The Wedding of River Song (TV story)

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The Wedding of River Song was the thirteenth and final episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

The Doctor makes his final journey to the shores of Lake Silencio in Utah, knowing only one thing can keep the universe safe – his own death. But has he reckoned without the love of a good woman?[1]

Plot

The War of the Roses enters its second year even as London picnickers are warned not to feed the Pterodactyls and Charles Dickens is interviewed about his new Christmas ghost special. Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill returns to Buckingham on his mammoth from a conference in Gaul with Cleopatra to wonder why it is always 5:02 PM on 22 April 2011. His Silurian physician, Dr. Malokeh, tells him it is always that time, but Churchill has his doubts. He summons his soothsayer from the dungeon of the Tower of London. It is the Doctor, who tells him it is because of a woman.

In a flashback, the Doctor wants to know why he must die. Taking all the information on the Silence from a dying Dalek, he tracks down Father Gideon Vandaleur, actually the Teselecta, who points him in the right direction: the Silence's agent, Gantok, who almost electrocutes himself in a game of live chess with the Doctor. To avoid checkmate and death, Gantok takes him to the head of Dorium Maldovar in the Seventh Transept.

Dorium explains that if the Doctor lives long enough, on the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question that must never be answered will be asked: the first question, hidden in plain sight. He asks his visitor if he wants to know the question. The Doctor nervously agrees.

Taking Dorium's head with him, the Doctor determines to continue his farewell tour. However, when he learns that his old friend, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stuart is dead, the Doctor's bravado crumbles. His time has come. He gives invitations to the Teselecta to deliver. He goes to Lake Silencio with Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song, where they drink a bottle ofwine that Napoleon threw at him. An impossible astronaut rises from the lake and he goes to meet it. It is River Song, trapped in the suit by Madame Kovarian and the Silence. River has no control over the suit as it prepares to kill the Doctor. He forgives her unconditionally, shutting his eyes as her arm rises to deliver the three killing blows.

There are five bursts that make him flinch. The Doctor opens his eyes and demands to know what she has done. River smiles. She has discharged her weapons systems harmlessly, and the world shatters.

As the Doctor and Churchill discuss these events, they realize they're holding weapons. Tally marks are appearing on the Doctor's arms. They look up. The ceiling is infested with dozens of Silents. Before the Silents can attack them, a grenade rolls into the hall and they are rescued by a company of soldiers under an eyepatched Amy Pond. She shoots the Doctor.

The Doctor wakes from the stungun in Amy's office on a train bound for Area 52 inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. Amy grew up with a Crack in her wall, and so can remember both timelines. She has drawn pictures of the other timeline, but cannot remember that her husband is Captain Williams, a soldier in her force.

At Area 52, Amy shows him more than a hundred captured Silents. The Doctor and she walk past them to the King's Chamber, where River Song is waiting. Madame Kovarian is there too, a prisoner tied to a chair. They have used her eyepatch to create eye drives to let them remember the Silents even when not looking at them.

The Doctor goes to take River Song's hand, but she knows that they are the poles of an explosion waiting to destroy this timeline. She has him handcuffed and tries to convince him to live. Meanwhile, the Silents escape. It is their trap the Doctors' friends have fallen into. As the soldiers retreat to the King's Chamber, their eye drives electrify and kill them. Madame Kovarian mocks them, until her eye drive begins to spark. Rory stays to hold off the Silence, while River, the Doctor and Amy go up to the apex of the Pyramid to see what River has been building. The door bursts open and Rory falls to his knees as the Silence enter and begin to electrocute him, but Amy, having remembered who he is, returns to kills the Silence with a machine gun. She cold-bloodedly kills a terrified Kovarian; River's psychopathic behavior did not arise solely from her rearing.

Atop the Great Pyramid, River has built a distress beacon, calling the universe across all time zones: the Doctor is dying. Please help. The answer comes back: yes, of course. The Doctor, however, insists that no one can help him. He must die.

