As I wrote about a few days ago, the upcoming episodes of Doctor Who will be split into two seasons — season six (7 episodes) at Easter, season seven (6 episodes) in the autumn.
Showrunner Steven Moffat is quoted in The Guardian as saying that the sixth season (that being spring) will end with “an earth-shattering climax” and a “game-changing cliffhanger.” (Be sure to check out the video of the interview.)
What could that “earth-shattering climax” be?
It could be something to do with River Song, given the darkness of her conversation with the Doctor at the end of “The Big Bang” and reports that Alex Kingston will be around in the future.
Or…
The Sun reports that “Amy Pond May Be Exterminated!” What The Sun has to say:
[Steven Moffat] teased fans by saying the series will take a break at Easter with a dramatic storyline — leaving viewers “needing the summer to recover”.
And we can reveal that killing off Amy is the devastating plot twist favoured by bosses.
A source told TV Biz that Karen Gillan, who plays Amy, WILL leave before the end of the next season.
If scriptwriters stick to plans to kill her off, she will be the first of the Timelord’s companions to die since Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) in 1982.
Citing The Sun is always dangerous; I’m not even sure if they’re on the same planet as the rest of us sometimes.
But. Would Amy’s death be “earth-shattering” and a “game-changer”? Maybe. Possibly. We haven’t had the death of a companion in a long time.
And there’s something else to consider.
In the wake of “The Big Bang,” Moffat was quoted thus: “This represents the end of the Doctor as we know him.” I’ve been unable to nail down the exact citation for this quote, and that may not be the exact wording precisely. How could the Doctor be different? A Doctor in a rebooted universe without the Doctor is one possibility, but there’s another possibility — Steven Moffat could decide to take the Doctor in a darker and more tragic direction.
Try this on for size.
What if Amy dies…
…and what if the Doctor is the one to kill her?
It would be a shocking finale, the Doctor killing his companion. It’s a finale that you couldn’t really go into light-and-frothy Christmas entertainment six months hence. The Doctor killing his companion would be a game-changer for the series, and the Doctor really couldn’t go back to who he was.
The difficulty in such a story, obviously, is that it could make the Doctor unlikeable to a certain segment of fandom. “Never cruel, never cowardly,” to quote Emma, the only companion the Doctor ever had, and yet here (in this speculation anyway) the Doctor kills his companion.
I admit, this is all speculation based on that least reliable of sources, The Sun. No matter what he does, I’ve no doubt that Steven Moffat’s game-changing finale will be mind-blowing.
With filming starting next Monday (the table read for Neil Gaiman’s episode was yesterday), we may know — or at least have better information from which to make informed guesses — in the next few months. :h2g2: