Why I Want to be River When I Grow Up

So what makes River so special?  After much consideration, I think I’ve figured out what it is.  River Song exists both as a superhuman foil to the Doctor, and someone we can relate to as a person who loves and admires him.   As both, how can we resist her?

How River is More Than Human

The Doctor is an amazing character, I will not start in on how spectacular he is.  He regularly has a companion with him which offers the audience someone to compare him to.  In contrast, he is the ever energetic adventurer and savior.  We see different sides of him as he is paired with various companions, but the Doctor is always the savior, the hero in the relationship.  He opens up worlds for his companions, and expands the universe.

River is so different from anyone else in the series.  As far as we’ve been allowed to see, River doesn’t need the Doctor to expand her universe.  Her universe is already vast, covering a great deal of time and space.  She has her own adventures and is capable of travelling and existing in her own timeline, with and without the Doctor.  In the new series, there are no Time Lords other than The Doctor.  It wasn’t until a ways into viewing that Jana & I discovered that this wasn’t always the case.  Russell T. Davies made a decision that the race would not survive the Time War, and it’s universally been embraced. In Classic Who there were many other Time Lords.  They were capable of time travel, had working Tardises, and had the same vast knowledge base and abilities as the Doctor.  They did not always see the universe in the same way as him, but they offered the viewer a look at a universe were the Doctor was not a single, ultimate being.  It’s what makes the villain of the Master so intriguing in the new series- here’s an antagonist who can hold his own against the Doctor.  They begin on equal footing.  We get a glimpse of the Time Lords at the end of season four, but it's just for a moment.

With the appearance of River Song, we have a character who operates on her own agenda, with her own abilities, and doesn’t need the Doctor to physically survive the universe.  In this sense, she is completely unique in the New Series.  Captain Jack was around for a while, but he (very unfortunately) hasn't been seen in the company of the Doctor in ages.  We need this character, River, to remind us that the Doctor is not the beginning and the end of intelligent, powerful beings.   He is able to ask questions of her and get them answered.  Their relationship is back and forth with knowledge and information in a way he’s never had with his earthly, contemporary companions.  She understands situations that they are in without needing a ton of background, and therefore he is able to bounce ideas off of her.  He’s able to question options and have someone make suggestions about what to do.  The Doctor has less pressure on him with River there, and while he ultimately feels responsible for her, he isn’t really. She takes care of him just as much.  The first episode she meets him, she does the saving (granted, she also tried to kill him...).  The fact that he doesn't have to be the savior gives him the rare chance to be vulnerable around someone.  This makes their relationship special.

How River is Human

What makes River especially amazing is the fact that she can run around the universe as nearly an equal match to the Doctor, but she is still a character that we are able to relate to.   She adores the Doctor, pretty much unconditionally.  What true Whovian doesn’t unconditionally love the Doctor, even when he screws things up?  She is always excited to see him, and she will do anything for him.  The awesome part is that she isn’t afraid to argue with him.  She is knowledgeable enough to do it, so watching her and the Doctor together is more like watching a real couple than anything we’ve seen before. 

River in her first/last episode

Another detail is that she isn’t eternal.  River is human (well, as much as a Child of the Tardis can be), and she knows that her time with the Doctor will someday come to an end.  Granted, with her crazy timeline we may be able to see her for ages, but she still isn’t going to live for thousands of years like the Doctor.   And everyone, including the Doctor, knows it.

River is willing to destroy the
universe to avoid killing
The Doctor

River, unlike the Doctor and very like real people, can regularly be selfish.  With her “trained as a psychopath” childhood, if she wants to kill someone/something, she does.  If the Doctor is going to die, he might as well take all of time and space with him.  She’ll deface ancient or futuristic property alike, and she is unconcerned.  She’s manipulative to the core (see regular habit of lying and her steady supply of hallucinogenic lipstick), and River is not all that concerned with applying her moral compass.   

All these aspects together are what make River a spectacular character.  She’s strong, self-assured, and capable like the Doctor, but she’s mortal and has human flaws.   River, of all the characters I’ve ever seen on Doctor Who, is the character I most want to be. 

Stay Shiny!

Kristin

Doctor 7.5 Review- A Night of Terror and Tears.

A Smiling Angel
(who knew they could get creepier?)

A night of terror and tears, otherwise known as The Angels Take Manhattan.

This episode was intense.  It began intensely suspenseful, had intensely awesome and hilarious moments, and of course intense sadness.  Spoilers abound, just so you know.

The story begins in Manhattan, naturally, with... you guessed it, yet another voice over.  And this voice over is yet again by an inconsequential character.  The scene itself was important for setting up the Angels' hotel, but the voice over could have been dropped.  If it seemed vital, they could have lost earlier voice overs so I wasn't rolling my eyes. Couldn't they have just had someone encounter the creepy collector guy and get sent to the hotel? Or incorporate the guys that capture Rory later?  



