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Amelia Jessica "Amy" Pond was a young Scottish woman who was the first companion of the Eleventh Doctor.
Profile
Early Life
Amelia Jessica Pond was born in Scotland in the year 1989. She was later orphaned and moved to England to live with her aunt Sharon in Leadworth.
Meeting the Doctor
Amelia first met the Doctor at Easter in 1996 when she was seven. He crash-landed in her backyard and accompanied her into the house. She made him a great deal of food in order to assuage his cravings, but he hated everything except custard-dipped fish fingers. Amelia was avoiding a crack in her room that she heard voices from. The Doctor went up with her and opened the crack. Behind it was an Atraxi, who was looking for the escaped Prisoner Zero.
The Cloister Bell rang and the Doctor ran back to the TARDIS, promising to just make a five minute jump to the future and pick Amy up. She waited for him, but he did not return. Over the next twelve years, Amy became obsessed with her "imaginary friend";
she made dolls and drawings of him and went through four psychiatrists, who all tried to convince her there was no Doctor. Her response, so she later told the Doctor, was to bite them. Her childhood friends, including Rory Williams and Jeff Angelo, were all well-aware of her belief in the Doctor, as was Jeff's grandmother Mrs. Angelo.
Over the years, Amelia hardened her heart towards the idea of an imaginary friend, adopted the nickname Amy and, possibly as a sort of rebellion towards her childhood, began working as a kissogram.
The Doctor returned twelve years later. Amelia, startled and mistrusting, hit him with a cricket bat as he attempted to enter her home. She handcuffed him to a radiator, then dressed up as a police woman (using one of her kissogram outfits) in order to question him. The Doctor pointed out a room in her house she had never seen and explained that there was a perception filter around it. She entered it to find his sonic screwdriver and there encountered Prisoner Zero. Amy and Rory, who was now her boyfriend, helped the Doctor defeat Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, and to Amy's distress the Doctor vanished immediately afterwards.
Sometime over the next two years, Amy and Rory became engaged to be married. On the night before her wedding day, the Doctor returned. He revealed that he had, in fact, only left for a short trip to the moon to run in his new TARDIS, meaning to return for Amy all along, but going too far again, ending up in late June 25th 2010. Amy joined the Doctor as a companion that night. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Travels
Early Travels
Amy's first trip in the TARDIS was to Starship UK in the 33rd century. There, she and the Doctor discovered a Star Whale being tortured in order to force it to propel the enormous ship. Amy had previously learned of the Star Whale's predicament through one of Starship UK's voting booths, but had voluntarily erased her memory of it, leaving herself a message telling her to get the Doctor to leave. (DW: The Beast Below) The Doctor intended to destroy the whale's higher brain functions, leaving it in a vegetative state so it could not feel pain, but Amy sensed that the creature would willingly save the ship for the sake of the children of Britain if given the chance. She took the situation into her own hands and freed the whale. Her theory was proved correct in the end. Immediately after this, Amy answered a phone call in the TARDIS from Winston Churchill, asking the Doctor for help. (DW: The Beast Below)
The Doctor and Amy then set of for war-torn London, only to find the Doctor's old enemies, the Daleks, were serving the Prime Minister and his army as their 'soldiers', having been "created" by Edwin Bracewell. The Doctor tried to employ Amy to convince Churchill that the Daleks were evil, because she should remember them after their previous attack over London and the Medusa Cascade incident. Amy told the Doctor that she did not remember anything about those events, to which the Doctor replied that it was impossible. Once the Doctor supplied the Daleks with a "testimony" the Daleks revealed their true nature and departed to recreate their race. The Doctor then went to find the Daleks, leaving Amy behind. When the Daleks lit up London, Amy came up with the idea to send Spitfires with advanced technology supplied by Bracewell into space to combat the Dalek ship, eventually destroying the dish lighting up London. When the Doctor returned and he revealed that Edwin was actually a Dalek-created android, with a Oblivion Continuum bomb inside, Amy convinced Dr Bracewell that he was human by asking him "Have you ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?", successfully canceling the detonation. She later convinced the Doctor not to worry about the Daleks despite them escaping, and helped encourage Edwin to live a human life. In a conversation with the Doctor, Amy realised that traveling with the Doctor was dangerous, but continued to go with him regardless of that. