History Recap / DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon

The one with tally marks. Lots and lots of tally marks. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou Wait, why are there tally marks on the captions...?]]

[[ParanoiaFuel 卌 卌 |||]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh... thought there were more people in this picture.... ||]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh... thought there were more people in this picture.... || [[note]]Those lines are tally marks...[[/note]]]]

Meanwhile, Amy is being kept hostage in a spaceship that looks [[CallBack suspiciously like]] the one from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger "The Lodger"]]. The Silence say she's been there for "many days", but she can't remember any of it. One thing she does know is that they are in trouble now, because wait until they see who's coming. True to her words, she's barely finished speaking before the magnificent "[[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound VWORP, VWORP]]" of the TARDIS fills the air. The Doctor, Rory and River spill out, confident as ever. The Doctor boasts to the Silence that if they attack, River will shoot them dead, if she isn't too busy flirting with him, of course. Have they seen what's on telly? It's the Moon landing, about to occur in less than five minutes. One of the most famous pieces of film in human history, so famous that every human from this day forward will look back on it in with pride and awe.

** As the Doctor remarks, the Silence's ship is the same sort seen abandoned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger "The Lodger"]].

** The Doctor tells the Silence he's going to give them a chance to surrender and flee, then tells them he's [[IWasJustJoking just joking]], because it isn't [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Christmas]]. Also likely a reference to [[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol "A Christmas Carol"]].
** The Doctor flashes back to the phrase "Silence will fall" said by Prisoner Zero in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]] as well as the appearance of the control room in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger "The Lodger"]].
** Flashing back to an arc phrase being a device previously used in Series 1 with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]].

** The prison is made of bricks of dwarf-star alloy, as was Rorvik's slave ship in the Fourth Doctor story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate "Warriors' Gate"]]. It was used for its property of being able to contain time-sensitives (Tharils in that case). The same material was also used to make the chains with which the Tenth Doctor bound up Father of Mine in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]].

** A character is in an old, abandoned house whose walls contain messages, as in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]].
*** Speaking of which, in that episode Martha mentioned that she and the Doctor had gone to see the Moon landing, which the climax of this episode revolves around.

** River tells the Doctor that he should use his sonic screwdriver to put up some cabinets. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]], the Doctor defends his sonic screwdriver by saying "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
** River swan-dives into the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour swimming pool]]. We get to see the swimming pool in the first episode of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]]. Even better, it contained Leela.
** The reason the girl was calling Nixon is because the alien tech in her suit had a default setting to broadcast distress calls to the highest authority it could find. This is similar to other concepts Moffat has used (such as the om-com in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]], the Clockwork Robots' behaviour in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]], and the spaceship in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger "The Lodger"]]), where apparently nonsensical behaviour is explained by malfunctioning alien tech being LiteralMinded.

* {{Irony}}: One line of River's dialogue, in light of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]]:

** The music played at the end as the girl regenerates is the same as the music for the Doctor's VikingFuneral in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut "The Impossible Astronaut"]].

%%The one with subliminal messages.%%

卌 卌 ||

On the television, Neil Armstrong steps out. The Doctor calls Canton, who connects Amy's phone to a device. On the screen appears the film of the captured Silent: "You should kill us all on sight!" It's repeated and repeated, while across the world everyone sees the clip, promptly forgetting it. But the suggestion remains. Everyone has been ordered by post-hypnotic suggestion to kill any Silent they see. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome The Silence signed their own death warrant]].

They drop River off at the Stormcage prison, and she and the Doctor flirt some more. Finally, River pulls him in for a kiss. He reciprocates after a moment, looking rather flustered and confused, and extremely undecided on where to put his hands. (He settles on hiding them behind his back.) River says he's acting like they've never done that before. [[FirstKiss "We haven't,"]] he replies. As the Doctor backs away in the TARDIS, he says there's a first time for everything. The ship de-materialises, and River simply looks mournful. [[LastKiss "And a last."]]

* ActionGirl: River Song defeats a group of Silent.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Many fan reviews referred to Canton's desire to marry his partner as "anachronistic", argued that this wouldn't even have occurred to someone in 1969, and so on... but the episode is set [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage#1970 only ten months before a gay couple applied to be legally married.]]

