Doctor Who – "The Wedding Of River Song"

by Francesco Francavilla

Tick tock goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her. Tick tock goes the clock, even for the Doctor.

Check after the cut for some thoughts on the episode. As a note, spoilers are discussed.

I almost always start Moffat-based reviews like this, but it is certainyl something that bears repeating: Davies ran a wildly different show. Doctor Who has always undergone status quo shifts depending on who was running the scene or who was playing the Doctor, but for the modern audience this is certainly incredibly apparent for those, like myself, that hopped onto the show initially when it came back with Christopher Eccleston and Russel T. Davies. You could always follow the show on a linear path for each season, with just subtle teases towards the finale before everything comes together in one massive explosion of emotion and action that closes off the story and leaves us quietly satisfied for what comes next.

Moffat doesn’t play by those rules. Moffat, who was schooled in the world of Davies and worked on the show during Davies’ time as showrunner, has basically cannibalized a few of those initial storytelling ideas and then just gone mad with them. The show is incredibly different from how it began, to the point that some fans find the shift a bit polarizing, and that’s understandable. Smith’s Madman Doctor who bounces around like a lunatic in any given episode is much different from the Stoic Eccleston or the Always Apologizing Yet Dark Outside Of a Few “Brilliant!” Moments Tennant, and I get the idea that Moffat thinks linear storytelling is for fools.

In all honesty I think I rather like this more.

I almost always look forward to the Moffat written episodes most of any given season in the same way that I used to look forward to the Davies cap-offs, because it always meant that things are about to come together and something was going to be revealed. It is the same basic idea you can take to heart when watching a show like LOST; the episodes written by the showrunners are always “the most important” episodes. Granted, Moffat is guiding the show to make sure X, Y, or Z happens along the path for him to use, but every other episode of the season is straight-forward storytelling, and now Moffat has all time colliding into a singularity before it gets set to implode.

That’s what I like best about Moffat’s work here on Doctor Who: his creativity. Davies always took old ideas of Doctor Who and revitalized them for a modern audience; things like the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, etc. all were reborn for a new audience to appreciate. It was fascinating for someone who didn’t watch Doctor Who growing up to see these ideas now, and the added bonus of streaming old Doctor Who episodes on Netflix Instawatch certainly created a more well-rounded viewing experience. On the other hand, there is Moffat who is less interested in old ideas (well, at least in the Whoniverse — he reuses his own old ideas a ton) and more into expanding things and creating new species. We’ve got the Silents, we’ve got the curiousity of River Song and Madame Kovarian, and we’ve got about a million questions to ask at the end of any given season. Moffat is playing a dangerous game in teasing the viewers so much, but he usually manges to answer just enough to satiate our appetites.

Of course, then we get to this seasons big moment (one of many), with the reveal of “the first question.” This, perhaps, is the best example of why Moffat works as the showrunner. If I’ve learned one thing from watching Penn and Teller so many times, it is that a magician’s power lies in the performance. The idea is to distract your audience while you perform magic so that, despite everything being right in front of them the whole time, no one notices you slip something into your sleeve or a pocket or some other hiding spot. Without that ability, the tricks never work. Moffat is able to cram so much into any given episode that he can introduce subtle new mysteries and keep us distracted with answers galore, and before you know it he can pull out a whopper like the first question and BOOM – magic trick’d. Doctor Who indeed.

Of course it’s not all Moffat that keeps us here. While he certainly has done a quality job crafting the shows main storyline, it would be generally useless if the cast wasn’t worth watching. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, as well as Alex Kingsotn, have basically become a family at this point. Most of Who in the past has been more about the relationship strictly between the Doctor and his one companion, but this current show thrives on the diverse cast and their interactions often more than the success of any given stories. Smith in particular is always fun to see run off, and given the Farewell Tour nature of this episode with the Doctor visiting some past friends it offers up a fair deal of entertainment in seeing the Doctor interact with characters old and occasionally new (the Dalek moment in particular is quite wonderful). However, when he and the gang get together again since the mid-season return, with Amy, Rory and River all together at the top of the pyramid, it is a rather defining moment of where Moffat has taken all of his characters on their journey and is in fact more exciting than seeing your favorite band reunite, because these people have infinitely more chemistry.

Additionally, the relationship with Amy and Rory and all of their ups and downs is by far one of the key points the show plays around with overall, with this episode especially putting a fun spin on it now that we thought they were “safe.” It’s always nice to get some moments of Rory performing as the Roman, and allowing Darvill to play up Captain Williams is definitely a highlight of the finale. There has been some excellent character development for the duo this past entire season, and it is pleasing that after all this time there are still a few new angles to explore and places ofr the characters to go. Obviously Amy gets the bigger shine in this episode, but her moment of “She didn’t get it all from you, sweetie,” is perhaps the best moment Moffat wrote for the character in this particular episode, and Gillan plays it off magnificently. Between where the characters began in “The 11th Hour” and now, it is really of no surprise to anyone why everyone loves Amy and Rory so much, and their future involvement in the show is certainly something to pay attention to as the story develops.

In perusing Twitter and messageboards and whatnot, it is really of no surprise that a few people do not find the show as affable in it’s current situation as I do. Doctor who has gone from a fun sci-fi adventure show with week-to-week stories to a frantic and interconnected odyssey of one man-that’s-not-quite-a-man’s travels through space and time — with friends! While I can understand the general complaints the show gets, I will say this as a closing thought: the show has literally never been this fun and exciting to watch in the entire span of episode and Doctors that I’ve seen. The overall mystery creates enough tension and suspense that any Moffat-written episode usually leaves me on the edge of my seat, and that uncertain resolution created by various teases and questions in the show has me clamoring for more.

Christmas can’t come soon enough.*

*, says the Jewish critic.