A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)

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. Yet as Rory and he 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 Church guards – including Lorna Bucket – watch. She tells Melody of her father, who is coming for them, who has lived for hundreds of years though he looks young: the Last Centurion.

On the flagship of the Twelfth Cyber Legion, Cybermen detect an intruder working his way up the levels; it's Rory. He tells the Cybermen he brings a message from the Doctor, and a question from himself. He demands to know where his wife is. The Cybermen ask what the message from the Doctor is. The ships around them explode. Rory asks if he needs to repeat the question.

On Demon's Run, the Fat Man and the Thin Man pass Lorna Bucket, passing her break sewing. Lorna and they discuss the Headless Monks. Lorna explains they believe that doubt lies in the head and faith in the heart, hence their being "headless". The Fat Man leaves with the monks for a "conversion tutorial." The Thin Man deduces that Lorna has met the Doctor; she confirms she saw him when she was a child in the Gamma Forests.

The Fat Man enters a room where the Monks are gathered. A voice tells him that he has been selected for conversion to their faith and told to make a donation. They advance on him with an empty box.

In Victorian London, a hooded figure arrives home. She is greeted by a maid and tells her that she has eaten Jack the Ripper. She is a Silurian called Madame Vastra. The maid, Jenny, leads her to the drawing room; the TARDIS sits on the rug. Vastra smile. A very old debt must be repaid. She tells Jenny to pack the swords.

In the midst of the Battle of Zaruthstra, 4037 a man seeks a nurse for a boy who is unwell. A Sontaran enters, asking if they called for him. It is Commander Strax. A few minutes later, the boy is awake. Leaving the medic tent, Strax tells the man that being a nurse is his penance. The TARDIS is heard, and Strax says that his penance may be done. He wishes the man well.

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 until the "very end", as it is 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 is leaving his bar, the Maldovarium, but is interrupted by the Eye Patch Lady, whom he calls Madam Kovarian. He says the reason the Doctor hasn't attacked yet is that he is raising an army of people who owe him favours. Dorium also mentions that the Headless Monks are customers of his, and he knows the location of their base. After Madame Kovarian leaves, the TARDIS arrives for Dorium, much to his dismay.

At Demon's Run, Colonel Manton gives a speech about the Doctor, saying that he is only a man. Amy watches from above, but is interrupted by Lorna, who offers her a prayer leaf with Melody's name on it in the language of her people. Amy ignores the kind offer, 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 own sake.

Lorna hurries to the speech. The Colonel removes the hoods of two monks, to reveal knots of skin where the bases of their necks should be. The third monk removes his own hood; it is the Doctor. The Monks raise their swords and the marines except Lorna raise their guns. Vastra and Jenny hold the men in the control room at swordpoint.

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. He says he is disguised as one of the Monks; his voice echoes and his location cannot be pinpointed. A marine shoots a hooded figure who turns out to be a real Monk.

The Monks kill the marines in retaliation until Colonel Manton tells everyone not to fire. Lorna notices a Monk using a sonic screwdriver on a door and follows him out of the room, as the rest of the marines disarm themselves. An army of Silurians and Judoon suddenly appear with their guns pointed at the marines. Commander Strax also appears. He holds the Colonel at gunpoint, claiming the base.

Manton claims that the fleet outside the asteroid will come to help if they lose. However, The Doctor has a group of Dalek-Upgraded Spitfires attack the base to disable their communications.

Making her escape, Kovarian orders the child brought to her ship. Melody is brought in a portable cot, and Kovarian says that the Doctor must think he is winning until the trap closes. Lorna is listening, and runs off.

Rory appears and holds Kovarian at sword point; Henry and Toby Avery exit Kovarian's ship with a crewmember tied up. She and Colonel Manton are brought to the Doctor in the control room. The Doctor tells the Colonel to order the marines to "run away." He taunts Manton that he will be known for the rest of his life as "Colonel Run Away" – a warning to those who would use the Doctor's friends to get to him.

