Let's Kill Hitler (TV story)

Let's Kill Hitler was the eighth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who and the first episode in the Autumn half. In the same vein as A Good Man Goes to War, it revealed much about River Song's origins.

Synopsis
In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crashes in 1930s Berlin, bringing the Doctor face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. Adolf Hitler. The Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities – and in so doing, learns a harsh lesson in the cruelest warfare of all.

Plot
Amy and Rory drive through a corn field with Amy giving directions badly. They find the Doctor standing by the TARDIS, holding a paper with a story about the crop circle spelling out "Doctor" they have just made because he has not picked up his phone. Rory spots a line in the picture they did not create. It was made by the stolen Corvette that nearly runs over the Doctor. Amy and Rory's friend Mels steps out. She knows of the TARDIS and the Doctor because she grew up with Amy's stories about him. About to be arrested, she points a gun at the Doctor and orders him to take her to kill Hitler.

Flashback: Mels is a school troublemaker. She gets in more trouble than anyone except boys. She insults teachers, continually references the Doctor and steals a bus. Back in the TARDIS, she shoots the console and the TARDIS spins madly out of control.

In 1938 Berlin, a janitor watches a Nazi officer. In a futuristic control room, the crew discuss copying the officer. The janitor confronts the officer. In the control room, a woman complains that when they relied on the computer, it "made Rasputin green". She goes to 'the top level', where an electronic voice politely threatens her. She looks through a viewport, which is the eye of the janitor, actually a highly advanced ship, the Teselecta. She relays colour codes to the control room. The janitor becomes the officer's double and beams him aboard with a miniaturisation ray. He is killed by the ship's "antibodies". The ship goes to punish Adolf Hitler for his myriad crimes. Just as it paralyzes him with a beam, a crewman says it is "too early" in his time stream.

Before that is explained, the TARDIS crashes into Hitler's office, knocking over the Teselecta. The TARDIS occupants stagger out in a cloud of smoke caused by Mels having shot the TARDIS. Hitler thanks the dumbfounded travellers for saving him and asks what the TARDIS is. The Doctor advances on him, saying it's a police box and "The British are coming!" A panicky Hitler shoots at the Teselecta. Rory punches Hitler and puts him in a cupboard on the Doctor's orders. Hitler has shot Mels, who reveals herself as Melody Pond and regenerates into River Song. The Teselecta scans the scene. Here is the most infamous malefactor in history, whose crimes dwarf Hitler's: Melody Pond.

Melody tries to kill the Doctor several ways, but he thwarts her. She kisses him and jumps out a window, saying she has poisoned the Doctor with her lipstick and is going shopping. The dying Doctor orders Amy and Rory to catch her. The pair watch her knock out soldiers with her regenerative energy, steal their guns and flee on a motorcycle.

Amy and Rory follow on a second motorbike, and the Teselecta on a third. The Doctor reels into the TARDIS. He activates the voice interface in the form of a hologram of the Doctor. He asks for someone he likes instead. It offers images of Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble, all of whom induce wails of guilt. Finally, it offers the young Amelia Pond. The Doctor tries to get "Amelia" to help him gather his strength but it insists it is not Amelia, but a hologram. He collapses, whimpering for help. He hears "Fish fingers and custard" and drags himself to the console to confront the Teselecta.

Melody steals all the clothes at machinegunpoint from restaurant diners and works on her ensemble. Amy and Rory arrive outside the restaurant, followed by the Teselecta, now disguised as Amy. Inside, Melody is trying on outfits when Teselecta-Amy walks in and accuses her of killing the Doctor.

Amy and Rory wake inside the Teselecta. One of the crew saves them from the antibodies. The Doctor arrives at the restaurant in evening clothes. The Teselecta explains that as a form of justice, they travel to war criminals near the ends of their lives, and "give them hell", agonising pain, while the timeline continues. Pursuing this mission, the ship captures Melody and tortures her. The Doctor orders it to stop. She is frozen in place. The Doctor wants to know who wants him dead. Amy persuades the Teselecta to tell him. The Teselecta says the Silence are behind the plot to kill him; they are not a species but a religious cult that believe "silence will fall" when the Oldest Question in the Universe is asked. It does not know what that Question is.

