From A to 7Q — Review: The Wedding of River Song

Holistic Review: Fantastic visuals support an exciting plot in this focused, fitting wrap-up of the season arc.

Season finales in new-style Doctor Who have tended to follow one of two patterns. They're either "Daleks Daleks Daleks Daleks DALEKS, we need more Daleks!" or a dizzying whirlwind of ever-increasing spectacle and impossibly high stakes. Even though the effect has often been a samey feeling of stretched credulity (and overegged pudding), you can't really blame them for either tendency. Daleks are unquestionably the series' cash cow and the favorite monster of fans and casual viewers alike; and upping the stakes is traditional series-finale material, especially for an arc-based series such as Doctor Who has become. And here's where The Wedding of River Song differs. Yes, the stakes are high, because we're building toward the Doctor's inevitable death; and yes, the episode does flirt with spectacle and extravaganza. But rather than giving us mind-blowing concepts like "the end of reality itself" or "the end of time" or "the end of the human race", here Moffat reigns in the spectacle to the background visuals. Most of the episode is set in this fantastic alternate reality where all of Earth history is happening simultaneously, including even the Silurian epoch and its accompanying dinosaurs — and while this is unquestionably a difficult idea to wrap one's head around (why, for example, aren't all 73-odd English monarchs and 44 American presidents vying for office?), it allows for lots of interesting world-building details that add color to the parallel-timeline scenes without making them feel preposterous or gimmicky. There's still an epic feel — the narrative rockets between parallel timelines, galaxy-spanning investigation and Indiana Jones pastiche — but it doesn't detract from the plot, which is unexpectedly fresh and exciting in a story which I expected to be little more than a showdown between the Doctor and the Silence. (It seems that I have A Good Man Goes to War to thank for getting the traditional season-finale elements out of the season's system by episode 6!) The episode's structure also enables some fun cameos, but in contrast to past stories which featured three celebrities, a villain and a handful of returning monsters, The Wedding of River Song is restrained: the cameos, delightfully, are mostly restricted to past guest stars (including a welcome brief return by Simon Callow as Dickens; the one major exception is celebrity cameo Meredith Vieira, who's an unconventional choice but perfect in the role), and aside from a glimpse of a Dalek, the episode mostly stays focused on the Silence and their plot to kill the Doctor. All of which is essentially to say that I anticipated yet another "everything but the kitchen sink" finale, and in the end, even though it's far from perfect, I was pleasantly surprised by its restraint and creativity.

This season finale presented us with one of our greatest puzzlers yet: we've all seen the Doctor die, but we have faith that he's somehow going to evade this certain fate... so how will he do it? The answer, when it becomes clear, is clever without being too much of a cop-out. All the pieces were there for us to put together, and in hindsight I feel like an idiot for not having realized that the Teselecta could be the key to the Doctor's salvation. (In my defense, the one thing that I can't figure out is how the Teselecta manages to simulate regeneration; if the Doctor isn't actually regenerating, then where is all of that energy coming from? That's the one element that seems to be included deliberately to mislead us — and, presumably, the rest of the universe, assuming that the suit is recording the event as proof.) Although I feel like I've seen this plot element executed better before — I'm reminded, off the top of my head, of "Prophecy Girl" from Buffy and Supernatural season 3, which also featured the protagonists dealing with an inexorable countdown to their deaths — it was scripted well, without relying on a deus ex machina style ending. (Just the machina part.)

However, this dazzling show of timey-wimey cleverness appears to be an attempt to distract us from thinking about a couple of major questions that are still left dangling. As you know, dear reader, I'm not usually one to be bought off with neat resolutions and clever tricks if they don't feel completely well-earned. And while this wrap-up almost works, either we don't have quite enough answers yet to understand how it all fits together, or it's another case of the production team saying "it looks and sounds great, so maybe they'll get wrapped up in atmosphere and ignore the details."

