“I can’t let you die without knowing that you are loved by so many, and so much, and by no one more than me.”-River Song, to the Doctor
“The Wedding of River Song” stands as a perfect example of why fans devote themselves to Doctor Who, providing some of the strangest, most complex storytelling on television today. Alongside the spectacle of rubber-faced aliens and special-effects explosions lies true passion, heart, and an uplifting heroism. We see the Doctor’s somber resignation turn to playful cleverness as he averts his own predestined murder, and the forgiveness he shows River Song makes their romance seem more real than it has ever been.
As the episode begins, we find that time has been broken, and in this new alternate timeline all of history is happening at once. Winston Churchill serves as the Holy Roman Emperor while pterodactyls fly in the sky, and the clock always stuck on 5:02 pm, April 22, 2011. Winston Churchill calls the old soothsayer, the Doctor, down from the Tower of London to explain the frozen nature of time, and the Doctor tells him the story of how time broke because River Song disobeyed the Silence and refused to kill him on the lakeside.
As the Silence closes in on the Doctor in this alternate timeline, he reunites with Amy, River, and Rory, as Amy rescues the Doctor and leads him to the troops she has assembled to fight the Silence. The Doctor and Amy’s reunion calls back to last season’s finale, “The Big Bang,” which revealed that Amy possesses a special ability to remember her past travels even as history changes around her; she possesses this talent as a result of growing up in close proximity to a reality-warping crack in the universe. This ability allows Amy to lead her troops to the Doctor, and Amy displays a strength and forwardness that I sorely wish the writers and directors would have given her throughout the season.
Eventually, the Doctor and his companions manage to return time to its normal state through show-runner Stephen Moffat’s trademark mix of fairytale and technobabble that will take me at least one more viewing to wrap my head around. The Doctor and River share a brief and hurried wedding ceremony with Amy and Rory as witnesses, and as they kiss, the alternate timeline ends and they return to the lakeside, where River carries out her mission to shoot the Doctor.
Later, back in the normal timeline, Amy and River share a mother-daughter bonding moment, and River reveals to Amy how the Doctor managed to escape his death. The Doctor survived by hiding himself in the Tessalecta, the shape-shifting robot assassin first seen in the episode “Let’s Kill Hitler.” When River shot the Tessalecta, which had taken the Doctor’s form, she restored the timeline while allowing the Doctor to escape his fate. Of course, savvy fans most likely figured out that the Doctor would duplicate himself with the Tessalecta the moment it reappeared for the finale, if not earlier.
Although the Doctor ended up cheating death yet again, the most poignant moment of the episode was when he decided to stop running away and face his mortality. The Doctor was motivated to finally accept his death when he learned the news that his old friend the Brigadier had died, and in his final days the Brigadier had set out an extra glass of brandy in case the Doctor would stop in for a visit. Nicholas Courtney, the actor who portrayed the Brigadier, died in February 2011, so this moment was a touching tribute to the actor and character.
While this season of Doctor Who has come to a close, many story threads still remain. As show runner, Stephen Moffat enjoys playing a long game with his fans, constructing story arcs over multiple seasons. The Doctor has a larger peril looming in his future: “Silence will fall when the question is asked,” the Doctor has been told. The question, of course, is “Doctor who?” Who is this mysterious man who calls himself the Doctor, and what dark secrets does he possess? For fans of Doctor Who, this story development seems reminiscent of the Cartmel Masterplan, which sought to build a sense of mystique around the Doctor in the final years of Doctor Who‘s original run.
We will see how this new Moffat Masterplan plays out next season. Until then, we can catch up with the Doctor’s adventures in the Doctor Who Christmas Special in December.
Sources:
“Doctor Who ‘Brigadier’ Nicholas Courtney dies aged 81,” BBC News, 2/23/11
“Cartmel Masterplan,” TARDIS Index File, the Doctor Who Wiki