REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Wedding of River Song

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Review in a Tweet: an incredibly busy episode packed with ideas but Moffat pulls it off. Lots of familiar faces, a shotgun wedding & best closing line ever.

Best Line: "I'm... his mother-in-law?" - Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) shortly after the Doctor marries River Song.

Something for the Kids: pterodactyls in the park!

Something for the Fans: we learn that Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), founder of UNIT and a reoccurring character from the pre-revival years, has passed away. This is in honour of actor Nicholas Courtney who died in February of this year. Courtney reprised his role as the Brigadier in a two-part episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Unfortunately, he never had a chance to appear alongside the post-revival Doctors.

Blast from the Past: everyone is back for this episode: Churchill, Dickens, Dr Malokeh, Dorium, Kovarian, the Silent and even an old-school Dalek, whilst Rose Tyler & Captain Jack both get a namedrop to keep the Russell T Davis loyalists happy.

Scary Bit: Gantok (Mark Gatiss) getting buried beneath gnawing skulls.

WTF: what is going on with Matt Smith's hair?!

Episode Highlight: the Teselecta twist was great and I totally called it after the Let's Kill Hitler episode. And the Question was another great revelation. "Doctor Who? Doctor Who? Doctor Who?!"

DW Confidential Highlight: a tidy montage of River Song's life from her point-of-view narrated by Alex Kingston. That should wrap it up for any viewers who still can't fathom the wibbley wobbley timey wimey-ness.

Food for Thought 1: the story arc this series, which was focussed on the Doctor's impending death, was a bit of a misfire. It is hard to get emotionally-invested in the drama when we all know that the Doctor isn't going to die because Matt Smith signed on for another frickin' series! Also, not too long ago, we had a whole year of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) awaiting his impending death so it all felt a bit familiar.

Food for Thought 2: what is going to happen next year? The River Song story is 99% wrapped-up now and Amy & Rory have been left to enjoy married life. So... time for a new companion? I hope not. Amy and Rory are awesome.

★★★★★