* BadassGay: Canton, ex-FBI official, tells Nixon he wants to get married to a black person. Nixon's unfazed until Canton elaborates that it's a black ''guy''.

** The TARDIS' invisibility circuit which was introduced in the previous episode. It ends up coming in handy when the Doctor and Canton need a way to sneak the TARDIS into the military's dwarf star alloy prison.

** The Doctor uses the Silence's ExactWords against them, a trick he picked up from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks the Daleks.]]

** The prison is made of bricks of dwarf-star alloy, as was Rorvik's slave ship in the 4th Doctor story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate "Warriors' Gate"]]. It was used for its property of being able to contain time-sensitives (Tharils in that case). The same material was also used to make the chains with which the Tenth Doctor bound up Father of Mine in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]].

-->(''Amy and Rory pop out of body bags'')\\
'''Rory:''' These things could ''really'' do with some air holes.\\

'''The Doctor:''' Oh Dicky. Tricky Dicky. [[DoubleMeaning They're never going to forget you.]] Say hello to David Frost for me.\\
'''Nixon:''' David Frost? (''he doesn't look reassured by this'')

** His parting words to Nixon: "Say hello to [[Film/FrostNixon David Frost]] for me".

** When River realizes that she and the Doctor just shared his first kiss with her. Thus it's supposedly her last with him.

* ParanoiaFuel: In-universe. There could be any number of Silents in the room with you right now and you wouldn't even know it. The fact that they are not in any way invisible and can simply hide in plain sight, lurking around with their creepy non-faces and enormous hands that are too big too fit into those suits and ''reading over your shoulder right now'' is bloody terrifying.

** River says she is an [[Franchise/IndianaJones archaeologist]] while shooting everything in sight. She also [[Franchise/TombRaider loves a tomb.]]
** The Silence have been [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey controlling human evolution since the dawn of time and are now pushing space travel forward.]]

* SoftWater: The TARDIS' swimming pool after River Song's falling stunt in New York. Of course, it ''is'' the swimming pool of an advanced alien.

* TriggerHappy: River and Canton and the Americans in general are quick to shoot. The last two are carrying over the RunningGag from the previous episode.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: The orphanage director is only kind of Southern. This could be explained by him being a Southerner who faked a Yank accent for part of his life, and the brain damage keeps him from remembering which one to use and / or how to use it correctly. More likely, it seems to be a [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0787715/ British-Canadian actor's]] attempt at a Louisiana/Cajun drawl. Which you don't usually find in central Florida, where Cape Canaveral is. Poor mind broken Dr. Renfrew.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Canton [[TheAllSolvingHammer firmly believes]] in this method. See a Silence? Shoot while it brags.

卌

[[ParanoiaFuel ||||| ||||| |||]]

* BadassGay: Canton is an FBI agent who wants to marry his male lover.

%%* CombatPragmatist: Canton. Also, River.

* ShutUpKiss: River invokes it with the Doctor.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to poor Dr. Renfrew? Is he still in that orphanage? And did he ever catch that broadcast and if so, how's that skinny-addled bugger going to kill all those Silence "on sight" anyhows?

* TheSpaceRace: Our heroes go to Cape Kennedy in Florida (now called Cape Canaveral) and manage to use the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing to save the world. The Doctor predicts that humanity will colonise space in the far future, and will always remember Apollo 11.

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh... thought there were more people in this picture.... || [[note]]Those lines are tally marks....[[/note]]]]

"Oi, stupid face." Rory looks surprised, and comes out of hiding. Turns out they knew he was listening, and he really shouldn't spy on them. Rory accepts that, but come on, he's a nurse. He's ''good'' with pregnancies. Glad that they're all settled, the Doctor asks, what should they do next? Find the mysterious little girl? Or go and have wacky adventures? He settles for wacky adventures, pausing just briefly to have the TARDIS scan Amy to see if she's pregnant. The screen says positive. Then negative. Then positive again. Positivenegativepositivenegative....

* {{Eagleland}}: There is an ''awful'' lot of gunplay in this episode....

* WhamShot: In the last scene, the little girl tells the tramp she's dying, but she can fix that. Then her hands start glowing in a ''very'' familiar way....