First: why, of all the possible ways they could have picked to assassinate the Doctor, did the Silence choose to use a modified NASA spacesuit and materialize it in a Utah lake?! Just because it would look peculiar? As far as we know, they have no particularly strong ties to Earth, the US or 1960s NASA that would have made it the natural choice; nor were they restricted to Earth in that time period, since they had to fetch River from the moon and send her back in time. Surely there were better assassination options on some of the other planets they inhabit? And why brainwash and train a psychopath to operate it, if the suit was going to do the job all by itself anyway? Given that their trained assassin winds up resisting the suit with all her will, they would've done just as well to pluck Mary Sue Coleman off the street to put in it. Or join forces with someone who genuinely wants the Doctor dead. (For that matter, why couldn't Madame Kovarian volunteer?)

Also: how can future justice possibly hold River accountable for the Doctor's death when, as I'm sure will soon become apparent to the universe, the Doctor didn't die after all? Even more crucially, there must surely be evidence that River was drugged and forced into a suit which carried out the murder against her will. Their argument against River also hinges on their knowledge that she was the one in the suit; but how could anyone have evidence that it was River? The only scenario I can envision is that they somehow had remote cameras watching over the Doctor's shoulder when she opened her faceplate, yet they failed to read her lips, failed to likewise monitor the moment when River was forced into the suit or removed from it afterward, failed to track down the suit itself to ascertain whether it could have operated independently of the occupant's wishes, and utterly failed to give any weight to River's protests of innocence. Which means that they convicted her based only on her appearance at the scene of the crime, with no corroborating evidence whatsoever (not even an analysis of the murder weapon). Flimsy, if you ask me. Is it possible that we're still being misled, and this isn't the crime for which River was imprisoned?

However: I like very much the path that all this is leading us down. The fact that the Doctor has to lay low for a while, and let rumours of his demise spread, is a very nice change of pace for the show. Since the revival began, the Doctor has been building into a more and more mythical figure, which has been a little unsettling, if unsurprising. As the Doctor says, "I got too big, Dorium. Too noisy." Perhaps now we've finally reached that apex that River talked about, at which armies would turn and flee at the mention of his name (we've seen it happen twice now, in The Pandorica Opens and arguably in A Good Man Goes to War, and the reverse — armies coming to his aid — happens in this episode). If the Doctor's fate is now to live the quieter life, righting evil without calling so much attention to himself (as he had to do back in the days when he was on the run from the Time Lords), then I'm delighted.

It's also nice that the resolution of this season arc has left a couple of loose threads dangling for next year. The most tantalizing example, of course, is The Question (which I feel the need to capitalize this one time only). Ordinarily I think I'd be a little apprehensive about finally ripping away some of the Doctor's mystique. In general, I prefer the approach adopted by Cartmel, which was to make the Doctor more mysterious by raising intriguing questions about his past. However, as we approach the show's 50th anniversary, it seems like the right time for us to finally get some answers. Not that I'm even sure what kind of answers "the question" implies (or why the Doctor would have to die to stop those answers from getting out), although it would appear that the Doctor is carrying some pretty big secrets. Certainly fanfiction and novel authors have often speculated about the Doctor's exact origins and role in Time Lord mythology, so it's very possible that a huge bomb is about to drop.

And as long as we're talking about "the question", I was really tickled that the clues that have been dropped about it were not intended for the Doctor, but rather for us, the audience. Only for us is "Doctor who?" the first question, hidden in plain sight. So yeah, it doesn't make sense in terms of the show's fictional world, but it was just so clever of Moffat to kick back and let us misdirect ourselves (because of course we'd never have interpreted the clues that way, even though it's blindingly obvious once you know) that I love it unreservedly. For me, when Dorium revealed what the question was, it was one of those "oh wow" moments that made my skin tingle.

I'm proud of the Doctor for deciding to fight his prophecy-of-doom, and trying to at least determine why the Silence feel he needs to be killed. I was happy enough when he was resigned to his eventual fate, but this sudden desire to seize the bull by the horns is even more admirable. Matt Smith hits it out of the park as always, and I felt particularly keenly for the Doctor when he told River that her attempts to solicit help from the universe had embarrassed him. I don't really see the Doctor as the sort of guy who's shy about attention (although that's why it would've embarrassed me), but in this instance it's totally believable, because he doesn't want to appear to be the one in need of rescuing. I'm sure the Doctor was just as glad that the alternative timeline was wiped out! Love Smith's delivery of "No! She's on our side."

