History Recap / DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong

* ApocalypseHow: Class Z, again. If it hasn't become clear by this point, ''Doctor Who'' likes torturing reality.

* MissedMomentOfAwesome: WinstonChurchill and the Doctor fighting the Silents. We never see it because they can't remember it.

--> "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E2TheShakespeareCode Liz the First]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime is still waiting]] in a glade to elope with me. I could help [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E1Rose Rose Tyler]] with her homework! I could go on all of [[{{Torchwood}} Jack's]] [[AnythingThatMoves stag parties]] [[BeyondTheImpossible in one night!]]"

* FridgeBrilliance: Think back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]. Does anybody else remember what Amy said?
"Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just because you could?" YourMileageMayVary, but this troper thinks that this episode could have easily revisited that quote.

* BusCrash / TheCharacterDiedWithHim: The Brigadier.

--->'''The Doctor:''' "Her days, yes. Her nights… [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean well, that's between her and me, eh?]]"

* TheyKilledKenny: "Rory Williams. [[LampshadeHanging The man who dies and dies again.]]" The Silence's attempts to off him for real fail as much as the last ones, however.

** [[spoiler: The question "Doctor Who?" really is the oldest question in the (Doctor Who) universe....BECAUSE IT WAS ASKED BY IAN CHESTERSON IN THE VERY FIRST EPISODE!]]

* MissedMomentsOfAwesomness: WinstonChurchill and the Doctor fighting the Silents. We never see it because they can't remember it.

** In justice to River, she doesn't just lose her love to death. She's the one who kills him. That would push a lot of people over the edge.

* {{Reconstruction}}: After a season of [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]] the Doctor's modus operandum, River tells the Doctor to stop feeling so sorry for himself, and to realise that the entire universe wanted to do everything they could to help him, because he's always been such a force for good.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The most River gets for nearly destroying time itself is a calling-out from the Doctor and a stay in a CardboardPrison. Oh, and married. Well, and the sure knowledge that every time she meets the love of her life, he will know her less and less, until one day he won't know her at all...]]

In Buckingham Senate, at 5.02pm, Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill calls for his Soothsayer to be fetched from the Tower. Greying, unkempt, older, tireder, but unmistakably – it's the Doctor. "Tick tock goes the clock," Winston tells him, "but they don't, do they? The clocks never tick." It's always 5.02pm these days. All of history is happening at once. "What happened to time?" asks Winston. The answer, it seems, is a woman…

** YMMV. River certainly grows out of it.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The most River gets for nearly destroying time itself is a calling-out from the Doctor and a stay in a CardboardPrison. Oh, and married.]]

* TimeCrash: A different sort from last year's, but the same general idea.

* FridgeHorror: [[spoiler:Technically only a POSSIBLE case of fridge horror due to the Timey Wimey Ball, but - River comes to visit Amy just after climbing out of the Byzantium. In River's backwards timeline, the next time we see her is in The Library - the day she dies. We don't know how much time passes between the Byzantium and The Library, or if River and Amy have the same (mostly) front-to-back timeline that River and the Doctor share, but if they do, poor Amy and Rory are going to lose their daughter AGAIN sometime soon.]]

The city of London, 22 April 2011 – soaring buildings, glittering and mighty under a perfect blue sky, and life tumbling onto pavements below. And horse-drawn Roman chariots driving through the streets. And a Victorian steam train on a monorail… hang on, like in a sci-fi city, but with Romans and steam trains? And hot air balloons? And pterodactyls? And Charles Dickens appearing on BBC One's Breakfast! Something isn't quite right…

In Buckingham Senate, at 5.02pm, Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill calls for his Soothsayer to be fetched from the Tower. Greying, unkempt, older, tireder, but unmistakably – it's the Doctor. "Tick tock goes the clock," Winston tells him, "but they don't, do they? The clocks never tick." It's always 5.02pm these days. All of history is happening at once. "What happened to time?" asks Winston. The answer, it seems, is a woman…

* [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl Always Save The Doctor]]: River rather takes this trope to extremes, seeing as how she is willing to sacrifice ''time itself'' to save her love.

* GenreSavvy: Amy, thanks to her RippleEffectProofMemory. "Time's gone wrong — some people have noticed. We've got a whole team working on it."

--->'''The Doctor:''' "Her days, yes. Her nights… [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean well, that's between her and me, eh?]]"

* HopeSpot: Played straight and immediately subverted. The Doctor and Winston Churchill are saved from [[spoiler:the Silence]] by the timely arrival of soldiers led by [[spoiler:Amy Pond!]] Who is, unfortunately, sporting the Silence's villainous EyepatchOfPower — and immediately shoots the Doctor. [[spoiler:Turns out it was just a stun gun so they could avoid a lot of talking.]]

* LampshadeHanging: "This is absurd: living skulls, other worlds…"

* [[LikeFatherLikeSon Like Mother, Like Daughter]]: "River Song didn't get it all from you… ''sweetie''."

* MamaBear: When Amy finally takes Madame Kovarian to task for stealing her daughter, well… see PayEvilUntoEvil below.
-->'''Madame Kovarian:''' Amy… help me…

-->'''Amy:''' The Doctor is very precious to me, you're right. But do you know what else he is, Madame Kovarian? ''Not here.'' ''[[spoiler:(reattaches Kovarian's eye-drive)]]'' River Song didn't get it all from you… ''sweetie''.

* RedHerring: ''Lots'' of people theorized that [[spoiler:the Doctor at the beach was the flesh Doctor from "The Almost People" -- even Amy, in-story]]. Far rarer was the theory that it might have been [[spoiler:the ''other'' entity from this series that could mimic form that perfectly — the Teselecta]].

** Interestingly, while Series Five's finale had ''space'' collapsing due to an exploding TARDIS, Series Six ended with ''time'' going to hell because a certain Doctor just won't… die.

* TimeyWimeyBall: Time has collapsed into the exact time of the Doctor's apparent death, and every time River and the Doctor touch the events of his death start repeating itself. Except all the messages responding to River's distress beacon inside the collapsed timeline are coming from outside of it, where time is apparently still working normally. [[MindScrew Good luck figuring the mechanics of that out…]]

* UndyingLoyalty: The Doctor notes this about Rory; no matter what has happened to reality, no matter what timeline he's in, even if he doesn't even remember it… he 'is 'always'' going to protect Amy.

* WrongGenreSavvy: The Doctor reminds Amy of her RippleEffectProofMemory and begs her to try to remember her previous relationship with the Doctor and everything they've done together… [[spoiler:and then realises he's waving her own model TARDIS at her and blundering past her sketches of those very adventures.]]

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Subverted; upon waking up in an office on a train after being shock-stunned by Amy Pond, the Doctor begins to desperately attempt to persuade her that although she doesn't remember and probably won't believe him, they're actually best friends in another version of time and that she needs to remember… [[spoiler:only for Amy to patiently wait him out and then silently indicate to him all the copious amounts of evidence that he somehow hasn't noticed scattered around her office that indicate that she already remembers everything, including drawings and a model of the TARDIS, which the Doctor is actually shaking at her frantically while he's trying to get her to believe.]]