Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 9: "Cold Blood"

I was a bit worried about this season. Just a bit, after last week. Despite the fact that I thought The Hungry Earth was slow to set up today's second installment, I was wondering whether the novelty of the new doctor and the crack in time was only as strong as Steven Moffat's episodes, while the other episodes wouldn't be able to hold up. Of course, the River Song two-parter earlier this season was a high point as expected. And Amy's Choice was a refreshing breather from the relatively arc-heavy season. But I expected this Silurian two-parter to at least touch base with the main theme again, and that it certainly did. Beware, spoilers abound after here.

I was hoping Rory would be out of the picture somehow, and soon. I feel like having Rory aboard was tolerable, but not as fun as the doctor and Amy alone. I did not see them killing off Rory at all, however. That came as a complete and total shock. And not only that, but his memory itself got erased from time itself. And even from Amy's mind (or so it seems). This is sometihng I don't think would have happened in the RTD era, and it's just shocking that it happened here. I wonder if they plan on somehow bringing him back.... I'm still surprised they went that far, acutally killing him off.

The death and erasure of Rory totally eclipsed the other big mystery at the end of this episode: the broken TARDIS sign. So the doctor reaches his hand, and pulls out a broken piece of TARDIS? Does that mean that somehow, the TARDIS itself is the big bad this season? Is the TARDIS the cause of all this stuff, or is it Amy? And how does Rory's death affect Amy being the source of the crack? The questions abound, but unlike Lost, I really think all this will make sense by this series's end.

As for the Silurian storyline, boy did it take a real backseat after the ending of this episode. But I really liked the themes presented here. Instead of the Silurians just wanting to destroy us, as they did with the third doctor, we now see that there are cilivized people and uncivilized people on both sides. The idea of a human-silurian alliance was fascinating, because both sides could have benefited so much. But in order to do so, both sides also have to mature enough. And are we led to believe that 1000 years later, both sides do live together in peace?

I was very impressed with this episode, and it probably ranks as my fourth favorite this season, behing the Song two-parter and The Eleventh Hour. Of course, this is mostly due to the totally unexpected ending, but I feel like the series needed that at this point in time. The next two weeks seem relatively light, with some van Gogh and the doctor becoming a lodger. And then it's finally time for the pandorica to open. It's going to be sad when this series end, but I believe that a 13-episode season is ideal to fully tell a good, arc-based story without fluff, as we find in many American network shows.

Next week: van Gogh!