In her cell, Amy hears someone at the door and yells that she is cross. Rory unlocks the door with the sonic screwdriver. Amy tells him they took Melody; he enters with the baby in his arms. The Doctor walks in and tries to excuse himself from the emotional reunion, but Rory orders him in. The Doctor is uncertain what to call the baby until Amy tells him her name is Melody. The Doctor calls the baby "Melody Pond", to Rory's annoyance and Amy's pleasure. The Doctor seemingly converses with Melody, claiming he speaks "baby". Madame Vastra enters and says the marines are leaving without bloodshed, 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 she doesn't like the TARDIS noise. The others debate what she might be crying about until the Doctor emerges with a cot for the sleepy baby. He is asked where he got it, He says it is his and heads back to the control room. Dorium is going through the computers and finds scans of Melody. They reveal her DNA contains traces of Time Lord. Vastra asks when Melody was conceived; she knows the Time Lords evolved through exposure to the time vortex. The Doctor realises the first time Amy and Rory were together on the TARDIS (in this version of reality) was their wedding night. Vastra deduces Amy's kidnappers wanted Melody – a part-Time Lord  – for a weapon. When the Doctor asks how a Time Lord could be used as a weapon, Vastra points out what he himself is capable of. Vastra and Dorium leave as the Doctor remembers the little girl from 1969 America. Kovarian appears on a view screen and says that the girl is hope in the war against the Doctor.

Lorna is brought to Rory and Amy at gunpoint. She insists that they're in a trap, and that she only joined the clerics to meet the Doctor, who is 'a great warrior'. Amy says he is not. Confused, Lorna asks why he is called the Doctor as the lights go out. Strax says that there are no life forms in the base excluding them, but Lorna says that the Headless Monks are not alive.

Elsewhere in the base, the Monks attack the Silurians. Vastra joins the others; the TARDIS is surrounded by a force field and the doors are locked. Dorium identifies the Monks' chant as the attack prayer. He goes into the darkness to try to reason with them, but is beheaded; his body joins the Monks who advance on the group. Rory, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Lorna rally to protect Amy and Melody, and the battle begins.

In the control room, the Doctor angrily tells Kovarian that a child is not a weapon. Kovarian smugly tells him she will become one. When the Doctor vows not to let her recapture the child, 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.

Rory, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Lorna battle the Headless Monks with guns and swords, while Amy waits, holding Melody. Melody, looking over Amy's shoulder, sees a hatch appear in the air through which Kovarian watches. She whispers "Wakey, wakey", and Melody collapses into flesh. A horrified Amy screams for Rory. The Doctor runs onto the scene where the battle took place moments before, yelling that Melody is flesh; a sullen Rory tells him they know. The Headless Monks have been defeated, but Strax and Lorna have both been deathly wounded. Rory goes to help Strax, who says that he always dreamed of dying in battle, though it's not as pleasing as he had hoped, and succumbs to his wounds.

The Doctor tries to comfort Amy, but she only backs away. Vastra brings him to see the dying Lorna. She tells him they have met before, but is worried he does not remember her. He tells her that he remembers everyone, and that they ran together. She dies. The Doctor asks who she was.

River Song appears. The Doctor angrily confronts her, but she tells him that she couldn't have prevented what happened. The battle is exactly what the Doctor is. The Doctor, fed up with her riddles, demands to know who River is; she only runs towards the cot and asks him if he can read what is there. His expression changes from anger to joy and he returns to the TARDIS with newfound confidence; despite Amy's protests, the TARDIS dematerializes.

Amy demands to know what River told the Doctor. She hands Amy the prayer leaf and tells her to read her daughter's name. As Amy and Rory read the leaf, the TARDIS translation effect changes the stitching to read "River Song". River confirms she is their daughter. Amy and Rory looked at her, mouths agape.

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
 * Dominicus – Damian Kell
 * Captain Harcourt – Richard Trinder
 * Eleanor – Annabel Cleare
 * Arthur – Henry Wood
 * Voice of the Cybermen – Nicholas Briggs

Races and species

 * Strax is seen tending to human soldiers, rather than Sontaran troops as part of his punishment. He is also able to produce his own breast milk and demands to wetnurse Melody Pond.
 * The Cybermen resemble the parallel Cybermen from Pete's World but without the Cybus logos. It is later confirmed that these are Telosian Cybermen, though the series has yet to explain the similarity in design.
 * When Col. Manton is rallying his troops, he says the Doctor is not a Trickster.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor pulls out his own cot from when he was a baby, complete with Gallifreyan symbols.
 * When asked if he has any children, the Doctor replies "No". When further asked if he ever did have children, the Doctor is silent.