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh . . . thought there were more people in this picture . . . || [[note]]Those lines are tally marks . . .[[/note]]]]

Perturbed, he presses the message. It relays the last few minutes: Canton's shocked exclamation of "how did it get in here?", the Doctor telling him to turn around and straighten his bowtie . . . Canton looks back, and there the Silent is. Menacing as always. It's just a hologram, though, copied from the picture on Amy's phone. Nobody can remember what it looks like even after seeing it. The Doctor also explains that anything you're told to do when you see the alien will stick with you, as a form of post-hypnotic suggestion. That is how the Silence controls the world.

To track her down they investigate the spacesuit, which seems constructed as a life support system for a human girl, albeit one who is strong enough to break out of it herself. Rory, holding the chip, listens to Amy's screams, wishing he could help her. Now she's talking, as if she knows someone who's listening. She says she loves "you" -- whom, Rory doesn't know -- even though "you" think it should be the other one. But oh, what she would give to see his stupid face again! Her life was so horrible, so boring before he dropped out of the sky . . .

"Oi, stupid face." Rory looks surprised, and comes out of hiding. Turns out they knew he was listening, and he really shouldn't spy on them. Rory accepts that, but come on, he's a nurse. He's ''good'' with pregnancies. Glad that they're all settled, the Doctor asks, what should they do next? Find the mysterious little girl? Or go and have wacky adventures? He settles for wacky adventures, pausing just briefly to have the TARDIS scan Amy to see if she's pregnant. The screen says positive. Then negative. Then positive again. Positivenegativepositivenegative . . .

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Many fan reviews referred to Canton's desire to marry his partner as "anachronistic", argued that this wouldn't even have occurred to someone in 1969, and so on . . . but the episode is set [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage#1970 only ten months before a gay couple applied to be legally married.]]

* {{Eagleland}}: There is an ''awful'' lot of gunplay in this episode . . .

** The Doctor assures Nixon that people will never forget him . . .

** The audio glitch in the Moon landing transmission of "One small step for man . . ." was caused by the Doctor splicing in his secret message. You don't remember the aliens' "you should kill us all on sight" message when you view the landing transmission on Website/YouTube because you're supposed to forget completely about them the moment you look away.

* NoodleIncident: Apparently they scouted every state in the three months they were running from the FBI. We still don't know how long the Doctor was a prisoner, how he got the TARDIS there . . . and why was Rory at a dam, of all places?

--->'''The Doctor:'''I think the word you're looking for right now is . . . "Oops".

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Rory cannot hide his English accent when he tells the scientists "America salutes you". He follows this statement with a [[MilitarySalute salute]] . . . of the British variety. Check the picture on the MilitarySalute page.

* SuicidalGotcha: River jumps off a New York skyscraper, apparently to her death . . . and is caught by the TARDIS.

* WhamShot: In the last scene, the little girl tells the tramp she's dying, but she can fix that. Then her hands start glowing in a ''very'' familiar way . . .

* MindScrew: [[NoNameGiven The Eye-Patch Lady.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh... thought there were more people in this picture... || [[note]]Those lines are tally marks...[[/note]]]]

Location: New York. At the top of a skyscraper still being built, River Song walks worried among the building material, her face full of fear. Something else moves among the cloth. A horrible finger, a suit, all glimpses of the Silence. River takes the pen, drawing a tally mark on her arm. "I ''see'' you."

Location: Area 51. The black prison around the Doctor is nearly complete. Canton pulls in the body bags containing Amy and Rory and takes the time to goad and lecture the Doctor. His companions are captured and dead, River jumped off the 50th floor of a building and he is encased in the densest material in the known universe. Behind him, the door to the prison shuts. It's completely soundproof. "So I guess they won't be able to hear us."

Perturbed, he presses the message. It relays the last few minutes: Canton's shocked exclamation of "how did it get in here?", the Doctor telling him to turn around and straighten his bowtie... Canton looks back, and there the Silent is. Menacing as always. It's just a hologram, though, copied from the picture on Amy's phone. Nobody can remember what it looks like even after seeing it. The Doctor also explains that anything you're told to do when you see the alien will stick with you, as a form of post-hypnotic suggestion. That is how the Silence controls the world.

