For this task I picked another Doctor Who Episode from the sixth series only instead of the the "Doctor's Wife" I picked the last one of the series which I think is the best finale so far - "The Wedding of River Song"
Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song – series 32, episode 13
Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song Photograph: Adrian Rogers/BBC Worldwide
SPOILER ALERT: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching the new series of Doctor Who. Don't read ahead if you haven't seen episode 13 – The Wedding of River Song 1
"You decided the universe was better off without you. The universe didn't agree." 2
The very best thing about this year's Doctor Who finale? How simple it all was. For all of the red herrings, teasing and the media storms about how complicated the show has become in the end everything played out pretty much as might have expected – if anything things were more simple than they might have been. 3
It was River in the spacesuit, she did kill the Doctor after her brainwashing at the hands of Madame Kovarian. And how did he cheat death? He miniaturised himself and hid inside the Tessalator robot from Let's Kill Hitler. Well of course he did!
Not only does The Wedding Of River Song tie almost everything up, it moves along the bigger, 50-year story and effectively reboots the show. After seven years of saving the Earth/universe/future of humanity, The Doctor was in danger of becoming ubiquitous. Now, with everybody thinking he's dead, things will be different. Next year we will presumably be back to covert operations under cover of darkness. And that gives us somewhere new to go. 4
It was River in the spacesuit, she did kill the Doctor after her brainwashing at the hands of Madame Kovarian. And how did he cheat death? He miniaturised himself and hid inside the Tessalator robot from Let's Kill Hitler. Well of course he did!
Not only does The Wedding Of River Song tie almost everything up, it moves along the bigger, 50-year story and effectively reboots the show. After seven years of saving the Earth/universe/future of humanity, The Doctor was in danger of becoming ubiquitous. Now, with everybody thinking he's dead, things will be different. Next year we will presumably be back to covert operations under cover of darkness. And that gives us somewhere new to go. 4
I admit that I am endlessly baffled by people who complain that Steven Moffat's version of the show lacks heart, when Russell T Davies, celebrated for that sort of thing, was incapable of finishing on a happy ending. Like last year, we go out with the most uplifting sentiment you could imagine. 5
The Doctor, wallowing in guilt, had accepted the inevitability of his own death and even begun to believe that it was necessary. It's River, in a direct reverse of her speech at the end of A Good Man Goes to War, who gives him the shake he needs.
The Doctor, wallowing in guilt, had accepted the inevitability of his own death and even begun to believe that it was necessary. It's River, in a direct reverse of her speech at the end of A Good Man Goes to War, who gives him the shake he needs.
It's not quite as simple as being saved by the love of a good woman. Rather it's a a silly man being jolted out of his pit of self-obsession by the wife he needs – whether he realises it or not. It had shades of It's a Wonderful Life in that sense. 6
But it also provided moments to make you leap off your sofa as the universe called out to The Doctor, snapping him out of his self-centred musings with such force that it triggered solar flares. (The same solar flares as in The Rebel Flesh?)
But it also provided moments to make you leap off your sofa as the universe called out to The Doctor, snapping him out of his self-centred musings with such force that it triggered solar flares. (The same solar flares as in The Rebel Flesh?)
"The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight." 7
I claim a gold star for calling out the question last week. I had no idea in advance, although in hindsight it was completely obvious. Yet here is another innovation. The title of the programme was originally a weird continuity quirk that has never actually made much sense. Now we learn that the show is now named after the Big Bad itself, which surely has to future-proof it for generations to come.
Other great things about this episode? Cars suspended from hot-air balloons. Pterodactyls in parks. Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, the leader of the Roman empire, riding back into London on his mammoth. 8
Acresolution that allows Amy, Rory and River to stick around. And in a touching nod to Nicholas Courtney who died this year, news of the death of Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It is not just a throwaway line either – news of the death of his old friend makes the Doctor realise that all things must pass.
Acresolution that allows Amy, Rory and River to stick around. And in a touching nod to Nicholas Courtney who died this year, news of the death of Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It is not just a throwaway line either – news of the death of his old friend makes the Doctor realise that all things must pass.