This week, River's the one in charge: she creates the parallel universe, and she's the one who's trying to maintain it for as long as possible. It takes her a while to track down the Doctor, although apparently she had things to do before she could even start looking for him (like capturing Madame Kovarian and some of the Silence, and sending out her distress message to the universe). Her devotion to the Doctor is touching, as is her determination that he should not die without being fully aware of the positive impact that he's had on the universe. What's also nice is that we finally get confirmation that all this time, River has been lying to the TARDIS crew about what she did or didn't know — for example, when she pretended to meet Amy for the first time at the wreck of the Byzantium, and when she claimed not to recognize the spacesuit in Florida (which finally answers one of my burning questions from A Good Man Goes to War!). Kingston portrays River's sadness and desperation well; I liked her delivery of "It's not the sun." The one moment that I'm not quite sure about is the way that River goes from horrified teary-eyed dread to smug lightheartedness in a matter of seconds, when she comes up with a way to save the Doctor's life; the shift is more than a little jarring.

Karen Gillan gives quite a good performance as Amy this week, from her jubilation at being reunited with the Doctor to her somber introspection as she sips wine with River. She gives a great reaction shot as Amy starts to remember who Rory is, and the end scene between Amy and River is great, as Amy struggles with her sadness in the wake of the Doctor's death while River knows more than she's been telling. I like the fact that Amy's exposure to the crack in her wall means that she's able to retain some memory of each alternative timeline (although one can quickly imagine how this might get problematic for her in future, if her timeline continues to suffer from tampering; and it does make one wonder why she didn't remember Rory after he was erased from existence). She also gets some particularly proactive moments in this story. As a prime example, "Amy wielding a machine gun" is the stuff of fan dreams. Okay, it's a little violent, but my inner Rambo (who is totally into strong female characters mowing down the bad guys) was whooping and hollering. But my favorite moment for her is the frankly awesome scene in which we get to see a bit of Amy's dark side ("River Song didn't get it all from you, sweetie.")... it's a little chilling, and I can somehow appreciate Amy's unpredictable grumpy nature more if it means that she may occasionally be pushed this far over the edge. I'm still not sure that I'm actively excited about a third season with this TARDIS crew, as I was hoping I might be by this point, but we'll see how things go.

Rory doesn't get a whole lot to do in this story, mostly being "noble soldier man who bravely defends his lady", but he gets some cute scenes with the Doctor, and I like that he's got enough willpower to endure the effects of the electrified eye-drive for a time. His tendency to get killed off is brought up yet again, as the Silence refer to him as "the man who dies and dies again"... must this really become Rory's defining characteristic? I think I prefer "the Last Centurion". (Amy's David-Duchovny-esque drawing of him is cute too, although I do wish they'd stop teasing Arthur Darvill about his looks! Can you imagine the same dialogue if the genders were reversed? People would be up in arms if the Doctor kept insulting Amy's appearance the way he does Rory!)

After innumerable guest appearances all season long, it's a shame that Frances Barber still hasn't had the opportunity to take center stage as Madame Kovarian; even in A Good Man Goes to War, she was but one of several antagonists, and here she's limited to a few scenes in which she's bound to a chair. Nevertheless, she's great throughout, every syllable practically dripping venom. I really liked her eye-rolling delivery of the awesome line "Oh, they're flirting. Do I have to watch this?" and her performance as the weak, desperate, half-electrified Madame Kovarian, particularly on her line "And you'd never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor." I don't get why the Silence decide to sacrifice her — surely she hasn't outlived her usefulness to them? — but fortunately that timeline no longer exists. Perhaps if the character returns along with the Silence next season, we'll get more quality time with her.

