The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)

The Impossible Astronaut was the first episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. This story is perhaps most notable as the first opening two-parter of the BBC Wales series. Behind the scenes, it was notable for the significant amount of location filming with cast and crew travelling to Utah in the United States of America.

Narratively, it saw the reappearance of River Song with some insight into her back story. Yet again, questions of her trustworthiness were posed. 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 Canton Everett Delaware the Third is. 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
In the 17th century, Charles II bursts into a room, questioning Matilda, who is present, as to the Doctor’s whereabouts. By her stands "My Mysterious Doctor", a painting of the Time Lord. She asks “Doctor Who?”. An audible sneeze comes from beneath her skirt and the man lifts its hem with his sword to find the Doctor hiding naked underneath.

In 2011, Amy Pond and Rory Williams are in their kitchen. Amy reads an account of how the Doctor was imprisoned in the Tower of London without trial on the personal request of the king. Rory is not certain that it is the Doctor until Amy reads that he was seen flying from the tower two days later on a sphere. She reads of how the Doctor took part in a World War II breakout from a POW camp.

Amy ponders whether he is being deliberately ridiculous in order to gain their attention. Rory is distracted and so doesn’t see the Doctor waving at the camera in a scene from a Laurel and Hardy film. Amy answers the door and is handed her post. She finds a letter in a TARDIS blue envelope. There is no name in the letter but it gives her a map reference, a time and a date. In Stormcage Containment Facility, River Song receives an identical letter. The prison goes on alert after a guard warns that she is packing.

Rory and Amy arrive in Utah where they are greeted by the Doctor. River Song arrives shortly after. In a café, the Doctor and River compare diaries. They have both “done” Easter Island and met Jim the Fish. The Doctor says they're going to space in 1969.

They move to sit by a body of water, there they dine and the Doctor tries wine again, immediately disliking it. The Doctor mentions he's 1,103 years old; this means he's about 200 years older than the last time Amy and Rory saw him. Amy sees a mysterious figure but, as she turns away, she forgets. Behind them Canton Delaware pulls up in his car, and from the water an astronaut rises wearing an Apollo 11 style space suit.

The Doctor tells them not to interfere and moves to face the astronaut. Out of earshot of the others, he announces that he knows who is within. The astronaut shoots him, and fires again before regeneration can complete and save his life. The astronaut then retreats into the water, unfazed by River Song’s bullets hitting it.

Canton approaches and hands the grieving trio a canister of gasoline. They orchestrate a Viking-style funeral by burning the Doctor’s body aboard a boat to prevent his body being studied. Canton shows them that he too has an envelope: number four. Rory and Amy have three and River has two. They return to the café and find letter number one on a table. They ask the owner who was seated there and he replies “some guy”. They turn and the Doctor emerges from a side door.

They come to realise that this is a younger version of the Doctor, by some two hundred years. They tell him that they have been hired and it involves 1969 and Canton Delaware III.

They return to the TARDIS and River tells Rory and Amy that they cannot tell the Doctor of his coming death. They use the TARDIS to travel back to 1969, and land in the Oval Office after switching the TARDIS to a setting in which it is invisible and silent. The Doctor emerges alone and listens to Richard Nixon and a young Canton as they discuss the president being called by a mysterious source. The Doctor makes notes as a recording of one call is played. The recording mentions “Jefferson Adams Hamilton”.

Canton and Nixon become aware of his presence and security is called. They quickly overwhelm the Doctor and the TARDIS becomes visible. The Doctor proposes to sort out the mysterious calls and pretends to be an undercover agent sent from Scotland Yard. Canton agrees, telling the Doctor he has five minutes to solve the mystery.

Again Amy sees the mysterious creature, more clearly now as it stands just a few feet from her. Rory blocks her vision and she again forgets what she has seen. She feels ill and asks to go the toilet. Canton allows her to do so. She enters to find one of the Silence. She remembers the events she forgot. Joy emerges from one of the cubicles and sees the Silence. She looks away and forgets, looks again and repeats the same words. Joy looks a third time and the Silence kills her with electricity. The Silence instructs Amy to “tell the Doctor what he must know, and what he must never know”. Amy then exits and immediately forgets. She returns to the Oval Office.

