A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)

A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)

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A Good Man Goes to War
Doctor:	[[doctor::Eleventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Amy Pond Rory Williams
Main enemy:	Madame Kovarian Colonel Manton Headless monks
Main setting:	Demons Run Stormcage Containment Facility London, 1888 Battle of Zaruthstra, 4037 Cyber Ship
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Peter Hoar
Release details
Story number:	218a
Release number:	Series 6
Premiere broadcast:	4th June 2011
Format:	1x 50 minute episode
Production code:	2.7

A Good Man Goes to War was the seventh episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who and the last episode of the spring half of the series. Narratively, it was significant for revealing the identity of River Song, naming her as Melody Pond, the daughter of Amy and Rory. Additionally it saw the reappearances of several of the Doctor's allies and enemies.

Synopsis

Amy Pond has been kidnapped and the Doctor is raising an army to rescue her as the drama continues. But as he and Rory race across galaxies, calling in long-held debts and solemnly given promises, his enemies are laying a carefully concealed trap. In her cell in Stormcage, River Song sadly acknowledges that the time has come at last – today will mark the Battle of Demon's Run and the Doctor’s darkest hour. Both sides will make their sacrifices and River Song must finally reveal her most closely guarded secret to the Doctor.

Plot

Amy picks up her newborn daughter, Melody, as a group of guards – including Lorna Bucket – watch on. She tells them about her father who is coming for them, and has lived for hundreds of years though he looks young: the Last Centurion.

On the ship of the Twelfth Cyber Legion, a group of Cybermen detect an intruder who is steadily working his way up the levels. The intruder is revealed as Rory, who says that he has a message from the Doctor and a question. He demands to know where his wife is as the rest of the ships around them explode.

On Demon's Run, the Fat Man and the Thin Man discuss the Doctor and pass Lorna Bucket, who is spending her break sewing. Another pair of marines watch on monitors and train to recognise psychic paper, mentioning that they've been on yellow alert for three weeks. Lorna, the Thin Man and the Fat Man discuss the Headless Monks; they believe that doubt lies in the head and faith lies in the heart. The Fat Man leaves with the monks for "conversion counselling". The Thin Man deduces that Lorna has met the Doctor; she confirms that she saw him as a kid in the Gamma Forests.

The Fat Man enters a room where the Monks are gathered. A voice tells him that he has been selected to be converted to "their faith" and told to make a donation.

In Victorian London, a hooded figure arrives home. She is greeted by a maid and tells her that she has killed and eaten Jack the Ripper. She reveals herself as a Silurian named Madame Vestra. The maid (named Jenny) leads her to the drawing room; the TARDIS is sitting there.

In the middle of the Battle of Zaruthstra, 4037, a man searches for a nurse for a boy who is clearly unwell. A Sontaran nurse enters. A few minutes later, the boy is awake, and the nurse reveals himself as Commander Strax. He says that being a nurse is his penance. The TARDIS is heard, and Strax says that his penance is about to finish.

In Stormcage, River Song returns from a birthday outing with the Doctor, accidentally setting off an alarm. Rory appears and River seems stunned at the sight of him. Rory asks that she come with him, but she says that she can't come until the 'very end', as it's the day when the Doctor will rise so high, and then fall further than ever before. It is also the day he finds out who she is.

Dorium appears to be leaving a bar of some kind before he is interrupted by the Eye Patch Lady, whom he names as Madame Kovarian. He says that the reason the Doctor hasn't come yet is because he's raising an army of people who owe him a debt. Dorium also mentions that the Headless Monks are customers of his, and he therefore knows the location of their base. After Madame Kovarian leaves, the TARDIS arrives for him.

At Demon's Run, one of the Colonels gives a speech about the Doctor, saying that he is only a man and he can be defeated. Amy watches from above, but is interrupted by Lorna, who says that she should be at the speech. Lorna offers her a prayer leaf with Melody's name on it in the language of her people; if a parent keeps such an item with them, their child will always come back. Amy ignores the offer of kindness, but turns when she realises that Lorna has met the Doctor. She accepts the prayer leaf, and warns Lorna to be 'on the right side' for her sake.

