h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Please don't read this if you haven't seen the episode yet

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So Rory was sent back to the angel-run building to spend out the rest of his life in it, eventually dying in that bed. They then create a paradox by jumping off the roof of said building, destroying it. Angel then sends Rory back anyway. Back to where? The building before it was destroyed? If so, what was the point of trying to change things? And what is the Doctor going to say to Rory's Dad? They are just as dead from his point of view, it won't matter that they lived another 60 years couped up in a room with just each other for company, he will not see them again.

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"So Rory was sent back to the angel-run building to spend out the rest of his life in it, eventually dying in that bed. They then create a paradox by jumping off the roof of said building, destroying it. Angel then sends Rory back anyway. Back to where? The building before it was destroyed?"


A valid question my guess is not to the hotel, but together. They died ultimately somewhen else but it wasn't in the angel's trap.






































NO SPOILERS HERE. HOORAY!

GB, my take on it is that the Angel just sends him back out of spite. Feeds of the energy and gets rid of him. In the afterword the Doctor reads Amy makes it clear she and Rory get to live a life, rather than him just being stuck in a bed for the rest of his days.

I'm really struggling with the darkness of this series, I hope it lightens up after the Christmas episode. The thought of the Doctor breaking River's wrist and sort-of blaming it on Amy was properly sickening. Then River talking about how she doesn't want him to see the damage or the effects of her ageing: I noticed they'd done Alex Kingston's make-up differently and she looked older than usual. Made me realise they're going to have to end River's storyline soon too: AK hardly looks like she's aged a day since Silence in the Library, but that was over 4 years ago now and she can't keep pulling that trick forever. The really achingly painful thing is, River clearly knows it. She doesn't want to be reminded of it - her line about how his sentimentality fixing her wrist embarrasses her (as well as being a nice call back to the Wedding of River Song) shows it. There were also strong echoes of River's final speech in Forest of the Dead, where she refuses to let the Doctor sacrifice himself for her.

The scene with Rory on the ledge was unspeakably moving. Arthur Darvill is far and away the best actor of the bunch and this scene highlighted it. He downplayed it with humour and with touches of fear when it would have been very easy to go over the top and veer into melodrama. His departure was brutal and undeserved, yet really quite fitting. In my head I've decided that the Ponds manage to find the infant Melody and raise her since they'll all be in New York at the same time and also they managed to get a message to Rory's dad, explaining what happened and seeing him in New York before they died.

Thanks both

Do we ascribe any significance to the fact that, on the gravestone, Amy is 5 years older than Rory? ISTR in the flashback bits of "Let's Kill Hitler", they were in the same class at school, and certainly there has never been any implication that she was significantly older than him before.

I assumed she lived 5 years longer than he did

I reckoned that the angel had sent her back 5 years before Rory. The Doctor did say that there was no certainty that the angel would send her to the same time.


Geggs

oh noooo,Geggs I hadn't thought of that,

Well, it would make a change for her to wait for him

Actually it's probably kinder if Amy was sent back to the same time Rory was, but she outlived him by 5 years at the end.


Geggs

Ho hum, another one that didn't fire me up. On the plus side, I know it's because I'm not that interested in Amy, so an episode designed to tug at those heart strings was always going to leave me cold.

Roll on the next companion!

I wondered how the angels can look at each other now without being permanently turned to stone?
Especially the cherubs - there were groups of them playing together, yet they weren't always hiding.
Do little boy cherubs grow up to be feminine-shaped weeping angels?

<BB<

I loved that.

I didn't feel there was any particular reason for the angel sending Rory back, just the angel doing what the angels do - sending people back and feeding off the energy. They were just people in the wrong place at the wrong time, was how it struck me.

It came just in time, I was starting to thing really? Is that it? Then bam, Rory disappears. I absolutely loved the way they left, it totally worked for me.

I also assumed Amy lived 5 years longer.

I agree with HonestIago about Arthur Darvill, the man can totally act his socks off. I'll miss him.

Deb

BB, I got the idea from something (I think) River said about the angels taking over all the statues in New York that the angels were possessing the statues, so presumably the cherubs stay as cherubs? But it *is* a good question considering how the angels were dealt with on their first appearance. I look forward to someone with more credentials to come along and answer it!

Deb

Has bone to pick with Geggs

There was me like Hl building these happy scenerios then you introduced these seeds of doubt

Can't dispell this one now I have thought it and I have tried scrubbing it from my mind

If it was all tragic Amy still would have told the Dr what he needed to hear like River Song with her wrist

So, the Tardis can no longer go to New York, therefore the Doctor can never see Amy and Rory again?

Why couldn't the Tardis go to Chicago, and the Doctor catch a train to New York? Or Amy & Rory catch a train to Chicago? Problem solved.

... and I also assumed that he could only not visit that time as well, given he managed to get back for the last page of the book.

How old were they supposed to be at the start of this episode? I gather it was something like 40, which would mean they would live well into the 70s, and Amy might last until the 80s.
And while we're on the subject: lines around Amy's eyes? I wasn't watching in HD, but from where I was sat, her skin looked flawlessly perfect, as usual. Perhaps, if I saw screen-shots from the start of her run and this episode next to each other, I might spot differences in make-up to portray ageing, but they certainly weren't noticeable at first glance. It's interesting, because it seems they must have a make-up artist on their books who specialises in old-people prosthetics, and they are determined to make as much use of it as possible. We've seen old Amy, old Rory twice, and during Tennant's run we had old Tennant (in that Master episode) and old Mark Gatiss in that episode with him. Probably more, if I think carefully about it.

Well, it was their 10th wedding anniversary last episode, and they were both 31.

I don't know if any more time passed before this ep, though.


Geggs

To me the gravestone thing just makes it likely that Amy outlived Rory by 5 years. Women do tend to live longer after all. I'm not sure what time period they would have ended up in though. If the one with the building, it makes sense the Doctor can't go there after the giant paradox explosion thing.