Fear factor
The Silence prove themselves to be more than a one-time threat, despite only doing one thing. When the tally marks appear on the Soothsayer Doctor's arms, we know we're in for trouble. And the sight of a whole gaggle of them on the ceiling of the atrium is splendidly horrifying. 9
Mysteries and questions
We've finished one lot of puzzles. Now it's time to start foreshadowing the events of Tranzalor and "the fall of the Eleventh". The long game leading up to Matt Smith's eventual departure has begun.
Time-space debris 10
• A Dalek! Much as they were beginning to feel tired, a Doctor Who finale without even a cameo would feel wrong.
• The eyepatches are revealed as "eye-drives" that enable the wearer to remember the Silence. "I've encountered them before, always wondered what they look like."
• Amy Pond shows some maternal badassery in not saving the life of Madame Kovarian. Once again, we see that there is nothing in the universe more fearsome than a mother's love. "River Song didn't get it all from you, sweetie."
• River has an off-screen standoff with Cleopatra, but last year we saw that Cleopatra actually was River. Timey wimey much?
• Rory is named by the Silence as "the man who dies and dies again," acknowledging his status as this show's Kenny from South Park.
• "You, me handcuffs – must it always end this way?" said River at the end of Flesh and Stone. And hey ho, in her timestream, this ending, with handcuffs, happened directly before that story.
• Did anyone else notice a nod to Battlefield with the Silence in the water tanks? The sequence where a stunt went wrong and Sylvester McCoy saved Sophie Aldred's life?
•Once again, a huge thank you to everybody who's come on each week and helped make blogging this series so much fun. Until we meet again, off you go…
1. This part is where the writer tells the reader a warning that what they are about to read are spoilers and they are not good if anyone hasn’t seen the episode yet – not good at all!
2. A quote from the episode saying nobody would be happy if the Doctor dies – that goes for both the universe in the show and for the audience in general. Even since the re-launch of the whole programme in 2005, it has been a great success after 15 years of stopping making new episodes and I think the fans old and new would be sad if the programme stopped now.
3. The part where it says “how complicated the show has become” remains me of a news article about wherever or not the show should be dumbed down. The answer to that would be no because the show is meant to be full or words we don’t understand – it’s part of the Doctor’s character and if the producers make him dumber then he will be Doctor Who?
4. With the universe apart from a few people will know that the Doctor is dead, if we see a brand new series next year, it will be a new setting since the Doctor will now work in the dark, keeping the fake death a secret.
5. Here is something new that I learnt when I read this review, people complaining about the writer and about how the show lacks heart. This might be from older fans of the show as everyone is allowed an opinion however the writer Russell T. Davis is also praised for his work and that is good for any review: to point out the good and the bad.
6. This shows where a lot of people need their loved ones to help them snap out of either depression or rage – just like River Song did at the end of the first half of Series 6.
7. This quote is the “tagline” of the whole plot to the second side of Series 6 – the oldest question that the Doctor must never answer.
8. This is referred to when all history comes together – past, present and future. It gives us a look of "what if" all history came altogether at once and how life might have been if it was real.
9. The Silence are the next Daleks or Cybermen and even though they only come for one series –when it comes villainous creatures, there nothing better than that especially hanging by the ceiling like vampires!
10. This remains me of outtakes or things that people might notice the most when it comes to errors. This section shows you what you might miss and what you won’t want to miss.
MY REVIEW OF THE REVIEW
This review is full of spoilers, for any fan they either love or hate instead of watching it beforehand. The writer is obviously a big fan of the show so the review is reviewed in a lot of good terms and quotes which is a good feature to as it makes me smile because I think back on that episode on other quotes that made me laugh. There is an error to this review that isn’t very important but I will say – the show has been around since 2005 so it has going on for 6 years not 7. It’ll only be 7 if it sticks around for another series next year 2012. This review is good but only for those who have seen the episode which in some ways isn’t good to read, there’s spoilers everywhere! Not good for those who never seen any episode in their life!
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