Amy Pond (The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)
Amy Pond was a character in a second version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.
Amy, her friend the Doctor, and her partner Rory, appeared towards the end of the play in Acts IV and V, travelling from scene to scene in a blue box called the TARDIS, which was apparently bigger on the inside. The trio mainly served to alter the original version which ended with the death of Romeo after he discovered Juliet in a state of apparent death and the death of Juliet after she awoke and found Romeo dead. One publication noted the reason for this plot point was due to Shakespeare finding himself under pressure from James Burbage to "make dark tragedie light", compelling him to write "the story as it did truly unfold, by misfortune unmarred". Amy was a thinly-veilled counterpart of the Amy Pond from Leadworth while the Doctor and Rory were clearly based upon the Eleventh Doctor and Rory Williams. It was their prominent role which merited the inclusion of this alternative draft in the Shakespeare Notebooks. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)
Fictional biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Amy first appeared with the Doctor and Rory in Act IV Scene III, just as Juliet took her sleeping draught and fell unconscious on her bed. Upon examining her, Amy suggested she might be roused from her sleep with a slap on the cheek or a touch of ice, though the Doctor stated this would not work as Juliet had taken enough potion "to stun an elephant". Rory then asked what they should do, noting the risk of staying to be discovered with Juliet's corpse. Amy and the Doctor both agreed and the trio left, bound for a street in Mantua.
They reappeared in Act V Scene I, arriving seconds too late once again. This time they were unable to prevent Romeo from purchasing poison from an apothecary, which he planned to use on himself in the Capulet tomb so he could lie with his "dead" love. When Amy asked where Romeo was heading, the apothecary was initally unwilling to answer the question but happily told them of Romeo's plans after the Doctor gave him some gold. Amy told the apothecary Juliet was merely feigning death, prompting him to simply respond "Oh no!", before the trio rushed to the TARDIS again, bound for the tomb.
They were able to arrive just in time on this occasion, during Act V Scene III, emerging from behind an altar as Romeo was preparing to drink the poison. The Doctor asked him to stop his present course of action and explained to him that Juliet was not dead, telling him what a "grave tragedy" it would be if she awoke to find him dead. Amy added that she would most likely take Romeo's dagger and "do herself in". She also told him they would explain later when Romeo bombarded them with several questions about their identities. The Doctor assured him she would "soon stir" and Juliet awoke as predicted after Amy encouraged him to "kiss the girl". Proclaiming that "fate ha[d] been re-writ", the Doctor stopped the couple from leaving Verona to start a new life together and said they had to help heal the rift between their two feuding families. He further elaborated that their deaths would have shown them "hate's consequence and [taught] them both to end their harsh discord and emnity". Romeo spoke up about how he believed such a thing was now impossible at which point Amy said they had a "cunning plan" and revealed a second Romeo and Juliet, actually a Sontaran clone and "a borrow'd Teselecta" respectively. The two doubles took up their positions as if they had been killed and the Doctor and Amy ushered everyone into the TARDIS where they remained out of sight until the bodies were discovered.
After Romeo and Juliet's fathers, Montague and Capulet respectively, saw their children's bodies laying together and healed their rift as a result, all five of those concealed in the TARDIS emerged, revealing Romeo and Juliet and the subterfuge involving their doubles. Although they celebrated, Romeo noted the demise of both Tybalt and Sir Paris by his sword was "still a blemish on [their] joy". He asked to be banished from Verona but the Doctor revealed they also lived. The Paris slain by Romeo was a Nestene duplicate but Amy was confused as to how Tybalt could live on, with the Doctor quietly explaining that it was not the human Tybalt but a Zygon who the Doctor had previously saved from burning as a witch, now returning the favour owed. With all the couples "set to wed", and telling his friends "their work [was] done", it was the Doctor who closed the play in this alternative draft. He stated that though it was often said "no tale could hope to overset the love of Romeo for Juliet, never was there a more joyful story than that of Amy Pond and her dear Rory". (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)
