Doctor Who Blog

Mrs. Who?

What are the Silence up to? What is the question? Who is River? Is she the Doctor’s wife? His Executioner? Both? Neither?

The Wedding of River Song gives answers, avoids answers and offers up even more questions. It may be the most low key, but most puzzling finale of Who yet.

The remaining TARDIS files for this season will be up soon (two are done but need to be coded; the other is in the 5:02 universe).

The bright side is that we have only two and a half months to Christmas!

19 Comments...

I liked the episode, though it was a bit uneven.  Though I guess that’s only fitting since it ends arguably the most uneven season since the return of the series.

Loved the all-times-at-once scenes.  Area 51 pyramid?  Classic.

Plus some great emotional scenes, including a nice send-off to Lethbridge Stewart.  Class.

And the deft and confident delivery of the question asked at the beginning (of the show)... Who?

But again with the reset switch?  Okay, at least time it was a reset on an alternate timeline created in the single episode…

And wow, after building up Madame Kovarian as the super villian, she gets a Boba Fett level write out?  At least it was in the alt line, so hopefully she’ll amount to something more appropriate in future.


Still, as I say, I liked the episode, though it turned out not to be the best hour of TV I watched this evening.

Cheers,
Andrew

Posted by Andrew  on  10/01  at  04:55 PM

I really thoguht the Dr. ath the lake was made of the flesh, never suspected the truth.

Posted by Shar  on  10/01  at  05:30 PM

Hi,
I have just finished watching the eps and have come to a conclusion.

The question that should not be answerd is
What is the Doctors Name?
But why is this?
First let me share my thoughts.
In the eps with Tenant and Donna in Pompeii
It ends with the Doctor and Donna being worshiped as Gods.
It the eps with Tenant and Mars, he calls himself a God.
In one of the eps in the first season with Matt and Karen, he response to Karen’s comment that he looks like humans is that we look like him.
At the end of this current eps, River tells him that she sent out a single to get help for him and millions answered YES.
So my theory is this.
Doctor Who is God, the creator of all and no one should know the name of God.
And that is where I think tey are taking this eps.
Have fun trying to work it out.
Cheers

Posted by Gene Diamantopoulos  on  10/01  at  08:54 PM

Enjoyed it - lots, although it took me two viewings to pick up on some of it. I think that was because I’d spend several minutes digesting something that had just occurred, in the meantime missing something else!

It was low-key, but also chock-full of stuff.  Timey-wimey and otherwise.  Didn’t see the ‘back-up plan’ coming, that was rather good.  It’ll be interesting next series to see how he stays under the radar in the universe at large, seeing as pretty much everyone thinks he’s dead.

I guess this whole time-mess-up is how River started going in the opposite direction from him…I couldn’t see how they were going to make that come about, so I’m pleased as it’s one of the things that was driving me mad.
When he whispered in her ear I was sure that was going to be whatever River whispered to Ten in the Library and we’d finally find out (name or otherwise), but obviously that’s still a mystery.  Damn you Moffat!  wink

Loved the bit in the TARDIS with the references to Rose and Jack, and it was a nice nod to the passing of Nick Courtney.

Unlike the previous poster, I don’t think he’s God.  That would fly in the face of all the classic series history about who he is and where he came from.  Unless - well - the only way that could play out is if the whole Time Lord race were the Gods, and him being the only one left is now a singular God.
Possible I suppose, but that whole idea seems more RTD than Moffat imo.
Well we probably won’t even find out next year anyway, so not much point in speculating yet lol!

It seems totally wrong that it’s all over with for now, it seems like it only just started and I didn’t get into the whole ‘season finale’ feeling, I keep thinking it’ll be on again next week.  I guess it was the split season.  On the whole - even though we got DW twice this year, I’m not sure I liked it done that way.  The momentum build-up lost steam, for me anyway.

But, it’s done and dusted, and when I eventually sit down and watch the entire season together (and perhaps a few related ‘arc’ eps from last year too), I think I’ll consider it a success.

