River Song (Doctor Who)

Template:Infobox Doctor Who character River Song, born Melody Pond, is a fictional character played by Alex Kingston in the British science-fiction series Doctor Who. The character was created by Doctor Who writer and eventual executive producer Steven Moffat. Following the character's initial appearance, then-executive producer Russell T Davies described her as "one of the most important characters" and "vital" to the Doctor's life..

Within the series' narrative, River Song is an experienced future companion of series protagonist the Doctor. Because River and the Doctor are both time travellers, their adventures together are largely experienced chronologically inverted, resulting in surprising consequences for them and their unusual romantic life together.

She is the daughter of companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. Conceived aboard the TARDIS while travelling through the space-time vortex on or shortly after her parents' wedding night (their perspective), her human DNA was mutated into something approximating that of a Time Lord.

Appearances

Television

River Song first appears in the Doctor Who 2008 series two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" (written by Steven Moffat) in the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who. Here, she encounters the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) in the 51st century, and claims to be someone he will come to trust completely. She is able to convince the Doctor of his future trust in her by whispering his real name into his ear. The adventure in the Library is River's last real-life encounter with the Doctor in her chronology, but is their first encounter in his. In the second of the two episodes she sacrifices herself to save the Doctor's life. In turn he is able to upload her consciousness into a computer (in which she is able to live on) through the use of a sonic screwdriver that he apparently gave to her at a point in her past which for him has not yet occurred. According to Moffat in the accompanying Doctor Who Confidential episode, River's blaster gun is the one previously owned by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) in the 2005 series.

After Moffat took over from Davies as executive producer of the show, River Song appeared in the 2010 series. She encounters the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), to whom she is more familiar, at an earlier point in her timeline in the two-parter "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone". She leaves coordinates for the Doctor to eventually find so that he may rescue her in the 51st century, and with him she investigates the crash of the spaceship Byzantium. She proves herself to be more adept at flying the TARDIS than he is and reveals to him that she is imprisoned for killing "the best man she had ever known". An even earlier version of River appears to assist the Doctor in series finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang". After she is contacted in prison by Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice), she leads the Doctor to 102 A.D. Whilst River is travelling in the TARDIS on her own, it explodes with her inside. The Doctor, using River's vortex manipulator, is able to save her and teleport her out. She then assists him in closing the cracks in the universe in an alternative 1996. After quietly assisting Amy Pond in remembering the Doctor by giving Amy her diary, she states to the Doctor that he will soon learn the truth about her, after which everything will change.

River Song returns for the two-part 2011 series opener "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon". She, along with companions Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy (Karen Gillan), has been contacted by a future version of the Doctor to convene with the current Doctor in the United States. In the first part, she explains to Rory that she and the Doctor are travelling in opposite directions; one day, as in "Silence in the Library", she will meet him and he won't even recognise her. In the second part, the Doctor admits that despite himself he quite likes River's willingness to use lethal force; River goes on to kill a large number of alien Silence single-handedly with her blaster gun. On departure, River kisses the Doctor and concludes that this is his first kiss with her, and she surmises her last with him.

The sixth series mid-series finale "A Good Man Goes to War" reveals that River is Rory and Amy's daughter Melody Pond. The name "River Song" name comes from a future human culture's translation of her birth name: lacking any word for "pond", the nearest approximation available was "river", with "melody" being translated as "song". The episode also reveals that River is not entirely human. River was conceived on Rory and Amy's wedding night within the TARDIS as it traveled, and her DNA was affected by close proximity to the time vortex, rendering it similar to that of a Time Lord's. Multiple characters, including the Doctor, note that this origin resembles those of the primitive Gallifreyans, but cannot say for certain what effect this will have on River's biology, including whether or not she can regenerate.

Online media

Coinciding with the 2010 series, Alex Kingston portrays River Song narrating the "Monster Files" on the BBC website, an in-universe documentary account of Doctor Who monsters. This series had previously (in 2008-9) been narrated by John Barrowman in character as Jack Harkness.