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Soon after, the Doctor and Amy visited a museum whereupon she noted that the Doctor 'took score' using museums. Whilst browsing, they stumbled upon a Home Box which the Doctor noted was written in High Old Gallifreyan, which then convinced him to steal the box in order to find out more information. After getting the coordinates from the home box's recording they met the enigmatic River Song, whom Amy seemed to make good friends with. Left alone with a recording of a Weeping Angel, Amy found herself trapped as the image came to life. Though she managed to stop it, by looking it in the eye, she had allowed it to invade the vision centres of her brain. As the group travesed the Aplan mortarium, Amy was slowly dying under the Angel's influence. The Doctor had Amy close her eyes, halting the Angel. Amy then encountered a crack, identical to the one from her bedroom wall, and could only sit by helplessly as it erased a number of soldiers from existence. She was then brought to the Byzantium by River, and witnessed as the Angels having drained all power from the ship - including that of the artificial gravity - fell into the crack, and were erased from existence, resulting in the Angel in her mind never existing.
After bidding goodbye to River, Amy had the Doctor return her home, where she revealed that she was getting married, and attempted to seduce him. (DW: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)
The Doctor responded by collecting Rory, and sending he and Amy on a trip to Venice, 1580. Although slightly perturbed at first, Amy came to appreciate Rory's company, especially when he fought Francesco for her, for which she kissed him. She then told Rory that she wanted him to travel with her and the Doctor, and went into the TARDIS to "put the kettle on". (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
Soon after, the TARDIS crew found themselves trapped between two realities by the malevolent being known as the Dream Lord. One reality was that of Upper Leadworth, five years into the future, where Amy and Rory
were married and expecting a child. The other was that of a powerless TARDIS falling into a frozen star. Rory believed the Leadworth reality was real, but the Doctor insisted it was the TARDIS scenario, and Amy was left unsure, even more so when the Dream Lord taunted her about her feelings for the Doctor and Rory. When Rory was killed by an Eknodine-possessed old lady, Amy was horrified, and berated the Doctor for not being able to save him. Still unaware of which reality was real, and no longer caring, as she did not wish to live without Rory, Amy crashed a camper van into her house, killing herself and the Doctor. The group then awoke in the TARDIS, having seemingly triumphed over the Dream Lord. However, the Doctor realised that the TARDIS world was another dream, and blew themselves up, returning them to reality. Reunited with Rory, who was unaware of what happened in his "final moments", Amy told him that she couldn't tell which reality was real, but was unable to bear living without him. She then kissed him passionately, having finally made her choice between the two men in her life. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Love and Loss
Although Amy intended to travel to Rio de Janeiro circa 2020, the TARDIS apparently had other ideas. It materialized almost 6,000 miles off course, in Cwmtaff, Wales.
Amy, unimpressed by the dull scene, wanted to leave quickly, but the Doctor was intrigued by strange patches of blue grass growing in the local graveyard. Rory took Amy's engagement ring and placed it in the TARDIS for safekeeping, but wound up getting separated from the Doctor and his fiancee, who broke into a large drilling station in the tiny village.