The Doctor finds the only place the calls can be coming from. Another call from the mysterious caller is answered by Nixon. The Doctor and his companions leave with Canton in the TARDIS. The Doctor tells the others that Jefferson, Adams and Hamilton are three of America’s founding fathers and the only place with the three street names on one junction is an area five miles from Cape Kennedy Space Center.

Rory explains to a stunned Canton that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside. They search a building at the junction, unaware of the astronaut’s presence. Amy and River both discuss neutralising the astronaut to prevent him from killing the Doctor. However, River tells Amy that it doesn’t work that way.

River discovers a tube leading down through a drain. River goes down, accompanied by Rory. River opens a locked room and enters a large cavern. In the centre sits a structure akin to a TARDIS console.

They set off an alarm and Rory checks if anything is coming. He sees many of the Silence but forgets as soon as he turns to warn River. River discovers that the tunnels cover the Earth and have been around for hundreds of years. Electricity crackles behind Rory and something approaches him.

Meanwhile Canton and Amy discuss the former agent's FBI career; he was kicked out for “attitude problems” as he wanted to marry. Amy hears the little girl calling and runs to the Doctor.

They run to Canton’s call and find him unconscious. Amy tells the Doctor that she is pregnant. They turn to see the astronaut, who lifts its faceplate. It’s the little girl. In order to prevent the Doctor's death, Amy picks up Canton's gun and fires at the girl.

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 II - 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 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.
 * The Doctor still dislikes wine.

Films

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

Fashion and clothing

 * The Doctor is shown wearing a fez in a Laurel & Hardy film.
 * The 1103 year old Doctor is wearing a Stetson hat, and proclaims that "Stetsons are cool".

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor thought wine would taste more like 'the gums', referring to wine gums.

Years

 * The Doctor states that the year 1482 is full of glitches, but also says 1969 is 'easy'. This suggests 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 states that this causes a huge drain on the TARDIS energy. When he tries to re-enter the TARDIS, he smashes into it.
 * The Doctor also manages to land the TARDIS silently, with help from River.
 * The Doctor claims that the TARDIS scanner cannot be activated when the TARDIS is invisible. This is later shown to be an exaggeration, as River makes adjustments inside the TARDIS and operates the scanner.

Story notes

 * This episode had the working title The 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. The dedication was shown before the episode on BBC1, and after the episode on BBC America.
 * The version supplied for broadcast in the United States is the first episode of Doctor Who to have a voiceover introductory sequence before the main titles, with the voice of Amy explaining her relationship to the Doctor.
 * While the local date and time when the Doctor is killed is the evening of April 22, 2011, the local date and time in Britain (a 7-hour difference from Utah) would be just after midnight the morning of April 23. Thus, this is the second story in the revived series whose airdate coincides with in-story events (the first being DW: The Big Bang on June 26, 2010).

Ratings

 * Overnight figures for BBC was 6.4 million making this the least watched series opener since the 2005 relaunch.
 * Viewership for the episode on BBC America was 1.3 million, breaking the station's previous viewership record which had been set by the premiere of The Eleventh Hour.

Myths

 * We will see River Song as a child. This has not yet been proven either true or 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

 * While the Doctor appears in the Laurel & Hardy film, Rory's shifts through the pages of the history book which appear underneath the screen implying the film footage was overlaid on the actual shot.
 * When Amy is talking to the agent outside of the toilet, a boom mic 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 says that time isn't a straight line. (DW: Blink)
 * 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)
 * The TARDIS was previously made invisible in DW: The Invasion.
 * The danger of the Doctor's body being used as a commodity was seen in EDA: Alien Bodies.
 * Rory pokes the Doctor and asks him "how can you be here?", much in the same way the Doctor did to him in DW: The Pandorica Opens.
 * The Doctor says "brave heart, Canton"; "brave heart" was a catchphrase of the Fifth Doctor.

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.