Karen Gillan: Amy Pond must die

Is Karen Gillan ready to say good-bye to Amy Pond?

One of the rules of the sci-fi genre, of course, is that no one ever really dies. Whether it's Mr. Spock, Buffy or Gandalf, they always come back for an encore.

But not if Karen Gillan has her way. When Amy Pond dies on "Dr. Who," the 23-year-old actress told the Mirror:

"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."

Karen reckons the next series could be Amy's last—and she hinted that she could become the first doctor's sidekick to die on screen.

"Once she's gone, she's gone. I want people to remember the Amy Pond era as a good one."

Wait - when Amy dies? Is she serious? Is Karen really that anxious to kill off her best-known role? Or does she know something about Amy's future that the rest of us don't? Two days before the interview with the Mirror, Gillan had the following exchange about the character on Graham Norton's radio 2 show:

Norton: Are you leaving?

Gillan: I don't really know what's going on, to be honest. ... The time is going to come when Amy and Rory have to leave. It's inevitable. And that will make me really, really sad. But also that's the nature of the show, and what's so good about it and keeps it exciting is the fact that it's, you know, reinvented all the time with new people. It's a really great part of the show. I will welcome that. I will welcome the new companion with open arms. But I don't know what kind of companion he'd have next."

Norton: If it were left to your own devices, how long would you do things?

Gillan: Oh, I don't know! I can't really answer that. ... I think it's important to go on to other things and establish myself in other ways. But I can't really answer that, because it is partly up to my own devices when I go, so I don't want to give it away.

You can listen to the entire interview by clicking here.

Draw your own conclusions.