Amy Pond: A Picture of Love and Marriage

One of the standard features of the Doctor Who mythos is the companion; a human (usually) that travels with him on his journeys through space and time. Initially this was a way for the audience to better connect with the alien character of the Doctor, and for things to be naturally explained and clarified. In the 800+ episodes of the show, only four stories have featured the Doctor without one of his reoccurring companions. In all that time, there has never been one quite like the current Amy Pond.

Amy met the Doctor as a small child. He invited her to travel with him, but had to fix his time machine by making a five minute trip. When he returned, however, Amy had experienced a space of several years. She was fully grown and engaged to a man named Rory. Over the course of the next season, we saw Amy get to know the Doctor and sort of fall in love with him. This is a problematic tendency of the new series that Russell T. Davies loved. Steven Moffat has instead done something completely new for Doctor Who. In the episode Amy’s Choice, he forced the character to choose between her fiancé and the Doctor. She chose her fiancé, but also to continue traveling. So, next year the Doctor will have its first set of married companions.

A (surely unintentional) picture that emerges in the Amy-Rory-Doctor relationship is a nice analogy for the Christian marriage. There is very real love between Amy and the Doctor, (and presumably between Rory and the Doctor as well.) Not a romantic love, but a respect, admiration and trust on Amy’s part and a benevolent caring on the part of the Doctor. The love and relationship that Rory and Amy have with the Doctor makes them who they are. It makes them better human beings. In a sense, it strengthens their love for each other.

This is a typical Christian idea of Love and Marriage. It is only through the love for Christ that a couple is truly able to grow together and best love each other. A woman who is completely devoted to and in love with God is better able to love her husband and will be a better wife. The reverse is just as true. Who knows where the writers of Doctor Who will take this relationship in the season to come, but for now they have given an interesting take on a beautiful truth.