I've been dreading tomorrow since the 3rd of April, 2010.
The 3rd of April marked the debut of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as our new Doctor and his Companion in series five of Doctor Who, and the minute the ginger-haired Amelia Pond came on screen, I didn't want to lose her.
[WARNING: If you're watching earlier episodes of Doctor Who and you're not on series seven yet - in the words of River Song - SPOILERS!]
We had been put through the paces with Russell T Davies at the helm of Doctor Who. We lost Rose (twice) in the most heart wrenching ways possible. Admittedly, saying goodbye to Martha wasn't all that hard, but when Donna Noble had to forget everything, we cried. We had lost the most brilliant, hilarious woman to ever step foot on the TARDIS.
We then watched as the Doctor roamed the Universe on his own. He saved it on his own, too, and it cost him his 11th regeneration. We had that freckly, gangly "long streak of alien nothing" that was David Tennant slowly ripped out of our lives over the course of a year and four episodes, and when he stood in the control room of the TARDIS one last time, softly whispering that he didn't want to go, we echoed his plea.
Please don't go. How could we ever fall in love with another Doctor?
But, when Matt Smith came barreling onto our screens with his ridiculous chin, huge hair, bow ties, fish fingers and custard - we begrudgingly accepted him. He's (still) growing on us. He lacks the magic and intensity of Tennant, but I've come to accept that we'll never have someone like DT on the series again.
Steven Moffat has proved to be kinder to his viewers. We don't have the drama, cliffhangers or heartbreak that we saw in "Journeys End" or "Turn Left", but we seem to have lost something along the way: a strong, diverse, dynamic companion that grows and matures with the Doctor, through darkness and light, pasts and futures.
As entranced as I was with Amy Pond in series six, and as much a I love her awkward stance, fire-red hair and quips at "Stupid Face" Rory, the writers of Doctor Who have let her down, and she never developed out of her initial role as a plot device, and into a fully developed character.
The Purpose of Amy Pond
Companions of Doctor Who past have all grown in some way. We watched Rose go from a scrappy teenager who worked in a shop, to a powerful, strong, mature Bad Wolf who traveled the stars, saved the world, as well as saving the Doctor from himself.
Martha decided to give up chasing the Doctor, become a Doctor herself, save the world a few times and find a man of her own. Donna went from being a "temp! From Chiswick!" to became Doctor Donna and the most important woman in all of creation. River Song has transformed into perhaps one of the strongest female characters in the history of the show, and even Rory has grown tremendously - despite his five deaths.
But Amy?
She was named "Pond" for a reason and served her purpose as River Song's mother. Amy, rather alarmingly, quickly got over the fact that she was kidnapped and had her child taken from her, just as she quickly got over the Doctor dropping her off into the real world, forcing her to find work as a model, and then eventually a travel journalist.
Not Doctor Donna. Not a member of Torchwood or UNIT. A sometimes-model turned freelance journalist.
Series seven of Doctor Who has been such a let-down for Amy Pond, and I blame Chris Chibnall and Steven Moffat for this. Amy goes from being a stroppy model on the verge of divorce, to a homebody and alleged journalist who does little more in The Power of Three than make funny faces and run around without purpose - simply because they haven't given her another one.
Goodbye, Pond
When Rory and Amy do make the decision to stop jumping in and out of their normal timelines to travel with the Doctor, we see Rory working in his hospital as a nurse. His manager says to him that he's really valued at the hospital, he saves lives and they want him to work full-time. And Amy?
She's asked to be a bridesmaid at a lesbian wedding, and says yes.
1) I'm bored of all the lazy attempts at being queer-friendly by the writing team at DW.
2) Rory wants to save lives, and she gives up all of time and space TO BE A FUCKING BRIDESMAID.
Are those really Amelia Pond's values? THAT is what she'd give up her raggedy man for? Are you effing kidding me?!
Where is the Amy Pond who wore an eye drive and killed off Madame Kavarian? Is Amy not angry? Is she not frustrated? Is she not just as jaded as the Doctor from her losses? Why can she not have the same depth that River Song has? That Rose had?
As much as I have dreaded this day, the goodbye to both Rory and Amy Pond - it's time. I am happy to see them go, instead of going on as they have. We don't need to see Amy spin in circles any more - it's time for her to go. No more of this silly plot where Rory's dad is so accepting of the Doctor and his crazy world with dinosaurs on spaceships and tiny black, killer cubes. No more of this Pond Life, and the completley fabricated suspense surrounding Amy and Rory's decision to leave the Doctor. Just let them go.
Surprisingly, I actually can't wait for the (re)entrance of the Doctor's next companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman.
I hope that Moffat and his team once again give us a companion with a purpose, and a character that serves as something bigger than a plot device who never even got her own set of TARDIS keys.
Out with the old, and in with the new. Such is the way of time.