Doctor Who series 6

This article is about the 2011 series. For the 1968-1969 season, see Doctor Who (season 6).

Doctor Who series 6'
Series 6
DVD box set
No. of episodes	14
Release
Original network	BBC One BBC One HD
Original release	23 April (2011-04-23) – 1 October 2011 (2011-10-01)
Series chronology

The sixth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who was shown in two parts. The first seven episodes were broadcast from April to June 2011 and the final six episodes from August to October. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill continued their roles as The Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The series continues story threads from Series 5, investigating the mysterious Silence that caused the TARDIS to explode in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and the identity of River Song.

List of episodes

See also: List of Doctor Who serials

The first seven episodes started in April 2011 and the final six began in August, after the mid-series finale.

Story No.	Episode	Title	Directed by	Written by	UK viewers (million)	AI	Original air date	Production code
213	—	"A Christmas Carol"	Toby Haynes	Steven Moffat	12.11	83	25 December 2010 (2010-12-25)	—
A space liner containing 4,000 people including Amy and Rory on their honeymoon becomes caught in an electrified cloud which is interfering with its controls. The Doctor, summoned by Amy, lands on the planet beneath and discovers that the atmosphere is controlled in a spire operated by the miserly Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon) who refuses to let the ship safely land. Inspired by Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the Doctor travels back to when Kazran was younger and attempts to alter his past to make him kinder, and spends time adventuring with young Kazran and a young woman named Abigail (Katherine Jenkins), who was released from a cryogenic chamber as her singing abilities calm the deadly sharks which occupy the atmosphere. However, Abigail was suffering from an incurable disease and would only live for a number of days which have been reached. Kazran grows up bitter that she cannot be let out again or she will die; however, the Doctor shows Kazran's younger self what he would become and he decides to release the ship. To do this the Doctor needs his screwdriver, and convinces Kazran to release Abigail to sing for the shark, and the two enjoy their last time together.
214a	1	"The Impossible Astronaut"	Toby Haynes	Steven Moffat	8.86	88	23 April 2011 (2011-04-23)	2.1
Amy and Rory and River Song each receive a TARDIS blue envelope which directs them to the Utah desert where they meet the Doctor, who claims to be about 200 years older than when they had last seen him. As they dine beside Lake Silencio they witness an unknown figure in a spacesuit kill the Doctor and they are met by an old man called Canton Everett Delaware III (William Morgan Sheppard), who also has received an envelope. Meeting a younger version of the Doctor, their quest lands them in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon (Stuart Milligan) himself to assist a much younger version of Canton (Mark Sheppard) in saving a terrified little girl (Sydney Wade) from a mysterious spaceman. The Doctor traces her down to a warehouse in Florida which he, Amy, Rory, River, and Canton investigate, unaware that the warehouse contains creatures which they forget after looking away from. After Amy tells the Doctor she is pregnant, the little girl appears in a spacesuit and Amy shoots at her.
214b	2	"Day of the Moon"	Toby Haynes	Steven Moffat	7.30	87	30 April 2011 (2011-04-30)	2.2
Amy's shot had missed and she, Rory, and River spend three months searching for the creatures — later revealed to be called Silence — while the Doctor and the TARDIS are held in Area 51 by Canton. The group reunites and discuss the Silence, which have been found throughout America and have the ability to implant post-hypnotic suggestions in the humans they encounter. While the Doctor tampers with Apollo 11, Amy and Canton visit a Silence-invested orphanage where the little girl was kept, and Amy finds a picture of herself with a baby in the little girl's room before she is kidnapped by the Silence. Canton wounds a Silent in the orphanage and records it taunting him "you should kill us all on sight" with Amy's mobile phone. The Doctor tracks down Amy and lands the TARDIS in the Silence's base and shows them the live broadcast of the moon landing. During it, he implants Canton's recording of the Silence into the footage, thereby instructing all humans watching it to turn on the Silence when they see them. Later, Amy tells the Doctor that she told him she was pregnant because she was afraid travelling on the TARDIS would have an effect on the child's development; Amy denies that she is actually pregnant but the Doctor initiates a scan anyway, the result of which is inconclusive. Three months later in New York City, the little girl is dying but reveals that she can regenerate, a trait only Time Lords are capable of.