She listens to the message; they're here, they're asleep, just get out. She turns around quickly, and when her reflection is illuminated in the glass by lightning, she sees her entire face covered in black markings from her own pen. She turns around quickly and finds the Silence, hanging from the ceiling like bats, menacing even in sleep. She finally makes her escape, but the moment she's in the hallways, she shakes herself, unable to remember what just happened. She wanders down the hallways and sees a door. A hatch opens up; bright light shines through, framing [[{{Foreshadowing}} the face of a woman with an eye patch]]. "No, I think she's dreaming," the woman's voice says.

Amy runs up to it, just as the hatch closes. She opens the door but finds nothing but an child's empty room on the other side. Furthermore, there's nothing on the door but smooth wood. Perturbed, she wanders around. The desk is lined with photographs of a little girl, from every age from baby to toddler to six years old. And a picture of Amy, holding a newborn baby.

The astronaut comes into the room. Amy, now seriously frightened, begs for an explanation. She's sorry she tried to shoot the little girl, but she knows she shot -- [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will shoot]] -- the Doctor. The girl only asks once again to be saved, and then the Silent comes into the room.

Canton hears Amy scream in the background, and decides that Americans ''do'' need weapons. He shoots the Silent and runs after Amy. He hears her screaming behind the door, and is about to break it down, before the Doctor appears and opens it with the sonic screwdriver. They burst through, but find Amy nowhere in sight, although her screams fill the whole room. The astronaut's spacesuit lies on the ground, ripped open. On the ground, a little red light flashes. They pulled the chip out of the hand, and the feed is still going live; they can hear Amy screaming and pleading. Rory vows that he will save her, and that she knows he will, because Amy should always know.

To track her down they investigate the spacesuit, which seems constructed as a life support system for a human girl, albeit one who is strong enough to break out of it herself. Rory, holding the chip, listens to Amy's screams, wishing he could help her. Now she's talking, as if she knows someone who's listening. She says she loves "you" -- whom, Rory doesn't know -- even though "you" think it should be the other one. But oh, what she would give to see his stupid face again! Her life was so horrible, so boring before he dropped out of the sky...

Meanwhile, Amy is being kept hostage in a spaceship that looks suspiciously like the [[CallBack one from "The Lodger"]]. The Silence say she's been there for "many days", but she can't remember any of it. One thing she does know is that they are in trouble now, because wait until they see who's coming. True to her words, she's barely finished speaking before the magnificent "[[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound VWORP, VWORP]]" of the Doctor's ship fills the air. The Doctor, Rory and River spill out, confident as ever. The Doctor boasts to the Silence that if they attack, River will shoot them dead, if she isn't too busy flirting with him, of course. Have they seen what's on telly? It's the moon landing, about to occur in less than five minutes. One of the most famous pieces of film in human history, so famous that every human from this day forward will look back on it in with pride and awe.

They drop River off at the Stormcage prison, and she and the Doctor flirt some more. Finally, River pulls him in for a kiss. He reciprocates after a moment, looking rather flustered and confused, and extremely undecided on where to put his hands. (He settles on hiding them behind his back.) River says he's acting like they've never done that before. [[FirstKiss "We haven't"]], he replies. As the Doctor backs away in the TARDIS, he says there's a first time for everything. The ship de-materialises, and River simply looks mournful. [[LastKiss "And a last."]]

"Oi, stupid face." Rory looks surprised, and comes out of hiding. Turns out they knew he was listening, and he really shouldn't spy on them. Rory accepts that, but come on, he's a nurse. He's ''good'' with pregnancies. Glad that they're all settled, the Doctor asks, what should they do next? Find the mysterious little girl? Or go and have wacky adventures? He settles for wacky adventures, pausing just briefly to have the TARDIS scan Amy to see if she's pregnant. The screen says positive. Then negative. Then positive again. Positivenegativepositivenegative...

"Six Months Later." Cut to a dark back alley, where a homeless man wanders around looking for food. The girl from the astronaut suit appears out of the shadows, clutching her chest. The man looks concerned, and asks the little girl if she's all right. She's just dying. But that's okay, because she can fix it.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Many fan reviews referred to Canton's desire to marry his partner as "anachronistic", argued that this wouldn't even have occurred to someone in 1969, and so on... but the episode is set [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage#1970 only ten months before a gay couple applied to be legally married.]]

** Ultimately subverted in the Silent's case, in that Canton proves the Silent wrong literally a second later by shooting him.