Lorna hurries to the speech, where the Colonel removes the hoods of the monks, to reveal a knot of skin where the bases of their necks should be. The third monk removes his own hood; it is the Doctor in disguise. The Monks raise their swords and all the marines except Lorna raise their guns. At the same time, Madame Vestra and Jenny hold the men in the control room at sword point. In the main room, the Doctor puts up his hood as the lights go out. The lights come back on and the Doctor is nowhere to be seen. The Doctor tells them that he is disguised as one of the Monks. A man shoots one who turns out to be a real Monk and is killed. The Monks begin to kill the marines in retaliation until the Colonel tells everyone to stand down. Lorna sees a Monk with a sonic screwdriver and follows him out of the room as the rest of the marines disarm themselves. Silurians suddenly appear with their guns pointed at the marines, as do the Judoon. Commander Strax holds the Colonel at gunpoint, claiming the base as their own.

The Doctor has a group of modified Spitfires (last seen in Victory of the Daleks) attack the base, and Kovarian orders that the child be brought to her. Melody is brought in a portable cot, and Kovarian says that the Doctor must think he is winning until the trap closes. Unknown to her, Lorna is listening, and she runs off. Rory suddenly appears and holds Kovarian at sword point; Henry and Toby Avery exit Kovarian's private ship with a crewmember tied up. She enters the control room where the Doctor is sitting and tells the Colonel to order the marines to run away.

Amy hears Rory at the door with the sonic screwdriver and tells him that they took Melody; he enters with the baby in his arms. The Doctor walks in and calls the baby "Melody Pond", much to Rory's annoyance. He also comments that he speaks baby. Madame Vestra enters and says that the marines are leaving, and that the Doctor has never risen so high. Rory remembers River's words and looks concerned.

Amy leaves the TARDIS with a crying Melody, saying that the baby doesn't like the noise inside. The others all suggest what she'd crying about until the Doctor emerges with a cot before hurrying back to the control room, saying that the cot is his.

Dorium is going through the computers and discovers scans of Melody, which reveal that her DNA contains traces of Time Lord. Vestra asks when Melody was conceived, as she knows that the Time Lords became what they did through exposure to the time vortex. The Doctor realises that the first time Rory and Amy were together on the TARDIS was their wedding night, and that they might want her for a weapon, having seen the Doctor. Vestra and Dorium leave as the Doctor remembers the little girl from America. Kovarian appears on a screen and says that the girl is hope in the war against the Doctor.

Lorna is brought to Rory and Amy at gunpoint, as she had been listening. She insists that they're in a trap, and that she only joined the clerics to meet the Doctor as he is "a great warrior". The lights go out. Strax says that there are no life forms in the base excluding them, but Lorna says that the Headless Monks do not register as life forms.

Elsewhere in the base, Monks begin to attack the Silurians. Vestra joins the others; the TARDIS is suddenly surrounded by a force field and the doors are locked. Dorium identifies the Monks' chant as the attack prayer. Amy goes to hide with Melody. Dorium goes into the darkness to try to reason with the Monks, but is beheaded; his body joins the Monks who are advancing on the group.

On the screen, Kovarian says that fooling the Doctor once was a joy, but fooling him again the same way is a privilege. He realises what Kovarian has done and runs off to find Amy. Melody, looking over Amy's shoulder sees a hatch appear in the air, through which Kovarian is watching them. Kovarian murmurs "wakey wakey", and Melody collapses into flesh, while Amy screams for Rory. The Doctor runs onto the scene where the battle took place moments before, yelling that Melody is flesh; he is greeted by Rory who tells him that they already know. Rory then goes to help a wounded Strax, who says that he always dreamed of dying in battle.

