"The Wedding of River Song" is the thirteenth and final episode in the
sixth series of the British
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', and was first broadcast on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
on 1 October 2011. It was written by lead writer and executive producer
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
and directed by Jeremy Webb.
In the episode, the archaeologist
River Song (
Alex Kingston
Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston (born 11 March 1963) is an English actress. Active from the early 1980s, Kingston became noted for her television work in both Britain and the US in the 1990s, including her regular role as Dr. Elizabeth Corday in ...
) is programmed by the religious order the
Silence
Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the ce ...
to kill the alien
time traveller the Doctor (
Matt Smith
Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as the Eleventh Doctor, eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the BBC series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Daemon Targarye ...
) to prevent "the first question" from being asked on a planet called Trenzalore in the Doctor's future. She refuses, and they end up in an alternative timeline where all of time is running simultaneously and beginning to disintegrate. The Doctor tries to restore the universe with the help of River and the alternative universe versions of his
companions Amy Pond
Amelia "Amy" Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Amy is a companion (Doctor Who), companion of the series protagonis ...
(
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan (; born 28 November 1987) is a Scottish actress. She gained recognition for her work in British film and television, particularly for playing Amy Pond, a primary companion to the Eleventh Doctor in the science fiction seri ...
) and
Rory Williams
Rory Williams is a fictional character portrayed by Arthur Darvill in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Having been introduced at the start of the fifth series, Rory joins the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) ...
(
Arthur Darvill
Thomas Arthur Darvill (born 17 June 1982) is an English actor. He is known for portraying Rory Williams, a companion of the Eleventh Doctor in the television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2012), as well as Rip Hunter in ''Legends of Tomorrow'' ( ...
). It is revealed that he had already planned escape by posing as himself using the shape-shifting
Teselecta.
"The Wedding of River Song" concludes the story arc of the series and reveals what really happened at the start of the season premiere, "
The Impossible Astronaut
"The Impossible Astronaut" is the first episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. The episode was written by show runner Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes. It was first broadcast on ...
". The episode features many returning characters. It also pays tribute to the classic series character
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', created by writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln and p ...
following the death of the character's actor
Nicholas Courtney
William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''.
Ear ...
. One of the last episodes to be filmed for the series, production for "The Wedding of River Song" finished in April 2011. The episode was watched by a total of 7.67 million viewers in the UK. While visual elements were praised, the characters and resolution of the episode received a mixed reception.
Plot
Teaser
A prelude to the finale was released online 24 September 2011 after the previous episode, "
Closing Time". It shows Area 52 with the clock stuck at 5:02 p.m., where the leaders of the religious order the
Silence
Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the ce ...
are kept in stasis and
River Song is wearing an eye patch in the same fashion as
Madame Kovarian
This is a list of villains from the long-running British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. For other, related lists, see below.
See also
* List of ''Doctor Who'' supporting characters
* List of ''Doctor Who'' henchmen
* Li ...
.
Synopsis
The
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. He is played by Matt Smith in three series as well as five specials. As with previous incarnations of the Docto ...
, aware of his imminent death and its time and place, attempts to learn about a religious order called the Silence to learn why he must die. He encounters the shapeshifting robot the
Teselecta and its miniaturised crew posing as one of the members of the Silence; they offer him any help within their power as he faces his death. Through them the Doctor is led to Gantok, another Silence member, who takes him to the living head of Dorium Maldovar inside a catacomb. Dorium reveals that the Silence are dedicated to averting the Doctor's future, warning him that that silence must fall when "the first question" is asked on the planet Trenzalore, which is "Doctor who?" To avoid crossing his own time stream, the Doctor gives the Teselecta crew four invitations to Lake Silencio in 2011 for
Amy
Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''"Aimée"''.
People A–E
* Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress
* Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886– ...
and
Rory
Rory is a given name of Goidelic languages, Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish people, Irish, Scottish people, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given n ...
, River, Canton Everett Delaware III, and a younger version of himself.
The Doctor comes to Lake Silencio, Utah to meet his death by a younger version of River, who is being forced to kill the Doctor in the automated space suit contrived by the Silence. River surprises the Doctor by draining the space suit's weapons systems and averting his death. Time becomes "stuck" as a result and begins to disintegrate; all of Earth's history begins to run simultaneously at a fixed moment.
On this "stuck" Earth (with all of time happening at once) Amy takes the Doctor to Area 52, a pyramid base where the Silence are contained in water-filled cells and Madame Kovarian is held hostage. River is also there; aware of the consequences of her actions, she refuses to allow the Doctor to touch her, an event that would lead to time going back to normal and the Doctor dying at Lake Silencio, Utah. Awakened by the Doctor's presence, the Silence escape their cells and attack the troops defending the pyramid. Amy allows Kovarian to die as revenge for the kidnapping and brain-washing of her daughter Melody (aka River Song).
