Okay, the title is intentionally controversial as I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s episode of Doctor Who, but I can’t help feeling that the ending wasn’t the great cliffhanger Steven Moffat has been promising us. And for those who have ignored the spoiler warning, I really am going to mention stuff you may not have seen yet.
Firstly, I’d guessed that the baby was River Song based on the trailer in which River says that the Doctor will finally find out who she is. Please! Did anyone not guess from that? Even if you were lucky enough to miss the trailer this was right at the beginning of the episode and made the moment of revelation a bit of an anti-climax. We should never have had the scene between Rory and River where she gave this away.
Secondly, I think the ending was structured wrongly. If River had appeared while the baby was still there and explained that Melody Pond and she were one and the same, the Doctor could have momentarily puzzled over the fact that they were together in the timeline, we’d then get the appearance of the gloating one-eyed woman and the baby turning to milk (well, that’s what it looks like). Everyone stunned. End of episode.
Instead, we have River saying that everything is going to be all right because she’s proof of that. What kind of cliffhanger is that?
I know that the ending I propose has similarities to the ending of the previous episode, but because that one was so dramatic a number of people thought that was the mid-season cliffhanger.
I’d like to repeat that I still enjoyed the episode and love what Moffat is doing with the Doctor, but in my opinion the episode could have been even better.