I thought Ian McNeice got a much better showing in this story than he did in Victory of the Daleks. Perhaps, with Churchill removed from his proper context, McNeice was able to relax and put more of himself into the performance. Churchill in this story feels more like a genuine person, recognizable but not a caricature, and McNeice's performance is very naturalistic. I particularly like the scene in which Churchill is clearly trying to rationalize on the spot why he and the Doctor have gone for a stroll, with weapons. It's nice to see Churchill's continuing rapport with the Doctor, even if, in this divergent timeline, he doesn't remember ever having had one. Niall Greig Fulton was also good as the exquisitely-named Gideon Vandaleur, and I loved his Scottish vowels. And even more than vowels, I loved Mark Gatiss as Gantok. The makeup is so good that I didn't recognize him at all the first time around; when I was reminded that he'd been in the episode, I had to sit and think for a while who he might have been! Even under all that latex, he still threatens to steal the show, with that great accent and his superb line readings.

Although if we're going to talk about someone stealing the show, hello, Simon Fisher-Becker. The way things are going, I'm starting to hope that Head of Dorium will be the Doctor's next companion. In his every scene, he's captivating, with carefully-nuanced line deliveries. My favorites are his hilarious teasing "Give it to me straight, Doctor. How bad are my injuries?", "It was a busy day, and I got beheaded!", " 'Silence must fall' would be a better translation.", and "It's like some terrible weight pressing down on my — oh. I see." Who would've thought, after his brief appearance in The Pandorica Opens, that I'd soon find him to be one of the highlights of new Who?

It's sweet, also, that Doctor Who has taken the time to pay in-universe tribute to Lethbridge-Stewart, after Nicholas Courtney's passing earlier this year. It's terribly sad that the Brigadier, too, has passed away, but fitting that the Doctor has a chance to mourn him, and touching that it's this sense of loss that finally convinces the Doctor to accept his own fate.

The Silence are well-used this week. I'm still not sure I find them totally convincing as terrifying monsters, but scenes like the one in which the Doctor and Churchill find themselves inexplicably weapons-enabled and out-of-breath from running are undoubtedly effective, as is the shot of the Doctor suddenly noticing dozens more marks scrawled on his right arm. And we finally get explicit confirmation that they do use electricity as a weapon (thus adding them to the noble ranks of such creatures as the Rutan Host and the Myrka), although I still don't understand how being electrocuted could blow you into little papery smithereens. The eye-drive is another clever idea, sinister-looking yet with a very practical purpose.

It's also nice to see the return of the Teselecta and its crew, whose alliance with the Doctor is as uneasy as ever. It makes for an interesting dynamic; they're all on the same side, but their methods are vastly different, and their objectives sometimes conflict. In that sense, actually, they're a lot like the Judoon. I'd certainly enjoy seeing them again, because it seems like there's more depth to plumb in their relationship with the Doctor.

For a season finale, Gold's music is pleasantly understated. I liked the dramatic music over the title caption, but not much else really grabbed my attention, which as usual I interpret as a positive.

Given how much I adored his direction of The Curse of the Black Spot, I expected to be more enthralled by Jeremy Webb's direction than I actually was. Certainly it was very well done — the scenes in the Headless Monks' catacombs come straight to mind, and I liked the shot of the Doctor's king toppling — but there wasn't quite as much obvious directorial flair in this story. And there were a couple of odd moments; for example, once the Doctor survives the suit's attack, and the entire remainder of his lakeside scenes with River are shown only in close-up, I got the very distinct feeling that we were looking at a Utah backdrop in a Cardiff studio. And I really wasn't fond of the final shot, of the Doctor staring directly into the camera in an ominous way.

The effects this week are overall quite good, in particular the cinematic establishing shots of the train tracks going into various London and Egyptian monuments. (Although, given that the track into the pyramid dead-ends, shouldn't the train be slowing down...?) I have a feeling that I ought to hate the shots of Gantok falling into a pit of ravenous skulls, but in fact I really like it; the CGI looks just unrealistic enough that I notice it's CGI, but just realistic enough that it's also believable, and overall it's a freaky-enough concept — particularly the moment when the top layer of skulls set their sights on the Doctor — that I was totally able to overlook any shortcomings and get caught up in the tension of the scene. I also liked the "fade to white" effect as the alternative timeline is formed, and the effects of the glass shattering under the Silence's touch (I'd love to know how they accomplished that!).

