The season is finally over. It was a convoluted season with a lot more misses than hits, but the central mystery from the beginning of the season was about why did the Doctor have to die (along with who was in the astronaut suit). The finale brought us the answers as well as setting the stage for the next season. So, let’s journey along and see what happened (spoilers ahead).

Since the mid season point of series 6, the focus of the episodes (which have been mostly stand-alone) has been on the Doctor and what River told him at the mid-season episode. The Doctor starts looking at Amy, Rory and River (and Craig from The Lodger) and wonders if he has put them in harms way just so he can have a companion to travel with him. As he’s pushed everyone away, he sets out to face his last day, the day that the Doctor dies. But, River, who was put in jail for killing the Doctor, doesn’t want to. We’re then treated to the Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill who knows about computers and the internet and who notices that it’s always the same time and same day. So he orders the prisoner to be brought out and it’s a very unkempt Doctor. The timeline has gone bezerk and everything happens at one because River is trying to stop the Doctor from dying.

We then get James BondPond, Amelia Pond and her loyal captain Rory who come to free the Doctor and rescue him from the Silence.As everything starts going haywire, Amy remembers who she is (and who Rory is) and she goes to kill Madame Kovarian for taking Melody away from her. And then the madness finishes and we’re at the Lake (from the first episode of the series) and ready for the Doctor to die. We follow the Doctor down to the lake to meet the astronaut and we see that it’s River. She tries to talk the Doctor out of dying, by saying that he’s the only one who wants the Doctor to die. But the Doctor arranges an impromptu wedding (of himself and River) and tells her a secret (allegedly his real name) and the death happens as arranged. Later we see River and Amy talking on the night before Amy’s wedding (from right after the Weeping Angels storyline last season) and River tells Amy something which makes her very happy. We find out that the Doctor is dead and not dead. He was inside a Doctor body controlled by the little aliens from Let’s Kill Hitler. The Doctor wants a public death so that he can start working more behind the scenes. And we’re left with the unanswered question that will lead into next season: Doctor Who?

Overall it was a strong episode and I enjoyed the second half of this season more than the first. But it was still a very disjointed season with a lot of episodes that just didn’t work matched up with some stronger episodes. Overall I felt this season had a better long term story than last season, but much weaker individual episodes. With the Doctor having (hopefully) learned his lesson (told from Craig of all people) that he does put his Companions in danger, but the danger is there no matter what. And having learned his lesson about what doctor means (from River at the mid season point). Next season should be an interesting change for the Doctor. If he’s going to go more behind the scenes, then I’m curious to see what that means (although if it means fewer times the Doctor goes to work at the toy section of a store, I’ll be disappointed) and how he does things when everyone thinks he is dead. And with 2012 being the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who, it’s a fitting time to search for the answer to the question: Doctor Who?