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32X13 The Wedding of River Song (Grading/Discussion) SPOILERS

What did you think of "The Wedding of River Song"?


  • Total voters
    176
So after wondering about the usual Doctor silly stuff I have come up with this early theory about The Silence and the first question. I am not taking the question as meaning what is the Doctors name or even what is his nature. No I believe that the Doctor is going to borrow the Silences ability to be forgotten when he is out of sight. If there is a technology to see the silence it can be reversed and applied to make someone else disappear. Maybe the Tardis will generate the effect which will allow people to see him for the duration of an adventure and then forget him. So do you remember the Doctor? Doctor Who? And this will also allow the Doctor to stay virtually dead to the universe. This will of course annoy the Silence more so if he goes and steals the technology from them and is the one who will defeat them time and time again. Which is the reason they will want to kill him. Oh and of course the companions will be protected from the effect as long as they are with him and then they too will forget the Doctor.

I like this idea a lot.

same here, it makes a lot of sense.

Something I'm wondering, what exactly is the deal with the infamous story people like to tell that the only way that the Nation Estate would allow the Daleks to be used in Nu Who is if they would be used every year. I've heard other people claim this story is bogus, but every year we've had either Dalek episodes or episodes with Dalek scenes that weren't really relevant to the plot, like the flashback scene in The Waters of Mars or the Dalek seen in this episode. The only possible reason I can think of for including these is if they were under contractual obligation to show Daleks. Yet, people who are otherwise reliable claim this is not the case. So what is the deal?
according to Moffat in Confidential, he didn't know he was writing for the Dalek until he wrote the Dalek scene. Now he could be lying...
 
On a related note, when we saw the Doctor from the Dalek's perspective, why was it coloured normally as opposed to tinted blue like all other Dalek point of view shots have been, even the New Paradigm's?

Well, the new Daleks had a different, yellow overlay, but that's beside the point. I'd bet it was just to create a little suspense as to what exactly the Doctor was talking to.
 
^ Women don't have to adopt their husbands name you know.
Melody. Me-lo-dy. Not Amy. If I was Rory, I'd be all like "She's MY daughter, so it's MY name at the end, now get back in the kitchen and batter me a Mars Bar". Poor Rory's a henpecked bastard though. "Och aye, d'yer think yure havin' anythin' ter do with mah wee babbeh yer useless prick?" I'm surprised they had sex at all, considering how the poor twat got all excited at a glimpse up her skirt in that Comic Relief embarrassment. Kids' show.

So as for that question being in plain view: how was it? Does the Doctor know he's in an increasingly shit TV show?
 
When I consider these overly complex and ad hoc story arcs with their conspiracies, unanswered questions, and vague antagonists, I think back to what Scotty said in the third movie:

"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

Either that... or maybe we're just not meant to take this shit so seriously in the FIRST place. ;)
 
Melody. Me-lo-dy. Not Amy. If I was Rory, I'd be all like "She's MY daughter, so it's MY name at the end, now get back in the kitchen and batter me a Mars Bar". Poor Rory's a henpecked bastard though. "Och aye, d'yer think yure havin' anythin' ter do with mah wee babbeh yer useless prick?" I'm surprised they had sex at all, considering how the poor twat got all excited at a glimpse up her skirt in that Comic Relief embarrassment. Kids' show.

So as for that question being in plain view: how was it? Does the Doctor know he's in an increasingly shit TV show?
It must be really.... something... being you.

Probably one of those words you use in your posts. Lots.
 
Melody. Me-lo-dy. Not Amy. If I was Rory, I'd be all like "She's MY daughter, so it's MY name at the end, now get back in the kitchen and batter me a Mars Bar". Poor Rory's a henpecked bastard though. "Och aye, d'yer think yure havin' anythin' ter do with mah wee babbeh yer useless prick?" I'm surprised they had sex at all, considering how the poor twat got all excited at a glimpse up her skirt in that Comic Relief embarrassment. Kids' show.

So as for that question being in plain view: how was it? Does the Doctor know he's in an increasingly shit TV show?
It must be really.... something... being you.

Probably one of those words you use in your posts. Lots.
What are you trying to say man? Spit it out.
 
I believe that the Doctor is going to borrow the Silences ability to be forgotten when he is out of sight.

They would never know that the 11th doctor they're seeing is post Lake Silencio.

He's got 200 years on his life.

How would they know he's pre Lake Silencio
 
The only way I can rationalize The Wedding of River Song is that its like Father's Day. Rose had to let go of her father, let him die in order for time to be restored. In this case, The Doctor had to make River Song willingly allow his own death to occur in order to restore time.

This story did not need jumping all over the time stream. Instead, I wished Moffat would have allowed the story to flow naturally from when The Doctor left Craig's house to Lake Silencio to the messed up time world to the wedding. I think that would have improved the narrative dramatically.
 
There is something also I didn't like about this episode - those bloody skulls. This was an incredibly awful concept, and makes the headless monks even more worse than they were before.

So, I join a religious order, and I fight for a powerful church. I am selected one day to join the headless monks. They chop off my head, and my body continues to function. If I am poor, my head decomposes. If I am rich, my head is stuck in a box and my head doesn't decompose. Say I am poor. My head is stuck in an alcove initially, and my fleshless head feeds on some animal. Then, to make room for the new head, my head is thrown into a pit where I wait for some hapless animal or person to fall into the pit. My fleshless head competes with other skulls to consume the victim.

Does any of this make any sense?

Doctor Who has had its share of wonky science. This, however, takes the cake. It isn't jumping the shark bad, but it's close.

