Amelia "Amy" Jessica Pond was a young Scottish woman who was the first companion of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation. She was also the girlfriend (and later wife) of Rory Williams and mother of Melody Pond, later revealed to be River Song.
Biography
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. It was later revealed that her parents were swallowed by the crack in her room. (DW: The Big Bang).
After the universe was restarted by The Doctor (DW: The Big Bang), events were corrected, and there were never any cracks in time. Consequently Amy still grew up in Leadworth and was never orphaned, because her parents were never swallowed by the crack in her room. Despite living so long in an English village, Amy did not lose her Scottish accent.
Meeting the Doctor
Amelia first met the Doctor at Easter in 1996 after his TARDIS crash-landed in her backyard from damage sustained from his regeneration. The Doctor offered to take her traveling with him, but first had to keep the TARDIS' engines from phasing, requiring a quick trip into the future. The Doctor told Amelia he would only be five minutes, but he ended up taking twelve years. During the interim, Amelia became obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor", creating dolls, comics and dress-up games around him, convincing her friend Rory into dressing up like him. Her Aunt Sharon sent her to four psychologists, whom she ended up biting after they tried to make her think the Doctor wasn't real. Reaching adulthood, Amelia took on the name "Amy", became Rory's girlfriend, and took a job as a kissogram.
Eventually, Amy met the Doctor again. Although distrustful of him at first, she eventually helped the Doctor to defeat Prisoner Zero and warn the Atraxi to never come back to Earth. While waiting for another two years for the Doctor to return after he took the TARDIS to the moon and back to break in the new engines, Amy got engaged to Rory and was due to be wed on the 26th of June 2010. The night before the wedding, the Doctor returned to keep the promise he made to Amelia on Easter 1996 and took her on as his newest companion on the condition that she be returned before the following morning, not telling the Doctor she's getting married. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Travels with the Doctor and Rory
Amy's first trip in the TARDIS was to Starship UK in the 33rd century. There, she accidentally discovered the ship's secret--it was actually piloted by a Star Whale. Amy then released it from its torture, professing that is was willing to help without provoking it as it was kind-hearted. (DW: The Beast Below)
Following a call for help, the Doctor and Amy then set off for war-torn London in 1941, where they met Winston Churchill and witnessed the rebirth of the Daleks after they trick the Doctor into helping them. Amy also helped to deactivate the detonation of the oblivion continium inside Bracewell by convincing him that he was human. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Soon after, Amy and the Doctor met River Song for the first time in Amy's perspective and defeated an army of Weeping Angels. During this time, Amy nearly died under the power of Angel Bob. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
After learning that Amy was getting married, the Doctor responded by collecting Rory and taking Amy and him on a trip to Venice, 1580. They then stopped a group of Saturnynians from flooding the city. Amy was nearly converted into a half Saturnynian by Rosanna and her son Francesso. (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. The Doctor defeated the Dream Lord after he worked out his reality puzzle and the situation brought Amy and Rory closer together as she realised she couldn't live without him. (DW: Amy's Choice)
In Cwmtaff, Wales, Amy witnessed the resurrection of a group of Silurians. After a failed attempt to create an alliance between humans and the Silurians, Rory was shot and then erased from history. This caused Amy to forget that Rory ever existed. (DW: The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood)
The Doctor later took Amy to meet Vincent Van Gogh. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor) After that, the TARDIS materialised in a park in Chesterfield but it dematerialised, leaving the Doctor stuck in Chesterfield, while Amy was trapped in the TARDIS. Amy spent a time in the TARDIS before the Doctor solved the problem of what caused the TARDIS problems landing. (DW: The Lodger)
Amy and The Doctor later visited "Space Florida" a week prior to the events of the Doctor's erasure . (DW: The Big Bang)
Restarting the universe
Amy and the Doctor met River Song again and became involved in a trap for the Doctor involving an Alliance of the Doctor's enemies. After meeting Rory again, who had been recreated as an Auton, she was shot by Rory as he couldn't control his actions. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
The Doctor placed Amy in the Pandorica to keep her alive and he set out to restore the universe after his TARDIS had exploded and caused the cracks in time. After the Doctor succeeded in restoring the universe he was erased from time.
Amy then had her wedding with Rory and was given River Song's diary so that she would remember the Doctor and bring him back into the universe. She, Rory, and the Doctor go on another adventure following a call from "Her Majesty" detailing an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express -- in space. (DW: The Big Bang)
Honeymoon
The Doctor left Amy and Rory on a honeymoon planet (a planet on a honeymoon with an asteroid) shortly before his TARDIS was stolen by the Claw Shansheeth of the 15th Funeral Fleet, temporarily stranding him until he retrieved it with the help of old companions. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Some time later, Amy and Rory were still on their honeymoon when they got caught in a cloud shell above a planet. Amy donned her policewoman outfit again, and helped the Doctor in his Christmas Carol-like story as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Eventually, all ended well, and she and Rory continued on their honeymoon.
