Doctor Who: All 40 Steven Moffat Episodes Ranked From Worst To Best

37. The Wedding Of River Song

Doctor Who Steven Moffat
BBC

The sixth series finale starts off at a wonderfully random and excitable pace: trains whistle through the Gherkin, cars fly high above London by hot air balloons, pterodactyls are more of a nuisance than pigeons and Charles Dickens is interviewed on BBC Breakfast.

The Doctor channels his inner Indiana Jones (but not quite outer by wearing a Stetson instead of a Fedora), when locating Dorium in the Seventh Transept. The darker tone of series 6 is terrifyingly encapsulated when Gantok falls through a booby trap into a pit of hangry skulls. There's also the poignant moment when the Doctor finds out about the passing of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

It's all very promising; all very Moffat. But then what's also all very Moffat is the frustration of anticlimactic resolutions at the end of a series, a la Death in Heaven and Hell Bent. About 25 minutes in, it's Calamity in Cairo. Honestly, stay away from pyramids Doctor, they only add a dimension of disappointment to stories.

It's remarkable how a group of soldiers manages to fire a hail of bullets at the Silence and yet miss them completely, whilst Amy successfully manages to save Rory from an inevitable - shock horror! - death.

The heartfelt dialogue between the Doctor and River atop the pyramid is less that and more cringe. As he put it: "You embarrass me."

In this post: 
Doctor Who
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

The name's Colbourn, James - yeah, doesn't quite have the same ring to it.