Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica Pond, known as Amy, was a young Scottish woman who was the first companion of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation.
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 in Leadworth. It's later revealed that her parents were swallowed by the crack in her room.
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 with the Doctor
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 traversed 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)
Travels with the Doctor and Rory
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)
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 fiancée, 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 desperately 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 laser scalpel, 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 parley 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 fiancée, 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)
Furthur adventures
On a trip to the Musée d'Orsay, the Doctor noticed a strange face in Vincent van Gogh's "Church at Auvers". The two went back in time to talk with van Gogh, with Amy taking a shine to him, especially after he saved her from an invisible creature. After the creature had been stopped, Amy and the Doctor took Vincent on a trip to 2010, showing him how well appreciated his works were in the future. Before they parted ways, Vincent asked Amy to marry him, to which she declined, stating that she wasn't "the marrying kind". Amy then had the Doctor return her to the Musée, expecting to see many more works by Vincent, only to find that he had still committed suicide at 37, just as he did before. Amy is comforted by the Doctor, who tells her that life is full of good and bad things, and that they "definitely added to (Vincent's) pile of good things".(DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
After that, the TARDIS materialises in a park in Chesterfield but it dematerialises leaving the Doctor stuck in Chesterfield, while Amy is trapped in the TARDIS. The Doctor uses an earpiece to talk to Amy and help her to press the right things in the TARDIS while Amy helps the Doctor act like a normal human. In the end, the Doctor gets back on the TARDIS and tells Amy to find a red pen so he can write a note to his past self telling him to go the Craig Owens' flat. Amy checks the Doctor's coat pocket and finds her wedding ring from Rory, but since she still doesn't remember him, this leaves her confused. (DW: The Lodger)
Restarting the universe
Amy and the Doctor travelled to Planet One, the oldest planet in the universe, to see and translate the mysterious writing on its cliff face. There they discovered the message to be from River Song, saying "Hello Sweetie" and with co-ordinates to go to Britain in 102 AD, where the Romans had invaded, near Stonehenge. There Amy and the Doctor met
River Song under the guise of Cleopatra, who then went and showed them a van Gogh painting that had survived through time, showing the Doctor's TARDIS exploding. The three of them travelled to Stonehenge and managed to find the Pandorica beneath it. River left to get Roman soldiers to defend the area after they found an alien army was advancing to get the Pandorica. On their own the Doctor and Amy were attacked by a decapitated Cyberman sentry. Amy was almost upgraded, but was saved by Rory, who was now apparently a Roman soldier. She did not recognise him, but he persisted in trying to make her remember him. Later while outside Rory tried again and Amy began to remember him, and told him never to leave her again. However at this time the Roman soldiers were revealed to be Auton duplicates, including Rory. He tried to fight back against the control of the Nestene Consciousness, and told Amy to get away from him. She remained by his side and tried to help him remain in control, but he could not stop himself from shooting her. The Rory duplicate screamed in agony as Amy lay dead in front of him. (DW: The Pandorica Opens) As Rory told dead Amy about the end of the universe and hoping for a miracle, the Doctor appears and tells him she isn't dead. After Rory frees the Doctor in the Pandorica, they put Amy in the Pandorica so over the next 2000 years she will come back to life. The Pandorica's powers keep whoever's inside from dying as its a form of escape, but it needs a sample of Amy's DNA to bring her back so they need to wait for her younger self to encounter it.
Amy woke to find her younger alternate self after touching the Pandorica. She immediately identifies her and sees she is from 1996, which then she assumes is the time she woke up. Amy then watches a short video about a lonely Roman Centurion guarding the Pandorica for nearly 2000 years, which Amy knows it to be Rory and is heart-broken when it explains he has not been seen since the London Blitz of 1941. When a Dalek, revived by the light of the Pandorica, threatens Amy and her younger version, the Doctor suddenly appears (after using the Vortex Manipulator) and herds them to safety. They are all saved by the appearance of Rory, who is still guarding the Pandorica and uses his Auton-hand to fire at the Dalek.
Afterwards, the current Doctor travels back and forth in time to set things in motion. The three of them then discover that history is being erased, and that the younger Amy has disappeared. The Doctor explains that they are all in the eye of the storm, and therefore they still have some little time before they are erased as well . The Doctor rescues River from the Tardis Time-loop, and the four of them set out to set the universe aright. The Doctor eventually sacrifices himself to pilot the Pandorica to the heart of the Tardis explosion, and while successful, is erased from history. The Doctor still manages to speak with Amy two times while his life is "rewinded" - Once on board the Byzantium, and once on the night young Amy waited for the Doctor- managing to implant memories of himself and the TARDIS in her mind.
Amy wakes up on the morning of her wedding to Rory and discovers her parents are still alive. She does feel, however, she forgot something very important. Amy brought the Doctor back by remembering the Doctor during her wedding with Rory Williams, a feat made possible by the Time Crack that was in her room. Amy,Rory and The Doctor go on another adventure in the TARDIS after the Doctor gets a call from "Her Majesty" after an Egyptian goddess escaped on the Orient Express. (DW: The Big Bang)
Further adventures
The Doctor left Amy and Rory on a honeymoon planet, a planet on honeymoon with an asteroid, shortly before his TARDIS was stolen by the Claw Shansheeth of the 15th Funeral Fleet, stranding him. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
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 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 Eleventh Doctor. She was very cynical and sceptical 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) Her words echoing what the Doctor had said to the last Dalek (DW: Dalek)
The Doctor confirmed that Amy was no ordinary girl and it was unlikely that the Time Crack in her wall was there by chance. Amy shared a very close friendship with the Doctor; this friendship, along with the Time Crack, allowed her to remember him even after he was erased from time and she managed to bring the Doctor back into her universe. (DW: The Big Bang)
Undated/Unchronicled events
- Amy and The Doctor visit "Space Florida" a week prior to the events of the Doctor's death. (DW: The Big Bang)
- The Doctor and Amy along with Rory go on another adventure, after they receive a call from "her majesty" after an egyptian goddess is loose on the Orient Express. In Space. (DW: The Big Bang)
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 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. Other writers, however, have employed "liquid" names; non-Moffat characters like Jackson Lake and Ocean Waters 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, 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 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, behind the short-lived Adam Mitchell, to have met the Doctor in a place other than 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)
Footnotes
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