If you’re not interested in Doctor Who spoilers or theory or anything related, come back in a day or two when I can guarantee the subject will not be Doctor Who. Otherwise, again, paraphrasing Bette Davis in “All About Eve,” fasten your seatbelt because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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The last episode of season 6 Doctor Who, The Wedding of River Song, had everything anyone could want including a title that immediately made me think of fan fiction. Steven Moffat did a great job in explaining away MOST of the questions from the season opener, The Impossible Astronaut. But he did more than just that, he brought clarity to conversations that Amy and River and River and the Doctor had in the episodes: “The Time of Angels” and “The Big Bang.” However, there will be many people who will hate this episode because of the way the questions were answered.
That said, I am extremely pleased to say that I got so much right in my June 2011 post. Go head and read it (the post will open in another window). I’ll wait…
Back? Okay then, let’s get started shall we?
1. Gangers. Doppelgangers WERE involved as I had speculated, but they weren’t flesh from “The Almost People” as I had opined. Instead the “ganger” was the Teselecta from the “Let’s Kill Hitler” episode. In hindsight, the flesh gangers was a good call, but couldn’t possible be used. Why? Because the flesh “gangers” are sentient beings and not even the Doctor was going to throw one away to save himself.
2. River kills the ganger Doctor so the real Doctor can stop running. Melody Pond/ River Song is in jail for the murder of the Doctor who she kills twice (Let Kill Hitler and The Impossible Astronaut). The reality is that prison will have very little effect on her ability to move about time and space freely or the Doctor’s ability to visit her at night, as he tells the head of the fat blue guy. But as I said in June, River Song has to sacrifice her freedom so that the Doctor can have his.
3. River Song in Love. River Song does marry the Doctor (quiet now as the Doctor/River shippers applaud) and he recognizes her as his wife. This point is important because it explains his actions in giving her his sonic screwdriver before she departs for the Library Planet where she dies. She is not just a “dear friend” or a wild-eyed companion. Melody Pond/ River Song is a Time Lord (without any regenerations left) and wife and mate to the Doctor. Her killing of the Stone Dalek in The Big Bang takes on new significance when viewed not as her avenging the Doctor, but rather as her avenging her husband and fellow Time Lord. Thus, I am more convince now than ever that he WILL rescue her from the Library Planet, but WON’T do it until she leaves for that mission in his timeline.
There will be people who will scream bloody murder because while River loves the Doctor (hastily and perhaps poorly explained), the Doctor does not love her and is only marrying her to accomplish his objective of dying to set the world right. I’m okay with this because I believe River when she tells Amy that the Doctor “…will care for her whatever it takes.”
But the marriage is also a problem from the timeline standpoint. Remember, we have been seeing the episodes as the Doctor experiences them. So this episode occurs for him after “Let’s Kill Hitler.” The problem is this episode must also occur for River Song after “Let’s Kill Hitler,” because she has regenerated into her current form, but before she confronts the Doctor at Demons Run in AGMGTW (because she is not imprisoned at Stonecage yet). So when does this episode occur in River’s timeline?
4. Amy and River have bonded as adults. This won’t shut up those needed to see Amy and Rory hold and raise baby Melody, but it is exactly what needed to happen. River Song is who she is now because of how she was raised: close childhood friends with Amy and Rory (who she calls Mother and Father) and raised (re: programmed) by Madame Kovarian and the Silence. Amy is only partial right when she tells Madame Kovarian shortly before she kills her, that “…River Song didn’t get it all from you (Kovarian), Sweetie.” However, we need to be clear, Melody would not become the River we know without Kovarian influences.
5. Food for thought (Part 1): Do River Song and the Doctor have any children in the future? Why do I ask? Because in “Forest of the Dead,” CAL (the library computer) gives River three children to look after. One of the children is CAL herself (Charlotte Abigail Lux) and the other two are a boy and girl (Amy & Rory?). Bottom line is who are these two children that were created from River’s memories? Why do I say her memories? Because she has her diary with her in her virtual world.
6. Food for thought (Part 2): At the end of this episode, River tells Amy she just returned from the crash of the Byzantium, which are the episodes, Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone. We know, but River doesn’t, that the next time she sees the Doctor (that we know of) will be on the Library Planet (where she dies). So, did we witness the last time River would visit Amy & Rory? If it was, how fitting was it that she shares with them that the Doctor is still alive?
7. Food for thought (Part 3): Remember that crack in Amy’s room at the beginning of season 5; the crack that is the TARDIS exploding? Amy was exposed to that crack for her entire childhood; exposed to the RADIATION from that crack! What if Amy’s genes (DNA) have been mutated by this long term exposure to the time stream of the exploding TARDIS? What if Melody Pond is a hybrid Time Lord, not because she was conceived in the TARDIS, but because her mother is unknowingly one as a result of mutated DNA? It would explain why Amy and River are able to remember things no one other than the Doctor can remember. (Yes, I know Amy forgot Rory in season 5, but she always finds him because she is always subconsciously looking for him).