Story notes

 * This episode was originally entitled Demons Run. It 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.
 * Malcolm Hulke is credited as the creator of the Silurians in the end credits. Strangely, this did not occur in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood nor The Pandorica Opens.
 * The idea that the word "doctor" derives 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 also played Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.
 * According to Steven Moffat, he was unable to include Jack Harkness in the Doctor's army because John Barrowman was busy with the filming of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
 * The TARDIS console room does not appear in this episode. This is the first time this has occurred since Planet of the Dead, over two years prior. This also makes it the first episode of the Eleventh Doctor era to not have a scene set in the TARDIS.
 * The Series 1 & 2 variation of Doctors theme (The Doctor's Theme) plays for six seconds when the Doctor and Vastra are talking about the possibility of a Time Lord being used as a weapon.
 * A variation of All The Strange, Strange Creatures play right before the scene mentioned above.
 * This is the first story to include River where the phrase "Hello Sweetie" isn't heard at all.
 * Vastra's first exchange of dialogue - "Thank you, Parker, I won't be needing you again tonight", to which an unseen carriage driver replies "Yes, m'lady" is a reference to the character of Lady Penelope in the Gerry Anderson TV series Thunderbirds, who often exchanged similar words with her manservant, also named Parker.
 * This episode features a unique sound mix on the opening theme music, which features the sound of the TARDIS. No Series 6 episode prior or after featured this version of the theme.

Ratings

 * 7.57million (31.0% market share)

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.
 * River Song will die. This was proven false.
 * We will learn of the identity of River Song. This was proven true; she was revealed as 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. This was proven true; she was revealed to be Amy's daughter, and later revealed to marry the Doctor.
 * 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." This was later proven true, as River was in the space suit that killed the Doctor.
 * The Cybermen will be newly designed Cybermen.  The design was largely the same, with the most significant change being the removal of the Cybus Industries logo.
 * The Cybermen will be planning to trap and capture the Doctor, before freezing him. This was proven false.
 * The character named Jenny would be the Doctor's Daughter in her second incarnation. This was proven false.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * 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. (the same error occurs on a graphic in World War Three) Spellings can change over time.
 * The Cyber-Leader's mouth glows blue when it isn't speaking when Rory was on the Twelfth Legion's Cybership. (This also happened in The Pandorica Opens)
 * When the Doctor is revealed to be wearing a cape of the Headless Monks, the two guards beside Madame Kovarian point their guns at him. However, in the next shot where the army points their guns at the Doctor, the two guards repeat their actions in the previous shot.

Continuity

 * The Doctor defends his belief that "Bow-ties are cool". (DW: The Eleventh Hour, etc)
 * The Doctor has said he speaks every language before. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
 * The Doctor has several flashbacks to the events in 1969 America. (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 River Song's identity, a storyline that began in 2008 with DW: Silence in the Library
 * While in The Library, River Song commented that the Doctor would make whole armies turn and run, which may be a reference to this episode. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * The Doctor gives a brief history of Rory's time in the TARDIS to Vastra. He references Rory facing "sexy, fish vampires", (DW: The Vampires of Venice) dying and being erased from time, (DW: Cold Blood) then becoming "plastic" and coming back (DW: The Pandorica Opens). The Doctor also mentions rebooting the universe. (DW: The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor mentions that since rebooting the Universe, reality has been altered (DW: The Big Bang), so that Rory and Amy were in the TARDIS together for the first time "in this reality" on their wedding night. This creates some uncertainty as to whether the events of the pre-Pandorica Opens stories actually occurred, though it's clear the Doctor remembers them.
 * Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians and Judoon also all appeared in DW: The Pandorica Opens.
 * Returning characters that the Doctor calls upon are: Dorium (DW: The Pandorica Opens), "Danny Boy" (DW: Victory of the Daleks), and Henry Avery and his son Toby. (DW: The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * The Church make their second appearance after DW: 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. The dates given on-screen mean this is the Church a century after Time of Angels.
 * 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. (WC: Prequel (A Good Man Goes to War))
 * 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 (not being) 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 Untempered Schism is mentioned, 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)
 * When River appears at Demon's Run, she wears the same outfit she wore in DW: Day of the Moon.
 * The TARDIS hum is heard as it is revealed in the Victorian drawing room. (DW:An Unearthly Child, et. al.)

Timeline
For the Doctor, Amy and Rory For baby Melody For adult River Song
 * This story occurs after: DW: The Almost People
 * This story occurs before: DW: Let's Kill Hitler
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Impossible Astronaut
 * This story occurs after: DW: The Wedding of River Song
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Impossible Astronaut

Home video releases
Released as Series 6 Part 1 with The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Doctor's Wife, The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People on 11th July 2011. It will also be released in a full Series 6 box set in November (UK) shortly after the airing of episode 13.