215	3	"The Curse of the Black Spot"	Jeremy Webb	Stephen Thompson	7.85	86	7 May 2011 (2011-05-07)	2.9
Following a distress signal, the TARDIS lands on a 17th century pirate ship captained by Henry Avery (Hugh Bonneville) whose crew is terrorised by a Siren-like creature (Lily Cole) who marks crew members with black spots when they are injured and then seemingly disintegrates them. Rory receives a cut and Amy and the Doctor keep him away from the Siren. Discovering that the Siren uses reflection as a portal, they rid the ship of any reflective surfaces. When Rory and Avery's son Toby (Oscar Lloyd) are taken by the Siren, the Doctor, Amy, and Avery prick themselves and the Siren teleports them on an invisible alien spaceship which occupies the same spot as the pirate ship. There they find a sickbay where Rory and Toby are kept; Amy and the Doctor pull Rory off life support and Amy performs CPR to revive him.
216	4	"The Doctor's Wife"	Richard Clark	Neil Gaiman	7.97	87	14 May 2011 (2011-05-14)	2.3
A distress signal from a Time Lord sends the Doctor, Amy and Rory outside the universe to a junkyard on an asteroid. They are introduced to the place's strange inhabitants - Auntie (Elizabeth Berrington), Uncle (Adrian Schiller), an Ood known as Nephew, and an excited young woman named Idris (Suranne Jones) who seems attracted to the Doctor - and to "House" (voiced by Michael Sheen), an intelligence controlling the asteroid. The Doctor discovers that other Time Lords have been lured to the asteroid and killed, their bodies used for spare sparts. Upon learning that the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords, House takes possession of the TARDIS to escape to the regular universe, with Amy and Rory trapped inside. The Doctor learns that House has trapped the personality of the TARDIS inside Idris, causing her body to fail quickly. The two decide to build a makeshift TARDIS out of the scraps in the junkyard to pursue Amy, Rory and House. As they materialise inside the TARDIS, Idris releases the TARDIS's matrix, destroying House and liberating the TARDIS.
217a	5	"The Rebel Flesh"	Julian Simpson	Matthew Graham	7.35	85	21 May 2011 (2011-05-21)	2.5
Caught in a "solar tsunami", the TARDIS is thrown to an island in the 22nd century where a monastery has been turned into a factory for pumping the deadly acid off the island. The crew of the factory, headed by Miranda Cleaves (Raquel Cassidy), creates doppelgängers (called "Gangers") of themselves using a self-replicated fluid known as the Flesh, which they can safely operate through dangerous duties and are disposable. Cleaves refuses to heed the Doctor's warning about the solar storm until she receives oficial orders. The Doctor attempts to disconnect the solar connector, but an electrical strike knocks everyone unconscious and have caused the crew's Gangers to become sentient, and the Gangers are planning on killing the humans. As the Doctor herds the humans into the chapel, the safest place in the monastery, Rory leaves to find Jennifer (Sarah Smart), whose estranged Ganger is hunting her. In the chapel, Amy and the Doctor discover a Flesh version of the Doctor.
217b	6	"The Almost People"	Julian Simpson	Matthew Graham	6.72	86	28 May 2011 (2011-05-28)	2.6
Amy does not trust the Flesh version of the Doctor but accidentally tells it about his future death at Lake Silencio. Jennifer's Ganger, leading the war against the humans, kills her human counterpart and stages a fight with another Ganger of Jennifer, leading Rory to believe her Ganger has died and the winner who accompanies him is the human Jennifer. The Jennifer Ganger manipulates Rory into imprisoning the humans in an acid storage room. The Doctor's Ganger persuades the Gangers to liberate the humans, but Jennifer's Ganger storms off. As the remaining humans and Gangers are escaping they are pursued by Jennifer's Ganger, who has transformed herself into a monster. The Doctor reveals that Amy was led to believe the real him was his Ganger, and his Ganger and Cleaves' Ganger stay behind to destroy the monster. The Doctor returns the remaining humans back to their homes or work, but Amy begins experiencing contractions. The Doctor explains she is going into labour and that a while ago she was replaced by a Ganger which her real self is controlling. He disintegrates her Flesh form and she awakes in her real body fully pregnant in a white tube, watched over by the "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber), who instructs her to "push".