The Doctor and River escape to the top of the pyramid followed by Amy and Rory. The Doctor marries River on the spot and whispers to her to look into his eye. There she sees the miniaturized Doctor and realizes that he is inside the Teselecta ship and will not actually die if time's flow is restored. He then requests that River allow him to prevent the universe's destruction. They seal this agreement, and their marriage, with a kiss. Time moves forward and reality returns to normal.
River later visits Amy and Rory to tell them the Doctor is still alive. Elsewhere, the Doctor explains to Dorium that the Doctor's perceived death will enable him to withdraw and be forgotten, as he was getting too much attention.
Continuity
The Doctor mentions the possibility of visiting
Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. She was created by series producer Russell T Davies and portrayed by Billie Piper. With the revival of ''Doctor Who'' in 2005, Rose was introd ...
and
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in '' Doctor Who'' and its spin-off series, ''Torchwood''. The character first appears in the 2005 ''Doctor Who'' episode "The Empty Child" and subsequently features in the ...
.
He also says that
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
is still waiting to elope with him as hinted in "
The End of Time"; this explains why she was so angry in "
The Shakespeare Code
"The Shakespeare Code" is the second episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was broadcast on BBC One on 7 April 2007. According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 7.23 mi ...
".
Amy's office contains the model of the TARDIS she made as a child ("
The Eleventh Hour"), along with drawings of various monsters and scenes from her adventures with the Doctor.
River Song states that she used her hallucinogenic lipstick on
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Kennedy
Kennedy may refer to:
People
* John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States
* John Kennedy (Louisiana politician), (born 1951), US Senator from Louisiana
* Kennedy (surname), a family name (including a list of persons with t ...
, a possession of hers that was introduced in "
The Time of Angels
"The Time of Angels" is the fourth episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on 24 April 2010 on BBC One. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by showru ...
".
One of the Silence calls Rory "the man who dies and dies again", a reference to the many times he appears to die.
The episode's main plot centres around the damage caused by River when she tries to re-write a fixed point in time. The concept of "fixed points" in history which may not be altered, even by the Doctor or his companions, was introduced in ''
The Aztecs
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
'' (1964) and was named and explored in the new series with episodes such as "
The Fires of Pompeii
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008. Set shortly before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 7 ...
" and "
The Waters of Mars
"The Waters of Mars" is the third episode of the Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials), 2008–2010 specials of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 15 ...
".
When River meets Amy for a bottle of wine, she is wearing military fatigues and says that she "just climbed out of the ''Byzantium''", and that she saw Amy there. This refers to events in "
The Time of Angels
"The Time of Angels" is the fourth episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on 24 April 2010 on BBC One. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by showru ...
" and "
Flesh and Stone
"Flesh and Stone" is the fifth episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, the episode was first broadcast on 1 May 2010 on BBC One. Featuring ...
" (the "crash of the ''Byzantium''" first being mentioned in "
Silence in the Library
"Silence in the Library" is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 31 May 2008. It is the first of a two-part story; the second part, ...
").
Production
Writing
![NicholascourtneyCropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/NicholascourtneyCropped.jpg)
"The Wedding of River Song" concludes the story arc of the Doctor's apparent death which began in the series opener, "
The Impossible Astronaut
"The Impossible Astronaut" is the first episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. The episode was written by show runner Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes. It was first broadcast on ...
", and resolves more pieces of River Song's timeline.
Despite this, it leaves ambiguous whether the Doctor and River are legitimately married.
Showrunner and episode writer
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
described it as "a big roller coaster ride of ''Doctor Who'' madness".
One of the "mad idea
he included in the episode, "Live Chess", came because Moffat wanted to make chess — which he called "one of the most boring games in the world" — into a dangerous spectator sport.
Originally, the script did not include the brief scene with a
Dalek
The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 ''Doctor Who'' ...
;
Moffat had intended to rest the Doctor's most famous adversary for the sixth series. Amy's confrontation with Madame Kovarian, a scene which shows what she might have been like had she not met the Doctor, was also added into the script later.
Following the death of actor
Nicholas Courtney
William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''.
Ear ...
, the Doctor learns in the episode that Courtney's character
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', created by writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln and p ...
has died peacefully in a nursing home.
Moffat said of the reference, "In a story about the Doctor going to his death, it seemed right and proper to acknowledge one of the greatest losses ''Doctor Who'' has endured."