File:The Wedding of River Song.png
The Doctor and River kiss at their wedding.

When River despairs and swears to suffer more than any living thing in the universe for him, the Doctor tells Amy to uncuff him. He uses his bow tie to marry River in a handfasting. He whispers a secret into his bride's ear and tells her that she must never tell anyone what he has just told her: his name. As she looks at him in wonder, the Doctor asks for her help.

They kiss and time moves again. The Doctor dies at Lake Silencio. River and Amy weep. Rory looks on in agony and the distorted time line vanishes.

Some time later, River, fresh from the crash of the Byzantium, is at her mother's home, splitting a bottle of wine. Amy wonders what what the events from the aborted, frozen time line say about her, in particular her murder of Kovarian. She needs to talk with the Doctor, but he is dead. River disagrees. Amy notes that her daughter is still having adventures with him in the hundreds of years before his death, but River tells her a secret which she probably shouldn't. As Rory joins his wife and daughter, they dance for joy until Amy realises she is the Doctor's mother-in-law.

A monk carries Dorium's head back to the Seventh Transept. Dorium realises it is the Doctor and demands to know how he escaped. The Doctor tells him: River actually shot the Teselecta, with the Doctor safe inside, waving happily at her. Now that the entire universe believes him dead, it's time for him to step back into the shadows.

As the Doctor leaves, Dorium shouts at him that Fields of Trenzalore and the first question still await him. As the Doctor pauses by the TARDIS, Dorium shouts: "Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor who?"

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Individuals

  • Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness are mentioned.
  • Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is said to have passed away several months before the Doctor phones the institution where he was staying; he apparently talked about the Doctor all the time and insisted on having a spare glass ready in case he should show up.
  • Charles Dickens appears in the alternate timeline, being interviewed on television.

Technology

Fashion and Clothing

The Doctor wears the stetson given to him by Craig Owens throughout his investigation, up to and including the time he was hidden aboard the Tesselecta. The hat was not in fact shot off his head by River in DW: The Impossible Astronaut since the Tesselecta was impersonating him at the time. The original is likely still in his possession.


Story notes

  • Following his death in February, this episode pays tribute to Nicholas Courtney, with the Doctor discovering that his character, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, died peacefully in his sleep.
  • A prequel for this episode was released online.[2]
  • This is the first time an episode of Doctor Who has aired on the same night as an episode of fellow BBC Saturday night drama, Merlin. The first episode of Merlin Series 4, The Darkest Hour, was broadcast right after The Wedding of River Song.
  • Meredith Vieira, co-host of the American morning news/chat programme Today, filmed her cameo during a visit to the Upper Boat Studios as part of a profile of Doctor Who produced for Today. That feature, which aired on 9 May 2011, contained several minor spoilers for this episode, including revealing the cameo appearance by Richard Hope as Malohkeh.
  • This is the first series finale of the revived series not to be a multi-part episode. In fact, it is the first series finale ever to only be one episode (with the exception of DW: The Five Doctors, which aired between Seasons 20 and 21, but is often counted as part of Season 20).


Ratings

UK Overnight: 6.1 Million

Myths

  • The Doctor will get married.[3] This was proven true.
  • Part of this episode will be set in Egypt.[4] This was proven true.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The Doctor's reflection in River's helmet shield is not reversed, as it should be.
  • When Gantok falls into the pit of skulls his hat falls off, yet it's back on right before he's devoured completely.
  • When River lifts the shield on the helmet, she uses two hands, whereas in The Impossible Astronaut the astronaut only uses one hand.
  • It was shown that time was frozen at 05:02:57, and progressed to around 05:03:06 the first time The Doctor and River touch, but when the Doctor and River kiss later, a clock is shown on screen, with time resuming from 05:02:00.

Continuity

Timeline

For the Doctor

For River

For River in the final scene

For Amy and Rory

Home video releases

Series6.2DVD.jpg

This episode will be released on DVD shortly after the airing of the episode.[5]

External links