Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica "Amy" Williams (nee Pond) was the first companion of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation. She was the girlfriend and later wife of human nurse Rory Williams and the mother of River Song. When River married the Doctor, Amy became his mother-in-law. Amy died aged 87 in 1993 after allowing a Weeping Angel to send her back in time so she could be reunited with her husband, who had been touched by the Angel. She was buried with her husband in an graveyard in New York.
AMELIA POND HAS DIED
Behind the scenes
What's Amy's married name?
Following her wedding in The Big Bang, Amy's actual last name was a matter of speculation. Throughout most of series 6, the Doctor continued to call her "Pond" leaving open the possibility that she didn't necessarily take Rory's last name. His lone use of "Amy Williams" in The God Complex — at a time when he was trying to make her see her life through a more "real" lens — suggested, but did not confirm, that she actually was "Amy Williams". Similarly, the Doctor had taken to referring to Rory as "Rory Pond", meaning the continued use of "Pond" in reference to Amy may have been erroneous also. However, speculation ended with Asylum of the Daleks, where she was definitively shown signing her legal name to a divorce document as "Williams". In The Angels Take Manhattan, her gravestone says Amelia Williams.
Played by two actors
Amy is the first companion in Doctor Who history to have two concurrent recurring portrayers: Karen Gillan and Caitlin Blackwood [unless Jack Harkness and The Face of Boe are confirmed to be one and the same]. The two are first cousins, although they didn't meet until the read-through for The Eleventh Hour. Though Blackwood and Gillan are physically similar, they have different eye colours: Gillan has green eyes, while Blackwood's are blue. John Leeson and David Brierley both voiced K9 Mark II but not concurrently. Sydney Wade portrayed Melody Pond in a consecutive pair of episodes alongside Alex Kingston.
While several companions have been portrayed by one or more juvenile actors in flashbacks and visits to earlier points in their timelines; including Rose Tyler in both infancy and youth, Mickey Smith, Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith in both infancy and youth, Adelaide Brooke, River Song in infancy, youth, adolescence and young adulthood, and Rory Williams (Father's Day, Adam, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith, Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, The Waters of Mars, A Good Man Goes to War); Amy is the only companion whose role was originated by her juvenile actor and subsequently taken over by her regular adult actor, or who was invited to travel with the Doctor as a child.
Controversies
After the premiere of The Eleventh Hour, Amy was criticised as too sexy for a family programme like Doctor Who. Piers Wenger, a series 5 executive producer, said, “The whole kissogramme thing played into Steven’s desire for the companion to be feisty and outspoken and a bit of a number. Amy is probably the wildest companion that the Doctor has travelled with, but she isn’t promiscuous. She is really a two-man woman and that will become clear over the course of the episodes."[1]
Earlier in 2010, Amy's red hair was used to defuse the so-called "Ginger controversy" that erupted in early January 2010 due to misinterpretation of a statement made by the Eleventh Doctor on his regeneration. Pointing out the programme's history of employing red-headed actors, the BBC noted that Amy was the second consecutive main TV companion to have red hair. [2]
Other matters
- Amy is the second televised companion to have a Scottish accent and only the third regularly-appearing Scots character in series history, after Jamie McCrimmon and the Brigadier.
- Amy is the second companion in the new series pursued romantically by a real historical figure. She was proposed to by Vincent van Gogh. William Shakespeare made amorous advances to Martha Jones.
- The Brilliant Book 2012, a non-narrative source, said that Amy and Rory's other unchronicled honeymoon destinations included meeting William Shakespeare in 1605, having a picnic in the bee-infested Gardens of Zul-Thep in 3104, and encountering Wyatt Earp and a cactus in an adventure involving acid-spitting land squids on Drago14. It also claimed that Amy became a renegade to give the Silents a false sense of security, travelling to North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington and Idaho to find more about them. It also says that to prepare for when Canton tried to "kill" her, she was given cryotosis podlets to feign death.
Footnotes
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