The Teselecta resumes torturing Melody until Amy uses the sonic screwdriver to turn off the crew's security clearance devices; the antibodies attack them and they teleport to safety. The dying Doctor begs Melody to save her parents. The TARDIS materialises around them. Melody has flown the TARDIS, which taught her how. The trio run to the Doctor but he says there is no way for him to survive and asks to speak to Melody. He asks her to find River Song, whispers something in her ear and dies. Melody asks who "River Song" is. Amy orders the Teselecta to show them River Song and it shifts into her. Having learned that she is the Doctor's "beloved friend", Melody asks her parents if the Doctor is "worth it". They don't understand her question, but agree he is. Melody gives her remaining regenerations to the Doctor, almost killing herself once and for all in the process.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory leave Melody in the best hospital in the universe to recover, knowing she must find her own way back to them. The Doctor says he downloaded some "boring information" from the Teselecta; he has discovered the day of his death. Some time later, after recovering from her ordeal, River applies for a degree in Archaeology at the Luna University in 5123.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Mels - Nina Toussaint-White
 * Adolf Hitler - Albert Welling
 * Amelia Pond - Caitlin Blackwood
 * Young Mels - Maya Glace-Green
 * Young Rory - Ezekiel Wigglesworth
 * Zimmerman - Philip Rham
 * Carter - Richard Dillane
 * Anita - Amy Cudden
 * Jim - Davood Ghadami
 * Harriet - Ella Kenion
 * German Officer - Mark Killeen
 * Professor Candy - Paul Bentley
 * Nurse - Eva Alexander
 * Female Teacher - Tor Clark

The Doctor

 * The Doctor covertly switches a gun for a banana, leading River Song to pull the banana on him. The Ninth Doctor previously did this to Jack Harkness.
 * The Doctor adds to his rules
 * Rule 1: The Doctor lies.
 * Rule 7: Never run when you are scared.
 * Rule 27: Never knowingly be serious.
 * Rule 408: Time is not the boss of you.

The Doctor's items

 * The Doctor gives Amy his sonic screwdriver.
 * The Doctor uses a sonic cane.

Companions

 * Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble all appear as projections for the TARDIS voice interface, after the Doctor rejects a projection of himself and asks for "someone he likes." He rejects all three projections because of increasingly strong feelings of guilt. Finally, the TARDIS settles on a projection of the child Amelia Pond.

Foods and beverages

 * The TARDIS's projection of Amelia mentions fish fingers and custard.

Religion

 * The Silence are not a species, but a religious organisation of sorts.

TARDISes

 * The temporal grace in the TARDIS, which supposedly prevents weapons fire, is said by the Doctor to be a "clever lie".

Story notes

 * This is the first episode of the Autumn half of the series. The Spring half concluded on 4 June with A Good Man Goes to War.
 * This is the second time in the Eleventh Doctor era that companions of the previous two Doctors have been mentioned or seen in a proper episode since The End of Time; Rose Tyler was previously seen (briefly) in The Lodger.
 * The images of all the former companions are taken from publicity shots. The projections of Rose and Donna are publicity images from Series 4. The projection of Martha is from a publicity image for Series 3.
 * The Doctor makes the "Doctor Who?" running joke.
 * The car Mels steals is a Chevrolet Corvette, third generation (68-82).
 * The layout of the Teselecta's bridge is deliberately reminiscent of that of the Enterprise and other Federation starships from the television series Star Trek.
 * The TARDIS's voice interface tells the Doctor he will be dead in thirty-two minutes. Coincidentally in-universe, the invitation the future Doctor sent out to everyone in The Impossible Astronaut, to meet at Lake Silencio for the Doctor's death was for 4:30pm and according to the biographical information the Doctor is shot during regeneration and killed at 5:02pm.
 * The hand gun that Mels pulls out is an IMI Jericho 941.
 * Harriet mentions the Teselecta having transformed into Rasputin. Tom Baker played Rasputin in the movie Nicholas and Alexandra.
 * In Mels' first scene in the episode, her face cannot be seen due to the sun's glare behind her. She moves her body to block the sun and her face is shown, much like the first scene of River in The Impossible Astronaut.
 * Melody Pond says, "Hello Benjamin" to the Doctor. The Doctor previously claimed Scotland Yard's code name for her was Mrs Robinson. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) Both reference the movie The Graduate where a younger man, Benjamin, is seduced by an older woman, Mrs Robinson.
 * On the Leadworth Chronicle, a story with the headline "BACK OF THE NECK" can be seen. This is a reference to the weakness of the Sontarans. (DW: The Poison Sky)
 * A new sonic device is introduced: The Sonic cane.
 * Ella Kenion (Harriet) would later play Boudicca in BFA: The Wrath of the Iceni.