218a	7	"A Good Man Goes to War"	Peter Hoar	Steven Moffat	7.51	88	4 June 2011 (2011-06-04)	2.7
The Doctor assembles an army and he and Rory infiltrate Demon's Run, an asteroid base, where Amy is held captive and the newborn child of she and Rory, Melody Pond, has been taken by the Eye Patch Lady, who is named Madame Kovarian. River Song refuses to join him, explaining that she cannot be there until the end, when he discovers her identity. The Doctor and Rory secure the base, free Amy, and take back Melody. The Doctor's allies discover that Melody contains both human and Time Lord DNA, a result of her being conceived on the TARDIS on Amy and Rory's wedding night ("The Big Bang"). As Rory and the rest of the Doctor's allies battle the Headless Monks, Kovarian informs that Doctor that she has tricked him, and he races to Amy and Melody, who he now understands is a Ganger duplicate. He arrives too late, however, and although the Headless Monks are defeated Melody is gone, while Lorna Bucket (Christina Chong) and Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey) have died in the battle. River Song arrives and tells the Doctor her identity and he races off in the TARDIS, promising Amy and Rory that he will get their daughter back. River then informs the couple that she is in fact Melody; "River Song" is a translation of "Melody Pond" in the Gamma Forest where her captors are from.
218b	8	"Let's Kill Hitler"	Richard Senior	Steven Moffat	8.10	85	27 August 2011 (2011-08-27)	2.8
Amy and Rory summon the Doctor to Leadworth, and he admits he has not found Melody. They are met by Mels (Nina Toussaint-White), their childhood friend responsible for Amy and Rory's relationship and whom Amy named Melody after. Mels hijacks the TARDIS and shoots the console, causing it to spin out of control and eventually crash into Hitler's office in 1938 Berlin. They accidentally save Hitler, as they disrupted a Teselecta, a shapeshifting robot piloted by miniaturised people to punish criminals, from killing him. Before Rory locks him in a cupboard, Hitler shoots at the Teselecta but shoots Mels instead. Instead of dying, however, Mels begins to regenerate into another incarnation which they recognise as River Song. She attempts to kill the Doctor several times before she kisses him and disappears into the street; he discovers her lipstick was laced with poison that will kill him in 32 minutes. The Teselecta identifies River as responsible for the Doctor's death and thus a criminal, but Amy and Rory plead they not torture her and use the sonic screwdriver to turn the security robots against the crew, who promptly teleport out. River saves the dying Doctor by giving him her remaining regenerations, and he, Amy, and Rory take her to a hospital in the future.
219	9	"Night Terrors"	Richard Clark	Mark Gatiss	7.07	86	3 September 2011 (2011-09-03)	2.4
The Doctor, Amy, and Rory make a "house call" to a young boy named George (Jamie Oram) who is terrified of almost everything, especially the wardrobe in his room. As the Doctor talks to his father Alex (Daniel Mays), Amy and Rory find themselves suddenly transported from the lift to a life-size doll house were other members of the housing estate have arrived, only to be turned into life-size peg dolls, which soon happens to Amy. The Doctor realises that Alex's wife Claire (Emma Cunniffe) is not pregnant in pictures leading up to George's birth, and Alex remembers that Claire cannot have children. The Doctor asserts that George is a Tenza child, an empathic alien who took on the form of Alex and Claire's desired child through a perception filter, and has the ability to literally lock away his fears within the wardrobe. George panics about this revelation, causing the Doctor and Alex to be sucked into the doll's house in his wardrobe. George also arrives, and the advancing dolls are stopped and turned back into humans when Alex embraces George as a son.
