Amelia "Amy" Jessica Pond was the first companion of the Doctor during his eleventh incarnation. She was the girlfriend and later wife of Rory Williams. She was also the mother of River Song (Melody Pond). When River married the Doctor, Amy became the Doctor's mother-in-law (Which deeply disturbed her).
Biography
Birth and early life
Amelia Jessica Pond was born in Scotland in 1989. Her parents, Augustus and Tabetha Pond, were swallowed by the crack in her room, and Amy was raised by her aunt Sharon in the small town of Leadworth. Despite living so long in England, she never lost her Scottish accent. (DW: The Big Bang)
After the universe was restarted by the Doctor, there never were any cracks in time. Amy grew up in Leadworth but was never orphaned, as her parents were never swallowed by the crack in her room. (DW: The Big Bang)
Meeting the Doctor
Amelia met the Doctor at Easter in 1996 when his TARDIS, damaged by his regeneration, crashed in her garden. He offered to take her with him, but first, to keep the TARDIS engines from phasing, took a quick trip into the future. The Doctor told Amelia he would only be five minutes. He returned twelve years later. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Adolescence
While waiting, Amelia was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor". She created dolls, comics and dress-up games around him and made her friends take part. Her Aunt Sharon sent her to four psychiatrists, whom she bit when they tried to convince her the Doctor wasn't real. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) In secondary school, her best friends were Mels and Rory Williams, whom she thought gay, as he paid no attention to girls in the ten years they had known each other. Mels made her understand Rory had been paying attention to her all those years, and she returned his affections. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Second meeting with the Doctor
The Doctor returned when she was nineteen and called herself "Amy" to distance herself from her "fairy tale" name. She was Rory's girlfriend, and had a job as a kissogram. At first distrustful, she helped him defeat Prisoner Zero and warn the Atraxi to never return to Earth. While the Doctor took two years to take the TARDIS to the moon and back to break in the new engines, Amy was left behind and soon became engaged to Rory and was to be wed on the 26th of June, 2010. The night before, the Doctor returned to keep the promise he had made to her at Easter 1996. She joined him on the condition she be returned before the following morning. She did not mention her wedding. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Travels with the Doctor
Amy's first trip in the TARDIS was to Starship UK in the 33rd century which, she discovered, was secretly piloted by a Star Whale. Amy released it from its torture, convinced it would continue steering the ship without force, as it was kind-hearted. (DW: The Beast Below) Following a call for help, the Doctor and Amy set off for war-torn London in 1941, to meet Winston Churchill and inadvertently aid the rebirth of the Daleks. Amy helped deactivate the oblivion continuum bomb inside Bracewell by convincing him he was human. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Soon after, the Doctor took Amy to a museum in the far future and then to rescue the mysterious River Song. All three went to Alfava Metraxis to help the Church defeat an army of Weeping Angels. Amy nearly died because of Angel Bob. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
After this trauma, Amy told the Doctor she was getting married and tried to seduce him. The Doctor, fearing she was losing sight of the important things in her in her life, collected Rory and took them to romantic Venice, 1580 to fix their relationship. Amy was nearly converted into a Saturnynian by Rosanna and her son Francesco, but escaped. She rescued Rory from a violent Francesco, forced to kill for the first time. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
Soon after, the TARDIS crew was trapped between two realities by the malevolent Dream Lord. He taunted Amy about her triangular relationship with the Doctor and Rory, forcing her to choose between the two of them. When Rory was killed in one reality, she realised she could not bear to live without him. Amy came to terms with her feelings for Rory on finding him alive in the real world and made it clear to him for the first time that his feelings were fully reciprocated. (DW: Amy's Choice)
In Cwmtaff, Wales, Amy witnessed the revival of a city of Silurians. After an aborted attempt to create an alliance between humans and them, during which Amy bargained on behalf of mankind, Rory was shot, killed and erased from history by another of the cracks in space and time. Amy, initially devastated by her loss, lost all her memories of him. (DW: The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood) The Doctor, feeling guilty, took Amy to many wonderful places. On one of these trips, they met Vincent Van Gogh, with whom Amy developed a close bond. He dedicated a painting to her. She was deeply upset that, despite their efforts, he still killed himself. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor) After that, the TARDIS materialised in a park in Chesterfield and de-materialised, leaving the Doctor stuck in Essex and Amy trapped in the TARDIS. She helped the Doctor solve his problems, communicating via an earpiece telephone he was wearing. (DW: The Lodger) After they were reunited, Amy, looking for a pen in the Doctor's jacket, found her engagement ring. She could not attach any memories to it, but felt a strange connection.