Posted by Julie  on  10/02  at  01:09 PM

I liked the episode a lot. It was nice seeing that Amy knew the Doctor because she lived with a crack in time in her bedroom wall.

I was hoping that they would reveal one thing. Why would the Silence accept that the Doctor died in a period of time when nobody could actually die?

To explain, Rex Masterson in the second episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day checks his phone which gives an e-mail message dated 22-Mar-11. Before this point, no one could die. The Miracle Day continued until after the Doctor was scheduled to die on Lake Silencio on 22/04/2011 (22-Apr-2011).

No mention from Rory or Amy about the Miracle Day. This seems impossible as they should be at least aware of the event because someone would have mentioned in their trip from Leadworth in the UK to Lake Silencio, Utah in the US.

Two possible explanations for this though.
1. Rex Masterson’s phone is checking an e-mail from several months ago and the Doctor does not die during the ‘Miracle Day’. This is unlikely as Rex seems to be checking a new recent e-mail so maybe the date is set wrong on the phone.

2. Amy and Rory assume that only humans cannot die during Miracle Day and because the Doctor is an alien he is not affected and he is not immune to death.

I would pick the number 2 explanation. Why else wouldn’t anyone mention it?

Also why burn the Doctor’s body in the first place? So nobody can assume he is not faking his own death during that uncertain time?

Posted by Nadir  on  10/02  at  05:42 PM

Random thought already posted on GB:

It’s just obsessed with the Doctor himself and the companions it’s has and over and over is bashing people on the head about how great and wonderful they all are and that they are the universe.

Companions are in love with, infatuated, obsessed and idolize the Doctor. The thrust of the show is about the Doctor as god being and saviour and mythological figure of the universe.

Yeah sure but like the “death” of the Doctor and so many other things that doesn’t really matter. The real point of it is the above “Isn’t he just a great fella?”

The original series may have been around 26 yeas with 7 Doctors, many companions and 9 producers and a dozen plus script editors overseeing it and over that time it was itself over a dozen shows and it developed but in the end it really was the same show at it’s core with layers built over it to create a whole.

The new series took parts of that core but also has it’s own. It took some of the layers of the original but has made it’s own which lead it inevitably on a different path. It’s indelibly wrapped up in the lore of it’s own version of the Doctor and it’s companion characters to exclusion of so many other avenues that it could take.

Personally I find it incredibly an uninteresting path. I find the Doctor now a rather plain character. I don’t find him engaging or mysterious or all that entertaining. I’m not saying anyone else can’t just that I don’t and haven’t for a long time. I hoped Moffat would go away from the core that RTD established instead he’s taken it and amped it up Spinal Tap like to and into 11.

Oh well there is always hope with the next show runner and Doctor 12.

Isn’t there?

As someone who was ever so slighty intrigued at the start of the season but then very quickly realized it really was just going to be a red herring of a season and solution and as things went on it became clearer and clearer that this was the case then what I did wonder about was not worrying at all about the “solution” but the other things that supported it.

That said I still didn’t really bother thinking all that much about it and just read other peoples very well thought out explanations on the support material and reacted to that.

The thing that did slap me right in the face though is that River was not all that serious about her “sentence” and left when she wanted to. Add in that in AGMGTW the River there seemed to me to be closer to Silence in the Library version then any other and she just was out with the Doctor so it seemed to me that any drip of drama this all had was gone. Forgetting that obviously the events of SITL rather go against anything happening to the Doctor anyway so the actual resolution is irrelevant. The events getting there are the actual important ones and I found them based on the last 2 seasons pretty incomplete.

I was hoping to at least get some reasons for what happened last season. Maybe in my boredom I missed these. If so maybe someone can tell me factually what was said about it?

Well RTD first and Moffat even more are the ones who did it in the first place so it’s a self created problem.

