and The Doctor a lot of fun to watch as they dance around each other. So I do enjoy some of their interactions in this episode. I still think the Graduate joke was a bit much. That was a funny little aside joke from one episode. Don't kill it, Moffat!

- The Teselecta (forever getting confused and thinking I'm talking about the Tesseract) is a pretty cool concept. I could split this episode up into two separate stories: The Mels Saga and Let's Kill Hitler. And both would have been fine in their own episodes.

- I really like the morbidly cheerful antibodies. They weren't exactly scary, per say...but they did make me laugh even while I shuddered. It's a shame they haven't appeared again in the show. They were fun and they certainly created a lot of suspense whenever they started going after Amy and Rory.

- The fact that they're like robotic jellyfish also cracks me up for some reason.

- I'm not entirely sure what the point was of having The Doctor be poisoned? I mean...the Kiss of Death was kind of cool. Almost James Bond worthy, even. And I laugh that it was sap from the Judas Tree that did him in...nice bit of reference irony there.

- But, seriously, what was the point? We KNOW that he doesn't die here! WE KNOW THIS! So the fake-out just kind of felt like padding.

- Even if it DID give us a chance to see Rose, Martha, and Donna again. That tie-in back to the past era of the show was nice.

         I just don't know what to think about this episode. On the one hand, it's awful and painful and kind of annoying. On the other hand, it is an episode that I will watch again and again and again. Rory is awesome. Amy is wonderful. The ending is actually quite nice. But it's such a mess! *sigh* Do I review it based on enjoyability or do I review it on how well-structured it is? The answer is: a combination of the two. Because something can be extremely well-written and visualized and created, but still as dull as a brick. Let's Kill Hitler is a 3/5.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?