220	10	"The Girl Who Waited"	Nick Hurran	Tom MacRae	7.60	85	10 September 2011 (2011-09-10)	2.10
The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the planet Apalapucia, a popular holiday destination, but they find that the planet is under quarantine as the two-hearted natives are susceptible to a deadly plague which will kill the infected within a day. Those infected by the plague are placed in an accelerated time stream, allowing them to live out their lives whilst in communication with their loved ones. Amy accidentally enters one of these rooms and is separated from the Doctor and Rory. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to locate her and Rory leaves to rescue her; the Doctor, who has two hearts, must remain on the TARDIS to avoid catching the plague. However, they have arrived 36 years later in Amy's time stream and the older Amy refuses to let them rescue her younger self. She later softens, however, and the Doctor says that both versions of Amy will be able to travel on the TARDIS. However, as both Amys are brought together and proceed to enter the TARDIS, the Doctor locks the older Amy out, explaining to Rory that the TARDIS would not allow this paradox.
221	11	"The God Complex"	Nick Hurran	Toby Whithouse	6.77	86	17 September 2011 (2011-09-17)	2.11
The TARDIS lands in what appears to be a 1980s hotel, which the Doctor recognises as a disguised alien structure. The layout of the hotel is constantly shifting, and they soon lose the TARDIS. They meet others who had also suddenly found themselves in the hotel: humans Rita (Amara Karan), Howie (Dimitri Leonidas), Joe (Daniel Pirrie), and the alien Gibbis (David Walliams). One by one, Joe, Howie, and Rita are seemingly possessed by a minotaur-like monster and lured to it and subsequently killed. The Doctor surmises that the minotaur fed on a specific faith each of them had and discovers that Amy will be next, as she has faith in him. He convinces her to break her faith and the monster collapses and the hotel setting is revealed to be part of a simulation taking place on a prison ship. The Doctor takes Amy and Rory back to Earth, believing it is best for them to stop travelling with him before they are killed.
222	12	"Closing Time"	Steve Hughes	Gareth Roberts	6.93	86	24 September 2011 (2011-09-24)	2.12
Nearly 200 years have passed for the Doctor, and as he nears his death at Lake Silencio he decides to visit his friend Craig Owens (James Corden), previously seen in "The Lodger". Craig has moved in with his girlfriend Sophie (Daisy Haggard) and the two are raising their baby son, Alfie. The Doctor arrives just as Sophie has departed for a holiday and is compelled to stay and investigate strange electrical disturbances in the area. He traces this back to a department store, where he and Craig discover contains an teleporter to a Cyberman spacecraft as well as a Cybermats. The Doctor finds the ship underneath the building and is captured by the Cybermen; Craig follows and is nearly converted to a Cyberman when he hears Alfie crying and recovers the strength to reverse the conversion. Elsewhere, Kovarian and the Silence strap River into the astronaut suit.
223	13	"The Wedding of River Song"	Jeremy Webb	Steven Moffat	7.67	86	1 October 2011 (2011-10-01)	2.13
Understanding his death cannot be avoided, he gives the invitations to Lake Silencio for Amy, Rory, River, and Canton to a Teselecta. However, the River in the astronaut suit refuses to kill him, but as it was meant to be a fixed point in time the Earth is thrown into an aborted timeline where all of history is running at once. He is found by Amy who is able to remember the universe as it was due to the crack in her wall, though she is unaware that one of her soldiers is Rory. The Doctor is taken to River, who is aware that if the two of them touch the correct time will resume. Amy realises who Rory is and kills Madame Kovarian for taking their child. The Doctor, believing the universe will collapse if they stay in the aborted timeline as River suggests, whispers something in River's ear and then marries her. They kiss, allowing the universe to return. Later, Amy and Rory are visited by River, who reveals that the Doctor had revealed to her that the Teselecta was impersonating him while he was safely inside it, and therefore he did not really die. Elsewhere, the Doctor is warned by the head of his ally Dorium (Simon Fisher-Becker) that the question the Silence were attempting to prevent will be asked as they did not succeed in killing him: "Doctor who?"

