River Song

I've heard that a lot of people aren't satisfied with the end of Doctor Who 2005 Season 6.  Especially with the bit with River Song.  Some complaints go as far as they don't like how she was portrayed in The Wedding of River Song saying it wasn't the River Song we know who is in every way the Doctors equal and opposite.  You have to understand though the River we are seeing, is the second earliest River Song we've seen, much closer to the River Song we saw in Let's Kill Hitler than the mature River we've seen before.  Personally I was please, and every time Alex Kingston is on the screen I'm happy.  Especially since I think the story is far from over.

The more I see River, the more I realize there is more to be revealed. So far we've been told River's time stream runs in opposition to the Doctors. "Every time we meet, I know him more, he knows me less."  This, of course goes along with River's first appearance in Season 4 Episode 8 Silence In the Library, she knew the Doctor, so well she even knew his name, but he didn't know her.  Now keep in mind that as far as we know he hasn't told River his name, yet.  There is coming up though, the Fields of Transilor, the fall of the 11th, and the answer to the question.  Evidently, this might be when he tells River his name.

Of course maybe he already has and we don't know.  In Episode 7 of Season 6, the Doctor is dying and Melody Pond, bends down so the Doctor can give her a message to give to River Song, then dies.  As she sits up, she says "Well I think she already knows..." and then realizes his eyes are closed, and he's dead.  We assume he said, "Tell her I love her." Exactly, we assume.  Though I think it's too simple an explanation, it could have been, knowing he's dying, and not wanting to risk changing his personal time line and putting all kinds of things in danger, he told her his name.  Personally I think she's the one he tells the answer to the question, or she witnesses him telling.

Here is another thing.  River reminds Amy at the end of Season 6 episode 13, of Rule #1.  "The Doctor Lies."  "So do I. All the Time. Have to."  We've been told so far that every time we see River it's an earlier time in her history.  This season though, we've been shown that that just isn't so, on more than one occasion in both direct and subtle ways.  We go from her 4th meeting with the Doctor (from his perspective), and her second meeting with Doctor (as the little girl from her perspecitve) in Episodes 1&2 of Season 6. Then his first meeting with her (from her perspective as a baby) and his 5th (the Adult River from his perspective) in a Good Man Goes To War.  Then his 6th meeting with her (from his perspective) and her 3rd from her's as Mel in Let's Kill Hitler.  The his 7th meeting with her from his perspective which from her perspective is her 4th meeting with him.  So not necessarily back to front.  Quite jumbled actually.  Here's the thing though.  If you've paid attention you know it's even far more jumbled than it seems.  And No, I didn't forget that we saw her 3 times in Episode 6, once in the beginning having returned to her cell from a date with the Doctor, as a baby (which is why she couldn't be there til the very end. She can't cross her own time stream.), and lastly as an Adult at the end, where she arrives to let the Doctor know who she really is, and here is the clincher, wearing an outfit she doesn't yet have and using a piece of technology she hasn't yet acquired to get there.

The outfit, of course, is the outfit she was wearing at the end of Season 6 Episode 2 Day of the Moon.  River dives off a building, lands in the Tardis' pool and we next see her dressed and drying her hair.  Evidently, she gets the outfit from the Tardis' wardrobe, and is wearing it when the Doctor drops her off at Storm Hold.  If it's earlier in her time stream she couldn't have the outfit, nor could she have the Vortex Manipulator she used to get there (look at her wrist if you don't believe me.)  She acquired the Vortex Manipulator from Dorian in Season 5 Episode 12 The Pandorica Opens.  The Doctor uses it several times in the continuation episode The Big Bang, before returning it to River at the end of the episode.  Still if their lives are back to front she not only shouldn't have the Vortex Manipulator the episode after, she's wearing it at the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut, but she shouldn't have it in later episodes as well.  So I don't know about you but I'm starting to see a pattern here.

In the second episode of the two episodes that make up the Library story, Forest of the Dead, River tells the Doctor something along the lines of don't change a thing, talking about their history, almost desperately. Of course, she was just about to die, but I think the reason is more broad.  I think at one point River purposely fills holes in her own time line and therefore the Doctors, to make sure certain things happen, that she perceives need to happen in a certain way.  Most probably for the sake of the Doctor.  For instance, I mentioned her appearance at the end of Season 5 Episode 13 The Big Bang.  Before the Doctor launches himself into the exploding Tardis using the Time Manipulator to fly the Pandorica, River says "We all wake up where we ought to be, none of this every happens and we won't remember it."  So how does she end up at the church where Amy and Rory are getting married to give Rory a blank book no one who existed has ever given her to give to Amy?  Simple, that's not the same River Song that was in the episode, she's from a different point in her own time stream.  I know there are people who think Steven Moffat couldn't have planned out the story of the Doctor and River with that much complexity but look at what he's done so far.  We met River before we met her Mother and Father.  Also I think he's been thinking about this for years.  I saw a picture one time that recorded a news group posting made by Steven Moffat in 1995, where he says "Here's a particularly stupid theory. If we take "The Doctor" to be the Doctor's name -even if its in the form of a title no doubt meaning something deep and Gallifreyan - perhaps our earthly use of the word 'Doctor' meaning healer or wise man is a direct result of The Doctor's multiple interventions in our history as a healer or wise man. In other words, we got it from him. This is a very silly idea and I'm consequently rather proud of it." post quoting post

Almost the exact words used by River in A Good Man Goes to War.  Perhaps, in his madness for Doctor Who, it isn't what it seems, that he planned up to A Good Man Goes to War 16 years ago, and then just winged it from there.  Perhaps, he's manipulating us with emotional highs and lows and giving us a good ride. 

I for one am thirsty for more