8. A final thought on the episode. The entire Moffat run has been about waiting and the Doctor’s affect on the Williams’ family. Amy Williams (nee Pond) waited more than 2/3 of her life for the Doctor to return. Rory Williams waited almost 1,900 years for Amy’s return. River patiently waits for her sentence for a crime that never really took place to end. At one point during the Moffat run, the Doctor says that “it’s all about this little girl, Amelia Pond.” Well, the Doctor is only partially right. This episode and the whole season was about patience and a family, an entire family, that waits – waits on the Doctor.
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Season 6 of Doctor Who has been a joy and while I don’t think we’ll see much of River Song in the future, she now, in canon, has the definitive title of “The Doctor’s Wife.” That is, until Steven Moffat changes his mind and decides to rewrite time which he has done twice during his two year run. Until then, “River, get them all home!”
😀
Food for thought 1: Those were the same two little kids CAL created for everyone. They’re part of the program, just as they were for Donna.
Food for Thought 2: In “Silence in the Library” (ugh, pun) and “Forest of the Dead” River talks about the last date the Doctor takes her on before her library visit, so we know she sees him again between Byzantium and Library. We can infer she also has time to visit Mum and Dad again, until/unless the show contradicts it later.
I love FFT 3. 😀 😀 😀 Good job on all your right guesses!
Thanks for reading… 🙂 FFT3 came to me as I was typing the final paragraph.It suddenly made sense to me and would explain how the Silence could control her ganger in the TARDIS and why the TARDIS put itself in a time loop in The Big Bang to protect its “child,” River. I think an essay further explaining this is due…thanks for the homework assignment… 🙂
It’s still interesting that CAL chose River as her mother and the mother of the cyber children. Why not Miss Evangelista or Anita?
I always said that Amy’s abilities were caused by the TARDIS trying to find another shell, similar to what happened to Idris but not completely because the TARDIS isn’t a monster and would never kill a child.
“But the marriage is also a problem from the timeline standpoint.”
Not at all. Indeed, we know it happens long after Let’s Kill HItler for the Doctor because the Doctor in question is the 1100 year old version who’s already met “Fred the Fish” and had several other adventures with River.
Meanwhile, for River, she’s completed her degree which means at least two, if not more, years of study when she could have interacted with the Doctor as well.
Thank you for reading… minor edit -it was Jim the Fish, but your point is noted and well taken. If we were dealing with any normal persons I’d say you’re absolutely right. But we’re talking about the Doctor and River who both admit that they lie. I personally think the Doctor was lying when he said he did Jim the Fish with River. It wouldn’t be hard to travel to Jim’s home, see he is still building his dam and tell that to River when she asks, knowing in advance that she WILL ask.
But you’re right about River getting her doctorate and eventually getting a teaching position. She starts in 5123 (LKH) and could have interaction with the Doctor, but appears (to me) be stilling stalking him on the day she gets her doctorate and gets put it the suit. Again thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading and I completely agree about the TARDIS and Amy… 🙂
Unfortunately I don’t have a reference for this, but I believe it was in either an interview with DWM or an episode of confidential: Steven Moffat stated that the very fact that the Eleventh Doctor in Time of Angels says “We keep meeting in the wrong order” implies they have met between Time of Angels/Silence in the Library (from the Doctor’s perspective, probably when he was still Ten and travelling alone) and not neccessarily just when the Doctor gave her the screwdriver (we know he cried which implies he knew her much better by then).
…sorry if that made no sense, I’m very sleep-deprived.
HK
Upon reflection, this makes perfect sense and would explain the Doctor’s comment about River dragging him into things in “Time of Angels” implying they’ve met since the library. Thanks for the enlightment and thanks for reading. 🙂
According to Moffat, at least one of the “dates” River mentioned in “Silence in the Library” (The Picnic in Asgard) happened with the 10th Doctor. Considering the doctor’s unusual exasperation with River in “Time of Angels”, I would bet that there were others meetings besides that one. He certainly seems to be quite familiar with her in that episode, as opposed to the last time we saw her, which would imply several meetings before that episode.
And there is also the fact that “The Picnic in Asgard” doesn’t seem to be their next meeting from the Doctor’s point of view either, because after River notices he didn’t have a clue of what she was talking about she says, “Oh, so it is very early days for you…”
I hadn’t heard that relative to Moffat’s statement, but nothing about the Doctor/River relationship surprises me much anymore. And you’re right, 11 did seem to be short with her which would indicate there had been other meetings. Thanks for reading. Hope you’ll come back.
I confess I’m a newbie, but since season 5 and 6 have dragged me into the beautiful torment that is so atypical in relatioships, I’m thinking that when the 11th Doctor’s time is up, he’ll find a way to spend eternity with River in the library (even though I disliked the copy that Rose got, that was kind of cruel knowing that the real version was still leaving her). I think the writers kind of owe River that happy ending (ok, yes, and me too), given her hard-to-swallow backstory.
Welcome to the madness… 🙂
I think they have already given River her happy ending as she is concious in the CAL computer in the library (Forest of the Dead). She has her memories and her diary. Sadly, she will forever be a reminder to the Doctor of his losing Amy & Rory, so I’m not as sure as I was a year ago that he will really rescue her from the library. Her present existence might be as good as it gets for her.
Thanks for reading…