The Wedding of River Song (1 Oct. 2011)

It's April 22, 2011 the day the Doctor is supposed to die but time seems to be stuck at 5:02 p.m. London streets are clogged not only with automobiles but also Roman chariots; pterodactyls ... See full summary »

Director:

Jeremy Webb

Writers:

Steven Moffat, Terry Nation (characters: "Daleks"),

Stars:

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Matt Smith	...	The Doctor
Karen Gillan	...	Amy Pond
Arthur Darvill	...	Rory
Alex Kingston	...	River Song
Frances Barber	...	Madame Kovarian
Simon Fisher-Becker	...	Dorium Maldovar
Ian McNeice	...	Emperor Winston Churchill
Richard Hope	...	Dr. Malokeh
Marnix Van Den Broeke	...	The Silent
Nicholas Briggs	...	Dalek (voice)
Simon Callow	...	Charles Dickens
Sian Williams	...	Herself
Bill Turnbull	...	Himself
Meredith Vieira	...	Newsreader
Niall Greig Fulton	...	Gideon Vandaleur

Storyline

It's April 22, 2011 the day the Doctor is supposed to die but time seems to be stuck at 5:02 p.m. London streets are clogged not only with automobiles but also Roman chariots; pterodactyls fly in the sky. The Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill, calls on a prisoner to explain what is happening. In fact, all time seems to be occurring all at once. The Doctor determines that a fixed point in time has been altered or prevented from occurring. That fixed point is his own death at Lake Silencio where history records that River Song killed him. Of course not all is as it seems, particularly as it relates to the Doctor himself.

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Plot Keywords:

disembodied head | time stands still | anachronism | stopped time | winston churchill | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 October 2011 (UK)

Filming Locations:

Bear Lake, Idaho, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Cymru Wales

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The brief appearance of Simon Callow as Charles Dickens marks the first time that any character (other than the Doctor or River Song) from series 1-4 has appeared on-screen in an eleventh Doctor story. Callow previously played Dickens in the first season story "Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead".

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Goofs

Where the Doctor has Dorium's head in the box, and it's upside down in the Tardis, you can see a small patch of non-blue flesh if you look towards the top of the box/his neck.

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Quotes

Madame Kovarian: You'll rescue me, won't you? Because it's what he'd do, and you'd never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor.
Amy Pond: The Doctor is precious to me, yes. But do you know what else he is? Not here.
[puts Madame Kovarian's eye drive back on her, knowing it will electrocute her]
Amy Pond: River Song didn't get it all from you - sweetie.

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Soundtracks

"Doctor Who Theme"
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

User Reviews

The Old Nick of Time

Having found himself written into a corner, series runner Steven Moffat has written himself out of it in a workmanlike manner that is at once thrilling -- because he knows how to keep things moving along, fast and furious, with verminous pterodactyls, hungry skulls and weird, weird images -- and in other ways a cheat. It shows up as like those rococo Doctor Who novels of the turn of the millennium, turned out by writers who loved the Doctor for fans who loved him even more: bizarre, tightly plotted ormolu clocks that ticked on the mantel while people argued over weird stuff.

It is in some ways necessary to have these pieces in the background, to give some depth to the show. Otherwise it's just about a mad man in a box running around the universe, fouling up history and keeping Daleks from their day-to-day job of extermination. In other ways, it's a danger as fans demand more and more details to keep up their interest. After a while it's of interest to no one save five guys in a chat room, arguing about the spelling of made-up words. It's certainly not enough to keep a major television series running. These things, after all, do cost money. Balance is needed.

The first attempt to rebalance the universe was what is known as the Cartmel Masterplan. Andrew Cartmel was the script editor of the last few seasons of the classic series, and after more than a quarter of a century, there was little mystery left. Cartmel roughed out some ideas for the background of Doctor Who to restore the mystery. Unhappily, the series ended before he could do much with it, and the Cartmel Masterplan was left for those clockwork novels in the 1990s. They wound up revealing all again, only this time it was different. Then the series was revived, and the first season set up those mysteries, while the next four years revealed them. Again, the answer was different.

Time for another change. Although Moffat has let us see what he is doing, like Penn and Teller doing the cup-and-ball trick, he has, in this last story, set up the Doctor for another turn around the park. Again, no one knows that he exists. Again he is just a madman in a box and again, we are confronted with the basic mystery: "Doctor Who?" In some ways it is unsatisfying, but in others it is just right. Doctor Who has been reinvented so many times without what is called these days a "series reboot." It's needed to keep it fresh and interesting, and I am willing to nod and pretend that the hand is faster than the eye. It's all part of the game. We need to ask "Doctor Who?" and know that the answer we get today is not the answer we will get tomorrow. There is something childish about continuing to play the game... no. Something childlike. Every time they invent the Doctor, we get a chance to look at him with fresh eyes. It's exhilarating. On to the next season!