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. And Hitler. The Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities – and in so doing, learns a harsh lesson in the cruellest warfare of all.

Plot
Amy and Rory drive through a cornfield in contemporary England, with Amy giving Rory directions on which way to turn at which times. They come to a sudden halt as they spot the TARDIS up ahead of them; the Doctor stands outside it, holding a newspaper -- the front headline of which pertains to the Leadworth crop circle, which spells out "Doctor." Rory explains that they would not have needed to go to such lengths if the Doctor only answered his phone. Amy informs the Doctor that it's been three months, and wonders if he's found Melody yet; he explains that he hasn't, but as she knows who Melody grows up to be, she knows that he will. Rory, who has been examining the paper, spots a line running through the crop circle which was not caused by him or Amy; all of a sudden, a Corvette comes streaking into the clearing, nearly running over the Doctor. Amy and Rory's best friend, Mels, disembarks from the car; she knows all about the Doctor and the TARDIS, having heard her friends' stories. Police sirens can be heard approaching in the distance; Mels casually remarks that she stole the Corvette, earning a lecture from Rory. As she is about to arrested, she holds the Doctor at gunpoint and demands to be taken on a trip through time to kill Hitler.

In a flashback, a young Amelia Pond regales Mels with stories of her raggedy Doctor; eventually, Mels becomes just as obsessed, if not more obsessed, with him than Amy. She persistently claims that significant historical events occurred because the Doctor was not around to prevent them; additionally, she insults her teachers and is sent to the headmaster's office more than any boys in school. As she gets older, she continues to get in trouble with the law. On one occasion, after being bailed out of jail by Amy, she makes Amy and Rory aware of their feelings for each other, thereby igniting their relationship.

As the TARDIS flies away from the cornfield, Mels shoots the time rotor, causing the police box to spin wildly out of control. A deadly smoke spills out of the rotor into the console room; Mels reminds the Doctor of the "state of temporal grace" he claimed would protect the console room, and he shouts that this was merely a clever lie.

In 1938 Berlin, a janitor observes a Nazi officer from afar; the janitor is, in fact, a time-travelling, shape-shifting robot called the Tesselecta. Captained by a man called Carter, the Tesselecta's crew considers taking the officer's form as a means of gaining access to Hitler. A female crewmember insists on getting a closer look at the officer's skin color, claiming that the last time they solely relied on the computer, they made Rasputin green. She travels to the top level of the robot, where robotic antibodies politely inform her that she will be incinerated; however, she upgrades the privileges on her wrist strap and is allowed to pass through safely. As the Tesselecta takes the form of the officer, the officer himself is miniaturized, taken into the ship, and killed by the antibodies. The robot confronts Adolf Hitler in his office, claiming that he must be punished for his myriad war crimes; as Hitler is enveloped in a paralyzing force field, one crewmember claims that it is too early in Hitler's time stream.

Before any further action can be taken, the TARDIS crashes through the window in Hitler's office, and the Doctor ushers his companions out, warning them not to breathe in the deadly smoke. Rory tends to the Tesselecta, which was knocked over by the TARDIS as it crashed; though he initially believes the "man" is injured, Captain Carter orders his crew to transmit normal life signs. Hitler emerges from hiding behind his desk, shocking the travellers, and thanks them for saving his life -- though the Doctor insists that it was completely unintentional. He wonders what the TARDIS is; the Doctor advances on him, informing him that it's a police box from Britain while confirming that the British are coming. A panicked Hitler shoots the Tesselecta as it rises; on the Doctor's orders, Rory punches Hitler and shoves him into a cupboard. The Tesselecta goes into "surveillance mode," fainting perfectly and raising the Doctor's suspicions.

Mels weakly reveals that Hitler shot her in the stomach and collapses. The Doctor orders her to stay alive, even promising to marry her if she does so; when Mels informs him that he'll need her parents' permission, he insists that he'll call them right after. Mels tells him to do it now, since both of her parents are with them. The Doctor and his companions quickly realize what she means. The Doctor pulls Rory and Amy away from Mels as she stands, regeneration energy seeping out of her. She confirms that Mels is a nickname for Melody; when Amy explains that she named her daughter after her, the Doctor replies that she named her daughter after her daughter. Before their eyes, Mels regenerates into River Song. The Tesselecta scans her, and the crew realizes that they have the most infamous malefactor in history in their clutches: Melody Pond, the woman who kills the Doctor.

Melody performs a cursory inspection of her new form, but immediately gets to work trying to kill the Doctor, which she has been programmed to do since birth; however, he manages to thwart each of her attempts. Apparently giving up, she kisses him on the lips and goes to the window, admiring Berlin -- "a city on the eve of battle," which she comments is her kind of town. She warns Amy and Rory not to follow her; when the Doctor asks why there is no warning for him, she reveals that the deed is already done -- her lipstick contained a deadly poison which will kill the Doctor in thirty-two minutes. After she jumps out the window, the Doctor orders Amy and Rory to follow her before returning to the TARDIS. The Tesselecta, which still lies nearby, scans the Doctor and determines that he is, in fact, dying; however, one of the crew is quick to point out that the Doctor dies on the shore of Lake Silencio in Utah on April 22nd, 2011. His death is a fixed point in time; he cannot be dying now.

Sliding down the side of the building into the street below, Rory and Amy watch as Melody confronts a group of Nazi soldiers; they fire endless rounds of bullets at her, but she manages to destroy all of them with a blast of regenerative energy before grabbing their guns and fleeing on a motorbike. Amy and Rory follow her on a second motorbike, while the Tesselecta -- who has emerged from the building in a new form -- follows on a third.