For the record, I selected exterminate. I hated the hectic pace of this episode, I hated some of the concepts in the episode, and I hated myself for watching this crap.
 
Yeah. I actually laughed at the skulls. There's just no way to justify the skulls with science without running into something stupidly improbable or venturing into the paranormal.
 
I haven't weighed in discussing the recent episodes, didn't find time for it. Heck, I even didn't find time to watch the final three episodes until yesterday.

My thoughts on the final ep. are pretty much in line with what many others here have said: entertaining, but in no way coming even close to a coherent story.

Many of the points concerning the internal logic of the story have been brought up and discussed already, but I don't think this one has been discussed (although one or two posters have mentioned the question): What did the Silence need River Song for if they stick her in an automated space suit (also... wtf?) in the end anyway? How did that make any sense at all? Couldn't they have put Joe Schmoe in the suit, or no one even?


So after wondering about the usual Doctor silly stuff I have come up with this early theory about The Silence and the first question. I am not taking the question as meaning what is the Doctors name or even what is his nature. No I believe that the Doctor is going to borrow the Silences ability to be forgotten when he is out of sight. If there is a technology to see the silence it can be reversed and applied to make someone else disappear. Maybe the Tardis will generate the effect which will allow people to see him for the duration of an adventure and then forget him. So do you remember the Doctor? Doctor Who? And this will also allow the Doctor to stay virtually dead to the universe. This will of course annoy the Silence more so if he goes and steals the technology from them and is the one who will defeat them time and time again. Which is the reason they will want to kill him. Oh and of course the companions will be protected from the effect as long as they are with him and then they too will forget the Doctor.

I like it!
 
Mildly disappointed by the lack of cupboards. Other than that: glad to see Doctor going undercover, and I seriously hope writers will stick to it. The "I am The Doctor. Basically, run." thing was getting kind of boring lately. A return to basics will be welcome.

Pterodactyls are vermin. Do not feed.
 
What did the Silence need River Song for if they stick her in an automated space suit (also... wtf?) in the end anyway? How did that make any sense at all?

My rationalisation is that they were using River as a power source for the weapon - I'm assuming she had some residual regeneration energy that they could exploit.

As for the skulls - yes, those were very silly, and mostly intended to spare the bejesus out of young children.
 
That's easy - they needed River because history shows that River kills the Doctor (don't think about it too much).
 
Well I enjoyed it on the whole. Amy looked especially fantastic in this episode.

I too think Omega is coming back.

Not much too say that hasn't been said already.

The stand alones in this series have been better than the arc stories.
 
[very silly speculation]
Dare I say it but even new Who might have to end sometime. The Ouroboros on the arm of the Corsair might indicate that the long-term plan (if such a thing exists) is for the Doctor's life to feed back on its own tail. Would that happen at the end of 11's or 12's cycle, with him regenerating to become the 1st Doctor again? Does he become an Omega (the last; probably not the Omega who created the Hand) before becoming the 1st at a young age (let's call him Alpha)? It avoids the problem of the Doctor dying as he becomes a closed time-like loop. It does also imply that he is never born, of course. As to why he stole the Tardis, and what he is running away from - perhaps he was fleeing his destiny.
[/very silly speculation]
 
^ I still have had a out there theory about the line at the duck pond in "The Eleventh Doctor" where he clutches his chest and a little poof of regenerative energy seeps out and he states something like "Not yet" was a shout out line about the Valeyard. I've basically dismissed that as a legit theory but am retaining it to work on as a fan fic project.
 
4/5. Although, I'm sure it'll get a 5/5 from a lot of people based on the visuals alone. The story was entertaining but mostly by the numbers. The all time happening at the same time really didn't add much to the story. That was added as an excuse for the visuals in order to distract viewers from the fact that this was a by the numbers story. There wasn't much point to it all, really.

Having said that, I did enjoy this story. It logically wrapped up a number of storylines and had some great characterization. Characterization was great! The wrapup, not so much. The Teselecta was only a surprise because Moffat had assured us that it was the Doctor, but it wasn't. Or maybe it was the first time around but it wasn't later, but that doesn't make sense either.

At any rate, guessing that next season will deal with fleshing out the Silence, as an organization, and the anniversary year will deal with setting up the answer to the question: Doctor Who? That's perfect anniversary material!

Mr Awe

I voted "good" the first time I have no voted excellent to a series finale but just because it wasn't quite as epic as I hoped and I really feel Moffat could of made a 2 parter out of the story.

Noooo! This story was padded as it was. Did you not recognize the fact that the time all happening at once was just padding to fill out the story? The visuals were there to distract you, and apparently it worked!

Try this exercise. Imagine that River never changed the fixed point in time and that all time happening at once thing just didn't happen. What would happen then? Well, the Doctor would've been enveloped by the Teselecta as he planned and the rest would've happened as it did.

That part of the story was just their to look pretty and fill up time! Yeah, we did learn about the purpose of the eyepatches in there and Amy had her significant moment, but there could've been other ways to do that if they didn't have the need to run out the clock.

I thought the episode was alright. Entertaining. But, it didn't need to be longer.

Mr Awe

How can the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio be a fixed point if there's also a Fall Of Eleven at Trenzalore which hasn't happened yet?

It's fucking Stavromula Beta all over again, HHGG fans...
The Doctor's death at Lake Silencio was never fixed, but his fake death was. Time went all horrible because the fake death didn't occur as it should.

I think that's a good interpretation of it. The Silence thought it was his actual death that was a fixed point but they were mistaken. They are not omnipotent characters so that's OK.

But, that only highlights how pointless the time comes to a stop scenes are!! You can delete those and nothing is different.

Mr Awe
 
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