Amy Pond
Amelia "Amy" Jessica Pond (b. 1989) was the first companion and mother-in-law of the Doctor during his eleventh incarnation, the wife of Rory Williams and the mother of Melody Pond.
Biography
Birth and early life
Amelia Jessica Pond was born in Scotland in 1989. Despite living so long in England, Amy never lost her Scottish accent. She was orphaned and accordingly raised by her aunt Sharon, in the small town of Leadworth. It was later revealed that her parents, Augustus and Tabetha Pond, were swallowed by the crack in her room. (DW: The Big Bang)
After the universe was restarted by the Doctor, events were corrected and there never were any cracks in time. Amy still grew up in Leadworth but was never orphaned, as her parents were never swallowed by the crack in her room, and therefore existed. (DW: The Big Bang)
Meeting the Doctor
Amelia met the Doctor at Easter in 1996 when his TARDIS crashed in her back garden, damaged by his regeneration. 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, but from Amy's perspective, he would return twelve years later. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Adolescence
In the meantime, Amelia was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor", creating dolls, comics and dress-up games around him, and convincing her friend Rory into dressing up as him. Her Aunt Sharon sent her to four psychiatrists, whom she bit when they attempted to convince her that the Doctor wasn't real. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) At high school, she palled around with her friends "Mels" and Rory Williams, whom she misidentified as gay, due to him spending most of his time with her for the 10 years they had known each other. Amy realised her mistake when she understood that Rory had been solely paying attention to her all those years, and accepted his affections. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Second meeting with the Doctor
As an adult, Amelia used the nickname "Amy" to distance herself from what the Doctor referred to as her "fairy tale-like name". She became Rory's girlfriend, and took a job as a "kissogram". Eventually, Amy met the Doctor again at age 19. Although distrustful of him at first, 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 became 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 had made to Amelia on Easter 1996 and she agreed to join him in the TARDIS as a companion, on the condition that she be returned before the following morning. She did not mention her upcoming marriage. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Travels with the Doctor
Amy's first trip in the TARDIS was to Starship UK in the 33rd century. She discovered the ship's secret: it was actually piloted by a Star Whale. Amy released it from its torture, realising it would help and continue steering the ship without force, 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 inadvertently aid the rebirth of the Daleks. Amy helped to deactivate the oblivion continuum bomb inside Bracewell by convincing him that he was human. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Soon after, Amy was taken to a museum in the far future, much to her annoyance as she wished to see a planet next, and ended on a trip with the Doctor to help rescue River Song, whom Amy did not know yet. After which, Amy was lead into a new adventure on Alfava Metraxis with the Doctor to help River Song and the Church defeat 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 this trauma, Amy revealed to the Doctor that she was getting married, and, in a fit of conflicting emotions, tried to seduce him. The Doctor, fearing that Amy was losing sight of the things that had been important to her in her day-to-day life, responded by collecting Rory and taking the two on a trip to Venice, 1580 to repair their relationship. They stopped Saturnynians from flooding the city. 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 being known as the Dream Lord. The Dream Lord taunted Amy about her triangular relationship with the Doctor and Rory, forcing her to choose between the two of them. She finally made this choice when Rory was killed in one version of reality, realising that she could not bear to live without him. Amy came to terms with her feelings for Rory on finding him still alive in the real world, and made it clear to him for the first time that his feelings were requited. (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 Silurians and humans, during which Amy bargained on behalf of the humans, Rory was shot and killed, and then erased from history by another of the cracks in space and time. Amy, after being initially completely devastated by her loss, lost all her memories of him. (DW: The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood)
The Doctor felt guilty about these events and took Amy to many wonderful places to ease this guilt. On one of these trips, they met Vincent Van Gogh, with whom Amy developed a close bond. He even dedicated a painting to her. She was deeply upset that, despite their efforts, he still committed suicide. (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 spent her time in the TARDIS helping the Doctor solve his problems communicating via an earpiece telephone he was wearing. (DW: The Lodger) After they were reunited Amy, while searching for a pen in the Doctor's jacket, discovered her engagement ring. She was unable to 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 and became involved in a trap for the Doctor involving an Alliance of the Doctor's enemies. Amy was reunited with Rory, who, unbeknownst to her had been recreated as an Auton. She regained her memories of him, she was thrilled to see him again only to be shot by Rory as, his Auton programming coming into play, 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 this damage, 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 remained erased from time. (DW: The Big Bang)
At long last, Amy had her wedding with Rory. At the reception she caught sight of River Song passing by the window, and found River's diary on the table. It was now that Amy began to recall details of the Doctor. She remembered him entirely and brought him back into reality, using only her time-altered mind. The Doctor, Rory and she bid goodbye to the rest of the guests and depart on another adventure - an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express, in space. (DW: The Big Bang)
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, temporarily stranding him until he retrieved it with the help of old companions. (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)
Some time later, Amy and Rory were still on their honeymoon when they got caught in the clouds above a planet. Amy donned her policewoman outfit and helped the Doctor in his Christmas Carol-like story as the Ghost of Christmas Present. 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 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 Doctor's TARDIS materialised inside itself after Rory accidentally caused it to do so while helping the Doctor conduct routine maintenance. Amy encountered a future version of herself, with whom she flirted. The Doctor dissolved the resulting space loop by using it to their advantage. (DW: Space / Time)
As a Ganger
Amy and Rory returned to Earth and acquired a house of their own. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) Amy became a model and appeared as the face of a brand of perfume called Petrichor. Its slogan was "For the girl who's tired of waiting." (DW: Closing Time)
At some point, the pregnant Amy was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and the Church shortly before their departure to the United States.
