page_title: The Wedding of River Song
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: The Wedding of River Song / Production / Writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Nicholas Courtney
context_page_description: "The Wedding of River Song" is the thirteenth and final episode in the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 1 October 2011. It was written by lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Jeremy Webb.
  In the episode, the archaeologist River Song is programmed by the religious order the Silence to kill the alien time traveller the Doctor to prevent "the first question" from being asked on a planet called Trenzalore in the Doctor's future. She refuses, and they end up in an alternative timeline where all of time is running simultaneously and beginning to disintegrate. The Doctor tries to restore the universe with the help of River and the alternative universe versions of his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. It is revealed that he had already planned escape by posing as himself using the shape-shifting Teselecta.
  "The Wedding of River Song" concludes the story arc of the series and reveals what really happened at the start of the season premiere, "The Impossible Astronaut". The episode features many returning characters.
context_section_description: "The Wedding of River Song" concludes the story arc of the Doctor's apparent death which began in the series opener, "The Impossible Astronaut" and resolves more pieces of River Song's timeline. Despite this, it leaves ambiguous whether the Doctor and River are legitimately married. Showrunner and episode writer Steven Moffat described it as "a big roller coaster ride of Doctor Who madness". One of the "mad idea[s]" he included in the episode, "Live Chess", came because Moffat wanted to make chess — which he called "one of the most boring games in the world" — into a dangerous spectator sport. Originally, the script did not include the brief scene with a Dalek; Moffat had intended to rest the Doctor's most famous adversary for the sixth series. Amy's confrontation with Madame Kovarian, a scene which shows what she might have been like had she not met the Doctor, was also added into the script later.
  Following the death of actor Nicholas Courtney, the Doctor learns in the episode that Courtney's character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has died peacefully in a nursing home. Moffat said of the reference, "In a story about the Doctor going to his death, it seemed right and proper to acknowledge one of the greatest losses Doctor Who has endured." Moffat has confirmed that the eye patch-like eyedrives in the episode are also a tribute to Courtney, who wore an eye patch when playing an alternative version of the Brigadier in Inferno (1970). Several characters reappear in the episode, including Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) from "The Unquiet Dead", Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) from "Victory of the Daleks", the Silurian doctor Malohkeh (Richard Hope) from "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood", the Teselecta and Captain Carter (Richard Dillane) from "Let's Kill Hitler", and the Headless Monks and Dorium (Simon Fisher-Becker) from "A Good Man Goes to War". McNeice felt there was room for his character to return, as "Victory of the Daleks" had hinted that he and the Doctor knew each other well.
caption: The episode pays tribute to Nicholas Courtney's character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart after Courtney died in February 2011.
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