Amy and the Doctor paid a visit to 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, caught up in a trap for the Doctor set by an Alliance of the Doctor's enemies. Amy was reunited with Rory, who had been recreated as an Auton. She regained her memories of him, only to have him shoot her; his Auton programming came into play and he could not control his actions. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
The Doctor placed Amy in the Pandorica to keep her alive. Rory watched over her for two thousand years until, in 1996, she was resurrected by her younger self. The TARDIS had exploded and caused the cracks in time. To repair them, the Doctor sacrificed himself into the cracks. Amy restored the family she had lost to the cracks, as well as a human Rory. The Doctor was erased from time. (DW: The Big Bang)
Amy was married to Rory. At the reception she caught sight of River Song passing by the window, and found River's diary on the table. Amy recalled details of the Doctor, then remembered him entirely and brought him back into reality, using only her time-altered mind.
The Doctor, Rory and she bade goodbye to the rest of the guests and departed on another adventure: an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express in space. (DW: The Big Bang)
Amy chose to keep her maiden name rather than becoming Amy Williams; the Doctor began referring to Rory as "Mr. Pond" (DW: The Big Bang). Despite this there is at least one account in which she is referred to as Amy Williams (BBCR: The Eye of the Jungle).
Honeymoon
The Doctor gave Amy and Rory some time 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. (SJA: Death of the Doctor) Amy insisted that the Doctor carry her mobile phone with him so he could keep in touch. (WC: The Night After Hallowe'en) While their honeymoon continued, Amy and Rory almost crashed on an unnamed planet. Amy donned her policewoman outfit and helped the Doctor in his Christmas Carol-like story as the Ghost of Christmas Present. After this the Eleventh Doctor suggested a moon that was actually made of honey (although it was neither real honey nor really a moon) as a destination. He said that there were some lovely views, but it was technically alive and slightly carnivorous. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
Near the end of their honeymoon, the TARDIS materialised inside itself after Rory had an accident while helping the Doctor conduct routine maintenance. Amy encountered a future version of herself, with whom she flirted. The Doctor used the resulting space loop to end it. (DW: Space / Time)
As a Ganger
Amy and Rory were returned to Earth not long after they had left. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) A pregnant Amy was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and the Church. She was replaced with a Ganger duplicate to which Amy's mind was connected, giving the illusion she had not been abducted.
About this time, Amy received a TARDIS blue invitation sending her and Rory to Utah on 22 April. They joined the Doctor and River Song for a picnic at Lake Silencio. A mysterious astronaut shot the Doctor thrice to prevent regeneration. After burning the Doctor's body, they returned to a diner to find a younger Eleventh Doctor also had been invited. Amy persuaded the Doctor to find the younger version of the fourth guest in 1969. Malevolent aliens, the Silents had been controlling Earth since the Stone Age. They kidnapped Amy and told her she would "bring the silence". After the Doctor started a revolution against them, Amy rejoined the Doctor on travels through time and space with Rory in tow. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon)
Landing in the 17th century, Amy helped the Doctor stop a Siren abducting the crew of a pirate ship. The Siren was a virtual doctor from an invisible spaceship in the same space as the Fancy. Its crew commandeered the ship to see the stars. Amy proved herself capable with a sword against pirates whom she fought to keep the Doctor and Rory from walking the plank. She saved a drowned Rory's life with CPR after Rory convinced her she could do it. While she slept on the Fancy, Amy awoke to notice the woman again looking through a hatch, this time directly at her. (DW The Curse of the Black Spot) When the Doctor steered the TARDIS into a bubble universe to looking for Time Lords who had sent a distress signal, Amy and Rory were trapped inside the TARDIS by House, who planned to use it to escape to find new food. House toyed with Amy's love for Rory, using the TARDIS's temporal nature to torment her; she was led to believe Rory had been abandoned to die of old age. They were saved by the Doctor, who regained entry to the TARDIS, and used its very soul to expel/kill House. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
A solar tsunami sent the TARDIS crashlanding in the 22nd century. Amy became involved in a revolution of the Gangers, helping them to achieve equality despite being distasteful of the Ganger Doctor after he assaulted her while experiencing the pain of all the past Gangers.
During this time, Amy twice saw the Eyepatch Lady, but the Doctor dismissed her as a "time memory." Amy accidently let it slip to the Doctor about his impending death, thinking he was his Ganger. After the Ganger Doctor prevented the revolution, Amy learned she was a Ganger herself. The Doctor destroyed her Ganger body after promising to find her. Amy awoke in her real body on Demon's Run to find herself full-term pregnant with the Eye Patch Lady, Madame Kovarian, ordering her to push. Amy entered labour with a horrified scream. (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People)
Becoming a Mother
Amy named her daughter Melody, after her best friend, Mels. Unknown to her, Melody was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and replaced by a flesh avatar to help trap the Doctor. The Doctor and Rory appeared with an army, took Demons Run and rescued Amy. After the Battle of Demons Run, Amy discovered Kovarian's ruse. River appeared and told them she was, in fact, Melody. The Doctor left in search of the baby, leaving Amy to be returned home by her adult daughter. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
When an entire summer had passed, Amy tired of waiting for the Doctor. She had Rory drive through a field in Leadworth to make a crop circle saying "Doctor". The TARDIS arrived to be hijacked at gunpoint by Amy's friend Mels, on the run from the police for stealing a car. The TARDIS crashed in Berlin in 1938; shot by Hitler, Mels (short for "Melody") regenerated into River Song. Controlled by her programming, she gave the Doctor a slow-acting fatal kiss. Convincing Melody that the Doctor was worth saving, Amy saw her daughter sacrifice her remaining regenerations to revive the Doctor. They left River in a hospital to follow her own path, and again rejoined the Doctor for adventures. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Further adventures
The TARDIS landed on Earth in 2011 after tracing a distress signal from a Tenza named George who lived in a block of flats. Amy and Rory knocked on nearly every door to find him. They entered a lift and were dropped into a giant doll house. Running from the Peg Dolls, Amy was transformed into one of them. She joined the dolls to harass Rory and the Doctor. When George overcame his fear, Amy was returned to normal. (DW: Night Terrors)
When the TARDIS landed on the planet Apalapucia, the Eleventh Doctor and Rory entered one room, whilst Amy, following, walked into another. The chambers were visually linked by a glass ring but time moved faster on Amy's side of the glass. In the minutes it took Rory to reach her, she lived for thirty-six years without human company. During this time, she acquired a pet Handbot called Rory for company and cobbled together a makeshift sonic screwdriver. Toughened by her experiences, she bitterly blamed the Doctor for her plight. Seeing Rory again reminded her how much she had loved being with him in the TARDIS. After her reunion with Rory, for whom only a little time had passed, this version of Amy sacrificed herself to ensure 'young Amy' and her husband could share their lives. She died, but because of the younger Amy's rescue, this timeline ceased to exist. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Departure from the Doctor
In a prison designed for a Minotaur-like creature where each person had a room holding their nightmare, Amy found hers: her younger self, waiting for the Doctor. To defeat the Minotaur, the Doctor made Amy lose her faith in him. After this, he returned Amy and Rory to a new house, leaving them behind to save them from further risks. Amy was upset, but accepted it, asking the Doctor to tell River to visit them if he saw her. (DW: The God Complex)
At some point, Amy became a model and was involved in a campaign for Petrichor, a perfume whose name and campaign, perhaps coincidentally, evoked an adventure with the Doctor. By the time the Doctor encountered Craig Owens and a minor Cybermen invasion, Amy was famous enough to be seen signing autographs. (DW: Closing Time)
After the Doctor had "died" and the alternate timeline was reverted, Amy, remembering everything, sat in her garden, despondent about his death and her cold-blooded murder of Madame Kovarian, until River, fresh from the crash of the Byzantium arrived to cheer her up. River told Amy the truth behind the lies she had told, including the Doctor's "death". This lifted Amy's spirits until she realised that she had been destined to be her best friend's mother-in law since she was eight. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Alternative timelines
In one timeline, the older Amy Pond on Apalapucia refused to help her younger self when she met her. In the main timeline, the older Amy relented, was left outside the TARDIS and killed by Handbots. This timeline was negated by Amy 's rescue. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
In another alternate timeline where the Doctor wasn't killed and a fixed point in time was altered, Amy led a group that included Rory and River. They tried to fix time without killing the Doctor. Due to the Time Field in her room while she grew up, Amy remembered much of the true timeline, and the Doctor, though she didn't recognise Rory as her husband. Amy rescued the Doctor and Winston Churchill from the Silence and took the Doctor to her base in the Great Pyramid of Giza, where she held many Silents captive. The Silents escaped. When Rory nearly sacrificed himself to save her, Amy remembered who he was and saved him. She told him they needed to get a drink and married. When Madame Kovarian begged for her life, Amy just pressed the Eye Drive to her face so she would die. Amy, Rory and River showed the Doctor their distress beacon and the Doctor married River. The newlyweds reverted time to Lake Silencio where he was "killed" by River. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Known family
- Rory Williams - husband
- River Song (Melody Pond) - daughter
- The Doctor - son-in-law
- Augustus Pond - father
- Tabetha Pond - mother
- Sharon - aunt
Personality
Amy was adventurous and reckless, with a dry sense of humour and strong will. Because of her difficult childhood and abandonment by the Doctor, she was rarely open with her feelings and often mistrustful and wary. This made her hold the people she cared about at arm's length. An example of this was her early relationship with Rory (DW: Let's Kill Hitler, The Eleventh Hour, The Vampires of Venice) and her attitude towards the Doctor upon his return. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
As a child, Amelia was brave and capable of caring for herself. She prayed to Santa Claus to help her with the crack in her wall, and was unsurprised to meet the Doctor. She lusted for adventure, wishing to travel with him on their meeting. When he did not return for her, she grew into a cynical and aggressive young woman, but deep down she was still the Amelia Pond she had been in her first meeting with the Doctor. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Amy was often flippant in the face of danger, except for her traumatic ordeal in the forest aboard the Byzantium. She exchanged barbs with Rosanna Calvierri even when facing a forcible blood replacement and cracked jokes while confronting apparent doom on the TARDIS. (DW: Flesh and Stone, The Vampires of Venice, Amy's Choice)
Amy was flirtatious. In Leadworth she made a living as a kissogram and was sexually attracted to the Doctor (DW: The Eleventh Hour), Vincent Van Gogh (DW: Vincent and the Doctor) and the Roman soldiers at Stonehenge (DW: The Pandorica Opens). She tried to seduce the Doctor once. (DW Flesh and Stone) Rory claimed she only passed her driving test on her first attempt because she had been wearing a revealing skirt. (DW: Space)
Amy was troubled, and often lonely. She was often left alone by her aunt Sharon, who refused to deal with her fear of the crack in her bedroom wall. After meeting the Doctor as a child, she was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor" and refused to believe he was imaginary, biting the psychiatrists her aunt sent her to when they tried to convince her otherwise. Mels, a school troublemaker and her close friend, once pointed out that Amelia often misbehaved in school. Despite this, Amy was a protective maternal figure for Mels, leading her - while regenerating into River Song after being revealed as Amy's daughter Melody Pond - to remark "You got to raise me after all." (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Amy loved her husband, Rory passionately and shared a close bond with the Doctor. She called him her best friend. (DW: Day of the Moon) Her bond with him was almost religious. She felt he could always fix things. (DW: The God Complex) Despite her tough exterior, Amy could not always hide her emotions and was devastated when faced with the losses of loved ones such as Rory, Melody, the Doctor and Vincent van Gogh. Amy also broke down in tears when the Doctor was forced to leave her on Earth with Rory. (DW: The God Complex, The Vampires of Venice, Vincent and the Doctor, The Impossible Astronaut, A Good Man Goes to War/Let's Kill Hitler)
