The Wedding of River Song (TV story)

The Wedding of River Song was the thirteenth and final episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
The Doctor makes his final journey to the shores of Lake Silencio in Utah, knowing only one thing can keep the universe safe – his own death. But has he reckoned without the love of a good woman?

Plot
The War of the Roses enters its second year even as London picnickers are warned not to feed the Pterodactyls and Charles Dickens is interviewed about his new Christmas ghost special. Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill returns to Buckingham Palace on his mammoth from a conference in Gaul with Cleopatra. As his Silurian physician, Malokeh, examines him, Chuchill is struck odd as the time and date are always 5:02 PM on 22 April 2011. Malokeh tells him that it is always as such. However, Churchill has his doubts and wishes to have his soothsayer brought to him from the Tower of London. After the soothsayer is brought to him, Churchill says a bit from a song about clocks ticking and reminds the soothsayer that he was constantly mentioned that "something is wrong with time" and asks what happened. The soothsayer looks up at Churchill, revealing himself to be the Doctor, who answers "a woman".

In a flashback, the Doctor closes in on a dying Supreme Dalek, taunting it with his status as the Dalek's "devil". he takes it apart for its data core to find out what it knows on the Silence. The Doctor then goes to a bar on the docks of Calisto B and offers the bartender the Dalek's eyestock as leverage to be introduced to Father Gideon Vandaleur.

Once at the table with Gideon Vandaleur, the Doctor mentions he knows Gideon's past as a former enovy of the Silence and offers his condulances. Gideon is confused and asks what he means. The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at Gideon and paralyzes him; a close up of Gideon's eye reveals that it is the Teselecta in disguise. The Doctor tells the crewman at the eye he wishes to speak to the captain. The captain asks the Doctor what he wants; the Doctor tells the Teselecta crew so long as they behave, he will not damage the Teselecta and asks who the weakest link is in the Silence's order.

Following the lead the Teselecta gave him, the Doctor finds himself beating Gantok, a living Silence agent, in a game of live chess as he cannot use an electrified peice without dying. Gantok offers the Doctor anything he wants in return for throwing the game; the Doctor wishes to know why he has to die, but Gantok tells him the Silence will kill him if he tells him. However, he says Dorium Maldovar will be able to tell the Doctor what he needs to know; the Doctor protests this idea as Dorium was beheaded by the Headless Monks on Demons Run. Gantok assures him Dorium is alive and he can bring the Doctor to him; the Doctor forfeits.

The Doctor is then taken to the Seventh Transept, where the Headless Monks keep their decapitated victims and the heads of those in their order. He is shocked to find the heads are still alive despite having rotted down to skulls and is confused as to why there are some boxes for heads. Gantok explains that the rich and powerful are given the privleage of having their heads preserved and Dorium was always very rich. However, as soon as the Doctor finds the box containing Dorium's head, Gantok tries to get revenge on the Doctor; he accidently trips a trap and falls into a pit of skulls. The Doctor watches in horror as the skulls pull Gantok under.

Dorium wakes up and is delighted to see the Doctor, at first joking about wanting to know how bad his injuries are. He then wonders why the Doctor has come and the Doctor tells him he wishes to know about the Silence. Dorium explains they consider themselves "sentinals of history" who wish to the Doctor dead due to the threat he poses to their order. The reason is 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. The Doctor says "silence will fall when the question is asked"; however, Dorium says silence MUST fall and wonders if the Doctor would like to know what the question is. Depsite glares from the headless monks' skulls, the Doctor agrees to hear the question

In the present, Churchill stops the Doctor and explains his disbelief in what he has been told. However, the Doctor points out that very same reason that Churchill believes something is wrong with time is why he trusts what he has too say; in the correct timeline, they are good friends. Churchill then wonders about the woman that the Doctor mentioned and the Doctor says he is getting to her part in the story. Chuchill then wonders if she's attractive. The Doctor describes her as "hell... in high heels". Intrigued, he tells the Doctor to continue.