The Doctor tries to comfort Amy, but she only backs away. Instead, he goes to talk to Lorna. When she mentions that she met him, he remembers her before she dies. River appears in a flash of light. The Doctor angrily confronts her, saying that he was there for her but she didn't come when he needed her the most. She tells him that she couldn't have prevented what happened, but he didn't try. She says that Amy will be all right, and that the battle is exactly what the Doctor is. She says that, though the word "doctor" often means "healer" or "wise man", in the Gamma Forests it means "warrior". The Doctor finally asks her who she is; she only runs towards the cot before he grabs her. She asks him "Can't you read?" He has a realization that causes him to become increasingly jubilant, and River Song confirms his thoughts. He hurries to the TARDIS with a newfound confidence as he tells Amy and Rory not to worry because he is certain now that he can save their daughter.

Amy holds River at gunpoint demanding to know what she just said. River tells her that she needs to focus on the written word as the TARDIS has more difficulty translating it; Amy tries and fails to read the writing on the cot, but River says that the Gallifreyan cannot be translated. River hands Amy the prayer leaf and tells her to read it. Amy says that she knows her daughter's name, but River tells her that they don't have a word for "Pond" in the Gamma Forests where Lorna was from, because "the only water in the forest is the river." As Amy and Rory read the leaf, the writing changes to read the words "River Song". River Song tells them that she is Melody, their daughter. The episode ends as Amy and Rory look shocked, and a "To Be Continued" appears on the screen...

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
• Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
• River Song/Melody Pond - Alex Kingston
• Baby Melody Pond - Harrison/Madison Mortimer
• Madame Kovarian - Frances Barber
• Dorium - Simon Fisher Becker
• Henry Avery - Hugh Bonneville
• Toby Avery - Oscar Lloyd
• Colonel Manton - Danny Sapani
• Madame Vastra - Neve McIntosh
• Jenny - Catrin Stewart
• Strax - Dan Starkey
• Lorna Bucket - Christina Chong
• Thin Man - Dan Johnston
• Fat Man - Charlie Baker
• Lucas - Joshua Hayes
• Domincus - Damian Kell
• Captain Harcourt - Richard Trinder
• Eleanor - Annabel Cleare
• Voice of the Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs

Crew

to be added

References

Races and species

• Strax is seen tending to human soldiers, rather than Sontaran troops. Presumably, Strax was forced to work as a mercenary, just as Commander Kaagh did for the Bane. He is also able to produce his own breast milk and is willing to take care of Melody Pond.

Story notes

• This episode was originally entitled Demon's Run was changed to A Good Man Goes to War, although His Darkest Hour had also been considered as a potential title.
• A Good Man Goes to War, as noted by Steven Moffat, aside from being episode 7 of this series, is also the 777th episode of Doctor Who. Moffat stated there were no 'seven puns' in the episode as the coincidence was only observed after it was shot.
• The end credits list Russell T Davies as creating the Ood and Judoon. However, no Ood appear in the episode.
• The battle of Demon's run takes place after 5145, as evidenced by the death of Dorium, who first appeared in 5145 selling River a vortex manipulator.
• The idea that the term "doctor" originates from the Doctor was first advanced by Steven Moffat in a Usenet post in 1995.
• Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky and Commander Jask in The End of Time. Neve McIntosh played Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

