Howling:Messages for Amy Pond

IMDB SPOILERS (maybe)

The IMDb summary for "Closing Time" says "After traveling for 200 years and leaving messages for Amy Pond across time and space the Doctor realizes his time is up, its time to settle down and accept his future at Lake Silencio." Now, we know that there were messages for Amy and Rory in "The Impossible Astronaut" in the form of weird moments in history, and The Doctor showing up in a fez in an old comedy show on their TV. But could there be other messages, about how to save him, or about how he may have saved himself? This would, of course, be similar to Season 5, where The Doctor tells Amy she has to remember, which is what ends up saving him after he's been erased from time. So I'm wondering if previous episodes contain clues about how The Doctor will get out of this.

So far, all I've been able to find (and it's a stretch), is when young Amelia says "fish-fingers and custard" in "Let's Kill Hitler." The voice doesn't quite sound like the Voice Interface any more, and there seems to be a certain gravity to the moment. Like I said, it's a stretch--it could just be The Doctor imagining things from the effects of the poison; it could even be the TARDIS saving her Doctor (er... her Thief)--but it's an interesting moment. But... it's also not even something Amy sees, so how could it be a message for her?

Anyone else notice anything like this? Once again, I'm considering combing old episodes looking for clues... 216.239.45.4 20:26, September 28, 2011 (UTC)

I agree: it sounded to me as if it lacked the echoing quality of the voice interface and was something he drew from itself. Which has no impact on the matter, really, except for some fairly subtle issues, and indicates the affection he feels for Amy: it's not the woman, it's the trusting child he cares about. And never pay attention to IMDB, except for my reviews, which are brilliaant. Boblipton 21:42, September 28, 2011 (UTC)

The "fish-fingers and custard" in Let's Kill Hitler (which really didn't sound like the voice interface) might have been a message from the TARDIS or, more likely, from the Doctor's own subconscious -- but, if it was a message at all, it was a message for the Doctor about Amy, not for Amy about the Doctor. B******d if I know what it might mean, though. --89.242.68.25 05:23, September 29, 2011 (UTC)

Its a reference to The Eleventh Hour and The Impossible Astronaut. The Doctor was drawing strength from his first meeting with little Amelia Pond. Until The God Complex, the Doctor never really saw Amy as anything but a little girl. That's why he was so disturbed by her advances in Time of Angels, why he usually calls her Amelia Pond or just Pond instead of Amy, and why he refused to accept the name Williams for Amy, choosing instead to call her husband Rory Pond. Fish fingers and custard is an important part of his memory of his first meeting with little Amelia, and thinking back to it gave him the emotional strength to continue to try to protect the three Ponds despite the fact that he was dying.Icecreamdif 05:52, September 29, 2011 (UTC)

Well, yes, I'd got that bit. What I mean is that I don't know what, if anything, it might mean in the context of the Doctor getting himself out of being killed by Melody/River -- unless, of course, it's a hint that it'll be Amy who saves him, this time, as she did at the end of last season, though the method would presumably be different. --89.242.68.25 08:13, September 29, 2011 (UTC) It meant nothiing in the contexxt of the Doctor getting himself out of being killed. It was just meant to give the Doctor the strength to continue fighting despite the fact that he was going to die. It doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the overall story arc. At this point the Doctor still clearly believes that there is no way of getting out of being killed by River, so he can't have recieved a message telling him how to survive. The messages across time for Amy and Rory probably just mean the ones that we already saw in The Impossible Astronaut, including, obviously, the TARDIS-blue envelopeIcecreamdif 14:17, September 29, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think it meant anything much, either -- as I said originally, "if it was a message at all". I have to admit, when I first saw the scene in Let's Kill Hitler, I briefly thought "fish-fingers and custard" might turn out to be the antidote to the poison (no stranger than the cyanide antidote in The Unicorn and the Wasp). However, your logic's a bit adrift. The Doctor believing that there's no way out of being killed doesn't stop him receiving a message telling him how to do so, although it might stop him understanding the message.--(My IP address has probably changed) 89.242.69.18 14:38, September 29, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, but why try to send such an insignificant sounding message to him 200 years before he's going to die. What are the odds that while at Lake Silencio, River will point a gun at him and suddenly the Doctor will think "Wait a second, fish fingers and custard," run to the nearest store, by fish fingers and custard, and use them to cure River's brainwashing. Sure, the Doctor might not have used the voice interface since then, but since there is a perfectly good purpose for the line in the episode, there is no reason to believe that it means anything more than that. It's not like in Flesh and Stone, where the dialogue between the older Doctor and Amy was almost completely irrelevant to the circumstance that they were in.Icecreamdif 19:26, September 29, 2011 (UTC)