Series 6, Episode 8 | 1 part | First broadcast: 27 August 2011 | Writer: Steven Moffat | Director: Richard Senior
Cast
- Matt Smith as the Doctor
- Karen Gillan as Amy Pond
- Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams
- Alex Kingston as River Song
Summary
A visit from Amy and Rory’s long-lost childhood friend Mels, on a mission to kill Adolf Hitler, spirals wildly out of control when Mels is fatally wounded and unexpectedly regenerates into a familiar face, River Song herself, still hostile and trained from birth to murder the Doctor. As Hitler is unceremoniously locked in a cupboard for most of the runtime, the Doctor faces a poisoning he cannot survive, forcing River to make a choice that will define the rest of her life.
Interesting Facts
- This episode reveals that Mels, a character seeded throughout Amy and Rory’s childhood flashbacks, is the future River Song mid-regeneration.
- River Song’s poisoning of the Doctor and subsequent use of all her remaining regenerations to save him is later confirmed as the reason for her more limited number of future regenerations.
- Adolf Hitler is treated as a background gag rather than a genuine antagonist, a deliberately irreverent choice for the episode’s title.
- The robotic Justice Department vehicle Amy calls “Tiny Hitler” delivers cartoonish comic relief amid the story’s darker plot beats.
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