Supplemental episodes

Two, three minute mini-episodes titled: "Space" and "Time", directed by Richard Senior, were released on 18 March 2011, filmed under the sixth series' production cycle as part of BBC One's Red Nose Day telethon for the charity Comic Relief. The episodes form a two-part story, set entirely within the TARDIS, starring Matt Smith as The Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, and were written by the programme's head writer Steven Moffat.

Title	Directed by	Written by	UK viewers (million)	Original air date	Production code
"Space" / "Time"	Richard Senior	Steven Moffat	N/A	18 March 2011 (2011-03-18)	—
The episodes form a two-part story, set entirely within the TARDIS, starring Matt Smith as The Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, and were written by the programme's head writer Steven Moffat.
"Death Is the Only Answer"	Jeremy Webb	Children of Oakley Junior School	TBA	1 October 2011 (2011-10-01)	—
"Script to Screen" competition winning script, written by the pupils of Oakley CE Junior School.
Night and the Doctor	Richard Senior (Episodes 1-4) TBA (Episode 5)	Steven Moffat	N/A	21 November 2011 (2011-11-21) (home video release)	—
A series of five mini-episodes produced for the Series 6 DVD and Blu-Ray box set.

Casting

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill continued their roles as The Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams. Darvill had appeared in the previous series in a recurring role, but became a regular in this series. Darvill had his "fingers crossed" that he would become a regular. Alex Kingston returned as River Song. Other notable casting included Michael Sheen (voice), Imelda Staunton (voice), Suranne Jones, David Walliams, Hugh Bonneville, Mark Sheppard, James Corden (returning as Craig Owens) and Simon Callow (returning in a cameo as Charles Dickens after six years).

Production

"Well we've moved through the funfair a bit – we've done the rollercoaster, now we're on the ghost train. Last year, in a way, was all about saying, don't worry, it's still him, it's still the same show, nothing's really been lost. Losing a leading man like David Tennant is seismic – unless you gain a leading man like Matt Smith. It's been the biggest joy to see him stride in and just claim that TARDIS for his own. But now he's really here, and the part is his, and the bow tie is cool, he's ready to lead us places we didn't know existed. Last year we reassured you – this year, to hell with that, we're going to worry the hell out of you. How well do we really know that man, or what he's capable of? We're putting the "who?" back in the Doctor."

Steven Moffat

Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat stated that the purpose of the previous series was to "reassure" the audience that the show was the same, despite the many production changes. However, he wanted this series to be more of a "ghost train" and "worry" the audience. Moffat decided to "rest" the Doctor's arch-enemies the Daleks for the series, as being the "most frequent" enemies of the show made them "the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe".

Matthew Graham was not able to write an episode as he was slated to for the fifth sereis because he did not believe he would have enough time. Moffat then asked him to write the two-part episode "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People". Neil Gaiman had written "The Doctor's Wife" for the previous series, but due to budget constraints it was replaced with "The Lodger".

Production for Series 6 began in October 2010 and concluded on 11 July 2011. Peter Bennett remained as producer, but his counterpart Tracie Simpson was replaced by Sanne Wohlenberg, while departing production designer Edward Thomas was replaced by Michael Pickwoad. The two-part opening story, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes, was partially filmed in the United States, a first for the programme. During the production process the order of the third, fourth and ninth episodes was changed.

Filming blocks

Production blocks were arranged as follows:

Block	Episode Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Code	Filmed
X	Doctor Who Prom scene "A Christmas Carol" "Space" / "Time"	Toby Haynes Richard Senior	Steven Moffat	Sanne Wohlenberg Annabella Hurst-Brown	— 2.X —	July/August 2010
1	"Night Terrors" "The Doctor's Wife"	Richard Clark	Mark Gatiss Neil Gaiman	Sanne Wohlenberg	2.4 2.3	September/October 2010
2	"The Impossible Astronaut" "Day of the Moon"	Toby Haynes	Steven Moffat	Marcus Wilson	2.1 2.2	October/November 2010
3	"The Rebel Flesh" "The Almost People"	Julian Simpson	Matthew Graham	Marcus Wilson	2.5 2.6	November/December 2010
4	"A Good Man Goes to War" "The Curse of the Black Spot"	Peter Hoar Jeremy Webb	Steven Moffat Stephen Thompson	Marcus Wilson	2.7 2.9	January/February 2011
5	"The God Complex" "The Girl Who Waited"	Nick Hurran	Toby Whithouse Tom MacRae	Marcus Wilson	2.11 2.10	February/March 2011
6	"Closing Time"	Steve Hughes	Gareth Roberts	Denise Paul	2.12	March 2011
7	"Let's Kill Hitler" "The Wedding of River Song"	Richard Senior Jeremy Webb	Steven Moffat	Marcus Wilson	2.8 2.13	March/April/July 2011

Promotion

Trailers

File:Doctor who 2011 title.png

The Doctor Who title card for series 6, similar to that used for series 5, but with the addition of the BBC's logo.

The first trailer for Series 6 showed directly after the Christmas Special and showed reappearance of the Ood, a person in a space suit, evil dolls, characters from Nazi Germany, the Doctor wearing a Stetson, the interior of a craft resembling the timeship from "The Lodger", a scene with "A 51" on a wall, Suranne Jones' character of Idris, and several scenes filmed in Utah's Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods. In December 2010, BBC America began airing promotions for the new series featuring Smith, Gillan, Darvill, and Kingston, filmed in Monument Valley and announcing the US locations. A 15-second teaser trailer was shown on BBC One at 9pm, 22 March 2011. A 1-minute trailer was shown on BBC 1, on 30 March 2011 showing, among other scenes, River Song kissing the Doctor and the interior of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors' TARDIS. An alternative version of the trailer was also shown, with the scene of the TARDIS console exploding replaced with a close-up of a Silent. A different 30-second trailer was shown on BBC America on the same day, with a full 60-second trailer being shown two days later. Both these trailers show a scene with a group of three of the Silence from the alternative UK trailer.