Back in the flashback, the Doctor has entered the TARDIS with Dorium's head and looks at the Teselecta record of his death again, saying to himself how he never knew it was "my silene, my death". Dorium tells the Doctor that death catches up with everyone eventualy and that it has been waiting a long time for him. However, the Doctor ignores him and dials a number on the phone; he goes on to talk about his "farewell tour" and how he could help past companions like Rose Tyler or attend the stags of Jack Harkness. Once the Doctor gets an answer on the other side of the line, he is informed by a nurse that his old freind Lethbridge-Stuart died a few months back and had been keeping an extra glass of brandy around in case he visted.

Saddened, the Doctor decides he has done enough running from his death and returns to the bar on Calisto B to have the Teselecta send the invitations to Amy Pond, Rory Williams, his past self, Canton III and River Song. The captain asks if there is anything else they can do because they are just as much champions of justice as the Doctor has been; the Doctor only leaves.

Churchill questions the Doctor abotu why he would send invitations to his friends to see his death; the Doctor tells him that he had to die at Lake Silencio, but he DIDN'T have to die alone. Churchill and the Doctor find themselves in the senate room and they begin to question why they have moved and why Churchill has his gun out and their fast heartbeats. However, Churchill quickly focuses back on the Doctor's story and wonders if he invited River Song; the Doctor tells him she came twice.

Fast forward to the events of the The Impossible Astronaut, the Doctor and his guests are enjoying a bottle of wine that Napoleon threw at him. An impossible astronaut rises from the lake and he goes to meet it, telling his companions not to enterfear. The astronaut raises it's visor to reveal River Song, who had been trapped in the suit by the Silence to kill the Doctor. River explains she has no control over the suit and it's going to froce her to shoot the Doctor; all the while she tries to convine him to run away, which he tells her he tried to do, but ended up coming here anyway. He forgives her unconditionally, shutting his eyes as her arm rises to deliver the three deadly blows.

There are five bursts that make him flinch. The Doctor opens his eyes and River greets him with "Hello Sweetie". Confused and horrified, the Doctor demands to know what River has done. She explains that she emptied her weapons and the Doctor yells at her for doing so as it is a fixed point in time. River says fixed points can be rewritten. However, before the Doctor can yell at her again for misunderstanding time, the world shatters and everything fades into white.

Churhcill then wonders what happened after that and the Doctor explained everything continued at the same time; every point in history is happening all at once and time is stuck at the time and date he was supposed to die, referring it to a stuck record. Churchill then asks if the Doctor ever heard of downloads due to his comparison to records and the Doctor makes a quick quip about Churchill making the suggestion.

However, they then notice Churchill has fired off a shot and he is holding a spear. The Doctor notices four marks on his arm and tells Churchill that the leaders of the Silence are with them, but are not a deadly threat in small numbers. However, after dropping his spear and picking it up, the Doctor notices that his other arm is full of marks. A trilling from the ceiling causes them to look up to find it infested withdozens of Silents. Before the Silents can attack them, a grenade rolls into the hall and they are rescued by a company of soldiers wearing eyepatches. Churchill tries to fire off a shot, but the Doctor stops him as he recognises their leader as Amy. However, he then notices she is wearing an eyeptach and wonders in sorrow why she is wearing it before being shot by Amy.

The Doctor awakens in Amy's office on a train and tries to remind her of their friendship in the proper timeline before noticing he is holding a sculpture of the TARDIS and that there are pictures of their adventures taped up to the walls. Amy grew up with a crack in her wall, which allows her to remember both timelines. She happily hugs the Doctor, saying she has missed him. She tells him that the train is for Area 52 inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. After the Doctor is given a change of clothes, he talks to Amy about how she has been unable to find Rory in this world and the Doctor tells her not to give up. However, Captain Williams enters and tells them they are minute away from the Pyramid. After he leaves, the Doctor jokes Amy is not looking hard enough.

At Area 52, the Doctor and she walk past more than a hundred captured Silents while she wonders why humans no longer kill them on sight. The Doctor explains that was in the proper timeline and it was time loop of events that allowed them to set up the Silents' death order. He then comments about not being able to remeber what they looked like before being given an eye drive to help him remember. Amy prepares to lead him to the King's Chamber, but he stops to help Rory get the courage to ask out Amy.

