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A selection of fascinating details from the final days of the Ponds.
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00:00The thing that people tend to forget about Doctor Who is its absolute ability to give pain.
00:05Just pain. With some slight trepidation, I'm Sean Farrick for Who Culture, and here are
00:1020 Things You Didn't Know About The Angels Take Manhattan.
00:14Number 20. The Ponds Wanted a Permanent Goodbye. Aside from that Statue of Liberty reveal,
00:19The Angels Take Manhattan is most famous for being the last regular appearance of Amy and
00:24Rory Pond. The 11th Doctor's first friends were snatched from the jaws of safety by a rogue angel
00:28and cast backwards in time forevermore, writing them out of the show in a tragic and permanent
00:33fashion, which is exactly what the actors wanted. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill requested that
00:38Amy and Rory be removed for good, as they didn't want their demise to be undercut by recurring
00:42cameos like certain other companions. Oh, gross. Gillan did go back on her word when she appeared
00:48briefly at the end of Matt Smith's final episode, but that cameo was both incredibly short and
00:53entirely fitting, considering Amy's connection to the Raggedy Man. Darvill, meanwhile, hasn't
00:57been seen in an episode of Doctor Who since departing. Number 19. It was originally the
01:01Daleks. It's difficult to imagine it being any other way, but the Weeping Angels were not the
01:06original villains of this story. Initially, it was going to be the Daleks. Writer and showrunner
01:10Stephen Moffat felt that such a devastating blow to the Doctor should be dealt by his oldest enemies,
01:15adding more heat to their Ian's long feud. However, he was cautious about returning the Daleks
01:20to New York, as this had already been done, relatively recently, in Daleks in Manhattan,
01:25evolution of the Daleks. Feeling that the Angels were a better fit for this sombre noir setting,
01:30they were drafted in instead, and the Sons of Scarrow were moved to the series premiere,
01:35Asylum of the Daleks. The Daleks would probably have made for a much more predictable ending for
01:39the Ponds, so we're glad it wasn't them. Number 18. Middle Name Mayhem. Whovians must have been
01:44delighted when they finally learned Rory's middle name in The Angels Take Manhattan, were it not for the
01:49small fact that he had to die for them to do so. On Rory's tombstone at the end of the episode,
01:53the text reads, In loving memory, Rory Arthur Williams, aged 82. It took us until his final
01:59episode to learn that his middle name is Arthur. Poor Rory. But of course, this is the same as
02:04actor Arthur Darvill's first name. But it could also be a nod to Mark Williams, who played Rory's
02:09dad, Brian, in his role of Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. Meanwhile, Amy's inscription gets
02:14zero mention of a middle name, despite the fact that it was revealed to be Jessica way back in her
02:19second episode, The Beast Below. Why no middle name for Amy? Who knows? Damn gravestone double standards.
02:23Number 17. To kill or not to kill. Booting off a companion can't be an easy job for any showrunner,
02:29even if Russell T. Davis did it basically any chance he got. When the time came for Moffat to say goodbye
02:34to Amy and Rory, the weight of this decision really affected him. He told Radio Times in 2012 that he went
02:40back and forth several times over the couple's fate. How and why would they leave? And would they live or die?
02:46I wrote and rewrote. I had a completely different ending and threw it away. So many times over those
02:50mad few days, the fate of the pawns changed. Alive, dead, alive, dead. Nothing felt right.
02:56Nothing felt inevitable. In the end, he went for a halfway house. The couple were dead in the timeline
03:01of the show, but got to live out full lives in the past. It makes you wonder what the ending he
03:05threw away was like. Can't have been any sadder, surely. Number 16. Grail's grim alternate fate.
03:10When Amy and the Doctor first find River and Rory in the past, they've been captured by Julius
03:14Grail, an avid collector of artifacts. While his fate was left ambiguous in the final cut,
03:19there were initially plans to show what happened to him and they weren't very nice. One early draft
03:23had him banished back to a workshop where he was forced to make the very items he had spent his
03:28life collecting. A second idea was to show him being sent to the past and then have him turn up
03:32in one of his own paintings. This painting would have revealed that the Angels had sent him back to
03:36the Renaissance where he was enslaved. The second idea was filmed, but was dropped during editing.