The Doctor and Amy met Nasreen Chaudhry and Tony Mack, leaders of an expedition to drill deeper into the Earth than ever before. But the Earth seemed to be fighting back, and the ground began to crumble beneath their feet. Against the Doctor's orders, Amy ran back to pull Mack from a fissure, but something below the surface grabbed her and began to pull her underground. Although the Doctor tried desperatley to rescue her, promising not to let go, Amy could not hold on and was dragged beneath the soil. She awoke in a translucent coffin after being scanned by the Silurians, the subterranean dwellers who had taken her captive. The Silurian surgeon ignored her protestations, shushing her and then triggering knockout gas to render her unconscious. When she revived, she found herself strapped to an examination table, where she met previously captured drill worker Mo Northover. He told her she was about to be dissected, showing her the scar running down his torso. Amy struggled as the Silurian surgeon approached, wielding a sharp instrument, but she could not free herself. (DW: The Hungry Earth) Although Amy underwent a startling decontamination process, she was spared from dissection by an "intruder alert"
calling the surgeon, Malokeh, away—although unknown to Amy, the alarm was set off by the Doctor and Nasreen, who had come to parlay on the humans' behalf. By pickpocketing Malokeh as he turned away, Amy retrieved the remote controlling the gurney cuffs, allowing her to free herself and her fellow captive. As they fled through the city, searching for exit routes, Mo was distracted by his son Elliot, locked away and apparently unresponsive in a sealed chamber. Amy correctly surmised, from the wires and sensors hooked up to the boy, that the Silurians were keeping him alive, and she convinced Mo they had to move on and could return for Elliot later. An ad hoc attempt to rescue the Doctor and Nasreen failed, and Amy and Mo were chained up alongside their friends to await execution. After the Silurian military commander, Restac, contacted Rory, Tony, and Ambrose Northover on the surface and rejected an ultimatum from the latter to unilaterally free the prisoners, Amy was sentenced to be the first to die. Restac ignored Rory's protests, but was interrupted by the arrival of Eldane, the tribe's leader. Eldane chided
Restac and ordered Amy, Mo, Nasreen, and the Doctor to be freed. The Doctor took Mo to free Elliot after instructing Rory, Tony, and Ambrose to bring their hostage Alaya to the Silurian city, leaving Amy and Nasreen to open negotiations with Eldane to work out a land-sharing arrangement. Amy was out of her element in the negotiations, growing bored and frustrated, while Nasreen largely took the lead. But further progress in the talks was disrupted by the near-simultaneous entrances of Rory, Tony, and Ambrose, bearing Alaya's dead body, and Restac and her shock troops, seeking to mount a coup. The Doctor covered Eldane's and the humans' escape. Eldane, the Doctor, and the humans determined to send an energy pulse to the surface, destroying the drill and much of Cwmtaff, but Tony and Nasreen elected to stay with Eldane. Although the Doctor instructed Amy to lead the humans in a flight back to the TARDIS before the toxic fumigation of the city killed any warriors disloyal to Eldane, Amy returned to compel the Doctor's haste. She snapped at Rory as he returned for the two of them, having had the same idea a few seconds later, but the three time-travelers
made it to the TARDIS intact. Unfortunately, they were distracted by the reappearance of the Crack in the adjacent wall, and the Doctor wasted precious time to fish out a piece of debris. When Restac, dying from toxic exposure, crawled into the room, she fired at the Doctor, but the energy beam struck Rory. Amy was horrified but helpless to save her dying fiance, and her entreaties to the Doctor to at least save his body were useless—the Time Field was already beginning to absorb him. Aboard the TARDIS, the door of which the Doctor locked to prevent Amy from running out to retrieve the body, the Doctor pleaded with Amy to save Rory's memory, but an untimely jolt threw off her concentration and she lost all memory of the man she loved, as the Time Field apparently erased him from existence outside the Doctor's personal timestream. Returning to what was left of Cwmtaff, Amy was delighted to see herself waving again from a nearby ridge, but grew concerned when she thought she saw another figure on the ridge as well, just for a fleeting moment. (DW: Cold Blood)
Personality
As a child, Amelia was seen to be brave and not frightened easily even when alone. She prayed to Santa Claus to help her with the crack in her wall, and thus was not surprised to meet the Doctor when he first arrived. She was both repulsed and amused by the Doctor's immediate demand for food, and wished to travel with him shortly after their meeting. In her later life, she was a somewhat feisty companion with a wicked sense of humour and occasionally a short temper, but she showed signs that deep down, she was still the young Amelia Pond that she was upon her first meeting the the Eleventh Doctor. She was very cynical and skeptical due to him breaking his promise to be "back in five minutes" and returning 12 years later.