In the King's Chamber, the Doctor finds personel studying the situation and commenting on that his mer presence to "her" is causing a very small amount of time to shift back and forth. The Doctor announces his presence with a joke and River Song turns around to return the joke back at him. He then wonders how the managed to set up this base and flirts back and forth with River as she answers. Their flirting proves nuasiating to the captive Madame Kovarian, who the toke the desgin for eye drives to let them remember the Silents when not looking at them.

The Doctor berates River for causing this, but she simply says she couldn't bring herself to kill the man she loves. Calling her sweet, the Doctor tries to touch her arm, but is detained by some soldiers. River knows they are the center of the explosion waiting to destory this timeline. Much to the Doctor's annoyance/expectance, River has him handcuffeed to prevent him from wiping this timline out while begging him to live.

In the meantime, the Silents escape from thier holding tubes one by one and begin killing the soldiers. Kovarian laughs that they easily fell into the Silence's trap; they had not been captive, they were simply waiting for the Doctor to be brought to them for murder to remove this timeline. As the soldiers retreat to the King's Chamber, their eye drives electrify and kill them. Kovarian mocks them, until her eye drive begins to spark. Rory stays to hold off the Silence, while River, the Doctor and Amy go to the apex of the Pyramid to see what River has built. The door flies open and Rory falls to his knees as the Silence enter and begin to electrocute him, but Amy, remembering who he is, returns to kill the Silents with a machine gun. Kovarian, who has managed to partialy shrug off her eye drive, begs Amy to save her as it would be what the Doctor would do. Amy tells Kovarian about how angry she is at her for kidnapping her daughter and turning her into a weapon to kill her best freind. Reapplying Kovarian's eye drive, Amy sneers "River Song didn't get it all from you, sweetie".

Atop the Great Pyramid, River has built a distress beacon, calling the universe across all time zones with a message -" The Doctor is dying. Please, please help". River then explains that the sunspots that have been reported are actually a million million voices responding to her - "yes, of course we'll help". River tells the Doctor that he has touched so many lives, rescued so many people, that when it came time for him to die, there were people willing to be there for him. The Doctor, however, insists that no one can help him and that time will die if this continues as it will spread to the rest of the universe until everything desintigrates. To save time and space, the Doctor tells her he must die. When River despairs and swears to suffer more than any living thing in the universe for him, the Doctor tells Amy to uncuff him. He the asks for a foot or so of rope, but decides to use his bow tie instead and wraps in around his and River's wrists. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory to give their consent and tells River he is about to tell her a secret that she must never tell anyone. He whispers in her ear and tells her that it is his name. She looks at him in bewilderment and he asks for her help as his wife; he cannot bear living at the cost of time and space coming to an end. River tells him "you may kiss the bride" and they kiss pationately. The Doctor dies at Lake Silencio. River and Amy weep. Rory looks on in agony and the distorted time line vanishes.

Some time later, Amy is sitting out in her yard with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. River appears via vortex manipulator and asks where they are in their respective journals. Amy tells River the Doctor has just died and River's smile fades. She explains that she has just come from Byzantium and was amazed to have met a "younger" version of her mother who didn't have a clue who she was. Amy tells River that her murdering Kovarian has greatly affected her and she needs to talk to the Doctor in order to help put this behind her, but he is dead. River disagrees. Amy notes that her daughter is still having adventures with him in the hundreds of years before his death. However, River reminds her the Doctor's first rule is that he lies. She then tells Amy the Doctor's secret that he whispered in her ear; it wasn't his name. Rory returns home to find his his wife and daughter dancing for joy. Amy then asks if River is sure about what she has told her, River assures her mother that she is as the Doctor is her husband. Amy then realizes, much to her horror she is the Doctor's mother-in-law. River then jokes "father dear, I think mummy mind need another glass".

Elesehwere, a monk is carrying Dorium's head back to the Seventh Transept and leaves the box open as Dorium requested. Dorium then notices there is something familiar about the monk and wonders it it's "him".

A flashback shows the Teselecta offering the Doctor anything they can do in their power as he leaves. he actualy returned and told them that there was something they can do as he has just thought of it.

The monk removes his robe to reveal himself to be the Doctor, he had the Teselecta take his form and miniaturized the TARDIS and himself into its left eye.

