OK. Here we go. It’s payoff time. The Doctor is headed to Lake Silencio for an inevitable appointment with an impossible astronaut. Does Moffat deliver in the finale? Does the Doctor really die? Find out in my review as Series 6 comes it’s pulse-pounding finale.

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS INCLUDING A FULL PLOT SUMMARY. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE EPISODE, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

As with all reviews, my comments will be in bold.

Review: Doctor Who – Series 6 – Episode 13 – The Wedding of River Song

As the War of the Roses enters its second year (The War of the Roses was actually the collective name for a series of battles for the British throne that lasted 30 years. The “War of the Roses” term is generally used to refer to the final, year long battle that culminated in Henry Tudor marrying Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV in 1485) even as London picnickers are warned not to feed the pterodactyls DON’T FEED THE PTERODACTYL’S? and Charles Dickens(Simon Callow – who played Dickens in the Series 1 Episode “The Unquiet Dead” alongside Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor) is interviewed about his new Christmas ghost special A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2?, Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill (Ian McNiece, again doing incredible justice to Churchill, last seen in the Series 5 episode “Victory of the Daleks”, opposite Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor) What is going on? returns to Buckingham Palace from a conference in Gaul with Cleopatra to wonder why it is always 5:02 PM on 22 April 2011. Now where have I seen that date and time before now? His Silurian physician, Dr. Malokeh, (last seen in the Series 5 episode “Cold Blood”) tells him it is always that time, but Churchill has his doubts and summons his soothsayer (Guess Who?) from the dungeon of London Tower. It is the Doctor (Matt Smith, again wearing the beard last seen in  “Day of the Moon”), who tells him it is because of a woman. But not just any woman……

In a flashback, the Doctor wants to know why he must die. Taking all the information on the Silence from a dying Dalek (See everybody, Moffat gave us one this series after all, albeit a dead one), he tracks down Father Gideon Vandaleur, actually the Teselecta (last seen in “Let’s Kill Hitler”), who points him in the right direction: the Silence’s agent, Gantok (Mark Gatiss, yes, it’s REALLY him), who almost electrocutes himself in a game of live chess with the Doctor.The pieces are wired with electricity. The more times you move a piece, the more electricity it stores. The Doctor “That’s why they call it “live”chess.” To avoid death, Gantok takes him to the head of Dorium Maldovar (Simon FIsher Becker, last seen being beheaded by the Headless Monks in “A Good Man Goes to War”) in the Seventh Transept. This is a very creepy place, with living, moving skulls everwhere. Gantok, by the way, tries to prove himself  a still faithful agent of Silence, by shooting the Doctor, but he falls into one of the Transept’s many traps, and is devoured in a pit of living skulls.

Dorium explains that if the Doctor lives long enough, on the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question that must never be answered will be asked: the first question, hidden in plain sight. He asks the Doctor if he wants to know the question and he nervously agrees. Wouldn’t you?

Taking Dorium’s head with him, I couldn’t help but think of the Pee-Wee Herman character Jambi the Genie, the Doctor determines to continue his farewell tour. However, when he learns that his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dead, the Doctor’s defiance crumbles. (The Brigadier was a recurring character, dealing mostly with John Pertwee’s 3rd Doctor and Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor, but also appearing in the Sarah Jane Adventures alongside the late Elizabeth Sladen in the first season. He was portrayed by actor Nicholas Courtnay, who passed away this year.) His time has come. He gives the invitations to the Teselecta to deliver and goes to Lake Silencio with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darville) and River Song, (Alex Kingston) where they drink a bottle of wine that Napoleon threw at him. An impossible astronaut rises from the lake and the Doctor goes to meet it. It is River Song, trapped in the suit by Madame Kovarian and the Silents. (As shown at teh end of “Closing Time”) She has no control over the suit and is about to kill her love. He forgives her unconditionally and shuts his eyes as her arm rises to deliver the three killing blows. We have already seen these events in “the Impossible Astronaut”, so we are literaly back where we started.

There are five bursts that make him flinch.  Wait, there are only supposed to be 3. What gives? The Doctor opens his eyes to demand what she has done. She has discharged her weapons systems harmlessly and the world shatters about them. And, she’s quite proud of herself for altering a fixed event.

The Doctor and Churchill discuss these events.  They are in a different room and don’t know how they got there. Uh oh.Tally marks appear on the Doctor’s arms. I think we all know where this is heading. As the Silence (and there are a LOT of them) on the ceiling prepare to attack the Doctor and Churchill, a grenade rolls into the hall and they are rescued by a company of soldiers under an eyepatch-wearing Amy Pond (WHAT?), who shoots the Doctor. (WHAT?)

The Doctor wakes in Amy’s office on a train bound for Area 52 inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how weird that sentence is. She grew up with a crack in her wall (see Series 5) , and remembers both timelines. She draws pictures of the other timeline, but cannot remember that her husband is Captain Williams in her force. They have captured more than a hundred Silents and walk past the prisoners (Silence in water) to the King’s Chamber, where River Song is trying to keep the Doctor alive. The Doctor: “Honey, I’m home. River: “And what sort of time do you call this?” Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) is their prisoner, too and they have used her eyepatch to create eye drives that let them remember the Silents even when not looking at them. The eyepatch is explained at last! Madame Kovarian has one of my favorite lines from this episode. Madame Kovarian, to the Doctor: “Why couldn’t you just die?”

