A Good Man Goes to War

218a – "A Good Man Goes to War"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Karen Gillan (Amy Pond)
Others Alex Kingston – River Song Frances Barber – Madame Kovarian Charlie Baker – Fat One Dan Johnston – Thin One Christina Chong – Lorna Bucket Joshua Hayes – Lucas Damian Kell – Dominicus Neve McIntosh – Madame Vastra Catrin Stewart – Jenny Richard Trinder – Captain Harcourt Annabel Cleare – Eleanor Henry Wood – Arthur Dan Starkey – Commander Strax Simon Fisher-Becker – Dorium Maldovar Danny Sapani – Colonel Manton Hugh Bonneville – Henry Avery Oscar Lloyd – Toby Avery Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Cybermen
Production
Directed by	Peter Hoar
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	Marcus Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Piers Wenger Beth Willis
Production code	2.7
Series	Series 6
Running time	50 minutes
First broadcast	4 June 2011 (2011-06-04)
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Almost People" Followed by → "Let's Kill Hitler"

"A Good Man Goes to War" is the seventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 4 June 2011. It is the first episode of a two-part story, with the second part to be aired in September 2011.

Plot

Synopsis

The Doctor and Rory have discovered that Amy, Rory's wife, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies, including Sontaran Commander Strax, Silurian Madame Vastra and her human servant Jenny, and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar, to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to bring River Song from her prison cell, but she cannot be with the Doctor at this time, as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian, who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy, but Amy warns her of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him.

Demons run when a good man goes to war.
Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies,
Night will fall and the dark will rise,
When a good man goes to war.

River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base

As Colonel Manton shows the troops that the Headless Monks are, literally, headless and thus cannot be influenced by feelings, the Doctor appears to their surprise. Assisted by additional Silurian, Sontaran, and Judoon forces, along with space-worthy Spitfires ("Victory of the Daleks") and Captain Avery and his crew ("The Curse of the Black Spot"), the Doctor and his allies secure the base and defeat the human troops, free Amy, and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and find traces of Time Lord DNA in her. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's honeymoon aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he's fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] twice is a privilege." As the Doctor races to the main hanger, the TARDIS is blocked by a force field, and his allies are attacked by the Headless Monks, who kill Dorium, Strax and Bucket before they are defeated. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid in Amy's arms sending her into hysterics.

As they recover, River appears to the group through a teleportation device. The Doctor accosts her for not helping, but she tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were brought about by those that feared the Doctor. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, directing him towards carvings on its side. The Doctor comes to a revelation that implies a more intimate relationship with River in his personal future. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy urges River to explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols on the side, but they cannot be read by humans, and instead River shows them what lies within the cot, a cloth token made by Bucket for Amy with Melody's name on it. However, as the Gamma forest people do not have a word for "pond", Bucket used the closest approximation: "River". Similarly the word "melody" has been translated as "song". River Song admits to Amy "I'm your daughter."

Continuity

Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky". Neve McIntosh played Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood".

Rory wears his Centurion armour, previously seen in "A Christmas Carol", and similar to that worn in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" (since the timeline in those episodes was erased it cannot be the same armour within the show, though clearly it is the same costume.)

The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.

Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship.

"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 (who embodied the TARDIS) in "The Doctor's Wife".

Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour".

Prequel

On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has a trader named Dorium (last seen in The Pandorica Opens) talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"

External links

• "A Good Man Goes to War" at IMDb
• A Good Man Goes to War on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
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