Matt Smith’s entire tenure as the Doctor has been through the eyes of Amy Pond – heck, she’s even taken over the opening narrative -While I think they are both brilliant actors, it might be nice to see more of Matt Smith without them.

from Bleeding Cool -

Last weekend, Gillan was a guest on Graham Norton’s Radio 2 show. At this point she said:  I don’t really know what’s going on, to be honest but the time is going to come when Amy and Rory have to leave. It’s inevitable.

And when she does go, Gillan would like Amy to die, at least per her interview with the 2012 Doctor Who annual:
Death would be an option. I don’t want Amy to pop up again every so often, because for me it would take away from the big, emotional goodbye. Once she’s gone, she’s gone. I want people to remember the Amy Pond era as a good one.

But, you know, it’s a time travel show so death won’t necessarily stop her coming back, only Gillan will have that power, and she’ll have it no matter what.

But that’s all as-and-when stuff, for when Amy does leave the show. That’s not the next step, as Gillan has confirmed that she’ll be back. So what is the next step?

Back to the Graham Norton interview:
I know that I’m gonna be coming back but I’m not sure when.

We know that some Christmas special filming, if only a tiny bit, was done on the doorstep of the Williams’ house, and reports said that Gillan and Arthur Darvill were on set. I thought it was likely that this sequence was for the end of the episode, teasing the “full return” of the characters in the next series.

Steven Moffat has said that the Williams are not in the Christmas special which could A) be a lie; b) indicate that they only have minor roles; or C) suggest that this filming was, for some reason, early photography for the next series.

I’d expect it’s a combination of A and B.

We also know that James Corden has been asked to come back and reprise the role of Craig Owens and that, schedule pending, he was more than up for it. Could he be making a return towards the start of the next series, rather than the not-quite-yet-a-traditional placing near the end?