ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
The conclusion of the River Song / Amy’s child / Doctor dies
/ Silence was always going to be a very complicated piece of writing, and it is
certainly that. You have to really keep a close eye on everything not to miss a
vital piece of information. It is as satisfying a conclusion as possible for
such a multi-layered plot within plot within plot. It’s not my favourite Doctor
Who by a long shot but does what needs to be done.
The Doctor is investigating why he is doomed to die at Lake
Silencio and follows up a lead that takes him to a religious order known as the
Silence, some of which he met in America in the 1960s. He then encounters the
Teselecta that was involved in the plot to kill Hitler in 1943 and the crew
aboard the shape-shifting robot agree to help him. He then goes to visit Dorium
Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker) – or rather his living head which has been
preserved after the Battle of Demon’s Run – who tells him that Silence will
fall when the first question is asked on the planet Trenzalore. The question
being Doctor Who? What is the Doctor’s name!
The Doctor travels to Lake Silencio to meet his death at the
hands of River Song, but she refuses to pull the trigger and time grinds to a
halt and the Universe begins to disintegrate.
On this stuck version of Earth Amy takes the Doctor to Area
51 where the Silence are being held in water-filled tanks; everyone must wear
an eye patch so they can remember the Silence. Also here is Madame Kovarian
(Frances Barber) and River Song. River refuses to touch the Doctor, knowing
that if she does time will restart and he will die at Lake Silencio. However,
the Doctor’s presence awakens the Silence and they break free of their cells.
Amy leaves Madame Kovarian to be killed by the Silence and she, Rory, River and
the Doctor escape to the top of the Pyramid base where the Doctor shows River
his plan - oh, and marries her!!
She looks into his eye and realises that this is the
Teselecta and that the real Doctor is inside it. So she allows herself to be
touched by him and time restarts; the Doctor and River get married and kiss and
at Lake Silencio the Teselecta Doctor is shot by River. The Universe now
believes the Doctor to be dead and only River and him know otherwise.
Sometime later, River tells Amy and Rory that the Doctor is
not dead but is keeping a low profile.
Wow! This is complex stuff, just writing it all down gives
you a headache. Steven Moffat’s ultimate labyrinthine plot comes to its
conclusion and, surprisingly, it all makes sense and feels satisfying. It’s
pretty confusing on the way, but once you get to the end you can see how all
the bits fit together.
It was never going to be the Doctor that was shot at Lake
Silencio, right from the very start it was obvious there was going to be some
sort of clever get-out. Most people were expecting it to be a version of the
Doctor made of the Flesh by this point, so it was a bit of a surprise when it
turned out to be the Teselecta which a lot of people had probably forgotten.
The whole River/Doctor/Amy/Rory family tree thing is also
pretty much tied up with a neat bow too here, and to be honest, if this had
been the last we’d seen of these characters that would have been fine. Much as
I love River Song and Alex Kingston’s super performance, it does feel like
there isn’t much left to know. The only thing not done yet was River’s first
meeting with the Doctor – which would be his last with her, and we’d need to
wait a while for that.
The only loose end seems to be what actually happens to
Madame Kovarian, the one Amy leaves to die is in the unreal version of the future,
so what happens to her in the real world?
This story is also dedicated to Nicholas Courtney who had
recently died. In it the Doctor learns that the Brigadier has died, and Matt
Smith’s look of devastation is heart-rending. A more hidden tribute are the
eye-patches worn in the story which echo the Brigade-Leader in Inferno back in
1970.
This is unusual in modern Doctor Who season closers by being
a single episode, not a double – the first time since the series relaunched.
I’m not a great fan of this whole ongoing plotline and it
was very very hard to follow, even now with a decade’s worth of trying to
figure it all out. You can’t argue, though, with the way it is all pulled
together and the episode is exciting and action-packed. I still feel like the
Silence, which were brilliantly spooky, were not used to their full promise but
– ironically really – they certainly stick in the memory.
NEXT UP: THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE
© Text copyright - Raving Loony
Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller
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2022
