Amy Pond
Amelia "Amy" Jessica Pond (b. 1989) was the first companion of the Doctor during his eleventh incarnation. She was the wife of Rory Williams and the mother of Melody Pond (aka River Song). When River married the Doctor, Amy became the Doctor's mother-in-law (DW: The Wedding of River Song).
Biography
Birth and early life
Amelia Jessica Pond was born in Scotland in 1989. Despite living so long in England, she never lost her Scottish accent. Amy was orphaned and raised by her aunt Sharon in the small town of Leadworth. 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, there never were any cracks in time. Amygrew 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 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. He returned twelve years later. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Adolescence
While waiting, Amelia was obsessed with her "Raggedy Doctor", creating dolls, comics and dress-up games around him, and talking her friends into dressing up as him. 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 high school, she palled around with her friends "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 understood that Rory had been paying attention to her all those years, and she returned his affections. She culd not know at the time that Mels was really her daughter, Melody Pond. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Second meeting with the Doctor
Amelia called herself "Amy" to distance herself from what the Doctor called her "fairy tale name". She became Rory's girlfriend, and took a job as a "kissogram". The Doctor returned when she was nineteen. 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 became engaged to Rory and was due to be wed on the 26th of June, 2010. The night before, the Doctor returned to keep the promise he had made to Amelia on Easter 1996. She joined him on the condition 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 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 that he was human. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Soon after, Amy was taken to a museum in the far future and ended on a trip with the Doctor to help rescue the mysterious River Song. Amy was led into a new adventure on Alfava Metraxis with the Doctor to help River and the Church defeat an army of Weeping Angels. Amy nearly died under the power of Angel Bob. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
After this trauma, Amy admitted to the Doctor that she was getting married and tried to seduce him. The Doctor, fearing that Amy was losing sight of the things that were important to her in her day-to-day life, collected Rory and took 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, and was 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 version of reality, she realised 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 fully reciprocated. (DW: Amy's Choice)
In Cwmtaff, Wales, Amy witnessed the resurrection of a group of Silurians. After am aborted attempt to create an alliance between humans and them, during which Amy bargained on behalf of mankind, Rory was shot, killed and then erased from history by another of the cracks in space and time. Amy, 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 and he 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, 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 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 remained erased from time. (DW: The Big Bang)
Amywas 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 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 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 in fact 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, stranding him. 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)
While their honeymoon continued, Amy and Rory were 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. 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 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 dissolved the resulting space loop by using it to their advantage. (DW: Space / Time)
As a Ganger
Amy and Rory returned to Earth. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut) She became a model and appeared as the face of a perfume called Petrichor. Its slogan was "For the girl who's tired of waiting." (DW: Closing Time)
A 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 a version of the Doctor who, in his timeline, had already parted from them. Amy had become a celebrity from her modelling and a little girl got her autograph while she and Rory were shopping. The Doctor witnessed this and was clearly pleased, but didn't make his presence known. (DW: Closing Time)
About this time, Amy received a TARDIS blue invitation telling her and Rory to go to Utah on 22nd April. They joined the Doctor and River Song for a picnic at Lake Silencio, where an mysterious astronaut emerged and shot the Doctor repeatedly to prevent regeneration. After disposing of the Doctor's body per his instructions, they returned to a diner to discover a younger Eleventh Doctor had been invited by the older version. With River's coaxing, 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 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, after Rory convinced her that she could do it. 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 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 its bubble universe to find new food. House toyed with Amy's love for Rory, using the TARDIS's temporal nature to cause her anguish; 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)
A solar tsunami 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 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 contractions. Ordered 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 Amy, Melody was secretly 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 trick. 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)
After 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 Doctor arrived to find himself hijacked at gunpoint by Amy's friend, Mels, on the run from the police after stealing a car. The TARDIS crashed in Berlin in 1938; hot 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 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 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, she acquired a pet Handbot called Rory to keep her company and managed to cobble together a makeshift sonic screwdriver. Toughened by her experiences, she grew adept in fighting and bitterly blamed 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 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. Having left the realm, he returned Amy and Rory to a new house, leaving them behind to save them from further threats. 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, becoming involved in a promotional campaign for a perfume that (coincidentally or not) carried the name Petrichor (a word associated with a past adventure with the Doctor). By the time the Doctor encountered Craig Owens regarding a minor Cybermen invasion, Amy had gained enough fame to be seen signing autographs. (DW: Closing Time)
After the Doctor "died" and the alternate timeline that was created was reverted, Amy remembered everything and sat in her garden, despondent about the Doctor's 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'd had to tell until then, including the Doctor's "death". This lifted Amy's spirits 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, 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 due to a fixed point in time being altered, Amy was the leader of a group that included Rory and River. They were trying 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, although 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 Pyramids of Giza where she held many Silence captive. 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. She told him that 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 the distress beacon and the Doctor married River with their permission. 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 on 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. She had a lust for adventure, wishing to travel with him on their meeting. When he did not return for her, she grew to be a cynical and aggressive young woman, but , 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). She 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 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 an imaginary friend, 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 hers - while regenerating into River Song after being revealed as Amy's actual 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. 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)
Amy was also capable of cruelty. In an alternate timeline, when Madame Kovarian was being killed by her eye drive, Kovarian managed to get the drive most of the way off, and asked Amy to help her because it was what the Doctor would do. Amy simply said "He's not here" and put Kovarian's eye drive back on, killing 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) 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. (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 couldn't 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.
Footnotes
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