In terms of my formulating expectations this season, I note that I was mistaken about the role that the Flesh would play. From the events of The Almost People / The Rebel Flesh, I had assumed that the Flesh would be more integral to the overall season arc, when actually its only other appearance was as a decoy Melody in A Good Man Goes to War. Even the Flesh-Doctor didn't reappear, and at this point I doubt that he ever will, despite the hints we were given at the time. Also, and more sadly: not a single reboot of a classic-series monster this year? Aww. After the Daleks, Cybermen, Macra, Sontarans and Silurians (not to mention the Master), this makes the first year that it hasn't happened. Then again, given that we're coming up on the fiftieth anniversary year, perhaps we can hope for a classic-monster double-dose (or more) to come.

And, of the 19 dangling questions that I had after The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon, 15 have been more or less answered over the course of the season, which isn't bad at all. The ones that yet dangle are:

Why isn't the astronaut hurt by River's bullets?
Why do the Silence have a TARDIS like the one we saw in The Lodger?
Why is there a greater concentration of the Silence in the USA?
Why do the Silence need an astronaut suit, in particular?

After JB's visit, it took me a long time to get around to finishing my review of Closing Time, so by the time I sat down to watch The Wedding of River Song, it was the Saturday after the episode's original transmission. To my complete surprise, I was able to remain entirely unspoiled on the plot, probably thanks to a very deliberate avoidance of Facebook. I had an inkling that Churchill and Dorium would be in it (as they'd both been interviewed in this month's Doctor Who Insider magazine) and I'd heard about the cameos by Callow and Vieira, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. I think I was very wise to stop browsing online forums after season 3!

Minor points:

Okay, reluctantly I must admit that I like the way Moffat links that annoying nursery rhyme into the ongoing plot, when Churchill points out that in their timeline, clocks don't tick.

At first, I was a little shocked that the Doctor was referring to himself as "the face of the Devil himself"... like, whoa, is he unhinged?! Then we find out he was talking to a Dalek, and suddenly it all made sense. (It's nice that this cameo is our requisite Dalek of the season; it made a refreshing change to give them a break this year. I was just the tiniest bit disappointed, though, that we didn't get to see inside the casing. Then again, in the revived series we've seen tons of Dalek mutants, so I don't know why I cared particularly.)

The Doctor is reading Knitting for Girls??? What a hilarious image! And yet somehow inappropriate. It could've been ironic under the right circumstances (you can just picture it propped up in front of Buffy, fresh from slaying a nest of vamps, complaining about dropping a stitch), but here there is no irony. Oh well. No malicious gender-role reinforcement was intended, so I choose to cackle at it.

Love the "live chess" gag! Plus it makes for a cool visual.

Is the Doctor's "I hate rats..." line another Indiana Jones reference? Given the context of the scene (and his Stetson!), it surely must be. So, the sonic screwdriver is really just the Doctor's bullwhip.

Hey now, what's with this "fall of the eleventh" nonsense? I'm not ready to get rid of Matt Smith anytime soon! Hush your blue disembodied mouth, Dorium. Until I hear any news to the contrary, I'm going to assume that the Doctor trips over an exposed tree root in front of all the assembled armies at Trenzelor. See, 'cause that would make them all laugh, and then they wouldn't fight. I think my theory is correct. (Having said that, on 21 October, Matt Smith implied that he may be moving to Los Angeles after series seven; please say it isn't so!)

I'm totally unclear on this point: why does the Doctor takes Dorium's boxed head with him in the TARDIS? As far as I can tell, the Doctor steals Dorium's head, pilots the TARDIS into the Teselecta, "dies", and then drops Dorium off again. So did Dorium serve any useful purpose whatsoever? Maybe that's another dangling question that will be answered next season.