Ratings

 * UK Overnight: 6.2 million
 * UK Final: 8.1 million

Myths

 * The Daily Mirror reported that Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble will appear in this episode. This was half true as images of all three of them appeared but these were avatars for a TARDIS interface, rather than the characters themselves.

Filming locations

 * Swansea, Wales.

Production errors

 * When the Doctor and the TARDIS make their first appearance, they point right, towards Amy and Rory's car. However, when the camera zooms out, the Doctor and TARDIS are looking down, and not towards Amy and Rory. This also causes an error when Mels drives through the word Doctor.
 * Hitler shoots Mel in the stomach, but there is no blood or puncture hole on her dress.
 * When Rory asks "How can they just disappear?" two antibodies appear, but in the next shot there are three.
 * When the poisoned Doctor is in the TARDIS he has one of his arms up on the bannister; in the next shot he has it by his side.

Continuity

 * Images of Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Temple-Noble are seen. (DW: Rose, The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones) The Doctor feels guilty for what he did to Rose, feels "more guilt" for what he did to Martha and "even more guilt" over Donna.
 * The Doctor mentions "the Vampires in Venice". (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * The Doctor speaks about River at Demon's Run. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Rory punches two people in the jaw to knock them to the ground. Rory (as an Auton) previously did this to the Doctor. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * River begins studying archaeology. (DW: Silence in the Library)
 * The TARDIS's projection of Amelia mentions fish fingers and custard. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Melody mentions regenerating into the toddler form of Mels in New York. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * The Doctor switches Melody's gun for a banana, similar to what he did to Jack Harkness in The Doctor Dances.
 * River reveals she learned how to pilot the TARDIS from the TARDIS herself. (DW: The Time of Angels)
 * The Doctor tells Melody "Rule one: The Doctor lies." (DW: The Big Bang) One of the first things the Doctor hears River say is "I'm always lying." (DW: Silence in the Library)
 * River's diary (DW: Silence in the Library) makes its first chronological appearance in this episode, a gift from the Doctor himself.
 * The Teselecta data console states The Doctor's TARDIS is a Type 40 Mk 3 TT Capsule.
 * The Teselecta crew mentions something in "Kennedy"'s timeline is not a fixed point in time. While this is probably a reference to the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy (an event witnessed by the Ninth Doctor), it could refer to the death of his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, or another event involving a member of the Kennedy family.
 * It is mentioned twice that River uses her "remaining" regenerations to revive the Doctor, implying that she has a fixed amount. It is unclear whether the Doctor gained that many new regenerations or if he still has only two remaining. Transferring future regenerations from one regeneration-capable individual to another has been offered before. (DW: Mawdryn Undead, Doctor Who (1996), The Ultimate Foe)
 * River has previously used a type of lipstick to her advantage. (DW: The Time of Angels, The Big Bang) This time, she uses a poisonous version.
 * River was able to completely recover after being shot several times by German soldiers. This was due to her still being within the first fifteen hours of her regeneration. The Tenth Doctor recovered from a severed hand while fighting a Sycorax under comparable circumstances. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
 * When first detecting there are life forms inside the Teselecta, the Doctor wonders if it is bigger on the inside.
 * The TARDIS was previously able to materialise inside a smaller object containing miniaturised life forms in a compression field. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
 * Mels says "See you later, Time Boy" during a flashback. Donna Noble called the Doctor "Time Boy". (DW: Journey's End)
 * The Doctor says "Spoilers" when Melody asked who River was, a word frequently used by River herself later. (DW: Silence in the Library, et al)
 * The Doctor previously said that "Time is not the boss of me." (DW: The Time of Angels)
 * Amy had a picture of herself and (apparently) Mels on a table in her bedroom. (DW: Flesh and Stone)

Motion comic scene
The original BBC America broadcast of the episode includes an extra scene sponsored by AT&T, which aired during a commercial break. Written by Steven Moffat, the scene is an extension of the motorcycle chase sequence with Rory and Amy. It is presented in animation/motion comic format. Lasting sixty seconds and produced by Double Barrel Motion Labs, the scene was originally promoted as being intended for inclusion in the later Series 6 DVD/Blu-ray releases, but as of early November 2011, this appears not to be the case. The ad/motion comic was only seen in America.

Timeline
For the Doctor, Amy and Rory
 * This story occurs after: DW: Prequel (Let's Kill Hitler)
 * This story occurs before: DW: Night Terrors

For Melody/River Song
 * This story occurs after: DW: Day of the Moon
 * This story occurs before: DW: Closing Time

Home video releases
This episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the airing of episode thirteen.