At this point, The Doctor suggested a Moon that was actually made of Honey (although it was neither real honey nor really a moon) as a prospective honeymoon destination. He further commented that although there were some lovely views, it was however, technically alive and slightly carnivorous. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
At one point, nearing the end of their honeymoon, the Doctor's TARDIS materialized inside itself after Rory unintentionally caused it to do so while helping the Doctor conduct routine maintenence. However, the Doctor was able to figure out how to dissolve the resulting space loop by using it to their advantage, This caused an embarassing moment for both Amy and Rory due to how he caused the mistake. (DW: Space / Time)
As a Ganger
After their honeymoon, Amy and Rory returned to Earth. During this time, they got their own house and a pregnant Amy was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and the Church at an unknown time. Amy was replaced with a Ganger synchronized to her senses so that she couldn't tell she had been removed from her time. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Amy joined the Doctor again and helped him cause a human revolution against the Silence. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon)
Landing in the 17th century, Amy helped the Doctor stop a Siren from kidnapping the entire crew of a pirate ship. It was later revealed that the Siren was really a virtual doctor from an invisible spaceship that toke up the same space as the Fancy and its crew decided to comandere the ship for themselves to see the stars. During this time, Amy proved herself capable with a sword in a fight with pirates when she fought them to keep the Doctor and Rory from walking the plank. However, while she slept on the Fancy, Amy awoke to notice the woman once again looking through a hatch, but this time directly at her. (DW The Curse of the Black Spot)
Amy was later trapped inside the TARDIS by House, who planned to use the TARDIS to escape the bubble-universe. During this time, Amy's love for Rory was toyed with by House, using the TARDIS's temporal nature to put on illusions to cause anguish as she was falsely lead to believe Rory was aging rapidly and died. Amy was saved by the Doctor, who used the soul of the TARDIS to expel/kill House. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
In the 22nd century, Amy became involved in the revolution of the Gangers and twice saw the Eye Patch Lady. However, the Doctor dismissed her worrying about it as a "time memory." After the Doctor prevented the revolution, Amy learned that she was not actually with them, but was a Ganger herself. The Doctor then stopped the signal after promising to find her and Amy awoke in her real body on Demons Run to find herself full-term pregnant with Madame Kovarian, the Eye Patch Lady, (literally) watching over her. Being instructed to push, Amy began to give birth. (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People)
Later she names her daughter Melody Pond, who, is kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and replaced by a "flesh" version. It is eventually revealed at the end of the episode that Melody Pond is River Song's real name, and that she is Amy and Rory's daughter.
Known Family
- Tabetha Pond (mother)
- Augustus Pond (father)
- Sharon (aunt)
- Rory Williams (husband)
- Melody Pond, later to become River Song (daughter)
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 Amelia had started going by the name Amy and became very feisty but she showed signs that deep down, she was still the young Amelia Pond she had been during her first meeting with the Doctor. She was very cynical and skeptical due to him breaking his promise to be "back in five minutes" and returning twelve years later. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
During her early travels with the Doctor, Amy romanticised 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, The Vampires of Venice, Amy's Choice) Yet 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)
Amy could be seductive at times and tried to seduce the Doctor on one occasion despite the fact that the next day was her wedding day. (DW Flesh and Stone) Rory also claimed that she only passed her driving test on her first attempt because she was wearing a revealing skirt at the time, indicating that she may have seduced her driving instructor into giving her her licence. (DW: Space)
As a child, Amy was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor" and refused to believe that he was simply an imaginary friend. Even after the Doctor was erased from history, Amy still remembered him and managed to bring him back into her universe. (DW: The Big Bang) She also once referred to the Doctor as her best friend. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Amy loved her husband, Rory, but she also had a habit of playfully insulting him, calling him names such as "Stupid Face". Despite her tough exterior, Amy did not try to hide her emotions and was devastated when the Doctor and Rory died. She also had enough knowledge about time to know that it could be rewritten and hoped that there was a way to rewrite time in order to avoid the Doctor's death. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
Appearance
Amy Pond was tall and long-legged (inspiring the Doctor to introduce her to the President of the United States with the code name "the Legs"). She had bright red hair, a characteristic which is commented on throughout the series, freckles, and green eyes.
Her finger nails were usually painted in widely varying colours. Contrasting with the past main series companions of the new series, she seems to prefer wearing short skirts to trousers. Karen Gillan has described Amy's clothing style as "thrown together" and expressed that it is true to the common trends in people of Amy's age and generation. According to the 2010 visual dictionary, Amy loves to experiment with clothes from the TARDIS wardrobe and has a great sense of fashion.
Behind the scenes
- Amy is the second consecutive main TV companion to have red hair after Donna Noble. 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 first televised companion with whose adolescent self the Doctor has had significant onscreen experience. Nevertheless, she is far from unique in having been portrayed onscreen in her youth.
- Amy Pond is the second character with an aquatic-themed name to be created by show-runner Steven Moffat, following River Song. This is not a coincidence, however, as it is later revealed that River is Amy's daughter, and that "River" is translated from "Pond". Other writers, however, have employed "liquid" names; non-Moffat characters like Ocean Waters, Jackson Lake, and Adelaide Brooke have also appeared in the televised Doctor Who universe.
- Amy is the second televised companion to have a Scottish accent, and only the third regularly-appearing Scots character in series history, after both Jamie McCrimmon and the Brigadier. Since neither Frazer Hines nor Nicholas Courtney are themselves Scottish, Gillan is the first Scottish actor/actress 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 series-long BBC Wales companion who wouldn't consider London their hometown. That said, Jack Harkness, who has nearly been in as many episodes as a full series, isn't from Earth at all. However, she is only the second BBC Wales companion, after the short-lived Adam Mitchell, to have met the Doctor in a place other than London. Debatable, as Donna Noble met the Doctor inside the Tardis before taking her back to London.
- Amy is the second companion in the new series who has been pursued romantically by a real historical figure, she was proposed to by Vincent van Gogh. Previously, William Shakespeare made romantic advances towards Martha Jones.
- Steven Moffat has dismissed the fan theory that River Song is a future version of Amy. (DCOM: The Time of Angels)
- Amy has a fondness for Romans. Karen Gillan, who plays Amy, also played a Roman priestess in the episode The Fires of Pompeii.
- Caitlin Blackwood who plays the younger version of Amy is the cousin of Karen Gillan, although the two did not meet until the readthrough of DW: The Eleventh Hour.
Footnotes