The Doctor activates the TARDIS's voice interface, which initially takes the Doctor's form before flashing through his past companions (including Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble, all of which induce feelings of guilt); it finally settles on a seven-year-old Amelia Pond. The Doctor tries to make "Amelia" help him gather his strength, but she persistently reminds him that she is not Amelia Pond and that he only has thirty-two minutes to live. He collapses, still begging for help; when he hears the words "fish fingers and custard," he cheers and drags himself to the console.

Melody interrupts a luncheon for supporters of the Third Reich and demands all of their clothes. Outside, Rory and Amy have lost Melody's trail and do not know where to look for her; as Amy orders Rory to look for signs, the luncheon guests flee the building next to them, wearing nothing but their undergarments and screaming. Before the couple can rush inside, the Tesselecta pulls up next to them in Amy's form. Inside, Melody tries on the various items of clothing that are strewn about the dining room, hardly reacting when "Amy" enters and accuses her of killing the Doctor.

Amy and Rory awake inside the Tesselecta and are immediately confronted by the hostile antibodies, who order them to remain calm while they are incinerated; Amy threatens them with the sonic screwdriver, but can't figure out how to activate it. Suddenly, a crewmember steps out of the lift behind them and gives them both wrist straps with updated privileges; having saved their lives, he calmly informs them that they are not guilty of any crimes, and welcomes them to the Tesselecta. He brings them to the control room in time to see the Tesselecta undertake its torture of Melody; suddenly, the Doctor appears dressed in evening clothes, prompting the robot to briefly stop its torture. After ascertaining that Amy and Rory are still alive -- Amy uses the sonic screwdriver to send a signal to the Doctor's sonic cane -- the Doctor begins questioning the machine, hoping to learn why it is punishing Melody. The Tesselecta informs him that its sole function is to travel through time and space and serve justice; it confronts war criminals at the end of their time streams and "gives them hell." In pursuit of this mission, the ship continues to torture Melody until the Doctor orders them to stop; nevertheless, they keep her trapped in a paralyzing force field as a means of preventing her escape.

The Doctor asks the Tesselecta crew for his personal records; though Carter is initially reluctant to provide them, Amy explains that she is Melody's mother and orders them to give the Doctor whatever he wants. The Tesselecta explains that the Silence are behind the plot to kill the Doctor. They are not a species, but a religious cult that believes "silence will fall" when the oldest question in the universe is asked; when the Doctor demands to know what the question is, the Tesselecta informs him that the question is unknown. Suddenly, the Doctor falls to the floor in pain, announcing that his kidneys have failed; one of the Tesselecta crewmembers announces that he is finished, and so the machine resumes its torture of Melody. A weakened Doctor pleads for Amy and Rory to save their daughter. Amy, with no other option, uses the sonic screwdriver to deactivate the privileges on the wrist straps of every person on board the robot, setting the antibodies on them. She and Rory escape to another part of the ship as the crew teleports to safety. Amy continues to communicate with the Doctor through the Tesselecta, begging for him to save them as they are surrounded by antibodies. The dying Doctor asks Melody to save her parents.

As Amy and Rory prepare to be killed by the antibodies, the TARDIS materializes around them. They believe the Doctor has returned to save them, and are shocked when Melody steps out from behind the control console. She informs her parents that the TARDIS taught her how to fly it, as she is a "Child of the TARDIS" and has special abilities because of that. She returns the couple to the Doctor's side; Amy is confused by his impending death, as she and Rory have already seen him die at the lakeside in Utah. He asks to speak to Melody, whispering something in her ear -- a message he wishes for her to pass on to his friend, River Song. After the Doctor dies, Melody asks Amy and Rory who "River Song" is; Amy orders the still-functioning Tesselecta to take River's form. Melody is shocked to realize that she is River; she asks her parents if the Doctor is "worth it," and they reply in the affirmative. With regeneration energy seeping out of her hands, she returns to the Doctor and brings him back to life with a kiss. The room dissolves to white.

Melody awakes in the best hospital in the universe, with her parents at her side. Amy says that she gave all of her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor, nearly killing herself in the process, but Melody insists that the Doctor knew she'd be able to save him. One of the nurses explains that she needs to rest, but that she will be fine; the Doctor, who is standing nearby, corrects her, saying that she will be "amazing" before leaving a parting gift on her bedside table -- the TARDIS diary which River will use to record their adventures together. The Doctor and his companions leave River behind, knowing that she has to find her own way, but that she will continue to look for them. He downloads his personal information from the Tesselecta, learning the date, time, and location of his death once and for all.

Some time later, after recovering, River applies to study archaeology at the Luna University in 5123, explaining to her professor that she's looking for a good man.

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 to use, after the Doctor rejects a projection of himself and asks for "someone he likes." He rejects all three projections on the basis of increasingly strong feelings of guilt. Ultimately, the TARDIS settles on a projection of the child Amelia Pond.
 * Rory complains "I have this sort of banging in my head" in the same fashion as The Master in the human form of Professor Yana.
 * Rory's penchant for surprising heroics continues in this episode. He punches Adolf Hitler and the disguised Teselecta, rides a motorbike without training and discerns the effects of the miniaturisation ray without the Doctor's assistance.

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 the 4th 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 shown 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.

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 in where 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 sat 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. (DW: Silence in the Library, et al)
 * 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)

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 to the motorcycle chase sequence with Rory and Amy, and 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 For Melody/River Song
 * This story occurs after: DW: A Good Man Goes to War
 * This story occurs before: DW: Night Terrors
 * 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.