YMMV / Doctor Who S32 E8 "Let's Kill Hitler"

• Angst? What Angst?: Even though a few months are said to have passed since, the episode completely glosses over the trauma Amy suffered in "A Good Man Goes to War". A whole episode after Amy and Rory lose their child, it's back to wacky hi-jinks. A large part of this is due to an over-worked Steven Moffat not having time to refine the script.
• Ass Pull: Mels' sudden introduction purely so she can be revealed to be an incarnation of River Song. Despite being Amy and Rory's lifelong friend who was in on the whole "Raggedy Doctor" stuff, she was never mentioned even once before this. Perhaps if she had been established earlier in the series, the big reveal of her true identity here may have had a bigger impact on the audience.
• Broken Base: Downplayed, but while the episode gained a generally favorable reception on release and is still viewed in a mostly mixed-to-positive light, some have complained that the choice to base the episode in Nazi Germany and have it be mostly comical might've been in bad taste.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Everything the Antibodies say.
  • The TARDIS team saving Hitler... and them being understandably upset with it.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: The retconning of the TARDIS' state of temporal grace (which was a plot point all the way back in "The Hand of Fear", and mentioned in passing in "Arc of Infinity") as just being a "clever lie" really annoyed some fans, who didn't appreciate the implication that the Fourth Doctor was just telling porkies when he first mentioned it. While no fans actually liked this retcon, many agreed that it was just time to stop pretending the TARDIS had the feature (or at least that it worked reliably), considering how many acts of violence we've seen committed in the console room over the years since.
• Faux Symbolism: In-universe example:
  Rory: Okay, I'm trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I'm really trying not to see this as a metaphor.
• Genius Bonus: The first Nazi we meet is called "Zimmerman," which is a bit of a headscratcher since that's typically a Jewish name and that would be a rather big problem in Nazi Germany. However, the name Zimmermann is a common variant that does not have that ethnic connotation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Jenna Coleman (who only a season later would play Clara Oswald) was considered as Mels.
  • Mels driving straight through the word "Doctor" in the cornfield causes quite a resemblance to Thirteen's logo.
  • Eleven saying that seeing Donna gives him more guilt after what happened in "Journey's End" ends up being funny as he would regenerate with Ten's face and tie up loose ends with Donna. Also funny is that Donna was saved by her daughter as she's part Time Lord, much like how in this episode River is part Time Lord and it helps solve the episode's dilemma.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A story about the Doctor encountering Hitler himself? Such an idea turns out to be purely window dressing. The title's even a complete lie (Hitler gets locked in a cupboard early on and forgotten about). Rule of Funny applies, of course, but there are certainly more ways that could have played out than the Führer getting promptly stuffed in the cupboard as a gag.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A variant with the Doctor's sonic cane, which despite actually being a pretty creative and interesting tool for the Doctor to use, still has yet to be seen or used after this episode.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Even ignoring all of the gorgeous regeneration effects in this episode, the Teselecta's shapeshifting effects are pretty damn impressive.

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