Doctor Who - "The Wedding of River Song"

Season 6, Episode 13

A stepping stone, a stumbling block

 “I had to die; I didn’t have to die alone.”

-The Doctor

That Stephen Moffat is a crafty bitch.

Up until about last season, Doctor Who ran fairly conventional story arcs (in terms of cable standards, anyway), in that they were introduced at the beginning of a season, and the mystery was closed by the finale. Even last season followed this particular format –what with the cracks in space time – but it was also doing something else, even though we wouldn’t recognize until the next season rolled around. When The Silence appeared in “The Impossible Astronaut”, it didn’t take nerds long to pick up on the fact that oblique references had been made to them back in season five. Suddenly DW took on a whole new level of serialization; we were no longer dealing with season arc, but rather arcs that spanned a particular incarnation of The Doctor, and it adds a whole new level of intrigue to the show. 

And yet, there’s something comforting about that original formula, of knowing that the Big Bad you see in episode one will be destroyed/resolved by episode thirteen, and having that taken out from under us is a disorienting feeling, even if it manages to thrill at the same time. In truth, I probably should have seen this coming, this purposeful subversion of our expectations, but the show has so slowly transformed from its old storytelling mode from the new that just about anyone can be forgiven for being shocked, and perhaps angry, that “The Wedding of River Song” didn’t give us all the answers, not just yet.

But the episode did answer the most pressing question of the night: How will The Doctor prevent his death? Notice the ‘how’ I placed at the top of that question; given the show’s popularity, it was never uncertain that The Doctor would survive his assassination attempt in order to live to fight another season, thus the fun comes is watching The Doctor, and the show wiggle its way out of his death. This of course involved a whole lot of timey-wimey action, the trademark of the Moffat era, and though the whole “making an alternate timeline solely on will power” was perhaps overly similar to last year’s finale “The Big Bang”, this one actually made a bit more sense in my mind.

Is the idea that River could somehow fracture time itself simply by willing her way around a fix point in the time-space continuum overly complicated? Yes. But the idea of The Doctor and his companions being trapped in some sort of time bubble where every event happens simultaneously is just so outrageous that it takes on its own sense of logic, unlike say time paradoxes, which still have one foot in out reality and make my head hurt because of it. The show embraces it’s sillier elements, and because of it, it’s easier to accept when it breaks the tenets of out reality. Likewise, the actual reveal of how The Doctor avoided his death – by hiding in one of those robotic suits that we saw back in “Let’s Kill Hitler” – could feel like a cheat (and I figure there’s some that feel that way), but I see it as a comment on perception’s role in creating reality: since so many people saw the suit and thought that it actually was The Doctor, and that was enough for the universe to accept the “death” as real.

Regardless, it points to another one of the season’s strengths: the build-up to the season long arc. The Davies era always tried to play the build-up subtly, but it usually just felt as if the various hints sprinkled throughout the episode didn’t really add up to anything. When Moffat tried to course correct last season, it was still the same hint over and over, but it was perhaps a bit too obvious, even if it had the effect of building up actual momentum towards the finale. This season, Moffat changed things up once again by slowly the building the story through different yet concrete plot points, some of which – like the robotic suit ship – weren’t even specifically called upon, which left their inclusion here feeling like a nice surprise.

But let’s return to that idea of the standard season finale that answer’s all the questions, as it’s important in understanding what doesn’t work in the episode. Now, in many respect, this is meant to be a fulcrum episode, one which shifts the focus for next season’s arc, and as titillating as that may be, the episode goes through a lot of pains to get to that point, and it suffers because of it. The episode is quite busy, and though some of the forward momentum is exciting at first, the episode quickly becomes overstuffed with too many characters and plot twists, and you can feel the show stretching in order to achieve Moffat’s vision for next season. Most season finales’ are two-parters; I think Moffat should have done the same here, even with all of the other “mythology” episodes that were included this season.

The question going forward know – besides “Doctor who?” which is a nice play on an old joke and somehow manages to make the transition without feely schlocky – is where this leads in the future. The Doctor has since sworn off having companions, a move that we know won’t work because A) the show particularly requires at least one person to accompany The Doctor and B) for all the bastard-depiction the show’s done in the back half of this season, this finale did a lot to make him redeemable. And that seems to poise next season for a storyline about The Doctor’s relationship with his companions and humans in general. If the show is going to add some heavier ongoing character drama next season on top of the heavier serialization then that’s something I certainly would be interested in, but I would hate for the show to crack under the pressure of trying to do too much.

See you back in December for the Christmas Special, and then Fall 2012 for the next season.

Quotes, Etc:

In case you missed it, that phone call about the Death of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was in memory of the actor who played him, Nicholas Courtney, who passed away a few months back. It was a sweet little moment, and it only makes me wish the show was able to do one for Elisabeth Sladen.

“What’s she like? Attractive, I presume.” “Hell, in high heels.”

“Okay, hugging and missing now.”

“She would like to go out with you for texting and scones.”

“And so the man who dies, dies again.” Man, even The Silence know about Rory’s tendency to die

“I’m not sure I understand.” “We got married and had a kid and that’s her.” “Okay.”

“Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m his wife.” “And I’m his…mother-in-law.” “Daddy, I think Mummy needs a bit more to drink.”