Moffat has confirmed that the eye patch-like eyedrives in the episode are also a tribute to Courtney, who wore an eye patch when playing an alternative version of the Brigadier in ''
Inferno
Inferno may refer to:
* Hell, an afterlife place of suffering
* Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire
Film
* ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film
* Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker
* Inferno (1973 fi ...
'' (1970).
Several characters reappear in the episode, including
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
(
Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View (1985 ...
) from "
The Unquiet Dead
"The Unquiet Dead" is the third episode of the first series of the British science-fiction television programme '' Doctor Who'', first broadcast on 9 April 2005 on BBC One. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.
In the episo ...
",
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
(
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice (born 2 October 1950) is an English film and television actor. He found fame portraying government agent Harcourt in the 1985 television series ''Edge of Darkness'', and went on to feature in popular films such as ''The Englishman ...
) from "
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Andrew Gunn, it was first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010.
In the epis ...
", the Silurian doctor Malohkeh (
Richard Hope) from "
The Hungry Earth
"The Hungry Earth" is the eighth episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on 22 May 2010 on BBC One. It was written by Chris Chibnall, who had previously written for ...
"/"
Cold Blood", the Teselecta and Captain Carter (
Richard Dillane
Richard Dillane (born 1964) is a British actor. He appears in a lead role of the Netflix series ''Young Wallander'', based on the character Kurt Wallander created by novelist Henning Mankell. He played British intelligence agent Peter Nicholls i ...
) from "
Let's Kill Hitler
"Let's Kill Hitler" is the eighth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and was first broadcast on BBC One, Space and BBC America on 27 August 2011. It was written by Steven Moffat and direct ...
", and the Headless Monks and Dorium (
Simon Fisher-Becker
Simon Fisher-Becker is a British stage, television and film actor, specialising in comedy and character parts. His more notable roles include Tony Fazackerley in ''Puppy Love'' for the BBC, The Fat Friar in the ''Harry Potter'' film ''Harry P ...
) from "
A Good Man Goes to War
"A Good Man Goes to War" is the seventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and was first broadcast on BBC One on 4 June 2011. It served as a mid-series finale. The episode was written b ...
".
McNeice felt there was room for his character to return, as "Victory of the Daleks" had hinted that he and the Doctor knew each other well.
Filming and effects
"The Wedding of River Song" was one of the last episodes filmed for the series; 29 April 2011 was the last day of filming.
However, a scene from "
Let's Kill Hitler
"Let's Kill Hitler" is the eighth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and was first broadcast on BBC One, Space and BBC America on 27 August 2011. It was written by Steven Moffat and direct ...
" was delayed and shot on 11 July 2011, making that the last day of filming for the series. American television hostess
Meredith Vieira
Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show '' The View'' (1997–2006), the original host of the syndicated ...
recorded her report of Churchill's return to the Buckingham Senate in front of a
green screen
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
while filming a segment for ''
The Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...
s "Anchors Abroad" segment in May 2011.
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...
, who played Gantok, was credited in this episode under the pseudonym "Rondo Haxton", a homage to the American horror actor
Rondo Hatton
Rondo Hatton (April 22, 1894 – February 2, 1946) was an American journalist and actor. After writing for ''The Tampa Tribune'', Hatton found a career in film due to his unique facial features, which were the result of acromegaly. He headlin ...
on whom the character's look was based; Gatiss underwent prosthetics to play the part.
Gatiss, who has written for ''Doctor Who'', also played
Professor Richard Lazarus in "
The Lazarus Experiment
"The Lazarus Experiment" is the sixth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 May 2007 and stars David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Freema Agyeman ...
" (2007)
and provided the voice of Danny Boy in "
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Andrew Gunn, it was first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010.
In the epis ...
".
The cast found working with the eye patches strange as they had to act with one eye;
Alex Kingston
Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston (born 11 March 1963) is an English actress. Active from the early 1980s, Kingston became noted for her television work in both Britain and the US in the 1990s, including her regular role as Dr. Elizabeth Corday in ...
remarked that it made her "slightly dizzy".
Actor
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan (; born 28 November 1987) is a Scottish actress. She gained recognition for her work in British film and television, particularly for playing Amy Pond, a primary companion to the Eleventh Doctor in the science fiction seri ...
was allowed to fire a specially-made machine gun used for films.
Churchill's Buckingham Senate was filmed in
Cardiff's City Council building.
The script called for an ''
Indiana Jones
''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...
'' style tunnel for the Headless Monks' chamber, but as that kind of location was not available in Cardiff a set was built instead.
The skulls were hand-crafted and required a lot of preparation, so it was one of the first things started for the episode's production.