A flashback show the Teselecta-Doctor whispering to River "look in my eye" which she does and finds the Doctor waving his stetson at her in front of the TARDIS.

The Doctor explains that he had to be at Lake Silencio, so he "dressed for the occasion"as a "Doctor in a Doctor suit" and he barely got burned in the boat. Dorium wonders if it's okay to let his friends think he's dead, but the Doctor decides it's for the better as he "got too big, too noisy", deciding to step back into the shadows. Dorium decides to help the Doctor keep his secrets, but calls him a fool as the Fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the Eleventh and the first question still await him. The Doctor bids Dorium good bye and walks off. Dorium yells after him about the first question, "the question that you've been running from your entire life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doc... tor (echoes) who!?"

The Doctor stops by the TARDIS and smiles.

Cast

 * The Doctor – Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond – Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams – Arthur Darvill
 * River Song – Alex Kingston
 * Madame Kovarian – Frances Barber
 * Emperor Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice
 * Malohkeh- Richard Hope
 * Charles Dickens - Simon Callow
 * Dr Kent - Emma Campbell-Jones
 * Gideon Vandaleur - Niall Greig Fulton
 * Gantok - Mark Gatiss (Credited as 'Rondo Haxton')
 * Herself - Sian Williams
 * Himself - Bill Turnbull
 * News Anchor - Meredith Vieira
 * Dorium Maldovar -Simon Fisher Becker
 * The Silence - Marnix Van Den Broeke
 * Carter - Richard Dillane
 * Nurse - Katherine Burford
 * Barman - Sean Buckley
 * Canton Delaware - William Morgan Sheppard
 * Voice of the Dalek- Nicholas Briggs

Individuals

 * Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness are mentioned.
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is said to have passed away several months before the Doctor phones the institution where he was staying; he apparently talked about the Doctor all the time and insisted on having a spare glass ready in case he should show up.
 * Charles Dickens appears in the alternate timeline, being interviewed on television.

Technology

 * A Timey-wimey distress beacon is built.

Fashion and Clothing

 * The Doctor wears the Stetson given to him by Craig Owens throughout his investigation, up to and including the time he was hidden aboard the Tesselecta. The hat was not in fact shot off his head by River in DW: The Impossible Astronaut since the Tesselecta was impersonating him at the time. The original is likely still in his possession.

Story notes

 * Following his death in February, this episode pays tribute to Nicholas Courtney, with the Doctor discovering that his character, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, died peacefully in his sleep.
 * A prequel to this episode was released online.
 * This is the first time an episode of Doctor Who has aired on the same night as an episode of fellow BBC Saturday night drama, Merlin. The first episode of Merlin Series 4, The Darkest Hour, was broadcast right after The Wedding of River Song.
 * Meredith Vieira, co-host of the American morning news/chat programme Today, filmed her cameo during a visit to the Upper Boat Studios as part of a profile of Doctor Who produced for Today. That feature, which aired on 9 May 2011, contained several minor spoilers for this episode, including revealing the cameo appearance by Richard Hope as Malohkeh.
 * This is the first series finale of the revived series not to be a multi-part episode. In fact, it is the first series finale ever to only be one episode (with the exception of DW: The Five Doctors, which aired between Seasons 20 and 21, but is often counted as part of Season 20).

Ratings
UK Overnight: 6.1 Million

Myths

 * The Doctor will get married. This was proven true.
 * Part of this episode will be set in Egypt. This was proven true.
 * The Doctor will indeed have died. This originates from fansite speculation, repeated comments by Steven Moffat in interviews, and articles in Doctor Who Magazine "playing along". This was, of course, proven false.
 * The Doctor who was shot would be revealed to be a ganger. This was proven false, though speculation that it wasn't the real Doctor was proven true.

Filming locations

 * Utah, USA (flashback footage from DW: The Impossible Astronaut)

Production errors

 * The Doctor's reflection in River's helmet shield is not reversed, as it should be.
 * When Gantok falls into the pit of skulls his hat falls off, yet it's back on right before he's devoured completely.
 * When River lifts the shield on the helmet, she uses two hands, whereas in The Impossible Astronaut the astronaut only uses one hand.
 * When River is about to shoot the Doctor, she begins raising her hand. In the next wide shot, it is risen fully and ready to fire. However, in the next close-up, she is still shown raising her hand completely.
 * Time was frozen at 05:02:57, and progressed to around 05:03:06 the first time The Doctor and River touched, but when the Doctor and River kiss later, a clock is shown on screen, with time resuming from 05:02:00.

