Doctor Who Series 6.13: "The Wedding of River Song' [SPOILERS] + Series wrap up

[The Funslinger]

That was amazing. I think it's now my favourite episode ever. Loved the alternate Earth and it's always nice to see Dorium. Also, a very clever way to get out of his death. It surprisingly didn't feel like a cop-out.

Yes, but how were they able to regenerate? Though I suppose it wouldn't be hard for them to make a green glowing effect... in all seriousness though, I didn't see it coming. And another plot hole is that if the robot ship replaced him, why was he still the opposite pole to River? The only explanation there is that those mini people where impersonating the doctor the whole way through, which irks me...

I liked the episode a lot. "Oh, my gun's been fired." "Yes, we appear to be defending ourselves..." was the greatest exchange ever.

 

[Riesel87]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

 

[OriginalLadders]

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Those aren't retcons as they do not contradict anything previously established.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Err....how? They weren't mentioned in River Song's earliest appearances because we were very pointedly told absolutely nothing about River Song in her first appearances. A retcon would be if she was established as human, then later they decided she was half time lord.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

snip

EDIT: Whoops, sorry.

OT: I liked the episode a lot. My only beef with the 6th series is the Silence. We know literally nothing about them and their motivations seem a bit off. For example, why did they try to blow up the Universe if they're supposedly trying to save it?

 

[Thyunda]

Something that we all seem to be forgetting; that question that must never be answered HAS ALREADY BEEN ASKED. The Doctor asked the question when he stepped out of the Tardis, poisoned and dying in 'Let's Kill Hitler.'

And it wasn't answered. So what's your point?

 

[OriginalLadders]

Yes, but how were they able to regenerate? Though I suppose it wouldn't be hard for them to make a green glowing effect... in all seriousness though, I didn't see it coming. And another plot hole is that if the robot ship replaced him, why was he still the opposite pole to River? The only explanation there is that those mini people where impersonating the doctor the whole way through, which irks me...

I liked the episode a lot. "Oh, my gun's been fired." "Yes, we appear to be defending ourselves..." was the greatest exchange ever.

I think it's meant to be that the Doctor was never the opposite pole and was never supposed to die; the Teselector (sp?) was the opposite pole and the fixed point was River/Melody attacking it.

 

[TimeLord]

not sure if the whole copy doctor small people thing was a bit of a cop out, why does time continue if he didn't actually die when he was supposed to?

Because it wasn't The Doctor who was supposed to die.

I think you may need to edit that post. As I did not say that

 

[DrTobiasWho]

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

So I ask again. What retcons, where?

 

[Kurai Angelo]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Those aren't retcons... they're plot developments.

 

[Togs]

Not a bad episode, but Ive got a niggling feeling that the "Doctor in a Doctor suit" was one massive ass pull.

 

[dickywebster]

Idk, i would probably have enjoyed it if i wasnt waiting for the expected answers to the mounds of questions that the last 2 series have been building up and the only one i can say they answered safely was who killed the doctor/who river killed which was kinda obvious.
Beyond that, might just be me, but it seems to be getting more and more like lost, questions raised and never answered, moffat even said it would be explained why the tardis exploded at the end of the last series, never happened.
Also moffat seems to be trying to build a career on building up episodes but then having cop out ending that just kinda happen.
Actually the whole thing was just anti climatic, nothing uch happened, nothing much was answered and no it looks like promises of explinations will have to wait.
Heck im having to rewatch the last series just to remember some of the questions hes taking his sweet time to answer!

Yeah ok the alternate world thing was awesome, but it didnt really go anywhere beyond been able to bring in old faces, actually it reminded me of the finale for the first half of the series, stuff happens, isnt explained and then just kinda trickles off after the midway point.

 

[Riesel87]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Those aren't retcons... they're plot developments.

No those are retcons. Discovering something never previously known about someone after the fact is called a retcon. Changing something about someone i.e introducing the black girl at the end, into amy and roreys past is retro active continuity. She was added after the fact, a retcon. I dont know how to explain that any better

 

[Terrara]

Maybe he'll tell her his name later, a Gallifrey tradition?

The fixed point in time was not doctor's death. It was death of "the Doctor" to the universe. "The Doctor" must have been seen dead (that's why he makes so much noise to invite friends to his "death"). The Silence thinks he is dead. That was the fixed point. The problem is not that River refused to kill Doctor and him being alive resulted in the dissipation of time. It was her unwillingness to go through with the fixed point in time, i.e. the death of "the Doctor". And it was fixed because doctor chose so(chose to die and not prevent his "death") And deaths are fixed points in time, even if those are only "deaths" to the universe and not actual deaths.

And no, I have no clue why teselectors don't cause trouble.

But yes, Doctor Who? And will River find out the answer?

