Doctor Who (UK) 6x01 The Impossible Astronaut (Part 1)

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Doctor Who (UK) - 06x01 The Impossible Astronaut (Part 1)

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4.65/5 (17 votes)

First Aired: Apr. 23, 2011 on BBC One

Summary: River Song, Rory, The Doctor and Amy are reunited in the Utah desert, each having received numbered invitations in envelopes that are "Tardis Blue". They are led to Washington, D.C. circa 1969 and into the Oval Office of President Nixon.

Main Characters in this Episode

Guest Stars

Rory	played by Arthur Darvill
Canton Delaware	played by Mark Sheppard
Old Canton Delaware	played by William Morgan Sheppard
The Silent	played by Marnix Van Den Broeke
President Richard Nixon	played by Stuart Milligan
Carl	played by Chukwudi Iwuji
Phil	played by Mark Griffin
Little Girl	played by Sydney Wade

Episode Quotes

The Doctor: [pinned to the floor of the Oval Office by Secret Service] River! Have you got my scanner working yet?
River Song: [Inside the TARDIS] Oh, I hate him!
The Doctor: No, you don't.

The Doctor: I'm your new undercover agent, on loan from Scotland Yard. Code name, The Doctor. These are my top operatives, The Legs, The Nose, and Mrs. Robinson.
River Song: [winces] I hate you.
The Doctor: No, you don't.

The Doctor: I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool.

Mistakes/Goofs

Goof (anachronisms): The Secret Service agents on the President's detail are depicted using revolvers, but by 1969 the Secret Service had transitioned to the Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol.
Goof (errors in geography): While the street names are in Cape Canaveral, all the presidential streets run parallel and do not intersect.
Goof (continuity error): The Doctor leaves the invisible TARDIS via the right door, but arrives in the Oval Office after exiting the left.
Goof (continuity error): When River first shoots at the astronaut she fires her gun one-handed, with her other arm hanging at her side. In the very next shot, she's firing her gun with one hand and cocking it frantically with her other.
Goof (crew or equipment visible): When the Agent is talking to Amy after she exits the Bathroom, a boom mic is visible over his shoulder.

Trivia

This episode is dedicated to Elisabeth Sladen (renowned Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith), who died a few days before its original airing. The episode's broadcast on BBC One was immediately followed by the airing of My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen (2011) (TV) on CBBC (the home network of The Sarah Jane Adventures (UK)).
River remarks to Rory that, because of their nonsynchronized time traveling patterns, there will come a time when she meets the Doctor and he will have no idea who she is, and she thinks its "going to kill" her. In fact, the first time that the Doctor met River was the episode in which she died, back in season 4.
Originally Mark Sheppard was to wear old age makeup in order to play the 2011 version of his 1969 character. Instead, at Mark's suggestion, William Morgan Sheppard (Mark's father) was cast for the part.
The location listed on Amy and Rory's invitation is 37º0'38" N, 110º14'34", which is atop Oljato Mesa in southeastern Utah, USA., about 0.85 miles (1.37 km) north of the Utah-Arizona border. There is no Lake Silencio, nor any other body of water large enough to be a lake nearby; the closest body of water is Lake Powell (a reservoir created by the dammed Colorado River) about 35 miles to the northwest.