Continuity

 * Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is said to have died. This is consistent with the Seventh Doctor's assertion in DW: Battlefield that the Brigadier would die in bed. As no indication is given as to when the Brigadier died, it does not contradict the post-2010 continuity established for the character in the Virgin New Adventures and the Brigadier's death in the 2050s established in PDA: The King of Terror.
 * Charles Dickens appears. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)
 * Winston Churchill returns, this time as the Holy Roman Emperor. (DW: Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens)
 * The Silurian scientist Malokeh returns. (DW: The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood)
 * Dorium Maldovar returns as a head. He was beheaded by the Headless Monks. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * The Doctor mentions his former companions Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness.
 * Amy's drawings include the Krafayis, the Weeping Angels, the Saturnyns, the Silurians, the Daleks, the Minotaur, the Cybermen and the Smilers, as well as a self-portraits of herself from DW: The Curse of the Black Spot and one of her emerging from the Pandorica (DW: The Big Bang).
 * The Teselecta returns, as does its captain. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The Doctor again sports a beard. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * When talking to Amy after the timeline has been restored, River mentions climbing out of the Byzantium and is still in her combat fatigues, as well as mentioning that she has just seen her when Amy had no idea who she is. (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)
 * Amy is partially protected from some kinds of temporal changes due to her long-term exposure to The Cracks. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang)
 * When River says to the Doctor that time can be rewritten, he responds with "Don't you dare." This echoes what River says to the Doctor in a similar situation (DW: Forest of the Dead) and the First Doctor trying to stop Barbara Wright interfering in Aztec history (DW: The Aztecs).
 * River mentions "Rule #1: the Doctor lies." (DW: The Big Bang, Let's Kill Hitler)
 * A Silent calls Rory "the man who dies and dies again", referring to his deaths in DW: Amy's Choice, Cold Blood, The Curse of the Black Spot, and The Doctor's Wife.
 * When the Doctor meets River in Area 52, he greets her by saying "Honey, I'm home." River replies, "And what sort of time do you call this?" They had the same exchange in DW: The Big Bang.
 * The Doctor mentions Elizabeth I waiting for him in a glade to elope with her. (DW: The Shakespeare Code, DW: The End of Time, DW: The Beast Below)
 * The Doctor says "Geronimo!" again. (DW: The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor asks River, "Why do you always have handcuffs?" (DW: Forest of the Dead, DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Dorium tells the Doctor what the "question that must never be answered" is. The question was first mentioned in DW: Let's Kill Hitler.
 * The notion of "Doctor who?" being a dark secret rather than simply a question was previously explored in DW: The Girl in the Fireplace.
 * The barman on Callisto B is a red humanoid. Members of his race appeared in DW: New Earth, Gridlock, The End of Time, The Pandorica Opens and IDW: Agent Provocateur.
 * While held captive, Madame Kovarian expresses annoyance at River and the Doctor's flirting, similar to the way Amy did in Day of the Moon.
 * River mentions having to pretend not to recognize a space suit in 1969. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * A heavily damaged Progenitor Dalek appears. (DW : Victory of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor makes marks on his arm when he sees the Silence. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * River mentions being a child of the TARDIS. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The Doctor reads a knitting magazine. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)

For the Doctor

 * This story occurs after DW: Closing Time
 * This story takes place during DW: The Impossible Astronaut
 * This story occurs before: 2011 Christmas Special

For River

 * This story occurs after DW: Closing Time
 * This story takes place during DW: The Impossible Astronaut
 * This story occurs before DW: A Good Man Goes to War

For River in the final scene

 * This story occurs after DW: Flesh and Stone
 * This story occurs before DW: Silence in the Library

For Amy and Rory

 * This story takes place after DW: The God Complex
 * This story takes place during DW: The Impossible Astronaut

Home video releases
This episode will be released on DVD shortly after the airing of the episode.