When the Doctor and Churchill are being pursued by the Silence, what's the Doctor marking his arms with? He doesn't appear to be carrying any black Sharpies, but the marks on his skin are very dark, precise and thick.

When the Doctor says he could "save the dodo", the first two times he said it, I thought he'd said "doughnut"! I mean, I didn't know doughnuts needed saving, but whatever. (Then again, if it's a Krispy Kreme versus me, it had better hope the Doctor is on his way.)

Among all the other nice little references, we get mentions of Rose and Jack! (Not to mention the legendary Elizabeth I... so not only did he deflower her, he jilted her too?! Poor woman! This is making the Doctor out to be quite a cad. At this point, I'm surprised she only wanted to lop his head off.)

So I was all set to rip into the fact that Carter asks "Is there nothing else we can do?" and the Doctor just walks away without saying anything. But then, of course, we later discover that this is not exactly the full story!

One little point that I just want to clear up. When River saves the Doctor's life, time stops around the world at 5:02 pm. But shouldn't that be 5:02 pm Mountain time? Shouldn't it, therefore, be 12:02 am GMT, rather than broad daylight? Or is it 5:02 pm everywhere because it was 5:02 pm where and when the Doctor died?

Haha. Backstory on the bottle of wine from episode 1; and, good catch!
Doctor: "Napoleon gave me this bottle. Well, I mean... I say 'gave'. Threw."

Just to be clear, because I found it slightly confusing: is it the case that River creates a splintered timeline when she drains her suit's weapons systems before it can shoot the Doctor, and when the Doctor puts the timeline back on track by shorting out the disruption, the flow of time rewinds slightly, and restarts just before River's shenanigans with the suit? If so, I think that more or less makes sense. But I would like to know, if the suit's so powerful as to make her murder the Doctor, how did she manage to mentally override it and drain the power?

I believe that this is not what was intended, but the way this shot is filmed, it looks very much like the Doctor shoves Winston Churchill to the ground in a desperate attempt to preserve his own life and flee the room before the soldiers' bomb goes off! In the next shot, the Doctor and Churchill are sprawled out on the ground together, giving the impression that they were actually going for "the Doctor tackled Churchill to the ground to save his life". But the bomb's timing makes it difficult to know for sure: it goes off right after the Doctor clips Churchill, knocking him to the ground as well, so we can't tell whether the Doctor was trying to shield Churchill (unselfish) or if he would've tried to make it out the door (selfish).

The two radio voiceovers about the government apologies are done well; they're inserted over spots where there's not much else to pay attention to, so the information sinks in even though it's "only" background noise.

Ahh. So we're back to The Eleventh Hour territory, are we? As the Doctor changes back into his old clothes:
Doctor: "Okay, you can turn around now, how do I look?"
Amy: (apparently never having looked away) "Cool."

Poor Rory! But, despite myself: hee.
Amy: "I love him very much, don't I?"
Doctor: (consulting her drawing of Rory Duchovny) "Apparently."

The Doctor claims that the human race isn't killing the Silence on sight any more because that event occurred in a different reality. Well, yeeeeees... but it occurred in 1969, and the timeline didn't diverge until 2011. Or, if he wants to play the "all of time is happening at once" card, meaning that there never was any such thing as 1969 because all of time has accordioned into one moment, then why isn't he telling people to kill the Silence on sight now? (Perhaps this addresses my question about multiple presidents and kings: is it possible that when time collapsed, there was only enough room for one alternative from each moment in history? Like if you took a bag of gumballs and poured them into an opaque bowl, you'd only be able to see the ones on top. Don't ask me why I picked gumballs; I don't even like them. So perhaps the Doctor's subliminal message from 1969 was one of the gumballs that got buried?)

Cute line! Buffy-worthy too, although I can't imagine who on Buffy could have delivered this line. (Anya maybe....? Actually it sounds a little like Buffy's attempts to get Giles and Ms Calendar back together.)
Rory: "What exactly did she say?"
Doctor: "She said that you were a Mr Hottie...ness, and that she would like to go out with you, for texting and scones."

