One of the reasons I hate "previously on" segments before an episode is that it clues me in to things I might not otherwise figure out. Tonight was no exception - as soon as they recapped on the Teselector and the Doctor's fascination and joy with it I smacked myself in the forehead.
Really? I thought, Did I really not put that together?! It's so OBVIOUS!
So at least I had solace in knowing that the Doctor on the beach was in fact a RoboDoctor. And this is before the episode even began! But then it was right back into the heart of confusion as we enter a world of dinosaurs, Romans, and Winston Churchill where time is at an utter standstill. I was happy to see the bedraggled prisoner-Doctor back again because that beard is just so fascinating to me, plus I'm rather fond of the storytelling device of time-hopping.
We flashback as the Doctor explains the stoppage of time to Winston Churchill - it all revolves around him and it's the result of a woman who's hell in high heels and that is clearly River Song. We find past Doctor in his Stetson attempting to track down the Silence and learn the question, leading him to the head storage crypt of the Headless Monks. I was quite overjoyed to see the Blue Buddha back because he tickles my ickles to no end, and I thought for sure we'd know what the question is within five minutes, but no, Moffat holds off on that. After Dorian tells the Doctor what the question is, he seems to accept his fate and heads to Lake Silencio to die.
But who has other plans? River of course. Kidnapped and stuffed in a space suit, she's still badass and fights the suit controls in order to not kill the Doctor, which creates a split time stream, thus destroying time on Earth and creating the alternate reality where all time is occurring at once (see above, i.e. Romans, Churchill, etc.).
Snapping to the present, Churchill and prisoner-Doctor are confronted with the Silence creatures - probably at least fifty of them - and all seems grim until who should appear, but Amelia Pond! She wears the eye patch Madame Kavorian wears but quickly explains it allows her and the rest of the resistance to retain knowledge of the Silence. She returns the Doctor to his Doctor-y standard tweed and bowtie with a clean-shaven face and brings him to their safehouse - Area 52 -which is in a giant pyramid.
Rory is Captain Williams in this reality and River is there, so they got the whole gang back together and Madame Kovarian is their prisoner. If the Doctor and River touch, time reverts back to the Doctor dying and River refuses to kill the man she loves so they handcuff the Doctor. "Why do you always have handcuffs?" Well remembered from "Silence in the Library" two-parter.
And here's where it gets just fucking poetic - River, Amy, and Rory have been sending a distress signal to the universe saying, "Help - The Doctor is dying." And millions of people all across the galaxies are responding. All those lives the Doctor has saved and he didn't think his was worth being one of them, but they are there to remind him he is loved. I mean, come on, if your heart doesn't melt even just a little bit at that, you must be a Dalek.
But time must be saved! And River refuses to be the woman who killed the Doctor and the only other choice is the woman who marries the Doctor. So in what I assume is a Gallifreian ceremony, the Doctor and River are connected by cloth and the parents of the bride, conveniently Amy and Rory, consent and the two are married. The Doctor says he whispers River's name in her ear and she then allows him to kiss her (big fangirl yay there, right?) and time reverts and the Doctor dies....again.
But wait?! Did you forget? The Teselector! Oh yes! The Doctor didn't tell her his name! He told her "Look in my eye!" Because it wasn't the Doctor on the beach, it was the Doctor inside the Doctor! Oh happy days! Oh joy! When River tells Amy and Rory they do a fantastic dance that I'm sure most of us wanted to join in on, if we didn't actually.
But wait, of course there's something they'll leave hanging...the question! What about the question?! Well as the Doctor returns Dorian he shouts it after him and I'm sorry, but it's genius. Doctor Who? My friend guessed it might be the Doctor's name, but this question is much deeper. Who? Doctor Who? The question the show has asked us from the beginning. As Blue Buddha points out, it's the question the Doctor has run from all his life. It's a question I believe only he, and perhaps River Song can answer.
Doctor Who?
So in this finale, I think Doctor Who and the whole team have really delivered in terms of acting, writing, and answering all those damn questions. Of course, it wouldn't be Doctor Who if they didn't ask new ones. We got hints about the "fall of the Eleventh" but hints make me oh so curious. And of course, now we know the question, but it hasn't been answered. So again, I ask you....Doctor Who?