The trailer for the second half of Series 6 premiered during the Comic-Con event for BBC America. Scenes include the reappearance of Winston Churchill, the return of Craig Owens from "The Lodger", an unidentified alien with a blue eye, an older version of Amy, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, River Song wearing a similar patch as Madame Kovarian, the appearances of the Silence, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, evil dolls, white robots and the Gibbis which is to be seen in "The God Complex," a Viking, the TARDIS crashing through the Reichstag, and the revisit of the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio in Utah. Another 40-second trailer was released on 4 August 2011 and features a pterodactyl, a pyramid with the images of an American flag and "Area 52", and the Doctor in a Stetson, telling the TARDIS, "One last trip, eh?" A 30-second trailer from BBC America was released on 12 August 2011. An alternative trailer from the 40-second trailer aired on CBBC on 16 August 2011 and included two new scenes.

Prequels

On 25 March 2011, a short exclusive scene serving as a "prequel" for the first two episodes was released on the show's official website. The prequel depicts Richard Nixon (portrayed by Stuart Milligan) receiving a recorded phone call of a girl's voice while sitting in the Oval Office. The girl, whose voice the president appears to recognize from a previous call, begs him to "look behind you", warning him that there is something there. The president angrily refuses and tells the girl that "there are no monsters in the Oval Office." He hangs up; the camera then pans around him to show a blurred, but visibly alien, figure standing to the president's right wearing a black suit and tie.

The second prequel for the episode "The Curse of the Black Spot", shows a ship's captain writing in his log. His ship is in dead water with no wind. Exhaustion of fear will take over the crew, and every night 'she' keeps appearing. The captain believes that everyone on board will die.

On 28 May 2011, BBC released the third prequel for "A Good Man Goes to War." Dorium, talking to two Headless Monks, gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the monks need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"

The prequel to "Let's Kill Hitler" was released on 15 August 2011. Amy leaves a message for the Doctor on the TARDIS' answering phone, pleading for him to find Melody and bring her home, having trusted him to do so. The Doctor is then shown standing by the console, upset.

The final prequel to "The Wedding of River Song" was released after the airing of "Closing Time". The prequel shows Area 52, with a clock stuck at the time of the Doctor's death, Silence kept in stasis and River Song wearing an eye patch in the same fashion as Madame Kovarian. As all of this is happening, there is a voice-over of the children, the same as that from "Night Terrors" and the conclusion of "Closing Time". They sing "Tick tock goes the clock" three times, and then "Doctor, brave and good, he turned away from violence. When he understood the falling of the silence."

Broadcast

International broadcast

In the US, it began airing on BBC America on 23 April. The first episode was broadcast in Australia on ABC1 on 30 April. SPACE aired the premiere on 23 April for Canadian viewers. Series Six started screening in New Zealand on Prime (New Zealand) on 19 May in a later timeslot of 8.30pm.

DVD and Blu-ray release

See also: List of Doctor Who DVD and Blu-ray releases

All of the episodes from the first half of the series ("The Impossible Astronaut" to "A Good Man Goes to War") were released on 11 July 2011 as a set, entitled Doctor Who: Series Six, Part 1. Doctor Who: Series Six, Part 2, covering episodes from "Let's Kill Hitler" to "The Wedding of River Song", was released on 10 October 2011. A 6-disc boxset containing all 13 episodes of the series and "A Christmas Carol" was released on 21 November 2011. A limited edition box set was also released with a lifted image of a Silent on the cover and including four lenticular prints.

Reception

Ratings

Final viewing figures for the 13 regular episodes of the series.

"A Christmas Carol" received final ratings of 12.11 million viewers, the fourth highest rated Christmas special behind "Voyage of the Damned", "The Next Doctor", and Part Two of The End of Time. The ratings for the series dramatically increased once time-shifted viewers were taken into account. "The Impossible Astronaut" premiered with a consolidated figure 8.86 million viewers in the UK, and was reportedly the most recorded television event of all time. It also received 1.379 million requests on BBC's online iPlayer for the month of April. The series held a consistent viewership in the seven millions, with the lowest-rated episode being "The Almost People" with 6.72 million.