** The Doctor tells the Silence he is going to give them a chance to surrender and flee, then tells them he is [[IWasJustJoking just joking]], because it isn't [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Christmas]]. Also likely a reference to [[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol "A Christmas Carol"]].

** The prison is made of bricks of dwarf-star alloy, as was Rorvik's slave ship in the 4th Doctor story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate "Warriors' Gate"]]. It was used for its property of being able to contain time-sensitives (Tharils in that case). The same material is also used to make the chains with which the Tenth Doctor bound up Father of Mine in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]].

** River tells The Doctor that he should use his sonic screwdriver to put up some cabinets. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]], The Doctor defends his sonic screwdriver by saying "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

** The reason the girl was calling Nixon is because the alien tech in her suit had a default setting to broadcast distress calls to the highest authority it could find. This is similar to other concepts Moffat has used (such as the om-com in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]], the Clockwork Robots' behaviour in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]]), and the spaceship in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger "The Lodger"]], where apparently nonsensical behaviour is explained by malfunctioning alien tech being LiteralMinded.

* CreepyChild: The girl but she isn't necessarily bad. [[MindScrew We think.]]

** The Doctor assures Nixon that people will never forget him...

* FirstKiss / LastKiss: River kisses the Doctor and he's surprised because it's the first time. River, from her prespective, sees it as routine, which means it's her last. (Although, not necessarily. Their relationship's funny like that.)

** The audio glitch in the Moon landing transmission of "One small step for man..." was caused by the Doctor splicing in his secret message. You don't remember the aliens' "you should kill us all on sight" message when you view the landing transmission on Website/YouTube because you're supposed to forget completely about them the moment you look away.

%%* MysteriousWaif: The girl.

* NoodleIncident: Apparently they scouted every state in the three months they were running from the FBI. We still don't know how long the Doctor was a prisoner, how he got the TARDIS there... and why was Rory at a dam, of all places?

** Technically, the Eye-Patch Lady.

--->'''The Doctor:'''I think the word you're looking for right now is... "Oops".

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Rory cannot hide his English accent when he tells the scientists "America salutes you". He follows this statement with a [[MilitarySalute salute]]... of the British variety. Check the picture on the MilitarySalute page.

* SequelHook: The little girl is still out there and may be a Time Lord and / or Amy's daughter, and we don't know what the Silence wanted from either her or Amy. Meanwhile, not even the TARDIS can decide whether Amy is pregnant or not.

* SuicidalGotcha: River jumps off a New York skyscraper, apparently to her death... and is caught by the TARDIS.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: For a species that can easily be taken out by a handgun, The Silents are extremely confident they have no need of weapons. This turns out to be their downfall.
* ThatCameOutWrong: Amy might not have known Rory was listening, but her poor choice of idiom when talking about how much she loved Rory does not go unnoticed. When you know someone who ''literally'' dropped out of the sky, using as an idiom when speaking about another person might cause confusion/heartbreak, yes?
* TailorMadePrison: The Doctor's prison cell is made of the toughest stuff around. Nothing can be transmitted in or out. Which also means no one can listen in.

* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: The Doctor when he orders the destruction of the Silents, although in a more jovial manner than might be expected.

* PoweredArmour: The space suit is really a hogdepodge of alien tech designed to enhance the abilities of anyone wearing it.

Location: Area 51. The black prison around the Doctor is nearly complete. Canton pulls in the body bags containing Amy and Rory and takes the time to goad and lecture the Doctor. His companions are captured and dead, River jumped off the 50th floor of a building and he is encased in the densest material in the known universe. Behind him, the door to the prison shuts. It's completely sound proof. "So I guess they won't be able to hear us."

The Doctor and Canton smile at each other. The Doctor slips out of his chains, and [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt Amy and Rory claw their ways out of the body bags.]] The Doctor leans on an invisible shape, snaps his finger, and the interior of the TARDIS bursts into view. They're all quickly ushered into the vehicle, but Canton still has questions: what about River, who dove off a building?

Flashback to the TARDIS, where Canton's hand is stung by one of the Doctor's devices. He's dancing around, stinging everyone, much to their protest. He explains that it's a recorder, linked right to your brain so it will always pick up your words. You can activate it and record whatever you see when a Silent appears; your palm will blink red if you've left a message. Impressed, Canton straightens the Doctor's bow tie. Everyone stares at him. Canton sees that his hand blinks red.