03:40Number 15. The Jump was filmed first. It's no secret that TV shows and movies aren't
03:45usually filmed in story order. Sometimes moments towards the end are among the first things
03:49captured. This is precisely what happened with the Angels Take Manhattan. The Ponds think that
03:53they've saved themselves when they jumped off Winter Key, killing Rory twice in one night and
03:58creating a paradox that defeats the Angels. The Jump was filmed on the 23rd of March 2012,
04:03the very first day of recording for the Angels Take Manhattan. Meanwhile, the climactic graveyard
04:08sequence was filmed a few weeks later on the 19th of April 2012, making that a very sad day in Doctor
04:13Who history indeed. Number 14. Cherub Inspiration. The Angels Take Manhattan introduced infant versions
04:19of the stone assassins. Aww, how cute. Until they send you back to the middle ages. This type of angel
04:25didn't exist until director Nick Huron went on a location scouting trip to New York. Huron took pictures of
04:31various landmarks of the city, including the Bethsaida fountain in Central Park, which has a huge angel
04:37statue as its centerpiece and is surrounded by smaller cherub statues. When studying this photograph
04:42back in the UK, Moffat came up with the idea of a cherub variant of the Waking Angels, as he felt their
04:47childlike design made them incredibly creepy. And you know what, he was bang on the money for that one.
04:51Number 13. Karen Gillan Read the Afterword. The Angels Take Manhattan is bookended by the Doctor
04:57reading a novel written by River Song, which details the events of the episode before and after they
05:02happen. At the end, the Doctor reads the last page of the book, which turns out to be a special message
05:07written by Amy to let him know that she and Rory lived a good life and still loved him always and
05:12forever. It's a heavy scene, one of the last bits of communication between the girl who waited and
05:17her raggedy man. So Gillan felt it was important that they did as much possible to get it right.
05:21This resulted in Gillan sitting just off screen, reading the letter aloud to Smith to get as much
05:26emotion as possible out of his performance. Amy and the Doctor, friends till the very end.
05:31Number 12. The letter scene's crazy filming conditions. Speaking of this scene, it was
05:36way more complicated to film than you'd think it would be. For this tearful farewell, Smith was
05:41afforded not three takes, not two, but one. One take. This is because it was shot on location in
05:47Central Park where hundreds of people had gathered to watch it being filmed. Imagine the stress the crew
05:52must have felt. It can't have been easy. Smith was given a different page of the book to hold in
05:56case somebody photographed the real one, and Gillan was forced to read her lines incredibly quietly in
06:01case she was recorded. Despite all this pressure, Smith pulled it off, which is a testament to just
06:06how blummin' good of an actor the man really is. Number 11. It was almost wibbly wobbly-er. The
06:11Angel's first episode, Blink, gave the world one of the ultimate Doctor Who memes in the form of Ten's
06:17legendary wibbly wobbly timey wimey speech, so it makes sense that such mind-bending
06:22concepts nearly made a return in one of the Angel's most prominent appearances. Plans for
06:27The Angels Take Manhattan originally featured a much more complex depiction of their time
06:31manipulation powers. Audiences would have seen even more versions of Rory running about the Winter
06:36Key, as well as different incarnations of Sam Garner, the detective from the cold open.
06:41Additionally, the girl Garner sees in the window was to have been staring at an older,
06:46future version of herself. Eventually it was decided to simplify things a bit, but this was
06:51probably for the best. Number 10. An important last minute addition. The final recording for
06:55The Angels Take Manhattan was supposed to be a few pickup shots on the 30th of April,
06:592012, but at the last minute an extra day of filming was penciled in for the 28th of June.
