Doctor Who Fall Finale Recap [Updated]

Amy, Rory, and those
damn Weeping Angels

The Ponds bade farewell in tonight's episode of Doctor Who, "The Angels Take Manhattan." This being the last episode with the Ponds and with the reappearance of the Weeping Angels, it was obviously frightening, emotional, and devastating. We don't want to spoil much, but we will share a few of our thoughts:

In their final hour, it was nice to see all of the Ponds (Amy, Rory, and Melody) back together, and Rory and Amy both had some nice moments with their daughter.

Once again, people were very keen to tell the Doctor that he shouldn't be alone. We get it, he gets antsy and murdery and lonely when he's by himself. WE GET IT!

All the talk of the Ponds' FINAL EPISODE made it very clear to

A Moment, Please, for Amy Pond

Spoiler Alert if you aren’t caught up on this season’s Doctor Who.

(Seriously, it's a pretty big spoiler)

Amelia Pond Williams, wife of Rory Williams and mother of Melody Williams AKA River Song, ended her two season run in last Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who.

Companions of the Doctor seem to serve a few functions. First, they are constantly asking questions, which makes the exposition in Doctor Who (of which there is a lot) seem less clunky. Secondly, they act as an audience surrogate, providing a relatable entry point into the series. Sure, some companions aren’t exactly relatable, but they’re certainly more human than The Doctor.

What I find to be the most important function for a companion, though, is her own journey with The Doctor and the lessons and character growth along the way. Each of the Doctor’s companions has a story to tell, and Amy Pond’s was always one of maturation, of growing past being ‘the girl who waited’ and into the girl who lived.

This season (or series), however, Amy has seemed, more than ever, to be spinning her wheels. Once she chose Rory over the Doctor, the writers didn’t seem to know what to do with her.  Karen Gillan is absolutely wonderful in the role, but this season has found very little for her to do, especially these second-half episodes. Even her (possibly) penultimate episode, which focused primarily on her, was just rehashing old material about her life and the choices she’s made.

Amy Pond was a wonderful character. She was delightful and fun, which was a nice counterpoint to Matt Smith’s more tortured Doctor 11 (though nobody did tortured Doctor better than David Tennant). I look forward to her return.

But -- for now -- goodbye, Amy Pond, most whimsical of all the Doctor Who companions.  You will be missed.

And goodbye, Rory.

UPDATE: Okay, so I was totally wrong about this. Not only were Amy and Rory back in a small way in the last episode of this season and the Christmas special, they will both be back with the Doctor for another half season. I literally have no idea how their story lines are going to continue any further, but I know better than to look a gift Doctor Who in the mouth.

Doctor Who: New Season, Higher Stakes

To quote Neil Diamond, Doctor Who is "coming to America...today!" The new season, following everyone's favorite Doctor, kicks off tonight in Monument Valley, and boy is it going to be crazy. We here at Tableau Your Mind haven't opined openly about our love of the good doctor, but the show has been a growing obsession of ours for quite some time (the new version: still haven't gotten to watching Doctor Classic. And each season (or series), we've seen the stakes get higher and higher. The first season was about a battle on board a fake game show ship. Last season saw the Doctor recreating ALL OF EXISTENCE to ensure that Amelia Pond survived. Needless to say, things have gotten more intense and way more complicated. So, in this game of higher stakes, what kind of crazy - and usually family friendly - antics can we expect this season? After the jump, check out the top eleven possibilities for this year, and the probability that each will occur.