Characterisation

Casting

For the role of River Song, whom executive producer Russell T Davies described as "sort of the Doctor's wife", the production sought to cast Kate Winslet. One of Winslet's first acting roles was in the BBC1 teen drama Dark Season, written by Davies. The role of River Song eventually went to Alex Kingston, known for starring in the popular US drama ER. On Kingston's casting, Davies reflected "I bloody love her!" Kingston had been a fan of Doctor Who as a child in England. Kingston, when first cast, did not expect her role to be recurring. She later learned that Moffat had always intended for Song to come back for return appearances. Kingston enjoys getting to play an unusual action hero female role, and praises the show for its variety of settings and opportunities "to relive one's childhood fantasies" playing with laser guns and wearing varied costumes from one appearance to the next.

Discussing her role alongside Tennant and Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) in her 2008 introductory episode, Kingston said, "We just clicked. I've done guest roles on other shows, but rarely have I felt such a warm bond." About working with Kingston, Catherine Tate said, "I'm a huge ER fan. When you hold people in awe, it's almost a disappointment when they come in and they're utterly normal. But Alex isn't disappointing at all. She's such a lovely person." David Tennant was quoted as saying, "Alex is terrific. When she's telling you stories about hanging out with George Clooney, you know she's pretty cool."

About the Doctor Who dialogue, she said, "I'd work with a medical consultant on ER, who'd explain what we were saying, so I'd say it with a purpose and a truth. On Doctor Who, I've no idea what some of my lines mean!"

Conception and development

Moffat was influenced by Audrey Niffenegger's science fiction romance novel The Time Traveler's Wife, which depicts a woman who romances and marries a man who unintentionally moves through time. Niffenegger's lovers experience an asynchronous and tragic love story. He comments "I've quite purposefully used it", though cites his 2006 episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" as the episode which most prominently explores the book's themes in addition to its conceit. Kingston herself compares the character to Niffenegger's titular Time Traveler's Wife, and like Moffat enjoys "backtracking" more and more with the character as the series progresses. The tragedy for Song highlighted by "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" is that she is progressing to a point where the Doctor will not know or trust her any more.

When Kingston returned to the show, Moffat explained to her some details about her character's back-story, knowledge which Smith, Gillan and Darvill were not privy to. Kingston knows her character cannot be killed off because we saw her death in her introductory episode; each subsequent appearance is usually set further back in her character's personal history. She also comments,

[What] Steven explained to me is that every time River sort of finds the Doctor, for whatever reason, she's never 100 percent sure which Doctor it is she's going to be meeting. And what they have already experienced together or not. So even when I come back, every time I meet Matt, I never quite know where we are in our relationship or what we have revealed or what we know about each other. Because time travel isn't linear.

Kingston has also praised the way the love story between River and the Doctor has been deftly handled, stating that "I'm not sure you'd get that kind of dynamic in America". For Kingston, the physical age difference between herself and Matt Smith adds to the success of the pairing, whilst the public have responded warmly to the notion of an action hero in her forties.

Reception

River Song has proved popular with fans of the series. Metro published an article, "Doctor Who fans love River Song..." noting how praise from fans on Twitter after the airing of "Day of the Moon" focused heavily on Song.

Keith Phipps for The A.V. Club compared the Doctor and River's romantic storyline to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "if a bit more elegantly, for my money—it echoes the plight of anyone who’s watched a loved one fade into the shadowlands of dementia. This is not a story that ends well for River and she knows it, whatever flirtatious high spirits being around The Doctor stirs in her."

Merchandise

Official toys based on River Song include an action figure, and a model of her "future sonic screwdriver". Alex Kingston said about the action figure, "I don't quite believe it. You don't get that on ER."

External links

• River Song on the BBC's Doctor Who Series 5 website