The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)

The Impossible Astronaut was the first episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. It introduced the Silence as a species, building on the references of the previous series.

Synopsis
Four envelopes, numbered 2, 3 and 4, each containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. Who sent them? And who received the missing envelope numbered 1? This strange summons reunites the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor's friends must never reveal to him. Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to search for the recipient of the fourth envelope and figure out just who is Canton Everett Delaware the Third? Also what is the relevance of their only other clue: 'Space 1969'? Their quest lands them—quite literally—in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.

Plot
The episode begins with Amy Pond reading out to Rory Williams from a history book. The first story is of a king who finds an unnamed doctor (Doctor Who) hiding naked in his wife's room. The Doctor eventually gets incarcerated in the Tower of London without trial but soon escapes by means of a magical, mysterious spherical device which is 20 feet across floating over the city (the page in the book features an illustration of a hot air balloon). The second story is of a doctor being caught while escaping with mates at an army base after confusing their escape route with the door to the commandant's office. A soldier shouts in German and pulls the Doctor out of their tunneled escape route.

Amy figures that the doctor is trying to communicate by manipulating historic events of lesser significance while Rory continues to watch a Laurel and Hardy film. Doorbell rings and as Amy goes to answer, Rory looks away. In this brief moment the doctor walks up to the camera in the film wearing his fez. The postman at the door hands over a TARDISBlue envelope to Amy. The envelope has the number 3 written on its back in an etched white typeface. Upon opening the envelope, Amy discovers the following message written on a matted card:

22/04/2011 16:30 MDT 37°0'38"N -110°14'24"W

Rory asks what it is and Amy responds saying it's "a date, a time, [and] a map reference". Amy implies it's an invitation albeit unsigned, and the colour would suggest it's from the Doctor.

Meanwhile, River Song receives a similar envelope with the number 3 on the backside, addressed to:

River Song Stormcage Containment Facility

She opens the envelope and smirks while looking at the message within immediately hatching a plan of escape from the facility. Soon afterward, the facility goes abuzz by loud alarms going off as a soldier reports to a superior on the phone how Rose is acting suspiciously and packing. He tells his superior that he thinks she is headed off to a planet called America.

Back on Earth, Amy and Rory hitch a school bus ride in San Juan going towards Goulding Arch near Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah where they had been summoned. The bus drives off revealing the Doctor sitting atop a car with a Stetson on. He calls them over saying, "Howdy!" and calls them Ponds rather than Williams implying that Amy is the dominant member in the relationship. Rory greets him by stating he is the husband; the Doctor simply calls him "Rory the Roman". While declaring his love for how cool Stetsons are, his hat is shot to the ground and we see Song holding a pistol which she then puts back in its holster, saying "Hello, Sweety!"

The group sits in a diner where River and the Doctor do diaries, laughing about their encounters on Easter Island and Jim the Fish, and he tells them they will visit 'Space 1969'. They later sit by the lake having a picnic, where the Doctor says that he's 1103, 200 years older than last time they met, and also comments on Amy gaining weight. Amy sees an alien on one of the mesas, but when Rory's head blocks it from her view, she forgets about it. The Doctor sees a man standing by a truck a few hundred metres from the picnic. River then notices an Astronaut standing in the lake. The Doctor becomes serious, telling his companions not to interfere no matter what.

The Doctor greets the Astronaut, saying that he knows who it is. The Astronaut raises its visor to the Doctor, and shoots him. Amy starts to run towards him, but is held back by River and Rory. The Doctor begins to regenerate, but the Astronaut shoots him again, at which point River runs towards the Doctor as well. As the Astronaut retreats into the lake, River scans the Doctor and confirms that he's dead. When Amy starts suggesting that this Doctor is a duplicate, the man comes over and confirms that it is the Doctor. He introduces himself as Canton Delaware III, and gives the group a tank of petrol as he was previously told to by the Doctor. He also reveals a similar invitation to those received by Rory and Amy and River.The Doctor is then given a Viking funeral, before Canton departs, saying that the trio will meet him again.

The group return to the diner and try to figure out what the Doctor meant by 'Space 1969' and who the other invitation was sent to, when the Doctor emerges from the back room. After a short silence, River slaps him for 'something [he] hasn't done yet'. After talking about Jim the Fish (whom the Doctor has now never heard of), and having Amy ask the Doctor how old he is (909), River deduces that the Doctor they are with is an earlier version of the Doctor they just saw killed, but keeps quiet about her suspicions. The Doctor reveals another invitation, with the missing number one on it. Upon his questioning, River tells him that they've been recruited by someone who trusts him more than anyone else in the universe, and that it has something to do with 'Space 1969', and Canton Delaware III.

to be continued...

Cast

 * Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Canton Delaware - Mark Sheppard
 * Old Canton Delaware - William Morgan Sheppard
 * President Richard Nixon - Stuart Milligan
 * Carl - Chukwudi Iwuji
 * Phil - Mark Griffin
 * The Silent - Marnix Van Den Broeke
 * Little Girl - Sydney Wade
 * Joy - Nancy Baldwin
 * Prison Guard - Kieran O'Connor
 * Captain Simmons - Adam Napier
 * Matilda - Henrietta Clemett
 * Charles - Paul Critoph
 * Busboy - Emilio Aquino

Crew

 * Writer - Steven Moffat
 * Director - Toby Haynes

The Doctor

 * An older Eleventh Doctor who is 1,103 years old, begins to regenerate, but is killed before the process completes.
 * The Doctor states his current age as being 909 years old.
 * The Doctor says that he is late for a biplane lesson in 1911 but gets confused and wonders if it is actually knitting.

Films

 * Amy Pond and Rory Williams watch a Laurel & Hardy film on television.

Fashion and clothing

 * The Doctor is also shown whilst wearing a fez in a Laurel & Hardy film.

Years

 * The Doctor states that the year 1482 is full of glitches, but also says 1969 is 'easy'. This may suggest that some years are harder to travel to than others.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor makes the TARDIS invisible when he materializes in the Oval Office. The Doctor walks into it afterwards when he tries to enter it again.

Story notes

 * This episode had the working title Year of the Moon
 * This is the first two part opening episode of the revived series.
 * A prequel for this story was released on the official BBC website.
 * The monsters in this episode were said to be "the scariest monsters yet".
 * The episode was dedicated to Elisabeth Sladen, who had passed away four days before the episode's initial broadcast.

Ratings

 * Overnight figures for BBC was 6.4 million making this the least watched Series opener since the relaunch of the new series.

Myths

 * We will see River Song as a child. This was proven false
 * The second episode will air the day after the first.  This has been proven false

Filming locations

 * Valley of the Gods, Utah, United States of America.
 * Eddie's Diner, Cardiff Bay

Production errors

 * When Amy is talking to the agent outside of the toilet, a boom mike can be seen over his shoulder.

Continuity

 * Amy mentions fish fingers and custard (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * The Doctor requests Jammie Dodgers and a Fez. (DW: Victory of the Daleks, The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor once again asks River who she murdered. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * The Doctor again expresses his dislike of wine, despite drinking it again. (DW: The Lodger)
 * River Song suspects that she will one day meet a Doctor who hasn't met her yet, and it will be the death of her. (DW: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)
 * The attempted TARDIS is seen again. (DW: The Lodger)
 * The Doctor looks at the front and then back of his hands before he is about to regenerate. (DW: The Parting of the Ways, The End of Time)

Home video releases
The DVD will be released in two halves. Part One, which will contain episodes one to seven, will be released in Summer, shortly after the airing of episode seven.