TV News - Doctor Who, farewell to the Ponds

Right, so we’re now four episodes into the current new series of Dr Who (Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs in Space, A Town Called Mercy and The Year of the Slow Invasion). As is to be expected, I am loving the series so far, however, I do get the feeling that they’re trying to cram in a lot of new characters and events to allow for future nods and references, and also spin off cartoons/fiction. I also feel they’re over-emphasising that the Ponds will not be the Doctor’s companions for much longer.



Speaking of the Ponds leaving the series soon, this weekend’s coming episode is “The Angels Take Manhattan”, the first of a two part story which is the Pond’s last adventure.  This story is written by Steven Moffat. The story will see the Doctor and the Ponds racing through the streets of Manhattan as statues begin coming to life around them. As well as featuring the excellently creepy Weeping Angels, this story will see the return of River Song.  A lot of people have been under the impression that the Ponds wouldn’t get killed off and somehow just go their own way from the Doctor.  The first four episodes of this series have really pointed towards how that can’t happen, not just because the Ponds don’t want to stop travelling with the Doctor, but he doesn’t want them to stop travelling with him, although he is afraid of where that will lead (I’m almost expecting Rose to be mentioned at some point).  When interviewed on this subject before the series, Matt Smith said the following,

“What’s really interesting about these next five episodes… it deals with the fall of the Ponds and the demise of those two great companions that the Doctor is hugely, hugely attached to and had such a significant impact on him as a character and for me as an actor. So that’s bound to be an event that flips his universe massively.”



Two words in that quote alone really emphasise to me that the Ponds aren’t just going to go their own way, “fall” and “demise”.  I’m curious to see how well Matt Smith works without Amy and Rory at his side, as they do go hand in hand with this incarnation of the Doctor. Steven Moffat has said the following about the coming story,

“[The Doctor] becomes a slightly different man. He even dresses differently. We are going to do the story properly of the Doctor having lost a friend and making a new one. We’re not taking that lightly.”

As mentioned before (https://www.thegeeknewsweek.com/news/tv-news-doctor-who-series-7), the new friend is going to be played by Jenna Louise Coleman, who played the girl in the series opener “Asylum of the Daleks”.  Now, we had a bit of a discussion about this in our house, as if she is playing the same character, the Doctor will be burdened with the knowledge of what she is doomed to become, likely leading towards a more somber, later on Tennant style Doctor, but we shall see.



We shall see this Saturday when the episode airs.

Author – Lee Palmer