Series 7: Part 1 - Character Development
- CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT of SERIES 7: PART 1 -
The Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams...
For Series 7: Part 1, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill delivered some of their best performances as their characters took interesting developments & changes.
The basic idea about Amy & Rory's development in this series, is that they've matured, getting through social & work life, getting through their marital & home life, then eventually coming to the point where they don't need the Doctor anymore.
- At the start of Series 7, the Doctor disproved Amy's assertion that he couldn't fix everything in her life, by getting Amy & Rory's marriage back together in "Asylum of the Daleks."
- They both became more self-reliant & resourceful on adventures with the Doctor but at the same time started to warm up to the thought of settling down at last in their "real lives" for good.
- In "The Angels Take Manhattan," Rory & Amy, alone, solved the problem to destroy the weeping angel battery farm and Amy, alone, made the decision to leave the Doctor forever for the best chance she had to be able to live with Rory for the rest of her life whilst sacrificing everything.
As for the Doctor, the danger of his travelling alone for long periods was a highlighted character development point throughout Series 7 Part 1 with his several acts of uncompromisingly allowing the deaths of "bad men," but what was even more distinct in this Part 1 of Series 7 was that ever since the end of "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe," he's allowed himself to get emotional & attached with his "family." (The fact that he stayed for Christmas dinner with the Ponds was also a major change from his previous incarnation, where he generally avoided invitations in order not to get attached/tied down.)
- In "Pond Life," we see the Doctor popping in & out of Amy & Rory's life but mainly calling in to tell them about all the adventures he's been on in order to keep Amy & Rory a part of his life. (This was a stark contrast to his previous companion relationships where he essentially never contacted them once they've left. In "Amy's Choice," Series 5 Episode 7, the Dream Lord taunts the Doctor, "Friends? Is that the right word for the people you acquire? Friends are people you stay in touch with. Your friends never see you again once they've grown up. The old man prefers the company of the young, does he not?")
- His love and affection for the Ponds was amply shown in "The Power of Three," where in one short scene, the Doctor, despite his detest of boring everyday human life, timidly asks Amy if he can stay with them for a while and abashedly confesses that it was because he simply missed them.
- Finally in "The Angels Take Manhattan," the Doctor's emotional attachment to the Ponds rears its head against him as he basically becomes emotionally compromised once he sees that it will soon be time for Amy & the Doctor to say goodbye. He gets angry, instructing River to solve her angel problem on her own without breaking her wrist, then takes a highly emotional action by using one of his regenerations (technically he's probably low on regenerations by now as 12 is the canonized limit for Time Lord regenerations) to heal her broken wrist.
- The Doctor remained frustrated & high-strung until Amy & Rory had to save themselves by taking the logical course of causing the paradox on their own (even though they were brave enough to make the right choice; the Doctor tried to stop them because he couldn't handle it & was too emotional to think of the best solution). If you remember in "Flesh and Stone," Series 5 Episode 5, in order for the Doctor to concentrate on saving Amy, he had to get emotionally detached and even told her, "Of course you're scared, you're dying, shut up." He couldn't do that this time, even reflecting back saying, "Don't EVER do that again! ... I was talking to myself."
- At the graveyard, the Doctor begged to Amy, "Come along, Pond, please," not wanting to let her go even though she can't live without Rory and then was so emotionally distraught that he bent over to cry out in the presence of a weeping angel.
Being as how the Ponds have brought out such emotion & sentiment & love & hope out of the Doctor but then for the inevitability of their "permanent" departure to have hit him so hard, I have great concern for how this will change him. My mind & heart are greatly invested in the development of the Doctor, especially now in the prospect of what's to come. Perhaps that is because of my own emotional attachment to him. Character development has been one of this Part 1 of Series 7's biggest achievements.