I am somewhat interested in how he’s going to deal with it. I suspect not a thing will change. I mean what can? Even if it does a bit how exactly will he hide himself from the Silence? Besides that isn’t the point they meet him in the future and are trying to change things by Terminator style getting rid of him before that point? That is the story no?

So unless he changes his appearance (not happening), the Tardis (not happening) and his name (not happening) then exactly what will be the difference?

Also for a show that so uses time travel now lots of obvious questions have not been even brought up. What about the other Doctors? What about the Time Lords?

Thinking about it the entire season comes down to a technical point on what is fixed time? What is a still point? What can be rewritten and how?

The thing I would also like to know from a dramatic standpoint is does anything matter? Apparently if you exist in the future you can’t possibly be killed in the past which totally goes against the whole ethos of Doctor Who’s history. Things do matter and every point in time has it’s alternative. If not then when a Doctor meets his future self he knows that he’ll be around until at least then and time won’t allow him to die. So therefore all the “danger” the Doctor has been in is and was always invalid?

If so then that really is pure rubbish and makes the Doctor one of the worst people in the universe. He’s just playing everyone?

If not then why if they wanted to kill him so badly not just do it in AGMGTW? Because they can’t?

Posted by Ryan  on  10/03  at  05:56 AM

I was both completely surprised (how he got out of dying by the lake) and completely vindicated (the question) in the last five minutes of this episode, which I love.

There were some cop-outs, but they were totally entertaining and therefore acceptable. There was silliness. There was sadness (aw, the Brigadier! Surprised not to have a Sarah Jane moment as well, but maybe that would have diluted it - I say this without having seen an episode of SJA in forever, so I’m not sure if there’s a reason for it).

There was Rory getting to save Amy and not dying in the process. There were steam trains in the pyramids (Area 52!). There was Amy going a little dark, and personally I cheered for that. There was a headless blue guy in a box (who should NOT be the next companion, amusing as the idea might be).

I’m gonna think about it some more…

Posted by Koshka  on  10/03  at  10:52 AM

A point I wanted to make - science can only report on what has been observed. We can make all the rules we want about time travelling paradoxes and what scientific phenomena will take place during the coarse of time travel but it will all be meaningless in scientific terms - no one has actually time traveled so we don’t know what will happen in different time traveling scenarios. The writer gets to make it up as he goes along - all the more power to him or her.
Another point I wanted to make - I don’t know how much more mysterious the Matt Smith doctor can get - with this doctor you just don’t know what he’s been up to after he’s closed the Tardis doors and left you on some weird planet somewhere in time for any period of time - he’s all about secrets and that reminds me of what I came to love about the original show.
Yes, this doctor is very aware that a great many people think of him as god like or capital “G” God - he is not fully sure who he is himself - at times he wishes to be worshiped and adored like a god - other times this frightens him and he runs away from it but he loves humans - the simplicity of their emotions - their humanity. He needs to embrace his inner humanity and since he is alien he needs humans around him to show him how this is done. In many ways he is an emotionally stunted child. He needs to explore what it means to be human because he fears an existential hell - that he’s alone in the universe - a mad man in his magic box.
He is a very complex character - a very fascinating character - someone who isn’t quite sure who he is - that’s why “Doctor Who” is such an apt title.

Posted by Craig  on  10/03  at  12:52 PM

This was a great finale, capping off what - to me - has been the best season of Doctor Who since the classic era (seriously, I can’t think of a “middle of the road” episode this year, yes including Curse of the Black Spot). The finale was brilliant and made even more so when you think back to the fact it ties in plot points dating back to The Girl in the Fireplace (the “Doctor who?” thing), and even further, really. Were all the questions answered? No, but then I never expected every answer. Moffat clearly has a game plan for his era - I’m convinced that while other writers have yet to provide him with the Doctor’s Wife-like standalones, he has probably worked out a game plan leading up to the Doctor’s inevitable regeneration, which I think is gonna be shown on Nov. 23, 2013.

