6x07 A Good Man Goes to War (1)

Upon rewatching, it's even more fantastic than when i first watched. And the reveal of River as Melody is fantastic.

I loved the cold opening, showing the strength and brutality of the doctor and Rory in their quest to save Amy and Melody.

Little quibble about the gay couple at the beginning. One of them quickly identifies himself as gay and then immediately gets killed. If that isn't an example of the bury your gays trope i don't know what is.

It's handled better with the gay victorian couple later, even if they're a little too expository about their sexuality.

When characters are expository about their identity or sexuality, it's to the detriment of common sense in regards to realistic dialogue and the cohesion of characterization, pacing, and immersion in the plot. Having a balance between authenticity and subtlety is important.

Even with the victorian couple's exposition, i did like some of their flirty moments, but it would have been nice to get more characterization about them rather than just the flirtations pointing out they're gay. But i get they're a small part of the episode and there's not much you can do.

Because of how gay people are a minority, it's easy to spot when (for example) gay representation isn't done right, but i'd also like to mention for balance that there's a lot of bad heterosexual representation, like when straight people are expository about their own sexuality or sexist dialogue or forcing themselves on others as soon as they meet them like i've mentioned in previous comments. It happens with some gay representation too like when Captain Jack did it, even though i still like Captain Jack as a character and he should have been one of the doctor's allies in this episode.

I don't understand why writers can't just write normally and not mess these kinds of things up. It's even more important when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, because they're a minority, and when it's done bad or heavy-handed it's more noticeable and will draw more criticism, in a time when minorities should have less legitimate criticism than non-LGBTQ+ groups in order to have better representation of their minority and be more accepted in society.

I've seen suggestions that more LGBTQ+ writers need to be involved with more LGBTQ+ scenes, but that's not necessary, and writers shouldn't be chosen on a diversity quota or to write those specific scenes and characters, people should be hired on their talent no matter their characteristics, that's my belief. Writers in general just need more exposure to things and lifestyles and people they don't understand or are unfamilliar with, in order to gain more knowledge and thus be more informed about what they're writing.

Gay people have wrote some of my favorite straight characters, for example. The reverse can be true, too.

I'm not an LGBTQ+ activist, i'm an ally and someone who champions common sense and wants the best writing quality in a story as possible.

Why exactly does this religious organization hate the doctor so much and is at war with him?

I liked the allies the doctor brought with him.

I liked the mostly bloodless victory from the doctor, except for when the headless monks and the enemy soldiers fired at each other, but no allies died from it.

But it turns out it was a trap, even though they managed to defeat the enemies fleet?

The flesh baby was a very good move.

These monks are supposed to be high ranking members or warriors of the organization? And not able to be corrupted. Yet all they can do is walk slow and have a lightsaber? That it?

Why weren't the monks locked up after defeating them?

The enemis capabilities seem muddled. They can send a connection through time and space, have flesh technology, space fleets, forcefields, can trap the doctor and has Melody, yet where is any time travel technology? And if they don't have it then how can they so easily trap the doctor?

But they must have time travel technology to send Melody backwards in time? With the astronaut suit? Or not? Just back in time? And what are they going to do there? Why aren't any of them there with melody? This all feels a little overly-complex.

I loved the doctor's anger this episode. I loved him calling in debts. I loved how big the doctor was built up as this legendary enemy from these religious forces. I loved the doctor beating them. I loved his allies and Rory killing the monks, they were fighting and killing people. It was a proper battle. I loved the threats from the doctor.

While i liked River's speech at the end, i like more when the doctor gets dark and angry and does battle. Besides, he was right to battle these folks, they kidnapped his companion and her baby, yet with River's speech it's made out like the doctor did a bad thing and his behavior was bad. When no, he was right, and he did right in battling. And since that's most of the episode, i love it.