Never let it be said that when Steven Moffat decides to throw resources behind a story it certainly shows. Imagination, and the expenditure it often takes, were all over the screen in The Wedding of River Song. To wrap up a story whose elements began in 2008 had to be, by definition, a daunting task. And yet, for as much of a puzzle-box structure that Moffat seems to bring to his style of Doctor Who, in the end most of the answers provided in the story, save for the inclusion of the Tesselator, were relatively straightforward and easily guessed.
It probably amuses The Moff to see so many fans contorting themselves to make even the most trivial inclusion relevant, and yet there’s a bit of JN-T in Moffat as well. For the second straight year, his season-ending story has been a self-referential continuity free-for-all, but it’s been done in such a throwaway manner to remain palatable for the general public. Still, despite best efforts to make the story feel epic as happened in The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, The Wedding of River Song felt much more constrained, almost personal, and therein lies the potential for a trap.
Here at THT Omninational we felt oddly detached for the goings on and would’ve preferred a two-episode wrap up instead of the episode and a fraction we got, and hence it scored somewhat low in the 2011 Dynamic Ratings Table.
Know what though? That’s more than good enough as the forecast to more nu-Who looks awfully, awfully dry for the foreseeable future.
Images and caps for The Wedding of River Song are now online.