Broadcast and reception
"The Wedding of River Song" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
on 1 October 2011 and on the same date in the United States on
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
. Overnight ratings showed that the episode was watched by 6.1 million viewers, the third most-watched programme of the evening and an improvement upon preceding weeks of ''Doctor Who'' as well as the
previous series finale. Final consolidated figures by the
Broadcasters' Audience Research Board
The Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) is a British organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace two previous systems whereby ITV ratings were compiled ...
were 7.67 million viewers, the seventh highest for BBC One and the second most-watched programme for 1 October. It was given an
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index (AI) is an indicator measured from 0 to 100 of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom.
Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by the B ...
of 86, placing it in the "excellent" category. However it was the lowest rated finale since the revival of ''Doctor Who'', with the others scoring an AI of 88 to 91.
Critical reception
The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, with some reservations over the resolution and character interactions. Dan Martin of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave a positive review, believing that the episode "moves along the bigger, 50-year story and effectively reboots the show". He particularly praised it for being simplistic, as well as the visuals of all history running together at once.
Rachel Tarley, writing for ''
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
'', praising the "gripping race" against time and noting that the script was "snappy and witty throughout, but the episode had its eerie and touching moments where necessary, too".
''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' Keith Phipps gave the episode an A, calling it "pretty close to a perfect season finale" for those not looking for all of the answers.
Morgan Jeffery of
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...
wrote, "As a piece of Saturday night entertainment, it works — packed full of strong performances, stunning visuals and sharp dialogue. And as the resolution to a series-long arc, it's mostly satisfactory — though the episode poses as many questions as it answers."
Dave Golder of ''
SFX
SFX may refer to:
Entertainment
* Special effects (usually visual), illusions used in film, television, and entertainment
* Sound effects, sounds that are artificially created or enhanced
* SFX (magazine), ''SFX'' (magazine), a British magazine c ...
'' gave the episode four-and-a-half out of five stars, explaining that he was in conflict whether to rate it five or four stars and calling it "about nine-tenths a great, great episode". He referred to the many concepts of the episode as a "sumptuous confection made mostly out of the finest ingredients" and found the Teselecta resolution a "cool twist" at first, but it meant "the whole episode is just an elaborate version of the classic ''
Star Trek: Voyager'' alternate timeline shtick complete with reset button".
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
's Matt Risley rated "The Wedding of River Song" 8.5 out of 10, writing it "managed to tie together plot threads and character arcs without too much
Deus Ex Maguffiny predictability and with a whole host of trademark sci-fi spectacle to boot". Though he thought the wedding "felt a little too rushed to leave any lingering emotional aftertaste", he praised other emotional moments in the episode and said the fact that everyone thinks the Doctor is dead will help the show explore a new angle.
Gavin Fuller of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' called it an "uneven ending"; he praised it for being "visually clever" and liked the way the Silence were handled, but thought the Teselecta solution was "a bit of a cop-out".
Neela Debnath of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' was displeased with the episode, calling it a "brainteaser" that "refused to tie up the loose ends neatly", and that as a finale it was "underwhelming in terms of drama and overwhelming in terms of information". However, she praised the fact that Moffat appears to be spreading storylines over several series, believing it "strengthens the show".
On the other hand,
HitFix
HitFix, or HitFix.com, was an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information, and reviews and critiques of film, music, and television. In mid-2010 HitFix crossed the 1,00 ...
's Alan Sepinwall thought that the resolutions from the wedding on were "excellent", but felt it could have done without another alternate universe, as it was similar to the previous finale "
The Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the Expansion of the universe, universe expanded from an initial state of high Energy density, density and temperature. Various Physical cosmology, cosmological models of the Big Ba ...
".
Maureen Ryan of
TV Squad
Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...
criticised the episode for having too many "bells and whistles" which undermined the emotional moments, especially the wedding, which she did not believe showed that the Doctor was really in love with River. However, she did enjoy "callbacks" to previous episodes such as Churchill and Amy and Rory's relationship.
Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, t ...
of
io9
''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...
thought it was better than the previous finale, "The Big Bang", as there were more answers, fun, and a satisfying resolution. However, she was critical of the reason River had to kill the Doctor as well as their relationship, and believed that Amy's killing Madame Kovarian was "no substitute" for Amy's dealing with what Kovarian had done to her child.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedding of River Song, The
2011 British television episodes
Eleventh Doctor episodes
Television episodes set in Utah
Television episodes written by Steven Moffat
Cultural depictions of Winston Churchill
Doctor Who stories set on Earth
Television episodes about weddings
Fiction set in 2011
Television episodes about death