 

[Riesel87]

They need to stop making an overall theme so obvious. In the tennant days, the seemingly random episodes had a loose link in some way to the final episode, it was subtle and you thought oh that was clever how they all linked. Now its all about the build up to the finale, it is literally thrown in your face from minute 1 of episode 1.

Most of your complaints are just down to taste, which is fair enough, but...seriously? Subtle? Clever? Wat. The references to Torchwood and Mr. Saxon in the 2nd and 3rd seasons were incredibly blatant and shoehorned in, while having little to no effect on the stories they were part of (the 4th season's arc was actually surprisingly subtle, so I'll give it that, even if the actual finale it was building towards was mind-blisteringly shit).

The story arcs in the last two series aren't subtle, but unlike the ones in Tennant's day they aren't trying (and failing) to be. They're a part of the actual plot of each individual episode, intended to make the overall story arc tighter rather than something that comes right the fuck out of nowhere in the penultimate episode of the series.

Well i was thinking mainly of the 4th series when i wrote that.

I have to disagree, with you however. Every episode was not centered around the finale episode. Yes references were made, but you were allowed to enjoy each episode on it's own merit.If you happend to not enjoy the end, then fine at least the journey was varied and interesting.

This series is all about the end, and so invests 13 episodes on one overall(and in my opinion, dull) theme. The finale had no wow factor or major suprise, we knew from minute 1 the dr wasnt going to die, so to string that out and make every episode center around a pretty average escape from death, makes the entire series far less enjoyable.

I much prefer to be suprised at the end and them to bring a theme out of left field , than slowly trickle your way toward a predictable ending.

And obviously a lot of my complaints are about taste, there cannot be a large amount of fact when reviewing a piece of media can there.

 

[TimeLord]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Those aren't retcons... they're plot developments.

No those are retcons. Discovering something never previously known about someone after the fact is called a retcon. Changing something about someone i.e introducing the black girl at the end, into amy and roreys past is retro active continuity. She was added after the fact, a retcon. I dont know how to explain that any better

In any other situation, yes it would be. But the unique idea behind River never being seen in a specific order means that retcons can be retcons without being retcons and infact being plot delevopments and history fillers.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

It was a good episode. As was this season, apart from that second-to-last episode which was goddamn terrible... the cyber rat thing jumping at them was sooo terrible, the deus ex machina at the end was equally bad. As I said, rest of the season was damn good though.

As for continuity, plot holes and the like, I don't care. Most of them can be justified somehow, and none of em are glaring enough to bother me.

 

[OriginalLadders]

No those are retcons. Discovering something never previously known about someone after the fact is called a retcon. Changing something about someone i.e introducing the black girl at the end, into amy and roreys past is retro active continuity. She was added after the fact, a retcon. I dont know how to explain that any better

Nothing you listed was a retcon (at least in the most commonly used sense of the word). A retcon directly contradicts a previous established fact, all the things you listed were merely additional facts that were previously unknown. They do not contradict anything.

 

[The Funslinger]

Yes, but how were they able to regenerate? Though I suppose it wouldn't be hard for them to make a green glowing effect... in all seriousness though, I didn't see it coming. And another plot hole is that if the robot ship replaced him, why was he still the opposite pole to River? The only explanation there is that those mini people where impersonating the doctor the whole way through, which irks me...

I liked the episode a lot. "Oh, my gun's been fired." "Yes, we appear to be defending ourselves..." was the greatest exchange ever.

I think it's meant to be that the Doctor was never the opposite pole and was never supposed to die; the Teselector (sp?) was the opposite pole and the fixed point was River/Melody attacking it.

Yes, well I just remembered while I was on the toilet that the doctor would have been controlling the teselector to do all his clever jazz. Amazing, the clarity of thought you have on the john.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

What an awful end to a truely awful series of Dr Who. Only the james cordon episode was really good, spoiled by Amy Pond's cameo. This series has been full of continuity errors, more retcons than you can count and the truely tiresom plot of Amy pond and river song. River song has been the most over used and underwhelming character to hit dr who. Poorly devised retcons to turn her into a central character, which just wouldnt end.

What retcons?

well making her amy and roreys daughter for one.
Making river that black girl who died for another.
making river song part timelord.

these are all retcons.

Those aren't retcons... they're plot developments.

No those are retcons. Discovering something never previously known about someone after the fact is called a retcon. Changing something about someone i.e introducing the black girl at the end, into amy and roreys past is retro active continuity. She was added after the fact, a retcon. I dont know how to explain that any better

So...having an explicitly mysterious character reveal their backstory is a retcon? What?

That's...insane.

Of everything you mentioned, only Mels' appearance might be a retcon, since the jury is out on whether Moffat intended her sudden appearance to be an in-universe change of history or a legit retcon.