"A Good Man Goes To War"

After a long wait, I am finally watching the mid-season finale of Doctor Who. We got ourselves ready for it by watching the repeats of "The Rebel Flesh" and "The Almost People". Of course, we ended with the Doctor using the sonic screwdriver to dissolve Amy into a puddle of flesh after promising to find her. Somewhere along the line, she was replaced, and the real Amy Pond is in labor somewhere. Amy is about to have the baby ... but who is the baby? What about the little girl who regenerated at the end of "Day of the Moon." I know we find out just who River Song is. Does she start traveling with the Doctor? Will we be treated to a regular dose of the very awesome Alex Kingston? Watching the end of "The Almost People," I can definitely say that Matt Smith is finding his voice as the Doctor. And who is the woman with the eye patch? And dagnabit, this had BETTER not be to be continued over the summer! It is about to start, so lets find out together what is about to happen!

Awww, look at the little baby. Amy is holding her baby and is surrounded by armed troops. OK, the cloaked people look like Autons ... and the "Last Centurion," Rory is definitely the father according to Amy. Rory faces down the Cybermen, and seems to have become a man in his own right. OK, anoying Amy intro is over and the show is moving forward at a breakneck pace. The hot soldier chick KNOWS the Doctor. The monks are "the headless monks," ok, I guess they aren't Autons. It was how they held their hands that made me think that. Looks like the fat one is about to lose his head ... really, he should try to be more cool, calm and collected.

The Doctor can be anywhere in time and space, and in old London, the TARDIS arrives in the home home of a Silurian? A Sontaran nurse? What the heck? River Song breaking IN to prison? And she is looking rather OLD. The Doctor is getting people together to find Amy, and River Song can't be there until the very end because today is the day that he finds out who she is. The Dorium Maldovar [I initially identified him as the Duke of Manhattan] ... is he behind all of this? Or is it that he is just someone people come to for advice? And it looks like he is about to go to war for the Doctor!

The leader of the troops is giving his army a pep talk. The hot soldier visits Amy and tells her that she met the Doctor when she was a little girl. The headless monks actually ARE headless, but of course one of the cloaked figures is the Doctor. One of the headless monks is killed and the Monks kill a couple of the troops in response. The Doctor heads out, and I suddenly remembered "The Time of Angels" last season where the army was made up of priests. The Siluruans, Sontarans and the fighters from "Victory of the Daleks" last season have joined the fight for the Doctor. Wow!?!?!? Former enemies fighting on the Doctor's behalf?

Eye patch lady is trying to leave with the baby, and Rory and the Pirates have taken control of her personal ship. The Doctor wants the colonel to order his men to run away. Rory is having problems working the sonic screwdriver, and he calls her "Mrs. Williams" ... love it. A crying Roman with a baby ... definitely cool! Melody Pond ... love the name.

The Sontaran is starting to freak me out. He produces vast quantities of lactic fluid? Yikes. Oooh, the Doctor's own cradle. Spiffy! Now it's time to find out who it is that wants the baby. The baby is part human, part Time Lord?!?!?!? So Amy's baby may have been conceived in the TARDIS while it was traveling in the time vortex. The Doctor is facing the possibility of a new "Time Lord" being born, and eye-patch lady reveals that this is a long war against the Doctor, and now the time has come for the counter-attack.

Whoops, Dorian Maldovar just lost his head. The battle starts, and the baby was a ganger. Looks like eye-patch has the baby. Amy blames the Doctor for losing the baby, and Lorna (the hot soldier) dies. River Song arrives and confronts the Doctor, telling him that he needs to change his ways before Doctor ceases to mean healer and instead means destroyer. She tells him who she is ... and he runs off on his own, leaving River to take everyone home, revealing that she is Amy's daughter! Holy CRAP! Now we have to wait a really, REALLY long time before we get a fresh infusion of Doctor Who.

So, during the break, we will spend some time walking down memory lane, building a TARDIS DVD cabinet, and generally being online Doctor Who buddies! Stay tuned!

[CORRECTION: The character I identify as the Duke of Manhattan is actually Dorium Maldovar, the person who sold River Song a vortex manipulator last season in "The Pandorica Opens." Thanks for the assist Sarah!]