BBC America has been hitting it big in the US as of late with such breakout hits as Being Human, Primeval, and Torchwood, but none of them have come close to the long lasting success that Doctor Who has received on this side of the pond. Since Matt Smith took over the titular role of The Doctor and Stephen Moffat was promoted to executive producer and head writer  last season, the show has not taken a single second to catch its breath, much like The Doctor himself: always running, diving head first into crazy adventures every week after week! For the second season of Moffat’s and Smith’s run on Doctor Who, they have decided to try something a bit different and split the normal 13 episode run in half, with each set acting more like the previous Who serials of old. Once again joining The Doctor is companion Amy Pond (played by the gorgeous Karen Gillan), now a newlywed and dragging along her husband: the ever so awkward yet lovable Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)!

Continuing from the storyline set up in “Silence in the Library” and”Forest of the Dead” back during David Tennant’s run, as well as the events of the previous season, Moffat continues the tale of River Song and the Silence. Last season we were told over and over again that “Silence will fall” across the galaxy by several characters… and the show even alluded to The Silence being the forces to take control of the TARDIS to blow it up at the end of Season 5. The Silence is finally revealed to us right off the bat this season in the opening two parter The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and man, are they something!

 

Also this season, for the first time ever Doctor Who moved its entire production out west to come shoot over in the US (in Utah no less!), giving us some of the most elaborate and grand sweeping shots ever seen on the long running British sci-fi series. You really get a feeling of the scale of what is happening from these scenes and are left wishing the rest of the episodes had the same sort of feel to their scale.

 

As always, Doctor Who brings with it a stunning set of special guests and this year the fan-loved genre actor Mark Sheppard joins the fun as the former FBI agent Canton Delaware as well as his father William Morgan Sheppard as the older version of Canton. Michael Sheen joins the series as well, lending his voice to the series as the alien planet “House”. This season of Who also played host to a special guest writer for the fourth episode of the season: Neil Gaiman lent his storytelling mastery to produce a episode that will go down as one of the most memorable episodes of Who ever.

 

Episodes:

“The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon”:
The most shocking way to start a season: Kill off your main character within the first 10 minutes while his companions watch it happen helplessly… and yet he still lives. That is exactly what happens to The Doctor right before they start off on their journey to 1969 Utah to stop an alien invasion that no one can remember.

“The Doctor’s Wife”:
The Neil Gaiman-penned episode in which we learn the inner workings of what could be considered the Doctor’s Wife: The TARDIS. When an evil sentient planet named “House” decides to take over the TARDIS with his own consciousness, the soul of the TARDIS is thrust into a deteriorating patchwork human body and Amy and Rory find themselves trapped inside a malicious Time Machine. Can the Doctor manage to put the TARDIS back inside itself and save his companions in time?

 

“The Rebel Flesh”/”The Almost People”:
The Doctor is up to something as he goes to investigate a situation in Earth’s future. Remote Controlled human clones, called “Gangers” are put to work doing dangerous jobs that could otherwise end in massive casualties. Due to a freak accident the Gangers come alive and plan to take over for the humans… permanently. Can the humans and Gangers find a way to live together peacefully, or will it cost them all their lives?

“A Good Man Goes To War”:
“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,
Demons run but count the cost,
The battle’s won but the child is lost…”

To not risk spoiling anything about this epic episode, we will just leave it at that and say this is the episode River Song fans have all been waiting for…

 

Special Features:

-Monster Files: The Silence and The Gangers – an inside look at these two of The Doctor’s opponents.
-DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound
 

Doctor Who Series 6, Part 1 is another nice release from BBC America but is a little lacking when it comes to special features. Granted it is just half the season and the Doctor Who Confidential episodes are most likely being saved for the full season set when it hits later this year around the Christmas season, but it seems like this set could use a bit more meat to it… like maybe a commentary or two.

Overall: