Amy Pond
Amelia "Amy" Jessica Pond is 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 2010. Amy joined the Doctor as a companion that night. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
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 Ecnodeen-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 kissed him passionately, having finally made her choice between the two men in her life. (DW: Amy's Choice)
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)
Key Life Events
- Born in Scotland, and raised there for long enough to have positive memories of it.
- At some point in her early youth, she went to live with her aunt Sharon in Leadworth, England. (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)
- 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)
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." [1]
- 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
- ↑ BBC Complaint response, 6 January 2010
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