Analysing The Ponds #3: Colours And Costumes- Matching The Ponds

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized amy pond, analysing the ponds, doctor who, rory williams 6 Comments

I was gonna just do one post on colours and costumes, but the post got so long I split it into two. This one is about how the Ponds have matching outfits. Well, kind of…

Amy and Rory

Rory and Amy dress alike from the beginning. In their first episode, they’re both wearing uniforms.

In Vampires Of Venice, they’re both wearing red and blue. Aha! Red and blue. Remember all that stuff? Amy, always associated with red, has to chose between her red man and her blue man- the man whose name means Red like her hair, or the man in the Blue box? But the colours, even hers, are all confused now…she’s wearing both, and so is Rory, no-one can decide what they want to be. Fiancee? Husband? Brother?

In Amy’s Choice, Amy’s in red and blue again, but Rory’s all in blue- TARDIS blue, almost. A sign that if Amy really was living with him in this world, she would be using him to replace the Doctor and TARDIS rather than loving him for himself?

And, once the Doctor turns up, Amy puts on a coat the same colour as the Doctor’s.

At the end, Amy’s in red and blue again- no Doctor coat now- and Rory’s in red. Although they still currently want different things, their colours (like in Vampires Of Venice) complement each other, and they can see each other for what they are.

Amy and Rory are wearing complementing colours again in The Hungry Earth:

In Vincent And The Doctor, Amy is wearing blue, Doctor blue. But she’s still got a red scarf to bind her to the fiance she’s forgotten:

And underneath the blue, it’s all red. Rory is still with Amy, deep in her subconcious…

As Amy and Rory’s relationship becomes stronger, they start to wear each other’s clothes. This is nicely demonstrated by The Pandorica Opens, where Amy wears trousers and Rory wears a skirt:

Amy’s flowing red scarf is also reminisent of Rory’s flowing red cape…

All throughout Series Six, they’re dressed alike quite a lot- the same styles (plaid! lots of plaid!) and colours:

Even as teens- on the day they realised they liked each other, they were wearing colour-coordinating clothes:

At the end of Series Six, Amy is wearing Rory’s jacket under her blanket:

One could look at this and say it means that Amy has been completely consumed by Rory and being his wife. But I think it’s a way to keep Rory in the scene- he doesn’t show up til the end of that scene, after all- and a way of showing that Rory and Amy are so comfortable in their married life that they borrow each other’s clothes. (Or that Rory knew Amy was waiting in the garden and lent her his coat to keep her warm.)

Or- the last time Amy wore a blanket like that was at the Byzantium, the first time she met River, and where River has just come from.

And the last time either Pond wore that red jacket (yay! more red!) was during Let’s Kill Hitler, when River met River, so to speak. So a lot of the Ponds’ journey is summed up neatly in that one outfit of Amy’s. More on that scene in a sec!

Amy and Melody

Amy and River always had very similar red shoes (ha! Saw that before, weirdly enough!)

The episode after Amy discovers she’s River’s mother, she’s dressed up quite similar to her, all in denim:

And of course in The Wedding Of River Song, the pair are dressed almost alike, both in black (of course, both have good reason to mourn…)

And at the end of The Wedding Of River Song- a few years in River’s future- they’re wearing the same beige colour. Mother and daughter!

Edit 24/2/12: Ah! The trend’s being carried on into Series Seven! Matching stripes!

Analysing The Ponds #2: A Tour Of The Pond Properties

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized amy pond, analysing the ponds, doctor who, rory williams 2 Comments

The second part (there’s more to come, too!) of Analysing The Ponds. This time, we’re looking in the bedrooms and houses of Amy and co. The set designers did a really good job here, as you soon will see…

The Nursery

Here’s the nursery Amy and Rory made for their unborn baby in Amy’s Choice. We know now that that child would have been River…

I talked about colours before– Amy and Rory are red, the Doctor is blue. I think River is yellow, the same colour as her hair. (The rest of Amy and Rory’s house in Amy’s Choice, what little we see of it, is mostly yellow too.) What else is there in the nursery?

Horses:

A space poster on the wall:

And a picture of her parents:

(That makes me sad.)