After Amy's tantalizing promise that the Doctor would meet "old friends" inside the pyramid, I was mildly disappointed that the only one we knew was River. Well, and Madame Kovarian, but I don't think she qualifies as a friend.

Oh, brilliantly written. Bravo, Mr Moffat!
Doctor: "Hi, honey, I'm home."
River: (indicating readouts) "And what sort of time do you call this?"

Closely followed by this equally-loopy riff on sitcom culture:
Doctor: "Love what you've done with the pyramids."

It's a good thing Madame Kovarian mentions that the eye-drives can cause either "death or debilitating agony"; otherwise, I would've been griping about the fact that it takes the first technician about 6 seconds to die, but lots of other people — including Madame Kovarian herself — survive way longer. I wonder why the effect is different on different people though?

Why is Rory "fine" that Amy simultaneously claims to be married yet wants to go on a date with him?! Not even a pause to consider how her unspecified husband might feel about this? I thought that sort of utter disregard for other people was solely Amy's territory. Then again, this sort of thing only seems to happen in episodes written by Steven "Coupling" Moffat, so perhaps I've been pointing the finger of blame at the wrong person all this time.

I wonder why it helps for River to send her Doctor-in-distress beacon throughout all of space and time. I'm sure a lot of people out there wanted to help, but got to the Earth a few hundred thousand years too early (or too late).

Really emotion-filled performance by Alex Kingston in this scene (but do I complain about yet another "shut up"?):
River: "I can't let you die..."
Doctor: "But I have to die!"
River: "Shut up! I can't let you die... without knowing you are loved, by so many and so much. And by no-one more than me."

Ha! Well, when you put it that way, it's not so confusing.
Rory: "I'm not sure I completely understand."
Amy: "Um, we got married and had a kid and that's her."

Oooh, snap. (Next he'll be buying her Knitting for Girls...)
River: "What am I doing?"
Doctor: "As you're told."

Okay, now, a big question here. I really don't get why the Doctor is marrying River. This plot element comes totally out of the blue, apparently only to enable Moffat to call this episode The Wedding of River Song (and finally confirm that River is the Doctor's wife, albeit in a nullified parallel timestream). I get that the Doctor needed to manoeuvre River close enough to him that she could see his miniaturized self inside the Teselecta, but surely there were other, simpler, ways he could have accomplished the same thing?

Another thing that's been bothering me: it's just too easy to kill the Doctor now. If all the Daleks have to do is wait and shoot him twice, and then he's really dead for all time, what's to stop them trying it? He's just lucky that most of the time he's regenerated in the safety of the TARDIS, rather than surrounded by bad guys. Is it possible that this was all a ruse on the Doctor's part to make the Silence think he was that vulnerable...?

Probably the best line of the episode, thanks entirely to Karen Gillan, who absolutely kills the reaction shot and the joyful-to-nauseated delivery:
Rory: "Are you sure, River? Really properly sure?"
River: "Of course I'm sure! I'm his wife!"
Amy: "Yes! And I'm his — ...mother-in-law."

Ahem. Can I just say: I hope that now Amy feels just the slightest bit dirty that she once attempted to seduce her future son-in-law.

And here Dorium finally lays out the thrilling premise of series seven. And well-delivered it is, too! (Will series seven also be the fiftieth anniversary season? I somehow think not, if it starts in autumn 2012. Will series eight be the one starting in autumn 2013 or are they going to stretch series seven out really long...? Enquiring minds want to know.)
Dorium: "The first question! The question that must never be answered! Hidden in plain sight! The question you've been running from all your life! Doctor who?"

Overall, I can't say that the season six arc was my all-time favorite, so as a result, I didn't find The Wedding of River Song to be a super-awesome episode either. Nevertheless, this story arc was pretty coherent and overall well-plotted; likewise, I can't really fault The Wedding of River Song. It's not earth-shattering or particularly emotional like Doomsday or Journey's End were (after all, we didn't really believe the Doctor's life was ever in genuine danger), but neither is it crippled by massive logical flaws or storytelling missteps like certain other season finales. It's a fun, interesting ride, and that counts for a lot.

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