Perturbed, he presses the message. It relays the last few minutes: Canton's shocked exclamation of "how did it get in here?", the Doctor telling him to turn around and straighten his bow tie... Canton looks back, and there the Silent is. Menacing as always. It's just a hologram, though, copied from the picture on Amy's phone. Nobody can remember what it looks like even after seeing it. The Doctor also explains that anything you're told to do when you see the alien will stick with you, as a form of post-hypnotic suggestion. That is how the Silence controls the world.

She listens to the message; they're here, they're asleep, just get out. She turns around quickly, and when her reflection is illuminated in the glass by lightning, she sees her entire face covered in black markings from her own pen. She turns around quickly and finds the Silence, hanging from the ceiling like bats, menacing even in sleep. She finally makes her escape, but the moment she's in the hallways, she shakes herself, unable to remember what just happened. She wanders down the hallways and sees a door. A hatch opens up; bright light shines through, framing [[{{Foreshadowing}} the face of woman with an eye patch]]. "No, I think she's dreaming," the woman's voice says.

At NASA, the Doctor had been captured for breaking into Apollo 11, fiddling with the wiring and basically breaking the law. He claims that he's on a mission from the president, but his captors aren't exactly believing him. Until Nixon walks into the room, River and Rory at his sides. He congratulates the men for their good work and dedication to America, and says what fine work the Doctor is doing, even if he is confused by what exactly that work is. The Doctor is set free, and cheerfully leaves. [[{{Adorkable}} Oh, and Rory manages to break a scale model of the lunar module and can't feign an American accent.]] (Or salute.)

Canton is in an office, asking the forgetful orphanage man questions. He barely seems to know why he's here. He knows that he must take care of the girl, because "that's important. Yes". He talks to someone through a crack in the door, but when Canton asks who, the man has forgotten what just happened. A Silent comes in, and Canton subtly turns on the recorder in his hand, and begins asking the creature questions. How long have they been here? Do they have weapons?

Turns out that they've been here for a long time. A long, long time. Since humans discovered fire, since we developed the wheel, they have been here, and have manipulated us since. They don't even need weapons. They just take the technology of whatever culture they're leeching off, and implant post-hypnotic suggestions to steer innovation into the right direction. And right now, what they need more than anything is a space suit, though it'll be a while before we find out why. So they steered humankind towards the moon.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Many fan reviews referred to Canton's desire to marry his partner as "anachronistic", argued that this wouldn't even have occurred to someone in 1969, and so on... but the episode is set [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage#1970 only ten months before a gay couple applied to be legally married.]]

** Ultimately subverted in the Silent's case in that Canton proves the Silent wrong literally a second later by shooting him.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Poor Dr. Renfrew, because his mind was continually addled by the Silence ordering him around. He even tries to warn himself with writing on the walls but he doesn't understand the message.

* CasualDangerDialog: River and the Doctor repeatedly do this.

** Amy's phone from the previous episode is used to generate a Silent hologram and learn about them.

** The prison is made of bricks of dwarf-star alloy, as was Rorvik's slave ship in the 4th Doctor's story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate "Warriors' Gate"]]. It was used for its property of being able to contain time-sensitives (Tharils in that case). The same material is also used to make the chains with which the Tenth Doctor bound up Father of Mine in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]].

* DamselInDistress: Amy is kidnapped and thanks to the nano-recorder they leave behind, ''the others can still hear her''.

'''Rory:''' These things could do with some air holes.\\

* {{Eagleland}}: There is an ''awful'' lot of gun-play in this episode....

** The Doctor assures Nixon that people will never forget him... then adds "Say hello to David Frost for me". Nixon doesn't look reassured.

'''The Doctor:''' Oh Dicky. Tricky Dicky. [[DoubleMeaning They're never going to forget you.]]

* FirstKiss / LastKiss: River kisses the Doctor and he's surprised because it's the first time. River, from her prespective, sees it as routine, which means it's her last.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon

** The audio glitch in the moon landing transmission of "One small step for man..." was caused by the Doctor splicing in his secret message. You don't remember the aliens' "you should kill us all on sight" message when you view the landing transmission on Website/YouTube because you're supposed to forget completely about them the moment you look away.

