River Song (Doctor Who)

River Song 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 the Doctor, the series protagonist. As a consequence of River and the Doctor both being time travellers, their adventures together are out-of-sync chronologically, resulting in surprising consequences for them and their unusual romantic life together. Song's origins are intentionally kept mysterious until mid-way through the 2011 series of Doctor Who, when it is revealed that River was born Melody Pond, the daughter of the Eleventh Doctor's companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). Because she is conceived aboard the TARDIS on or shortly after her parents' wedding night, while they travel through the space-time vortex, her human DNA mutates 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. River, who wears a space suit and is a professor of archaeology, 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. He achieves this via the use of a sonic screwdriver that he is yet to give to her in his future, and has given to her in her past. 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. At an earlier point in her timeline, in the two-parter "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone", River encounters the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), with and to whom she is more familiar. At this stage, River is a doctor and not yet a professor. 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 shows herself to be seemingly 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. After the Doctor erases himself from history by venturing beyond a crack in the universe, River helps Amy Pond to remember the Doctor and bring him back, by giving Amy her now-blank diary. At the close of the series finale, River teases the Doctor when he asks her whether she is married. She ambiguously suggests that yes she is married, and a teases yes to a question she pretends to construe as a marriage proposal. She then states to the Doctor that he will soon learn the truth about her, after which 'everything changes'.

The 2011 series of Doctor Who reveals more about Song's background and origins. In the two-part opener "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon", River is contacted by a future version of the Doctor, along with companions Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy (Karen Gillan), to convene in the United States. The future Doctor is shot mid-regeneration and killed by a mysterious person in a space suit. The trio vow not to tell the younger Doctor, whom they accompany to 1969 per the elder Time Lord's wishes. In 1969, the group encounter a little girl in a space suit (Sydney Wade); River tells the Doctor that the space suit is a life support unit and surmises that the girl, having broken free of it, possesses super strength. The girl is later seen regenerating in 1970. On departure, River kisses the Doctor and concludes that this is his first kiss with her, and she surmises her last with him. In mid-series finale "A Good Man Goes to War", Amy gives birth to Melody Pond, who is subsequently kidnapped by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) to become a weapon to use against the Doctor. Having been conceived on Rory and Amy's wedding night in the TARDIS whilst travelling through the time vortex, Melody's DNA was affected, giving her Time Lord traits. Multiple characters, including the Doctor, note that this origin resembles those of the primitive Gallifreyans. After Melody is kidnapped, the adult River appears and reveals to Amy and Rory that she is Melody. In the language of the Gamma Forest, the closest translation of "Melody Pond" is "River Song".

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 Captain 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 he 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

An article published in Metro, entitled "Doctor Who fans love River Song...", noted 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 Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• River Song on the BBC's Doctor Who Series 5 website