Ratings

to be added

Myths

• Karen Gillan is leaving the series and Amy Pond will be killed off at the climax to the spring half of the series. This was proven false long before the episode aired; many photos have shown Gillan on set.
• River Song will die. This was proven false.
• We will learn of the identity of River Song. True, she was revealed to be the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
• River Song has been recently rumored to be Amy's daughter as well as the Doctor's wife. True, she was revealed to be Amy daughter, but her marital status is still unknown.
• We will find out whom River Song killed. Steven Moffat has said "a good man will die – a good man, and a hero to many."Have yet to have firm confirmation, but could imply the Doctor considering the revelations of River's identity and the events of episode one. Could also imply Rory, given the speech given to Melody by Amy at the start of the episode.
• The Cybermen will be newly designed Cybermen. The only difference was the lack of a Cybus Industries logo.
• The Cybermen will be planning to trap and capture the Doctor, before freezing him. This appears to have been proven false, since the Cybermen in this episode do not appear to be plotting as such and are not even shown meeting the Doctor.
• The character named Jenny will be the Doctor's Daughter in her second incarnation. The Jenny who appeared in this episode did not appear to recognise the Doctor, and took offense to her Silurian partner saying that all mammals look alike, so this appears to have been proven false.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• The credits mention that Russell T Davies created the Judoon and the Ood. The only Series 6 episode that features an Ood is The Doctor's Wife.
• The word "Override" is incorrectly spelt "Overide" on the label for the button which controls the door lock, which two tied up soldiers attempt to press before one is stung by Vastra.

Continuity

• The Doctor has several flashbacks to the events in America, 1967. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)
• Rory's Centurion armour and warrior skills, as well as his age, were first shown in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang.
• This episode ends the mystery of who Professor River Song is, a storyline that began in 2008 with DW: Silence in the Library
• In the Forest of the Dead River Song comments that the Doctor would make whole armies turn and run, which may be a reference to this episode.
• The Doctor gives a brief history of Rory's time in the TARDIS to Vastra. He references Rory facing "sexy, fishy, vampires", (DW: The Vampires of Venice) dying (ironically, at the hands of Restac who, like Vastra, is a Silurian played by Neve McIntosh), and being erased from time, (DW: Cold Blood) then becoming "plastic" coming back. (DW: The Pandorica Opens). The Doctor also mentions rebooting the universe. (DW: The Big Bang)
• The Cybermen return in this story. They resemble the parallel Cybermen from Pete's World and have warships identical to one of the unnamed ones above Stonehenge seen in DW: The Pandorica Opens. However, unlike those Cybermen, they lack the Cybus logos on their chests and have a bump in its place, unlike the markings seen on the Cybermen in VG: Blood of the Cybermen. It is possible that these Cybermen are Mondasian Cybermen from our universe. They are also said to control a large section of the Galaxy, something of which both this universe's Cybermen and the parallel universe's Cybermen are seemingly capable. They are most likely this universe's Cybermen as the others did not possess the technology to cross the void without causing the universes to start to end.
• Returning characters that the Doctor calls upon are: Dorium (DW: The Pandorica Opens), Spitfire pilot "Danny Boy" (DW: Victory of the Daleks), and Henry Avery and his son Toby. (DW: The Curse of the Black Spot)
• Silurians, Judoon and Sontarans also return in this story.
• The Church make their second appearance after The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. Although some soldiers have the rank of Cleric printed on their uniforms, Manton is referred to as Colonel instead of a religious rank such as Bishop.
• A fake version of Amy and Rory's child turns out to be Flesh. (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People)
• The Headless monks were first mentioned in DW: The Time of Angels.
• The Fat Man tells the Thin Man a rumour that the Doctor once "chased the Atraxi off a planet" and "called them back for a scolding". (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
• Dorium says that the Headless Monks are customers of his. (DW: Prequel (A Good Man Goes to War))
• River Song says that she and an unspecified Doctor ice skated on the frozen Thames in 1814 during "the last of the great frost fairs". This is a positive reference to CC: Frostfire, and means that both River, Steven Taylor and Vicki were on the same ice at roughly the same time.
• This is not the first time that the Doctor had created an army composed of some of his old enemies (PDA: Warmonger)
• The Doctor is once again referred to as a Goblin and a Trickster. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
• "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was spoken to Rory by Idris. The Doctor said it would mean something someday. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
• The Doctor references the Untempered Schism, referring to how Time Lords became what they were through billions of years of continued exposure to the Time Vortex. (DW: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time)

Home video releases

Part One, which will contain episodes one to seven will be released in Summer, shortly after the airing of episode seven.