07:03It was decided that the Doctor needed to say why he couldn't take the TARDIS back to 1938 New York,
07:09so lines were written explaining how the timelines were all scrambled. This pickup was filmed at Box
07:14Cemetery in Lanelli, Wales, where the rest of the graveyard scene was shot. It was directed by
07:18Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and A Town Called Mercy's Saul Metstein, as The Angels Take Manhattan director
07:24Nick Huron was unavailable. It's a good job these lines were added, otherwise fans would have been
07:28even more confused why the Doctor couldn't go back and rescue the Ponds all over again.
07:34Number 9. Pond River Publishing. Spoiler alert, but everybody knows that River Song's real name
07:39is Melody Pond, and there's a subtle reference to both these monikers in The Angels Takes Manhattan.
07:44The book that starts this whole mess, Melody Malone, Private Detective in Old New York Town,
07:49is written by River and published by Amy. As a result, the name of the publishing company
07:54is Pond River Publishing, a neat little nod to both mother and daughter. This detail isn't visible in
07:58the episode, but it was confirmed by some production artwork. The actual text inside the book was taken
08:03from a real novel called The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. Hammett was a famous detective writer in the 20s and 30s and was
08:09responsible for penning The Maltese Falcon, the film version of which heavily inspired The Angels Take
08:14Manhattan's tone and setting. Number 8. A Story of Lasts. Amy and Rory weren't the only ones saying
08:21goodbye in this episode. It was also the final appearance of the title sequence that had been
08:25used from the Eleven Doctor's first outing, with the next episode, the 2012 Christmas special The
08:30Snowmen, introducing a redesign. The Angels Take Manhattan is also the last time we saw Eleven's
08:34tweed jacket and his first TARDIS console room, both of which were also replaced in The Snowmen. The
08:39loss of the ponds truly was the end of an era. Number 7. The epilogue that almost never was. In
08:45The Power of Three, Rory's dad Brian makes the Doctor promise that he'll bring his son and
08:50daughter-in-law back safely, the Time Lord agrees, only to betray that trust one adventure later. Poor
08:56Brian had his entire world turned upside down with seemingly no explanation, that is, until you watch PS.
09:02Premiering online shortly after The Angels Take Manhattan's broadcast, PS is a short animated scene
09:08of Brian receiving a letter from Amy and Rory delivered by their adopted son. This sequence,
09:13which was written by Chris Chibnall, was supposed to be filmed in live action, but Brian's actor,
09:17Mark Williams, was unavailable for the shoot. Rather than scrapping it entirely, the story birds were
09:21animated and Arthur Darville was brought in to narrate, resulting in a heartfelt epilogue to the
09:26pond's journey. Number 6. It's fans' favourite episode of Series 7. Series 7 was a strange
09:32time for Doctor Who, as it was split into two distinctive parts, one with the ponds and one
09:36without. There were some great episodes either side of the divide, but the one that Whovians
09:40thought was the best of the bunch was, you guessed it, The Angels Take Manhattan. On IMDb,
09:45the episode is the joint highest ranked along with The Name of the Doctor, both of which scored 9 out of
09:5010, though if you count the specials as part of the series, The Day of the Doctor tops them both with
09:559.3 out of 10. While the contenders for the top spot were Asylum of the Daleks at 8.5, The Bells of
10:00St John at 7.8 and Hyde at 7.6. Number 5. Brightwell and Hyman. No, Brightwell and Hyman is not a firm of
10:08lawyers or estate agents, but rather the name of a company that makes matches. Rory uses a box of
10:13Brightwell and Hyman matches to fend off the cherub statues, but what you almost certainly didn't know
10:18is that this brand would appear in Doctor Who again. A few episodes later, in The Crimson Horror,
10:23a poster can be seen in the background of a shot advertising Brightwell and Hyman quality matches.
10:28This makes sense seeing as how the setting of Sweetville centers around a giant match factory.