Posted by Alex  on  10/03  at  03:14 PM

Very disappointing episode and season as far as I’m concerned.  It’s one thing to try to distinguish the real clues from the red herrings.  It’s another to discover they’re all red herrings.  So many missed opportunies for compelling story telling tossed away in favor of gimmicks, poorly executed sexual innuendos and plot line resets.  There were at least two seasons worth of episodes that could have been written by just following the threads left hanging from the Eleventh Hour.  You remember, back when we still liked the characters.  Oh well, the series has always had it’s up and downs.  Let hope next season is a little easier to watch.

Posted by Daisy  on  10/05  at  07:15 AM

I loved the series although I have to say I was also a little disappointed. To use the Teselecta was pretty lame when it had only been introduced a few episodes ago. If they’d used his Flesh clone it would have tied the season together more and it would have been more of a sacrifice since it was a living breathing thing and not a machine. There was also that throw away line that the Doctor made to his clone about being able to survive. I guess with everyone guessing the more obvious and interesting solutions, Moffat still needed to come up with a surprise ending even if it was a little lame.

Another thing I was left a little flat about was the romance with River. After the Tenth Doctor and the indication that the Doctor could actually fall in love with Rose, we have this carrot dangled in front of us that the Doctor might marry for love. Is the marriage all a ruse? He says “I don’t want to marry you” when River asks “Am I the woman who marries you or the woman who murders you?” River proclaims her love for him but he does not reciprocate. We were sort of left thinking there was some great romance that happens sometime in the middle of the their back-to-front time lines but hey, when did that happen? All the bits when they are ice skating on Times Square, etc and the “nights” that are best kept between the two of them must still be to come for the Doctor. That means the Doctor isn’t just moving in the opposite direction to her but he’s also popping in for random visits to Stormhold sometime in the middle while she’s popping out for adventures with a younger Doctor. Maybe there will be a romance yet. River apparently whispered his name in his ear in the Silence in the Library and, if he didn’t tell her his name during the marriage ceremony (he told her to look into his eye instead), then when did he tell her? Will she be there at Tensalore when the question is answered, is that how she knows?

That’s assuming the question is “Dr Who?” And why would knowing his name change anything anyway. . Maybe it is not his “name” but his true identity. It could be like with DoctorDonna where her memories have been blocked. Maybe finding out his ture identity will unlock some major event or blocked memory that the Doctor cannot be allowed to remember. He knows what the question and he seems to fear the answer as well.

Other things that I thought would come out before the end of the season…I had a theory on how River came to have Timelord DNA, that the Silence had stolen it from the Doctor and spliced it into that of Amy’s baby when they kidnapped her. That is all part of the alien abduction mythology isn’t it? and there was the Doctor’s instruction to cremate his body, “what people wouldn’t do for a sample of Timelord DNA”.

Maybe all that is yet to come. Maybe the Doctor and River have kids. Could River be the mother of the Timelord race? That would make the Doctor his own creator which comes back to the God thing and a really complicated paradox!

Posted by Bec  on  10/08  at  05:10 AM

Nice post and episode also

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Posted by Truly Original Wedding Favors  on  02/24  at  02:23 AM

I can’t help it, I’ll always be a sucker for River Song. Really hoping we still get to see her in the upcoming episodes.

Posted by Kathy  on  03/10  at  08:32 PM

Nice post it is such a cool idea. I found it very helpful thanks for sharing ..........

Posted by supportivepaths  on  03/17  at  12:53 PM

Thank you so much for posting this. I think this really puts things into a different light. I mean, I have read about this stuff before but the way you write just makes it clearer. If that makes sense lol

Posted by Jack Cole  on  04/22  at  05:04 AM

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

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I must say I learnt all about quality commenting from Mrs Yollis and the students in 2KM have always used the students in Mrs Yollis’ class as their role model when it comes to commenting.

Posted by Aaron Steven  on  12/20  at  04:05 PM

Nice informative and interesting blog, thank you for sharing the blog, well done.

Posted by Vings Events  on  01/24  at  04:50 AM

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