If you've been watching Doctor Who for a few years, you probably remember that Karen Gillan guest-starred in a series four episode, "The Fires of Pompeii," as a soothsayer. Here is a screenshot of her from the episode:
Years later when Gillan was cast as Amy Pond, I thought it would be neat if her story finished in Pompeii. Like River, we would see Amy's death before we knew the character was part of the Doctor's future.
Imagine my excitement last year when I heard that the final episode with Amy and Rory would have Weeping Angels in it. It made sense—the Angels would send the Ponds back in time and feed off their energy. We already saw Rory as a Roman and Pompeii isn't far off. The Angels do send the Ponds back in time, but to 1930s New York, not ancient Italy.
Yesterday I re-watched "The Fires of Pompeii" to check on the plausibility of Amy ending up as a soothsayer in Pompeii. It might have gone like this:
Years later when Gillan was cast as Amy Pond, I thought it would be neat if her story finished in Pompeii. Like River, we would see Amy's death before we knew the character was part of the Doctor's future.
Imagine my excitement last year when I heard that the final episode with Amy and Rory would have Weeping Angels in it. It made sense—the Angels would send the Ponds back in time and feed off their energy. We already saw Rory as a Roman and Pompeii isn't far off. The Angels do send the Ponds back in time, but to 1930s New York, not ancient Italy.
Yesterday I re-watched "The Fires of Pompeii" to check on the plausibility of Amy ending up as a soothsayer in Pompeii. It might have gone like this:
- The Weeping Angels send Rory back in time to ancient Rome, after seeing his memories of being a Roman soldier.
- When Amy lets the Angel touch her, it sends her to the same time as Rory, but not the same place. Amy ends up in Pompeii.
- A side effect of being sent back, a head injury, or the fumes from the hot springs mess with Amy's mind. She doesn't remember her life in the 21st Century and she barely remembers traveling with the Doctor.
- When the soothsayers find her, Amy talks about a blue box and they realize she knows about the blue box in their prophecies. The sisters decide Amy has the gift of prophecy and they take her in.
- Amy never met Ten or Donna, so she does not recognize them when she follows them in Pompeii. She doesn't make the connection between the TARDIS and the man who steps out of it.
- Ten wouldn't know that Amy is his companion in the future, so he has no reason to care about her. Amy dies in the volcanic eruption, and we have definite closure to her story that fits with the show's canon.
- We could assume that Rory lives as a Roman soldier. Maybe his memories are scrambled or forgotten too, or maybe he is the "boy who waited" once more.
It wouldn't work. If the angels sent Rory back to Rome, he would find Amy and the 11th Doctor, but Amy should be in Pompeii, so there would be two Amys. That would also make a loop so unless there's an episode where the (by then) 12th Doctor fixes that, it wouldn't work. Also, she said in the letter that they lived happily together in 1938.
ReplyDeleteGood catch--but I think the problem with two Amys would have resolved when Eleven rebooted the universe.
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