Poor Melody, of course, doesn’t grow up in that yellow room- she has an orphanage instead. Look what’s in her room there-

A mobile very similar to the Doctor’s first stars. River and the Doctor slept under almost the same starscape. Who made Melody that mobile? Did she make it herself? Guess we’ll never know.

Melody’s room isn’t too bad, considering it was where a bunch of nasty aliens put her. She does at least have toys and light. And interestingly, her room seems like a mixture of yellow, blue and red…

This picture on the wall is quite reminisent of Amy herself, a beautiful woman with red hair and long legs.

Melody has a clock, of course, she’s a child of time. And the clock’s blue and red, no less.

And this is interesting, very much so! Probably a coincedence, but:

An early clue as to the identity of the girl? If only I’d discovered this before A Good Man Goes To War…

Edit: And then there’s this!

And, I can’t believe how I didn’t notice this before! The mobile in the nursery is all water related things- a fish, a lighthouse, a life-ring…

Amy’s Room

Now, Amy’s room is fascinating, and it says a lot about her. It’s covered in photos and drawings, because Amy is a very creative person-

As seen in Let’s Kill Hitler, her room has always been that-

Amy’s room has a lot of flowers in it. Interesting for someone who later makes a career out of scent. And, as I mentioned in part one, Amy is associated with flowers a lot…

One of Amy’s drawings looks quite a lot like a woman in a wedding dress:

The design of Amy’s room says a lot about her sexual side too. Her bed has fairy lights around it (any takers on the symbolism of the fairy lights? A sign of her childlike outlook?), it’s a double bed, and it’s the center of the room.

And above her bed is a drawing of what seems to be the legs of a naked woman. Here’s a better look at it, from Confidential:

It’s a really interesting picture, because it presents a female body but not in a sexual sense. I’m guessing we’re meant to think Amy drew this- it looks like her style. I really love that it’s there.

And lastly, Amy’s room is blue, like the TARDIS. Her room niftily sums up almost everything about her: her love of art, her obsession with the Doctor (there’s still Doctor dolls dotted all over the place), and her appreciation of her body and sex.

Rory’s room

We don’t see anything of Rory’s room (well, his bathroom…) other than it appears to be the same colour as Amy’s room. They’re a perfect match.

The Pond House #1

Just like in Amy’s room, flowers are everywhere in the Pond house. And art is everywhere- look at that wall. You can make out the photo of Amy and Rory at the fancy dress party (as seen in The Pandorica Opens) too.

This is my favourite shot of the Pond house. You can see a tapestry on the wall (there’s an art form older than Rory himself, and it’s in Rory’s Roman colours, red and gold), there are flowers- and there are sunflowers! Amy’s favourite flower, surely, and a souvenier of her friendship with Vincent. And- at the top-right…there’s a statue of a soldier and a woman. A Roman centurion statue, to be exact, by the looks of things. I really like that.

In the wide shot we can see a photo of Amy and Rory (in the top right) and more flowers. Interestingly, the room is painted red and there’s not much blue. A sign that it’s more Rory’s than Amys?

The Pond House #2

Obviously, the first thing anyone will notice about the new Pond home is that it has a TARDIS blue door. And its exterior is the same colour as Amy’s room, and it’s surrounded by flowers- the house is very much for Amy, while Rory has the red car. Which is, interestingly, a link to the daughter he never got to even hold, she had a red car too:

I love the similarity between those two shots…

Amy’s been associated with life and gardens, and here she is in a garden teeming, almost overflowing, with plant life. Amy the creator has a lot more to give:

Oh, and the fairy lights have moved from the bed to the garden…back where they belong, maybe?

Through the window behind River, there’s more flowers…

The wall is the colour of Amy’s room- blue. And there’s art on the wall. This is her house. And- I LOVE this detail- it says ‘Home’ on the wall, with four hooks for coats: one each for Amy, Rory, River, and the Doctor. The most significant sign of a happy ending, I feel.

Edit 24/2/12: I think I oughta mention…

The Library Room

At the end of Silence In The Library, River reads to ‘her’ children in this bedroom…

Which is a mixture of yellows, blues and pinkish-reds- and it’s oddly reminiscent of Amy’s room. Quite a fitting place for River to live on.

Tune in tomorrow (or maybe the day after…) for more!