10:32Brightwell and Hyman is never once spoken on screen, making this quite possibly one of the most obscure
10:37connections in the show. Number 4. Why the Doctor can't visit the Ponds. One of the biggest bugbears
10:43fans have with The Angels Take Manhattan is that, in theory, the Doctor could just hop in the TARDIS,
10:47choose a random city in the past and tell the Ponds to meet him there, but unfortunately for a
10:51Fez loving hero, he's played fast and loose with the rules of time and Amy and Rory's history was
10:56too wibbly wobbly to interfere with, at least that's the explanation offered by Steven Moffat,
11:01who said he can't interfere. In normal circumstances he might have gone back and said look, just put a
11:05headstone up and you'll write the book, but there is so much scar tissue and the number of paradoxes
11:10that have already been inflicted on that nexus of timelines that will rip apart if you try and do one
11:14more thing, he has to leave it alone. Considering how often Doctor interferes with those timelines and fixed
11:19points, it's an explanation that's unlikely to satisfy many fans, but over a decade later it's
11:24the only explanation we're ever going to get. Number 3. It has a sequel. During the Covid-19
11:29pandemic, Whovians around the world came together to watch old episodes of the show, to coincide
11:33with the screening of The Doctor's Wife. A short film was produced called Rory's Story. Written by
11:38Neil Gaiman, it featured Mr. Pond talking to his soon-to-be adopted son Anthony from 1946. He's filming
11:44himself on a smartphone he'd carried from the future, just don't worry about how he might have charged it,
11:49okay? Rory recounts several of his and Amy's adventures, including how they ended up in the
11:53past, before his wife calls for him to come help paint the baby's room. It was lovely to check in
11:57on the ponds after so many years away, especially during those gloomy pandemic times. Number 2.
12:03Yowza. The Doctor has said and done many unfashionable things over the years, but uttering the word
12:07Yowza, that ranks up there with the cringiest. Eleven says it while reading Melody Malone, prompting Amy to
12:13call out his choice of words. She shouldn't have been too surprised though, as he'd actually said it before.
12:17In the Almost People, when looking for an escape route, the Doctor exclaims Yowza, when he finds
12:22one, much to Amy's confusion. Then, in the name of the Doctor, he says it again after avoiding the
12:27Great Intelligence's minions, the Whispermen. They've never said it since though, probably
12:31realized how uncool it was. Number 1. Amy's ending was years in the making. In December 2011,
12:37it was announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were exiting Doctor Who, nearly an entire
12:42year before it actually happened. Moffat tried to throw viewers off the scent by introducing new
12:46companion Jenna Coleman early, but we all knew the inevitable was coming. Interestingly enough,
12:51Amy's swan song had actually been foretold much earlier. And by much earlier, we mean her very
12:56first episode. When a young Amelia is waiting for the Doctor to return in the 11th hour, there's a
13:01shot of her looking up at the sky as she hears the sound of the TARDIS. This seems a bit random at the
13:05time, as it was established that the Doctor never came back for her. And, in fact, that was an important
13:11part of Amy's character. She was the girl who waited, after all. In The Angels Take Manhattan,
13:16however, we learn that the Doctor did eventually go back for her, but only after Amy asks him to
13:22in her final letter. This is something Moffat had been planning to reveal from day one, as he revealed
13:26to the press before The Angels Take Manhattan debuted. After showing Amelia Pond in the garden as a young
13:32girl in the 11th hour, the final shot in The Angels Take Manhattan is a punchline I've been waiting to
13:37tell for two and a half years. One of the great things about the 11th Doctor's era is that it's
13:42one giant story arc from the first episode to the last. This payoff in particular was incredibly
13:47emotional for fans who'd stuck with Amy's journey from that very first shot of her lonely old house.
13:52That's everything for our list, folks. What did you think of this episode and what did you think of
13:56this list? Let us know in the comments below. Please don't forget to follow us over on Twitter at
14:00Whoculture. We're on Instagram at Whoculture as well and we're also on TikTok. Thank you so much for your
14:05ongoing support. You are wonderful. You are brilliant. Look after yourselves and above all
14:09else, until I'm talking to you again, keep things wibbly wobbly.
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