In late April, 2011, while visiting Colchester, she and Rory missed meeting with a version of the Doctor who, in his timeline, had already parted from them. Amy experienced some degree of fame from her modelling, as shown when a little girl got her autograph while she and Rory were shopping. The Doctor witnessed this and was clearly pleased, but didn't let his presence be known. (DW: Closing Time)
A few days later, Amy received a TARDIS blue invitation with co-ordinates telling her and Rory to met the Doctor in Utah on April 22. There, she joined the Doctor and River Song for a picnic at Lake Silenceo, where an mysterious astronaut emerged and shot the Doctor repeatedly to prevent regeneration. After disposing of the Doctor's body per his instructions, Amy returned to a dinner they met at to discover a younger Eleventh Doctor had been invited by the older version. Per River's coaxing, Amy managed to persuade the Doctor into finding the younger version of the fourth invitee in 1969, where they discovered malevolent aliens known as the Silence, who had been controlling earth since the Stone Age. During this time, Amy was kidnapped and informed that she will "bring the silence". After the Doctor started a revolution against the Silence, Amy decided to rejoin 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 from kidnapping the entire crew of a pirate ship. The Siren was really a virtual doctor from an invisible spaceship that took up the same space as the Fancy. Its crew commandeered the ship to see the stars. 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. She saved a drowning Rory's life with CPR. However, 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 any Time Lords that may have sent a distress signal, Amy and Rory were trapped inside the TARDIS by House, who planned to use it to escape its bubble universe to find new food sources. House toyed with Amy's love for Rory, using the TARDIS's temporal nature to cause her anguish as she was led to believe Rory had been left alone to die of old age. They were saved by the Doctor, who managed to regain entry to the TARDIS and use its very soul to expel/kill House. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
After a solar tsunami had sent the TARDIS on a crashlanding in the 22nd century, Amy became involved in the revolution of the Gangers, helping them to achieve equality despite being initially distasteful of the Ganger Doctor after he physically assaulted her while experiencing the pain of all the past Gangers.
