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. As with A Good Man Goes to War, it brought revelations about River Song.

Synopsis
In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in 1930s Berlin, bringing the Doctor face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And 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. They stop in the middle and see the Doctor standing by the TARDIS. He shows them a newspaper: the new shape of the corn field spells "Doctor." A mysterious car drives up to them, followed by police, and a woman about Amy's age steps out and points a gun at the Doctor. She orders him to take the three of them in the TARDIS.

Young Amelia Pond and a young Mels talk about the Doctor. Mels is a troublemaker in Amy's school. Back in the TARDIS, Mels shoots the control panel.

A strange man is watching a Nazi General. The man walks into the general's office and becomes his double. He then sucks the Nazi into him, where he is killed by anti-bots. Inside the machine, there are revealed to be small people. The shapeshifter now tries to kill Hitler, but the TARDIS crashes into it. The TARDIS crew are shocked that they saved Hitler, but Hitler then tries to shoot the shapeshifter. He ends up missing and shooting Mels, who is then revealed to be Melody Pond, as she then regenerates into River Song. Rory then locks Hitler in a wardrobe. The shapeshifter scans Melody and discovers that she will kill the Doctor. Melody then attempts to kill the Doctor numerous times, but is stopped by the Doctor every time. She then kisses the Doctor and prepares to jump out of a window, revealing that she poisoned the Doctor by kissing him, having poison in her lips. She jumps out of the window. As the Doctor is dying, he orders Amy and Rory to catch Melody, revealing that this is the Melody that will be if Kovarian keeps Melody. The pair then watch her kill some Nazis using her regenerative powers. She steals their guns and flees on a motorbike.

Amy and Rory follow on a second motorbike, stolen off the shapeshifter. The shapeshifter follows on a third bike. The Doctor climbs into the TARDIS, dying. He asks the TARDIS voice simulator to take the form of young Amelia Pond. After much debate, Amelia reveals that fish fingers and custards will calm the pain, but he will still die. Melody robs the clothes off everyone in a restaurant to try and find a good outfit for herself. Amy and Rory arrive outside the restaurant, where they see the shapeshifter, now disguised as Amy. In the restaurant, Melody is trying on outfits when Amy walks in and speaks, revealing herself to be the shapeshifter. She then prepares to kill Melody when the Doctor arrives in a tuxedo. Amy and Rory awake in the shapeshifter, where the antibots attempts to kill them, but they are saved by one of the crew. The shapeshifter is then revealed to be called the Tessalecta. The Tessalecta prepares to kill Melody, but the Doctor begs it to stop. Melody is then frozen in place. The Doctor asks the Tessalecta for information on himself and Amy persuades them to give the Doctor what he wants. It does and the Doctor starts dying. The Tessalecta then begins killing Melody, until Amy turns off all of their security clearance devices, getting the antibots to destroy the crew, until they teleport away.

Amy and Rory are then about to be destroyed by antibots. The dying Doctor begs Melody to help. Amy and Rory are then about be killed when the TARDIS appears, saving them. Melody is then revealed to have flown the TARDIS, after it taught her. The trio run to the Doctor and ask him if there is any way that he could survive. He claims that there isn't. Melody then sacrifices her remaining regenerations to revive him. They then leave her in the largest hospital in the universe. The Doctor then claims that he downloaded some boring information from the Tessalecta, it is revealed that he has discovered the day of his death.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * River Song / Mels - Alex Kingston / 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

Crew
to be added

Story notes

 * This is the first episode of the Autumn half of the series. The Spring half concluded on the 4th June with A Good Man Goes to War.
 * The Silence are revealed to be not a species, but a religious organisation of sorts.
 * The Silence is an academy of "The Question", they believe that silence will fall when "The Question" is asked. "The Question" is the first question, the oldest question in the universe. (The Teselecta responds that the question is "unknown")
 * This is the first time in the Eleventh Doctor era that the companions of the previous two Doctors have been mentioned or seen in a proper episode since The End of Time.
 * Rule 408: Time is not the boss of you.
 * Rule 27: Never knowingly be serious.
 * Rule 7: Never run when you are scared.

Ratings
to be added

Myths

 * The Daily Mirror reported that Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble will appear in this episode. Although an image of each was seen, they were for a TARDIS interface, rather than the characters themselves.

Filming locations

 * Swansea, Wales.

Production errors

 * Doctor switches off the Tardis Monitor showing his Data, that he took from the robot. The next camera view shows the monitor still on, showing that data. Next camera change shows the monitor displaying the default screensaver.

Continuity

 * Images of Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Temple-Noble are seen. (DW: Rose, The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones et al) The Doctor feels guilty for what he did to Rose, feel even guiltier for what he did to Martha and states he believes he "screwed up" Donna.
 * The Doctor has no memory of the Silence (DW: The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)
 * The Doctor speaks about River at Demon's Run. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Rory punches two people in the face to knock them on to the ground. Rory previously did this to the Doctor. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor makes the "Doctor Who?" running joke.
 * 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 in New York. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * The temporal grace system, which supposedly prevents weapon use inside the TARDIS, is mentioned but revealed to be a "clever lie". (DW: The Hand of Fear, et al.)
 * The Doctor switches Melody's gun for a banana, much as he did to Captain 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)
 * When the Doctor reveals that the crew of the Teselector use a compression field to miniaturise themselves into the ship, he tells them to watch what they eat, referring to the Slitheen's gas exchange. (DW: Aliens of London/World War Three, et al.)

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