The Wedding of River Song

Imagine you were dying. Imagine you were afraid and a long way from home and in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, you looked up…. and saw the face of the Devil himself. Hello, Dalek.

The Eleventh Doctor

Synopsis

All of time and space hangs in the balance, for this is the day the Doctor dies.

Review

Given the complexities of Series 6, finishing it in a one-part story feels incredibly ambitious and potentially optimistic. It’s the first of two series finales under Moffat to wrap things up in this fashion, however, The Name of the Doctor is arguably the opening part of a trilogy encompassing the end of the Eleventh Doctor’s life.

Those reports of the sunspots and the solar flares, they’re wrong. It’s not the Sun, it’s you. The sky is full of a million million voices saying, “Yes, of course we’ll help.” You’ve touched so many lives, saved so many people, did you think when your time came you’d really have to do more than just ask? You’ve decided that the universe is better off without you. But the universe doesn’t agree.

River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered. Time is disintegrating.

I can’t let you die!

I have to die!

Shut up! I can’t let you die — without knowing you are loved — by so many, and so much — and by no one more than me.

River Song and the Eleventh Doctor

I really like the central premise of The Wedding of River Song. River’s refusal to kill the Doctor at Lake Silencio causes absolute chaos in terms of time, meaning that all of time is happening at once. This is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but it is one that makes the story an enormous amount of fun. Minor jokes like the pterodactyls terrorising London’s parks or Charles Dickens plugging A Christmas Carol on BBC Breakfast are genuinely funny. Then there’s the slightly more expanded elements, like Churchill becoming Holy Roman Emperor and the Americans using the pyramids as Area 52, which all feel quite inventive. We also get some elements borrowed from adventure stories; the Doctor and Gantok going to find Dorium is heavily influenced by Indiana Jones, with the twist of having skulls eat you. Moffat’s imagination and flair shines through in this story, establishing that Lake Silencio is a still point in time, which leads to a fixed point in time. In making the decision to seemingly kill off the Doctor at the start of the series, Moffat makes the overarching narrative the question of how the Doctor will subvert this. There is the Ganger misdirection in the first half of the series, and the Teselecta revelation in this story, which does really tie a rather neat bow on this story arc.

There are still question marks about the Silence and Madam Kovarian, who ends this series feeling quite one-dimensional. Whilst Frances Barber has embodied her with malice and spite towards the Doctor, it has never really been clear what has triggered this mindset. Whilst it could be seen that she is a zealot of the Silence, it does feel at times like more than that. It’s not clear whether or not Kovarian makes it out of this story alive. Some of the answers about the Silence would come later in Smith’s run, but it’s possibly one of the aspects of the story that works least well here. It’s not clear what role they have in Rory’s repeated deaths. The visuals behind them are rather cool though, especially when they are shooting electricity, and they do work effectively when the twist is that they are willingly captive, rather than forcibly so. This was a trope about to be heavily criticised – both The Avengers and Skyfall featured villains being captured but it being part of their grand plan, released in the following year.

The first question! The question that must never be answered! Hidden in plain sight! The question you’ve been running from all your life! Doctor Who? Doctor Who? Doc — tor — who?!

Dorium Maldovar

So, in the lead up to the Fiftieth Anniversary, the Doctor seeks to make himself a mystery once more. From the enigmatic First Doctor we met on Totters Lane, to the introduction of the Time Lords, the Seventh Doctor via the Time War, facets of the show’s original mystery have been stripped away. Now the lead character himself is seeking to restore an element of the mystery, by doing more than just wearing question marks on his lapels. There has always been something about Smith that has conveyed a sense of being older than his years, and it is something he uses to his advantage here. He uses this when it comes to the phone call, which sees the Doctor coming close to Time Lord Victorious vibes, but I absolutely buy him as a different incarnation of the man who met the Brigadier in the London Underground. The decision to make the Doctor small and unnoticeable is a direct response to the Lonely God element that was brought in with the revival.

River Song didn’t get it all from you, sweetie.

Amy Pond

The Wedding of River Song also concludes that character’s origin story, seeing her getting married to the Doctor. Whether this is their actual marriage is up for debate, as the Doctor is in a Teselecta suit and it is a rouse to get River to agree to killing him and allowing time to repair itself. Despite being a ritual character, River does not directly feature a lot in the first half of the story, but both she and Smith continue to share good chemistry. It’s nice to see a darker side to Amy too, with her leaving Kovarian to her fate as the Doctor is not watching. Amy is seeking out Rory in this alternative timeline, who is hidden in plain sight, and both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are good here. Amy’s realisation that she is the Doctor’s mother-in-law is always a particular delight.

Verdict: The Wedding of River Song is a bold and ambitious story with some great ideas. 8/10

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian), Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium Maldovar), Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill), Richard Hope (Dr Malohkeh), Marnix Van Den Broeke (The Silent), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Dalek), Simon Callow (Charles Dickens), Sian Williams (Herself), Bill Turnbull (Himself), Meredith Vieira (Newsreader), Niall Greig Fulton (Gideon Vandaleur), Sean Buckley (Barman), Rondo Haxton (Gantok), Emma Campbell-Jones (Dr Kent), Katharine Burford (Nurse), Richard Dillane (Carter) and William Morgan Sheppard (Canton Delaware).

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Jeremy Webb

Producer: Marcus Wilson

Composer: Murray Gold

Original UK Broadcast Date: 1 October 2011

Behind the Scenes

• The first one-part series finale, as well as being the first revived series finale not to feature a classic series antagonist as the main antagonist. It is also the first series finale of the revived series to feature a final scene taking place outside of the TARDIS.
• This is the final appearance of an original Paradigm Dalek prop. The Dalek prop used in this story was a heavily distressed version of the White Dalek, and the blue and orange Daleks were used for the Stone Daleks in The Big Bang.
• The story pays homage to Nicholas Courtney, who played the Brigadier in the classic series, by having all characters wearing eye patches, a reference to Inferno.

Cast Notes

• Richard Hope reprises his role of Malokeh from The Hungry Earth and The Cold Blood. He would go on to play another Silurian, Bleytal, in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. He has also played a number of character for Big Finish in plays such as Shellshock (The Fourth Doctor Adventures), Absent Friends (Doom Coalition) and Damaged Goods (The Novel Adaptations).
• Emma Campbell Jones would go on to play Cass in The Night of the Doctor, as well as in the Eighth Doctor’s Time War audio stories.

Best Moment

I do like the scene in Amy and Rory’s garden, with River coming back from the events of The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone.

Best Quote

Hello, it’s me! Get him, tell him we’re going out and it’s all on me except for the money and the driving!

I’ve got a time machine, Dorium! It’s all still going on! For me, it never stops! Liz the First is still waiting in a glade to elope with me! I could help Rose Tyler with her homework! I could go on all Jack’s stag parties in one night!

Time catches up with us all, Doctor!

Well, it has never laid a glove on me! [On the phone] Hello?

Doctor, I’m so sorry. We didn’t know how to contact you. I’m afraid Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart passed away a few months ago. Doctor?

Yes, yes.

It was very peaceful. Talked a lot about you, if that’s any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy ‘case you came ’round one of these days.

Doctor? What’s wrong?

Nothing, I… just…It’s time. It’s time.

The Eleventh Doctor, Dorium Maldovar & Nurse

Previous Eleventh Doctor review: Closing Time

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