The friendship that started with fish fingers and custard now ends that way, too. On Sep. 29, Doctor Who notoriously said goodbye to companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. In all its glory, head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat wrote the most tearful goodbye ever.
Before the show went into its seventh season, news came about that actor and actress Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan were leaving the show after this season. However, as the start of the production got closer, it was announced by Moffat that they would both leave in the fifth episode of the season.
As the fifth episode got closer, many fans speculated how the Ponds will go. Many assume that they would die, and they were right, sort of. The Ponds’ final trip with the Doctor was New York City in the 1930s, where River Song joins the party and the Weeping Angels crash in.
The Weeping Angels take Rory hostage and zap him back to the past, where the Doctor, Amy and River must go and save him, only to be trapped by the Weeping Angels in hotel, where they see a much older version of Rory die.
Things get much worse when the book that the Doctor is reading in the beginning of the episode reveals to be the future of the Ponds. In order to prevent that future, the Doctor stops reading it and decides to read the chapter titles instead. But he is shocked when he sees that the final chapter heading is “Amelia Pond’s Final Farewell.” Therefore, the Doctor does everything in his power to stop that from happening.
When we first met Amy and Rory, their relationship was not ‘till death do us part’ just yet. But this episode proves that otherwise. Bring out the tissues, because that vow and the love that both Amy and Rory share proved to be too strong for the Doctor to save them.
The Ponds met their demise when Amy realized that she couldn’t live without Rory, and sacrificed her traveling with the Doctor to be with him. This leaves the Doctor devastated, knowing that he couldn’t save his friends or even see them again, since they are locked in time. Even more heart aching is when we see a scene where there’s a tomb stone with both Rory and Amy’s names on it, stating that they are gone for good.
Yet, the Doctor still receives a little bit of closure from River, when she figures out that the book will be given to Amy to manufacture and that she will write a post script for the Doctor (an afterword in which the Doctor, in the beginning of the episode, rips out of the book. The Doctor hates endings). The Doctor then runs through Central Park to retrieve the last page and starts reading it.
Amy describes to the Doctor that her and Rory’s life was well. Amy also pleas to the Doctor to not travel alone. She says that he is not himself when he does. Finally, she says to him that there’s a little girl waiting in the garden and go to her. Then, fans are given a flashback to a little Amelia Pond, waiting for the Doctor to pick her up. Amy continues, asking the Doctor to tell little Amelia about her adventures with pirates, dolls, lizards, space whales, painters, vampires, and her biggest adventure yet, Rory. The scene ends with Amy saying, “This is the story of Amelia Pond,” with the last shot of young Pond.
Doctor Who was not the only show with a tearjerker. Another show was Elementary.
For those who don’t know the show Elementary, I’ll give one word. Sherlock. Yep, it’s one of those shows that takes a British television phenomenon series and turns it into an American television series. Nothing wrong with that if it’s only a really remake of that show. But don’t call it a remake, says the show’s creator, Robert Doherty. He says that it is nothing like Steven Moffat’s Sherlock. That statement may be true, since Elementary’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Jane Watson (yes I did say Dr. Jane Watson, because Dr. Watson is now a woman) are partners in crime in the city of New York.
Call me crazy, but turning the bromance into a romance just ruins Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I mean, it’s now awkward to have Irene Adler in the show (if she even makes an appearance) because there could be a jealousy story line now, which there wasn’t before. Not cool.
Not to mention that Dr. Watson is played by Lucy Liu. Take a deep breath everybody and relax. Whether or not they do have that romance, there still needs to be chemistry, and let me tell you something—it was no Fourth of July. I saw stiffness, bad camera angles (which Paul Falcone will be very upset about), and no male Watson.
As time went on, I was hoping for improvements, but I got nothing. I was hoping and waiting that something would happen to attract me to next week’s episode, but it didn’t.
However, I came to the conclusion that fans of BBC’s Sherlock are not going to like this version of Sherlock. Why you ask? Because when you already establish actors who can play these characters, they own it. No offense to other Holmes and Watsons out there like Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, but Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman own those roles. Yet, their performances can’t be done without amazing writing from Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and Steven Thompson, as well as amazing directors Toby, Euros Lyn and Paul McGuigan. As a result, any movie or television series Sherlock-based will not make it into comparison of BBC’s Sherlock.
