Doctor Who: The Wedding Of River Song
The good:
-Rory being awesome and self-sacrificing as always
-Amy and Rory still being very much the Ponds rather than the Williamses
-The fact that I can write it into my head that Amy and Rory, once they’ve returned home, still see River quite often- when Rory arrived, he didn’t seem particularly suprised to see her, so it’s pretty easy to justify
-That Amy actually does feel anger over not getting to raise her child
-The mentions of Rose and Jack (okay, Rose not so much…I wish they’d reference, I dunno, Mickey once in a while…)
-The prettiness of alta-London
-Seeing Charles Dickens again
-Amy kills Madam Kovarian in cold blood. I want this to be brought up again so badly- the Doctor being angry and disappointed, Amy feeling the guilt- but I suspect it’ll never be mentioned again. Sigh.
-The Doctor forgives River. Very him.
The bad:
-I like River a little less now. :( I still like her, but the ‘MY PAIN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PAIN OF HUNDREDS OF OTHERS!’ got to me. At least the Doctor called her on it, quite harshly in fact.
-Sod it, I knew it would be the Tessalecta as soon as it was mentioned in the Previously. It feels a bit like a cop-out. :(
-Wait, what? What happened to the whole universe wanting to help the Doctor out?
The wonderful:
The tribute to the Brig. Oh, that was wonderful. :( I don’t care about the bad stuff in this episode when we got that as well.
Questions still unanswered:
-Why blow up the TARDIS?
-What’s going on with Rory’s deaths? Even the Silence mentioned it.
-Why did River remember the Doctor when Amy didn’t in The Big Bang? Steven Moffat promised this would be answered, and it wasn’t!
-Why exactly did the Silence need River in particular when anyone could have been inside the suit? (Okay, this one is more me being picky…)
-Why did Silence briefly fall in Vampires Of Venice?
I’m pretty sure this whole thing is building towards the revealing of the Doctor’s name- maybe next season?- and I dunno if I like that idea. Also, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Amy, Rory and River again next series? I hope so very very much, I want to see them be a family…
October 1, 2011 @ 10:41 pm
Nice review–my thoughts pretty much exactly. There were a lot of random weird loose ends (like where’d the Doctor go for those 30 minutes in LKH). I chalk up River remembering the Doctor in Big Bang to her Time Lord DNA, or maybe a future Doctor told her to go back to Earth on Amy & Rory’s wedding day to give Amy the diary to jolt her memories. I really don’t want to know the Doctor’s name. I like it being one of his great secrets. ADAIK, River and the Ponds will be back next season, at least for guest appearances. I suspect they’ll be in the season finale, if nothing else.
October 3, 2011 @ 9:40 pm
I’m hoping for one full-time new companion with the Ponds making guest appearances every few episodes. :D Ooh yes, I was hoping the lost minutes in Let’s Kill Hitler would be explained too. Since he was wearing his suit, I thought he’d gone back to the wedding…
October 2, 2011 @ 3:34 am
-That Amy actually does feel anger over not getting to raise her child I’m very glad to see that her anger is directed at the right person. So many people have been upset that she hasn’t been mad at the Doctor over losing Melody and wondering why she wasn’t pushing him to find her baby. But all that was answered in LKH. The timeline was set and the chance to raise her daughter was already lost. It’s not the Doctor’s fault and I’ve very very glad Amy realizes that and places the blame where it belongs. Which segues nicely to . . . -Amy kills Madam Kovarian in cold blood. Love it! Love it! Love it! “She doesn’t get it all from you, Sweetie” is my favorite line of the episode and I don’t care if the Doctor never calls her on it. Characters are much more interesting if they aren’t always morally and politically correct. -The mentions of Rose and Jack. Loved the mention of Jack. I’m still in “sick of hearing about her” backlash over Rose. He could have just as easily have said “help Martha Jones with her homework” or better yet, help Ace [Susan, Vicky, Zoe, Sarah Jane, etc.]. -The Doctor forgives River. Very him. Yes I loved that. This echoes back to the comment in The Doctor’s Wife about him wanting to be forgiven “Don’t we all?” -What’s going on with Rory’s deaths? Even the Silence mentioned it. Yes! I nearly jumped out of my chair when the Silents mentioned it! Now at least we know it is a real issue and not just fandom over-analyzing. My guess is it is something Amy did when she remembered him in the Big Bang – maybe she wanted him to always be there for her, so he can’t die until she does. Like a wish gone out of control like the TARDIS/Rose/Bad Wolf wish for Jack to live. -Why did River remember the Doctor when Amy didn’t in The Big Bang? I assume it is because, even without any regenerations left, River is still a Time Lady. The Doctor made several references to “their” special abilities/knowledge on top of the pyramid. Her ability to remember the Doctor after he was erased from time is just one of those things. -Why blow up the TARDIS? And how did they control it? Whose voice was shouting “Silence will Fall?” I’m pretty sure this whole thing is building towards the revealing of the Doctor’s name Oh I hope not. That is the one thing that should never ever be revealed. There is absolutely no name that could ever live up to the 50 year mystery.
