Today's entry in my Doctor Who bloganza covers two of the more complex companions of the modern Doctor Who universe. With David Tennant leaving the show and the showrunner torch being passed to Steven Moffat, the potential was there for some rough seas as Matt Smith took over and the show sort of re-rebooted itself. Gone were all the prior companions, the supporting cast, and much of the UNIT/Torchwood storylines. And for the first season of Matt Smith's run, right up until its phenomenal last two episodes, things were indeed a little rough around the edges. Thankfully, though, the show smoothed itself out and, by the second season of Matt Smiths run, had developed a terrific bit of flair and mystery to the proceedings as the mysteries linking River Song, Amy Pond, and Rory continued to develop.

Spoilers!

And plus ten cool points if you got that. Plus one hundred if you are wearing a fez as you read this.

Amy Pond and Rory Williams

I thought about seperating these two out, but their stories are so intrinsically linked that it seemed hardly fair. Even when Rory isn't a presence on the screen (he was only in a handful of episodes in the fifth season, but became a regular in the sixth), he's certainly a presence behind the scenes.

We're introduced to Amy Pond as a child (who, in real life, is actually Karen Gillen's cousin - fun fact for you there). She's praying for someone, anyone, to come help her with a crack in her wall, a crack that seems to be growing bigger. Of course, she winds up with the Doctor, who crashes a bit unceremoniously in her garden. Both he and the TARDIS are in the final processes of regenerating, so the Doctor experiences everything through eyes. And a new stomach.

This is definitely Matt Smith's showpiece moment, his time to win over the audience or risk losing them, but it's also the time in which we're introduced to a brilliant new sidekick in Amy Pond. There's a bit of mystery to her and her surroundings, something that isn't really explored until the tail end of the season and throughout season six. As the Doctor is reintroduced to Amy Pond later in life, we're immediatelly drawn to parallels of Rose Tyler, which is a bit unfortunate for Karen Gillen. Both characters were facing down unsure relationships when they met the Doctor, and both develop a bit of a love triangle. But whereas Rose took to the Doctor, the Doctor takes steps to make sure that Amy winds up with Rory, often jamming them together uncomfortably and awkwardly.

Unfortunately, for most of the first few episodes, this "who will she end up with" was the focus ofor Amy Pond, and it takes some time to get the stench out. Love triangles always inevitably make one of the party look immoral, but the show manages to right this ship and create a firm bond between Rory and Amy.

In a curious twist, Rory ends up actually dying midway through the fifth season, but he's brought back to life as a plastic Roman centurion, meant to draw the Doctor and Amy into a trap in the friggin' awesome episode The Pandorica Opens. This episode, the first of a two-parter, is the moment when all three characters leave an indelible mark on the show, drawing together threads from throughout the season and giving each character (along with the always-terrific River Song) some brilliant moments - and that's not to mention it's done while the show's writers weave one of the best bait-and-switch moments in Who history.

Unfortunately, the show then shifts much of the focus back onto Matt Smith solely, which wouldn't have been a bad thing had it not glossed over Rory's defining moment, when he decides to stay with an imprisoned, unconscious Amy Pond for two thousand years to protect her. It's given, at best, a minute of the show's running time. A tiny hint of the time is explained by a museum tour guide, explaining that Rory protected her and her prison from war and fire, but it's not given nearly the time or attention that such a feat would deserve, and we don't get to see how the passage of time has affected Rory.

Thankfully, things spring back for both Rory and Amy in the show's spectacular sixth season, Having been married at the end of the fifth season, Rory and Amy were now firmly esconced as a couple (albeit shakily on a few occasions). Not having to deal with the shitty love triangle nonsense freed up the show in its sixth season (and bits of its fifth) to explore the history of the Doctor's relationship to River Song, who more or less became a regular throughout the season. You'd think this would lead to some lessening of the focus on Amy Pond and Rory, but it actually kind of helped, as all four became intrinsically linked to each other.

The best parts of season six are tied into some pretty heavy spoilers, which I won't go into here. But the four heroes, together, form the best group dynamic of the show in its modern incarnation, thanks to excellent writing and planning as well as superb acting. Once the various actors settled into their roles, the show left behind any feeling as though it were rehashing old ground and began establishing that aforementioned sense of cool. The enemies felt less ridiculous, the plots felt more plausible, and while there's an annoying little gotcha moment at the tail end of the season, it's by and large one of the most solidly written, solidly acted bits of Whoville.

While the characters don't leave the show until midway through season seven, I feel like The Wedding of River Song is more or less Rory, Amy, and River's farewell. From there, it's just letting go. What's remarkable about these characters is that while they're bold and at times broadly acted, they're far more firmly anchored than any of their predecessors. I like Rose Tyler just a touch more than Amy Pond, mostly due to the lackluster fifth season and the initial feeling of "been there, seen that done better," but truthfully, Amy is a bit more of a fully fleshed character, and I could definitely see someone making the argument that she and Rory were their favorites.

For the best Amy episodes, watch Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (S5, cannot recommend these episodes enough for Who fans who know a bit about the Weeping Angels), Vincent and the Doctor (S5), and The Girl Who Waited (S6). For the best Rory/Amy episodes, watch The Pandorica Opens and pretty much the entirety of season six minus The Curse of the Black Spot, which was a piss-poor one-off episode. Most everything of theirs after The Wedding of River Song can be kind of written off, but they're all pretty good-to-great episodes.

Special - River Song

No one, save for David Tennant, has knocked a Doctor Who role so far out of the park as Alex Kingston. I can't imagine anyone else playing the role of River Song. The idea is simple - she's the Doctor's wife, but they never quite meet in the right order. In fact, in their first meeting, she dies. She's also a time traveler on a pretty much as-necessary basis, and it's implied that she and the Doctor have many adventures off-screen.

What makes River Song so extraordinary is both the mysterious air of the character (it's established and hinted at very early on that she's a murderer) and the spark between her and Matt Smith that develops throughout the fifth and sixth seasons of Doctor Who. Smith, for his part, is a pretty decent actor, but it's Alex Kingston who is responsible for the bulk of the show's success in its sixth season. Kingston herself said that she drew inspiration from Indiana Jones and Ripley, and it worked. River Song swaggers, winks, and dazzles, and the show had a tendency to draw on the thrill of her character. I believe Kingston was in her forties when she played the role, making for a fresh-feeling dynamic between her and the younger Smith. And while Kingston is certainly a lovely woman, she's definitely not the waif in a short skirt type, bringing a sort of mature allure to the show we don't often see in television or movies.

If it feels a bit like I'm gushing here, I am. River Song's story arc is what drew me back into Doctor Who, and it's what's caused me to get so excited for the future of the show. If we even catch a glimpse of characters this well written (and we have - Clara has been a superb character so far), we're in for a wonderful time. I hope this isn't the last we've seen of River Song in Doctor Who, but if it is, she went out on a high note.

I'd be hard pressed to pick out any singular episodes of Kingston's run with the show. Seriously, they're all that good. Every episode she's in, she brings the fire. If you're wondering what Doctor Who has the potential to be, start by watching Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and then skip ahead to the beginning of season five. As rough as the early goings of that season were, you'll find a lot to enjoy, particularly as the show begins to hone in on River Song's story.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow, I'll cover the relative newcomer Clara as well as some odds and ends beore we start on the big finale as I examine each of the modern Doctors and make some predictions about Capaldi's run as the Doctor. See you then!