Twice, Amy saw the Eyepatch Lady, but the Doctor dismissed her worries as a "time memory." During this time, 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 Demons Run to find herself full-term pregnant with Madame Kovarian, the Eye Patch Lady, (literally) watching over her as she began experiencing contractions. Ordered to push, Amy entered labour with a horrified scream. (DW: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People)
Becoming a mother
After giving birth, Amy decided to name her daughter Melody Pond, after her best friend, Mels. Unknown to Amy, Melody was secretly kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and replaced by a "flesh" version to help execute a trap for 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 trick, much to her horror. River then appeared and revealed to them that she was, in fact, Melody. The Doctor then left in search of the baby, leaving Amy to be returned home by her adult daughter. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
After an entire season had passed, Amy grew tired of waiting for the Doctor. She had Rory drive through a field in Leadworth to make a crop circle saying "Doctor". The Doctor arrived to find himself hijacked at gunpoint by Amy's childhood friend Mels, who was on the run from the police after stealing a car. The TARDIS crashed landed in Berlin in 1938; and, shot by Hitler, Mels (short for "Melody") regenerated into River Song and, now controlled by her programming, gave the Doctor a slow-acting fatal kiss. Eventually convincing Melody that the Doctor was worth saving, Amy watched as her daughter sacrificed 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 known as George who lived in a huge 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, George transformed Amy into one of them. She joined the dolls in harrassing Rory and the Doctor. When George overcame his fear, Amy was returned to normal, and said she was completely unharmed. (DW: Night Terrors)
When the TARDIS landed on the planet Apalapucia, the 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 moments it took Rory to reach her, she lived for thirty-six years without Human company. During this time, acquired a pet Handbot called Rory to keep her company and managed to cobble together own makeshift sonic screwdriver. Now toughened by her experiences, she grew adept in fighting arts and began to bitterly blame the Doctor for her plight. Seeing Rory again reminded her of 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 her escape 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
While in a prison designed for a Minotaur-like creature where each person had a room containing their nightmare, Amy found hers to be her younger self, waiting for the Doctor. In order to defeat the Minotaur, the Doctor was forced to make Amy lose her faith in him. Having left the realm, he returned both Amy and Rory to their house, leaving them behind in order to save them from further threats. Amy was upset at this, but accepted it, asking the Doctor to tell River to visit them if he saw her. (DW: The God Complex)
After the Doctor "died" and the alternate timeline that was created was reverted, Amy remembered everything and sat in her garden despondent until River, from just after the crash of the Byzantium arrived to cheer her up. River told Amy the truth about the lies she'd had to tell up until that point and revealed the truth of the Doctor's "death" to her, causing Amy to cheer, until she realised that she'd 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 eventually relented. The older Amy was left outside the TARDIS and killed by the Handbots. This timeline was negated due to the fact that Amy was rescued. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
In another alternate timeline where the Doctor wasn't killed due to a fixed point in time being altered, Amy was the leader of a group including Rory and River which was trying to fix time without killing the Doctor. Due to the Time Field in her room as she grew up, Amy remembered much of the true timeline and the Doctor, although she didn't recognise Rory as her husband despite him being with her a lot and her searching for him. Amy rescued the Doctor and Winston Churchill from the Silence and took the Doctor to her base in the Great Pyramids of Giza where she had a lot of Silence captive. There she tried to get the Doctor not to give up before the Silence broke free. After Rory nearly sacrificed himself to save her, Amy remembered who he was and saved him from the Silence before telling him that they needed to get a drink and get 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 the distress beacon and the Doctor married River with Amy and Rory's permission. The Doctor reverted time to Lake Silencio where he was "killed" by River and reverted the timeline to normal. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Known Family
- Rory Williams - husband
- Melody Pond - daughter (later "River Song")
- The Doctor - son-in-law
- Augustus Pond - father
- Tabetha Pond - mother
- Sharon - aunt
Personality
Amy is adventurous and a bit reckless at times, with a dry sense of humour and strong will. Because of her difficult childhood and abandonment by the Doctor, she is rarely open with her own feelings and sometimes mistrustful and wary. This makes her hold the people she cares about at arm's length. A good 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 already 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 when he first arrived. She had a lust for adventure, wishing to travel with him shortly after their meeting. When he did not return for her she grew to be 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 they met at Stonehenge (DW: The Pandorica Opens). Amy tried to seduce the Doctor once while confused about her own feelings. (DW Flesh and Stone) Rory claimed that she only passed her driving test on her first attempt because she had been wearing a revealing skirt. (DW: Space)
Amy was troubled, and at times lonely. She was often left alone in the house by her aunt Sharon, who had refused to deal with her fear of the crack in her bedroom wall. After meeting the Doctor as a child, Amelia was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor" and refused to believe that he was simply an imaginary friend, biting the psychiatrists her aunt sent her to when they tried to convince her otherwise. Mels, a school troublemaker and a close friend of Amy's, once pointed out that Amelia often misbehaved in school. Despite this, Amy was a protective maternal figure towards Mels, leading Mels - while regenerating into River Song after being revealed as Amy's actual daughter Melody Pond - to remark "You sort of raised me after all." (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Amy loved her husband, Rory passionately and shared a close bond with the Doctor. She once called him her best friend. (DW: Day of the Moon) Her bond with the Doctor was almost religious, holding faith that the Doctor could always fix things. This faith, along with the Doctor's incorrect theory, almost led to her death at the hands of the Minotaur and it took the Doctor telling her his flaws to save her. (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. 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 so that the Doctor, Rory and River could 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 back to the universe (DW: The Big Bang) with only her memories. She also knew enough about time to know that it could be rewritten and hoped that there was some way to rewrite it 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"), (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) and had bright 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 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. This is 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.
- 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.
- 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 couldn't swim.
Footnotes
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