October 3, 2011 @ 9:41 pm
maybe she wanted him to always be there for her, so he can’t die until she does. Like a wish gone out of control like the TARDIS/Rose/Bad Wolf wish for Jack to live. Right! I want this to happen! :D Whose voice was shouting “Silence will Fall?” Maybe I’m just insane, but it sounded a bit like Ian McDiamid…
October 2, 2011 @ 4:39 am
MY PAIN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PAIN OF HUNDREDS OF OTHERS! Ugh, yes. That was stupid. And then when she was like “I can’t let you die,” I was set to eyeroll even more, but that was less bad because she really was trying to say “I can’t let you die without seeing how much people care about you.” That was really random how they got married, though. I don’t really get where that came from. I mean, I get that they’ve been hinting at it all along, but I don’t understand what made the Doctor decide to actually go through with it. The nods to past characters were nice! I was pouting a wee bit because they skipped over Martha, and also because Sarah Jane must have died as well. But still. A very strange episode overall, but enjoyable in its bizarre way. I’m still trying to work out how to feel about it.
October 3, 2011 @ 9:42 pm
Martha never gets referenced, but I wish she would. :( I suspect I may not really love this episode until some of the questions get answered…
October 3, 2011 @ 11:12 pm
Well, she did get a nod alongside Rose and Donna in LKH. But yeah, Martha’s a lot less popular. Which is sad, because she rocks! It would be fun to see her again, in a cameo or something–I think she and Eleven would get on quite well. He’d be much nicer to her, for one thing. Aaaah, Martha and Rory together would be amazing! And then Martha and Amy would be make snarky jokes behind the Doctor’s back, but all in good fun. *brain runs away with all the possibilities* Sadly, I have no Martha icons uploaded at the moment (it appears I am unhealthily obsessed with Team Eleventy, hehe), so here is the TARDIS instead.
October 4, 2011 @ 11:54 am
I secretly hope that Freema and Noel will take time out of their various projects and do a “The Smith And Jones Adventures” spin-off, guest starring the Ponds. :D Have a Mickey! ;)
October 2, 2011 @ 4:45 pm
It was quite odd that it was enjoyable, even though it was a total mess in terms of narrative and character. But oh well. Part of me is glad this storyline has come to an end, and maybe they can move on to stand alone two parters. Five Questions raised in the last episode (along with theoretical answers!) http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/10/five-questions-raised-by-doctor-who.html
October 3, 2011 @ 5:06 am
I still like her, but the ‘MY PAIN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PAIN OF HUNDREDS OF OTHERS!’ got to me. I was OK with it because she was pretty much trying to throw everything at the Doctor to get him to realize that people care for him. Also, not the first time I’ve seen this happened in a series I love. “The universe isn’t worth crap without you” happens to resonate with me for some reason. And, to be honest, if that was me and my husband, I’d probably lose it like that too.
October 3, 2011 @ 9:43 pm
Fair enough. At least we know River grows up to question the Doctor a little more, like in AGMGTW where she calls him on his choices…