The Doctor goes to take River Song’s hand, but she knows that they are the poles of an explosion waiting to destroy this timeline.When the touch, time begins moving again, and they are transported back to Lake Silencio. She has him handcuffed and tries to convince him to live. Even as she does so, the Silence begin to escape. Uh, oh…part 2. It is their trap the Doctors’ friends have fallen into and as the forces beat a retreat to the King’s Chamber, their eye drives electrify and kill them. Eyepatches are bad. If you learn anything from this series, let it be that. Madame Kovarian mocks them, until her eye drive begins to spark. Rule number one, get rid of the witnesses. As Rory prepares to hold off the Silence, River, the Doctor and Amy go up to the apex of the Pyramid to see what River has been doing. The door bursts open and Rory collapses to his knees as the Silence enter and begin to electrocute him, (they actually make a joke about the many deaths of Rory throughout the  past two series) but Amy kills them all with a machine gun, then cold-bloodedly kills a terrified Kovarian by replacing her eyedrive, telling her that River’s psychopathic behavior did not arise solely from her rearing. This is the darkest we have seen “our” version of Amy. She is almost as cruel as “older Amy” from “The Girl Who Waited.” It is EXTREMELY satisfying to see Madame Kovarian get her comeuppance, and it is made even sweeter since it comes at the hands of the person she has wronged most: Amy. This is payback for stealing from Amy the chance to see Melody grow up. And, it is vengeance best served cold.

On the top of the Great Pyramid, River has built a distress beacon, asking the universe for help across all time zones: the Doctor is dying. Please help. The answer comes back: Yes, of course. The Doctor, however, insists that no one can help him. He must die. How ungrateful can you get?

As River despairs and swears to suffer more than any living thing in the universe for him, the Doctor tells Amy to uncuff him. He takes off his bow tie and uses it to marry River in a handfasting with her parents’ consent. The Doctor whispers a secret into his bride’s ear and tells her that she must never tell anyone what he has just told her: his name. As she looks at him in wonder, the Doctor asks for her help. There is no other way.

They kiss and time moves again.  What a kiss that must’ve been! The Doctor dies at Lake Silencio. River and Amy weep. Rory looks on in agony as the world vanishes. (Again, as seen in “The Impossible Astronaut.”

Shortly after, River, fresh from the crash of the Byzantium, is at her mother’s home, splitting a bottle of wine. Amy wonders what what the events from the aborted, frozen time line say about her, in particular her killing of Kovarian. She wants to talk with the Doctor, but he is dead. River disagrees. Amy notes that her daughter is still having adventures with her son-in-law in the hundreds of years before his death, but River tells her a secret which she probably shouldn’t. Again, as it has been all series: “I know something you don’t know.”

The Doctor didn’t die at Lake Silencio. As Rory joins his wife and daughter, they jump for joy.

A Monk or, maybe more appropriately, a “Monk” carries Dorium’s head back to the Seventh Transept. Dorium realises it is the Doctor and demands to know how he escaped. The Doctor tells him: River actually shot the Teselecta, (“Is there nothing else we can do?” “Actually, thinking about it.”) with the Doctor safe inside, waving happily at her.  Now that the entire universe believes him dead, it’s time for him to step back into the shadows. He whispered “look into my eye” into River’s ear during their wedding.

As the Doctor leaves, Dorium shouts at him that Fields of Trenzalore and the first question still await him. As the Doctor pauses by the TARDIS, Dorium screams: “Doctor who? Doctor Who? DOCTOR WHO?” Literally, the first question, hidden in plain sight. This was ****ing brilliant!

The Verdict: This episode made me very nervous for two main reasons. First, Steven Moffat was under pressure to top last year’s finale: “The Big Bang/” And, honestly, how do you top the complete rebooting of the Universe? And, second, Moffat only had this one episode to wrap up the story arc of the Doctor’s “death”, or should I say the “Doctor’s” death. It didn’t seem like the 40 or so minutes allotted to this episode were going to be enough. And, yet, they were. And, I am very pleased to say that Moffat found a way to meet and top the impressiveness of last year’s finale. All of the necessary questions are answered and there is a sense of closure when it is over, although some things are left open-ended and some questions still remain.  Most notably, the Silence have not been dealt with and their return is extremely likely. Among the questions still unanswered, is when does River learn the Doctor’s name? But, ultimately, this was a time for answers. We found out about the eyepatches. We found out what happened to Dorium. We found out that River is, in fact, the Doctor’s WIFE! That makes Amy his MOTHER-IN-LAW! And, most importantly, we find out what really happened at Lake Silencio, and how the Doctor escapes his death. And, to be honest, I did not see it coming. The use of the Tesselecta just reaffirms what I have stated in several other reviews: with Steven Moffat, you have to pay attention ALL THE TIME! I thought maybe the “Ganger” Doctor might return, but Moffat’s solution was so much more brilliant. And, the Doctor deciding at the end to “slip back into the shadows” sets up some intriguing new situations for next series. From here, it’s on to the Christmas Special. Again, as always, the leads turn in exceptional performances here. Matt Smith imbues the Doctor with an incredible vulnerability, as he is certain that he must die to protect the Universe. He sees no way out, and is at peace with this. He also shows an angry side to the Doctor, as he tries to stop River from preventing, what he believes is the inevitable. Karen Gillan also brings a new sense of confidence and strength to Amy, as she joins the quest to save the Doctor. Likewise, Alex Kingston displays a full range of emotions as she leads teh charge to prevent the Doctor’s death. This episode also features a cavalcade of guest stars, most notably Ian McNeice returning as Winston Churchill. It’s fun to think about what would happen if Churchill were to come up against an opponent like the Silence. But, the real star of this episode is Steven Moffat. His script is incredible. Astoundingly well written and very well paced, it brings the storyline full circle and delivers a satisfying payoff. The best thing I can say about this episode is that when it was over, I immediately wanted to watch it again, which I did. In fact, I think I’m going to watch it again right now, and I suggest you do the same.