Series 7 Prequels - Pond Life

 

In which we see what the Doctor gets up to when the Ponds aren't around - and what the Ponds do without the Doctor...

April:

The Doctor leaves a message on the Ponds' answer machine about his recent encounter with the Sontarans on the planet Florinall 9; a close encounter with the infamous spy Mata Hari in Paris; laying down backing tracks on a hip hop album; and crash-landing the TARDIS in ancient Greece.

May:

The Doctor bursts into the Ponds' bedroom in the middle of the night to warn them of impending disaster. He suddenly realises that he has arrived too early in their time-streams, so advises they go back to sleep and forget about it...

June:

Rory gets up one morning, only to discover an Ood sitting on their toilet...

July:

The Ood has been staying with the Ponds for a few weeks, and has been extremely helpful around the house. Rory worries that they are taking advantage of it, though both do enjoy its meals and all the cleaning it does. They manage to speak to the Doctor about it and he promises to come and collect it.

August:

The Doctor has parked the TARDIS outside the Pond residence to change the lightbulb on the roof, and has left another phone message as no-one seems to be home. He tells of how he may have invented pasta in ancient Mongolia, and of how the TARDIS helmic regulator was damaged by an arrow fired at the Battle of Hastings. He suddenly changes his mind and deletes the messages, just as Amy Pond arrives home - desperate to speak to him. She and Rory have split up...

Pond Life was a collection of five short mini-episodes released on-line over the week of 27th - 31st August, 2012. They were written by Chris Chibnall.

The May episode features clips from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, so this is the imminent disaster which the Doctor has come to warn about.

The implication from June is that this is not the first time that the Doctor has intruded in the Pond bedroom, as mention is made of "rules", and Rory says "I really hate it when he does that..." after he has gone.

In July, the Doctor tells the Ponds that he rescued the Ood from the Androvax conflict and mislaid it when the TARDIS last visited. Androvax was an alien who appeared in two of The Sarah Jane Adventures. The Ood was once again played by Paul Kasey, and voiced by Silas Carson.

For the first four episodes, and the closing part of the fifth, Karen Gillan was wearing a wig as she had shaved her head for her role as Nebula in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The sequence with her and Rory arguing on the doorstep in the final instalment sees her with her own hair, so this flashback scene was filmed as part of Asylum of the Daleks. They are wearing the same costumes from that story.

The sequences with Matt Smith and the TARDIS outside the Pond house were filmed during the making of The Power of Three.