On Amy Pond’s Mysterious Pregnancy

On a different note, because this doesn’t really fit with my review of “The Curse of the Black Spot” from earlier, but it needs to be said — I’m having a real problem with Amy’s Schroedinger’s Pregnancy.

If Amy is, in fact, pregnant, she should be roughly five months along, thanks to the three month jump in “Day of the Moon.”

Is Amy doing all the things as a pregnant mother that she should be doing at five months? Should the Doctor have thought it amusing that she was swinging from the ropes this week? Is Amy abstaining from alcohol? Is she taking care of herself? Is she eating right?

Yes, it’s interesting that Amy is simultaneously pregnant and not. But now that she’s well into the second trimester, the Doctor desperately needs to tell Amy because she stands a real chance of harming (or even having already harmed) the unborn child that may exist.

Just because she might not be pregnant, that’s no reason why the Doctor should allow Amy to behave as though she’s not. There’s a potential life at stake, and the Doctor’s secrecy and his cavalier attitude is endangering it every day that Amy doesn’t know and behaves without that knowledge.

Keeping this knowledge to himself isn’t just stupid. It’s dangerous, cruel, and inhumane. Keeping this secret is downright un-Doctor-ish.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

10 thoughts on “On Amy Pond’s Mysterious Pregnancy

  1. I’m not convinced that the baby was already conceived during “The Impossible Astronaut” – I’m thinking it didn’t happen until during “Day of the Moon”, inside the orphanage or during her captivity, which would put her… well, you say two months along, but was there any indication in “Black Spot” as to how much time had passed? It could easily only be a week or two.

  2. So, you’re thinking that the Silents impregnated Amy?

    That would mean that she’s not carrying Rory’s child. Would Moffat really go there?

  3. I dunno. Considering that he’s already had the Doctor incite a mass-murder spree, that’s small potatoes in my book. 😛

    Besides, there’s definitely something funny with the kid’s genetics, what with the whole regeneration bit; I don’t buy that time spent traveling in the TARDIS would do it (otherwise wouldn’t Jo Grant’s kids have ended up the same way?). Someone tinkered, and at this point I think they’re the best candidate.

  4. I’ve been making the assumption that the pregnancy that Amy told the Doctor about in April 1969 is the same pregnancy that the Doctor has been scanning Amy for in July 1969 and whenever-pirates. It is possible that Amy wasn’t pregnant in “The Impossible Astronaut”; she might’ve missed her period before the episode began, made the assumption, even taken a home pregnancy test, only to have her periods resume once she was on the run from the Silents before “Day of the Moon.”

    But it is possible that she wasn’t pregnant in “The Impossible Astronaut” at all and the Silents did something really creepy to her during her captivity. (I’m assuming that Team TARDIS had no contact with one another during the months prior to “Day of the Moon,” so she and Rory couldn’t have conceived normally.)

    I don’t know if Moffat would do something as dark as to have the companion character impregnated by the Big Bad. The genocide, much as it pains me to say it, can be waved away with an “Oh, I didn’t mean for everyone to think that the Doctor has humanity exterminate the Silents. Humanity just scares them off the Earth because they’re no longer invisible.” Amy bearing a child that belongs not to her devoted husband but to an evil alien race isn’t something that can be waved away, and I don’t know that the plot payoff would be worth it. If Doctor Who were The X-Files and were programmed into that kind of time slot, sure. But a family program? I just don’t see it.

  5. I may be misremembering the flow of events in the White House during “Astronaut”, but I thought that pregnancy was just her rationalization for her sickness after forgetting a Silent. (Then again, nobody else seemed to have that effect later…)

    If Amy were sleeping around on Rory, then yes, I can see them shying away from it. I’m not convinced that using her as an incubator is something they would avoid. (Though saying “Torchwood did it” probably isn’t helping my case. :-P)

    1. River had a bout of nausea after encountering a Silent in the warehouse. Amy had a bout of nausea at about the same time, only she hadn’t seen a Silent.

      Amy must have had some sort of basis for her belief that she was pregnant, more than just a near-vomiting incident.

      Against the idea that Amy was pregnant at the start of “The Impossible Astronaut,” she has a glass of wine at the shoreline. (On the other hand, the Doctor notices that Amy has “put on a few pounds.” Of course, that could just be a married and settled life.)

  6. I don’t think Steven Moffat would go as far as impregnating her with the Silence. I think the Silence wanted to study her. Amy Pond is not a ordinary girl. She’s had a time crack in her bedroom even though the Doctor closed it the explosion of the TARDIS must still happen.

    It has to do with Amy’s time!

    Maybe she was supposed to get pregnant if she stayed at home but the doctor needed her. So she was removed from her time. When the danger is over she can stay in her time and be just pregnant and married to Rory.

    Honestly does it matter? We will see 🙂 I love Steven Moffat’s writing even though he makes my head hurt with his logic. We do know that it will be very good and I really want to know who the girl in the spacesuit is. The doctor must know her because he let her shoot him. Is she the Omega?

  7. Just a thought? Does anyone remember the Tennant episode called the doctor’s daughter?
    If u recall the dr was forcefully cloned and at the end of the episode the girl(“girl” being key word) that was cloned from docs dna regenerated and healed and tookoff to onward adventure..
    Think about it could moffet be trying to pick up that storyline with the little girl in day of the moon episode.. When it comes to amy’s pregnancy simply put alternate universes.

  8. Are you for real? Amy is under no obligation to change her lifestyle. The doctor is under no obligation to tell her. Amy is a person, not a brood mare. It’s her life, and she shouldn’t put it on hold just because of a bunch of cells. I hope she keeps swinging from ropes. And when did you ever see her have a glass of wine anyway?

    Women are NOT broodmares. If Amy is pregnant, I hope she aborts it to go on living the life she’s wanted since she was a little girl.

    1. I don’t think it was unreasonable, several weeks ago when I wrote this post, to castigate the Doctor’s lackadaisical attitude toward Amy Pond’s possible pregnancy. Even Lawrence Miles criticized the illogic of the plot point. When you stop to think through the implications of what’s on screen, the characters’ behavior was disturbing, if not outright appalling. I’m not even sure that the revelation at the end of “The Almost People” absolves the Doctor.

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