* HollywoodDensity: The dwarf star alloy is said to be the densest material in the universe. Fair enough, white dwarf stars are among the densest objects in the universe, only beaten by neutron stars and black holes. So there's no way two people could move those bricks, as they would weigh thousands of tons. Presumably, it's an alloy.

* {{Irony}}: One line of River's dialogue, in light of "A Good Man Goes to War."

* MilitarySalute: Going hand-in-hand with his inability to fake an American accent, Rory--[[PaperThinDisguise dressed]] as a [[{{Adorkable}} Federal functionary]], when Nixon arrives to release the Doctor from NASA security--salutes the scientists using the British style of saluting, not the American style.

-->'''Rory:''' What sort of Doctor are you?\\

* PoweredArmor: The space suit is really a hogdepodge of alien tech designed to enhance the abilities of anyone wearing it.

* SchrodingersCat: Amy's pregnancy status is both positive and negative. Essentially the baby exists and does not exist at the same time.

* SmallReferencePools: Florida is the only place in the country that could possibly have a space suit; the Doctor never even considers to search anywhere else for Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton. Good thing there is no intersection like that in Washington DC (where NASA is headquartered), or anywhere near Mission Control in Houston, TX.

* StableTimeLoop: Subtle. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut the previous episode]], the Doctor is disdainful towards Richard Nixon, because of things like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal Watergate]]. It turns out he's indirectly ''[[BeenThereShapedHistory responsible]]'' for Watergate by [[NiceJobBreakingItHero encouraging Nixon to be paranoid and suspicious of everyone]] because of things like the Silent.
* StockFootage: Of the moon landing.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: The orphanage director is only kind of Southern. This could be explained by him being a Southerner who faked a Yank accent for part of his life, and the brain damage keeps him from remembering which one to use and / or how to use it correctly. More likely, it seems to be a [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0787715/ British-Canadian actor's]] attempt at a Louisiana/Cajun drawl. Which you don't usually find in central Florida, where Cape Canaveral is. Poor mind broken Dr.Renfrew.

* AlienInvasion: "[[NoExceptYes It's]] ''[[NoExceptYes not]]'' [[NoExceptYes an invasion. It's an occupation.]]"

* UsefulNotes/RichardNixon: Moffat was initially disappointed that such a "rubbish" President presided over the moon landing and considered writing Nixon out of the episode, but later decided that he could do funny stuff with old Tricky Dick teaming up with the Doctor. The episode makes extensive use of Nixon's "comical awkwardness".

** River says she is an [[Franchise/IndianaJones archaeologist]] while shooting everything in sight. She also [[VideoGame/TombRaider loves a tomb.]]

** Ultimately subverted in that Canton proves the Silent wrong literally a second later by shooting him.

* PoweredArmor: The space suit is really a hogpog of alien tech designed to enhance the abilities of anyone wearing it.

[[caption-width-right:350:Huh... thought there were more people in this picture... || [[note]][[spoiler:Those lines are tally marks...]][[/note]]]]

* MagnificentBastard: Canton plays the entire Secret Service like a fiddle, even tricking them into helping the Doctor escape. MarkSheppard [[{{Series/Supernatural}} has some experience in that department.]]

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Occurs at the very end of the episode, during the young girl's regeneration. The effect is shown with reddish-orange liquid fire pouring from her head and hands, much like the Doctor's previous regeneration scenes. There is nothing wrong with the effect itself, but whoever applied it failed to take into account that the previous regenerations featured either jeans and a leather jacket or a suit, with the head and hands being all the exposed skin. In the young girl's case, she was wearing a skirt, and while the skin on her upper body was engulfed in energy during the regeneration, her bare legs were conspicuously untouched.

* GenreSavvy:
** Our heroes put tally marks on their bodies so they can track their encounters with the Silence.
** Canton really is a "Why don't you just shoot him?" kind of guy.

At NASA, the Doctor had been captured for breaking into Apollo 11, fiddling with the wiring and basically breaking the law. He claims that he's on a mission from the president, but his captors aren't exactly believing him. Until Nixon walks into the room, River and Rory at his sides. He congratulates the men for their good work and dedication to America, and says what fine work the Doctor is doing, even if he is confused by what exactly that work is. The Doctor is set free, and cheerfully leaves. [[{{Adorkable}} Oh, and Rory manages to break a scale model of the lunar module and can't feign an American accent.]]