Amy was able to switch easily between Scottish and received pronunciation English accents. When she met the Doctor for the first time as an adult, she easily maintained an English accent so as to keep her identity hidden from the Doctor. She immediately returned to her Scottish accent once the Doctor figured out that she was Amelia. Later, the Doctor said that her stubborn maintenance of the Scottish accent in an English village was proof that she would come travelling with him. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
During her early travels with the Doctor, Amy romanticized him as a hero who could save anyone. She often remained flippant in the face of danger, with the exception of her terrifying ordeal in the forest aboard the Byzantium, exchanging barbs with Rosanna Calvierri even when facing a forcible blood replacement and cracking jokes while confronting apparent doom on the TARDIS. (DW: Flesh and Stone, DW: The Vampires of Venice, DW: Amy's Choice) But after Rory appeared to die in her arms during a lucid dream caused by psychic pollen, she realized the Doctor was not the omnipotent being she had assumed he was. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Key Life Events
- Born in Scotland, and raised there for long enough to have positive memories of it.
- Brought up by her aunt Sharon in Leadworth, England without a Mum and Dad. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
- Met the Doctor at the age of 7. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
- Met Rory Williams at some point in her youth. Over time the relationship became romantic.
- Re-encountered the Doctor 12 years later and helped him save the world from Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
- Temporarily turned into The Master along with the rest of the human race.(DW: The End of Time)
- Got engaged to Rory Williams.
- The Doctor returned after two years and Amy joined him in the TARDIS, a day before her wedding. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
- Journeyed to the far future, and saved the Star Whale from death at the hands of the Doctor. (DW: The Beast Below)
- Traveled to World War II during the Blitz, meeting Winston Churchill, and encountering the Daleks. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
- Met River Song and encountered the Weeping Angels. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
- Tries to seduce The Doctor. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
- The Doctor takes Amy and Rory Williams on a romantic break in Venice. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
- Encounters the Dream Lord and gets trapped in a dream with the Doctor and Rory. (DW: Amy's Choice)
- Witnesses Rory's "death" inside the dream. (DW: Amy's Choice)
- Faces dissection by the Silurians.(DW:The Hungry Earth)
- Witnesses Rory's death after being shot by Restac. (DW: Cold Blood)
- Rory is erased from time after being absorbed by the Time Field leaving Amy with no memory of him. (DW: Cold Blood)
- Where these events involved Rory Williams, some have been retroactively altered becasue Rory Williams was absorbed by a Time Field, removing him from existence. It would seem that Amy's personal time-line and memory of Rory has been altered accordingly.
Behind the Scenes
- Amy is the second consecutive main TV companion to have red hair. This fact was noted by the BBC when it issued a statement in response to the so-called 'Ginger controversy' that erupted in early January 2010 due to misinterpretation of a statement made by the Eleventh Doctor after his regeneration.[1]
- Amy Pond is the second character with an aquatic-themed name to be created by show-runner Steven Moffat following River Song.
- Amy is the second televised companion to have a Scottish accent, and only the third regularly-appearing Scots character in series history, behind both Jamie McCrimmon and the Brigadier. Since neither Frazer Hines nor Nicholas Courtney are themselves Scottish, Gillan is the first Scottish actor to play a recurring Scot in the history of the programme.
- Following the premiere of The Eleventh Hour, the character of Amy Pond was criticized by a number of viewers for being "too sexy" for a family program such as Doctor Who. In response, Piers Wenger, the executive producer for Series 5, stated, “The whole kissogram 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."[2]
- Amy Pond is the first main companion since the series revival who does not live in London.
- It is unknown if she'll join the Doctor and Jo Grant in Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Footnotes