The series also received a strong Appreciation Index, with all episodes aside from "A Christmas Carol" in the "excellent" category of a score of 85 or more. While "The Impossible Astronaut" and "A Good Man Goes to War" reached 88, the finale only scored 86, compared to 88, 89, and 91 of the previous finales of the revived series.

In Canada on Space, "The Impossible Astronaut" was viewed by 538,000, the most-watched Doctor Who episode for the channel and its most-watched telecast thus far in 2011. On BBC America in the United States, "The Impossible Astronaut" was the channel's highest-rated telecast with 1.3 million viewers, increasing to 1.8 million when DVR recordings were taken into account. The second half of the series, with Top Gear and Luther, contributed to the third quarter of 2011 being BBC America's highest rated. Doctor Who also became the most-downloaded show of 2011 on iTunes in the US, with the sixth series specifically topping the chart.

Reviews

"Watching bits of the sixth season all over again, its inventiveness and cleverness remain paramount — and a few episodes, like "The Doctor's Wife" and "The God Complex," stand out as instant classics. Moffat's writing remains as funny and as whiz-bang clever as always — although this season's storyline, including Amy's captive pregnancy, River Song's messed-up childhood, and the plot to assassinate the Doctor, doesn't seem any more satisfying or fully realized the second time around, from a character standpoint. It's all fun stuff, as long as you don't worry too much about Amy and River as plausible characters."

io9's Charlie Jane Anders in a review of the DVD release.

Reviewing the first half, Dave Golder of SFX praised the change in direction Moffat had taken with the show, calling it "more visually impressive and more narratively rewarding than anything we've had before". The Guardian's Dan Martin was positive towards the first six episodes, despite calling "The Curse of the Black Spot" a "wasted opportunity" and noting that it would be a risk to serialise the story too much. He particularly praised the way Amy, Rory, and the Doctor had developed since the last series.

Sam McPherson of Zap2it said that, despite a few "duds", the sixth series was the "strongest" since Doctor Who's revival in 2005. Despite disliking the finale as a conclusion, The Independent's Neela Debnath praised the character development seen in the series as well as the "cinematic quality". She also was positive to the dynamic between the Doctor, Amy, and Rory, as it was different from other characters seen previously on the show, and continuing with the same character allowed the series to feel more "multi-layered". Charlie Jane Anders of io9 described it as "of the most unusual, and structurally ambitious, eras in Doctor Who's history" and praised the way the story revolved around the Doctor.

Reviewing the whole series, SFX's Ian Berriman was more critical, giving it three and a half out of five stars. He heavily criticised the story arc, finding it too complicated and the solution unsatisfying, and noted that it lacked "emotional impact". Anders felt that the story arc, especially the finale, suffered from Amy and River not being portrayed as believable characters. Digital Spy named Doctor Who the eighth best show of 2011, feeling that the series was "something of a mixed bag" with episodes of varying quality. Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph wrote that "The Wedding of River Song" was "an uneven ending to a slightly uneven series which at times has been in danger of overcomplicating itself, but still has been one of the most creative and distinctive series on television". The series was also criticised by viewers and the press for being "too scary" for young children, "too complicated", and running the risk of alienating casual viewers.

Awards

"A Christmas Carol" was nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form), but lost to the fifth series finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang". "The Doctor's Wife", "A Good Man Goes to War", and "The Girl Who Waited" have been nominated for the same award for 2012. "The Doctor's Wife" has also been nominated for the 2011 Ray Bradbury award.

The series has also been nominated for a Saturn Award for "Best Youth-Oriented Series on Television". For his work on the series, Moffat received a nomination for Best Writer (Drama) for the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. In Canada's Constallation Awards, Gillan was nominated for "Best Female Performance in a 2011 Science Fiction Television Episode" for her work on "The Girl Who Waited", while Doctor Who was nominated in the "Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2011" category.

Soundtrack

Further information: Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack - Series 6

Selected pieces of score from this series (from "The Impossible Astronaut" to "The Wedding of River Song"), as composed by Murray Gold, was released on 19 December 2011 by Silva Screen Records.

External links

• Doctor Who at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episodes
• Doctor Who at epguides.com