In her time on the TARDIS, Amy was capable of heroism, saving the lives of the Doctor, Rory, River and others. She was willing to remain in the clutches of the Silence to let her friends escape (DW: Day of the Moon). Her mind, altered by her growing up with a crack in space and time in her bedroom wall, restored erased beings to the universe (DW: The Big Bang) with only her memories. She knew time could be rewritten and hoped there was some way to rewrite it to avoid the Doctor's death. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut, The Wedding of River Song).
Amy was also capable of cruelty; she certainly possessed a ruthless streak. In an alternate timeline, when Madame Kovarian, being killed by her eye drive, had managed to get the drive most of the way off, she asked Amy to help her because it was what the Doctor would do. Amy said "He's not here" and put Kovarian's eye drive back on, killing her as punishment for taking her baby away from her. She was later conflicted about this. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
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". (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) She had coppery red hair, freckles and green eyes. She had a great sense of fashion and loved to experiment with the TARDIS wardrobe. [additional sources needed]She frequently wore short skirts, often with opaque or coloured tights, or leggings underneath.
Behind the scenes
- Amy is the second consecutive main TV companion to have red hair after Donna Noble. This 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 pursuant to 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; it was later revealed that River is Amy's daughter, and that "River" was 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 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 some viewers for being "too sexy" for a family programme like Doctor Who. In response, Piers Wenger, an 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.
- Amy is the second companion in the new series pursued romantically by a real historical figure. She was proposed to by Vincent van Gogh. Previously, William Shakespeare made amorous advances towards Martha Jones.
- Amy has a fondness for Romans - her husband Rory has a habit of dressing as one. 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.
- Caitlin Blackwood has blue eyes while Karen Gillan has green eyes. This doesn't necessarily cause a continuity error as in real life people have been known to have their eye colour change over time.
- The Series 6 episode DW: Night Terrors was originally filmed for broadcast during the first half of the season, prior to the events of DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People. Karen Gillan, therefore, is actually portraying the Ganger version of Amy in this episode. However, the later decision to reschedule the episode into the post-A Good Man Goes to War continuity resulted in all overt references to this (including Amy's clothing and another vision by Amy of Madame Kovarian) were deleted.
- Neil Gaiman revealed in DWM's production notes that in his episode (The Doctor's Wife), he had originally intended for there to be a scene in the TARDIS swimming pool, but Karen Gillan cannot swim.
- Amy's last name post-Big Bang has been a matter of some debate in fan circles, as to whether she is now Amy Williams (a similar debate arose over whether Gwen Cooper should use the similar name Gwen Williams after her marriage to Rhys Williams in Torchwood). The series, however, makes it clear that Amy has kept her last name (as indicated in the closing credits of episodes produced in Series 6), and in fact while it has been joking said by the Doctor that Rory is now "Rory Pond", it's possible this may actually be the case as Melody was not given the name Melody Williams. There has been at least one case of a spin-off production breaking from this: the audio drama BBCR: The Eye of the Jungle refers to Amy as Amy Williams.