Texting and Scones

Doctor Who : The Wedding of River Song

The Wedding of River Song made my head hurt when I first watched it, but once I had watched it all the way through for a second time it all made perfect sense. The whole thing with the Doctor who died on the banks of Lake Silencio actually being the Tesellecta disguised as the Doctor was a bit of a copout really, but it was about the only way that they could have made the whole thing work, as the Doctor had to be seen to die and by doing this he made sure that that happened as it always must.

The only other possible way they could have gotten away with it would have been to bring the ganger Doctor back for this episode but that seems to have been forgotten about and I guess that the mentions of the Tesellecta in the pre title sequence was also a bit of a hint as to how they were going to solve the problem.

A few people have said that wasn’t right as the Doctor on the beach was seen to start to regenerate but you can argue that the Tesellecta would be more than capable of faking that as well, which is exactly what they did, which makes the whole idea very plausible indeed.

Well, it was a thrill a minute to be honest and it looked really great. I in particular liked the hot air balloons carrying cars and the all of the steam trains that sped around on huge rail tracks in the sky. That was a really great spectacle and must have used a good portion of the effects budget up on its own.

Matt Smith really gave us a tour-de-force performance as the Doctor, and he is getting better episode by episode he really is, and he was at his peerless best in this episode from start to finish here. It was nice to River as we are used to seeing her in this episode after we met her for the first time (from her point of view at least) in Let’s Kill Hitler when she was very different indeed.

Versions of Amy and Rory also featured in this episodes with Amy being more like the one we all know, with Rory being totally clueless about anything (some might say that that’s quite normal for Rory though) until at the end of the episode when we saw them as they were just after they were left in Closing Time and they were told the truth about what happened at Like Silencio, despite the Doctor’s express instructions that River was to tell no-one although if she couldn’t tell her parents the truth, then who could she?

This could either mean that Amy and Rory and River’s story are all told but it does also mean that any of them could appear again in future episodes. We will have to wait and see on that one.

There some really good ideas in this episode and some interesting places that the Doctor has visited such as the bar when the Doctor found the cleric who worked for the Silence (which seemed to come straight out of 2000AD and the 1995 Judge Dredd film) and the whole notion of Live Chess which may never be explored again, which would be a great shame if you ask me.

I am also glad that we finally found out that River is actually the Doctor’s wife as that has always been my take on the situation since her first appearance in the series and I am glad that it has been confirmed. I also loved Amy’s reaction at being the Doctor’s mother-in-law, her face was a picture.

The Wedding of River Song was a good ending to the series but was at times just as frustrating as it was brilliant with its twisty-turny timey-wimey plot which is always worth the effort when watched a few times, and all of the pieces fall together. They are always there; they just need to be put in the right order for it to make perfect sense, which it usually does in the end.

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