All of the Angels are seriously creepy in this episode.  They must have gone out searching for creepy looking statues. The laughing babies were horrifying (except for the fact that they sounded just like the Boos from Mario Bros - J).  The Statue of Liberty as a Weeping Angel is likely a direct result of online commentary. With it used only lightly, it is mostly okay. I do think it highly unlikely that everyone in NYC was not looking at the Statue of Liberty so that it could move... that doesn't quite add up! It is nice that the Angels have taken over, not that they've always been there. 

Rory with creepy Baby Angels

After the credits we jump to modern New York and see the scene that's had pics splattered online for months.  As soon as Rory leaves the group for coffee you know he's going to go missing, and the laughing babies just confirm it.  It was very creepy, and leads into the real start of the story. 

Beautiful moment of
The Doctor & River

My favorite thing in this episode is River. We're supposed to love her- lots of sad things are happening in this hour and the interaction of River and the Doctor is supposed to be our reward for making it through the episode.  From the first moment we see River and realize that the Doctor has been reading about her (yowzah!), it puts a smile on your face. River is my favorite thing in Doctor Who right now, so I was just THRILLED to see her, and she lived up to all of my expectations.  I can't wait to rewatch every scene she's in. When she flat out says, "Just wait till my husband gets home," I love it. And the Doctor primping! Ahhh!! I could fill a blog with quotes by her and the Doctor, but I am going to stay on task and move on.  It is important to note that she isn't in jail anymore- she was pardoned since the man that she killed doesn't seem to have existed. It made me want to review River's history again - was she pardoned during Silence in the Library? 

The Doctor is devastated by reading the final chapter titles of River's book, and his reaction is so honest.  You see how connected he really is to Amy; we've always known that Amy is important and precious to him, but here we see - he almost doesn't know how to control that emotion. He refuses to accept the reality of the situation and moves on.  He refuses to break River's wrist just because the book says so. Which bugs me a little - didn't he break a couple things while landing the TARDIS - that counts as breaking, right? Have we heard before about reading it making it fact?  Is that new?  I mean, we hear all the time that time can be rewritten.  So you can see it, but you can't read it?  It just seems like there's something wrong with this rule. I feel like if I reflect on this, or even the paradox created by Rory & Amy's jump, I'll become frustrated by the wibbly-wobblyness of it all.  For now, I choose to move on.


When the family reunites in the the Angels' hotel, it's to see a moving death of Rory Williams.  Amy is touching here as well.  Their love is so powerful and so obvious in every second of this episode. At times it has been hard to see the depth of their love for each other; they get so into the Doctor's issues, but recently you've seen how much they are in love with one another. Real life gave them that - they had these shared experiences that no one else could relate to and they realized that they needed each other.  It's impossible to imagine them without one another.  I spent the episode trying to decide if they were going to kill one of them, and they were showing them so in love just to rip out our hearts.  When they make it to the roof and Rory is ready to jump, I am just amazed at the talent of these actors.  They make the characters so real to me, and I am so appreciative of how much of themselves they must put into their parts.  Both Rory and Amy are beautiful in these moments on the roof, before jumping off.  Of course, a highlight moment is when Amy asked Rory if he thought after jumping he would just come back to life. His answer, "When do I not?" was brilliant.

The Doctor on his own

The whole group survives (I held my breath until River appeared on the other side of the Tardis) the jump and the death of the Angels.  As a viewer, we know there are only moments left and something bad is going to happen. We're right.  Rory's last moment is both sudden and heart breaking.  Amy's simple choice is of course her only option.  She says good-bye to River and the Doctor, and it's just inevitable.  She turns away and is gone.  


River and The Doctor return to the Tardis, and River seems eerily calm.  The Doctor acknowledges she's just said good-bye to her parents, and she seems somewhat unconcerned. What's up with that?  She then walks off to write her book, that Amy is going to publish. Does Amy publish her book in the past then? Does River go back and see them? Has she already gone back and seen them? Does she already know that they were back in time at the beginning of the episode? Being so calm, has she always known? So many River related questions!! I'm shocked. 

Amelia Pond, the Girl Who Waited

I loved the ending. Amy sends the Doctor back to the night she waited, and it was great.  It was comforting to remember that somewhere in time Amy is just beginning her adventures with the Doctor. I think every companion should have gotten such an awesome tribute - it was pretty freakin' awesome. It made me totally respect and love Amy more than I have over the past two and half seasons. 

Happy moments with The Doctor, Amy, & Rory

As far as the future (in the viewer's timeline), it's been stressed throughout the season that the Doctor doesn't need to be travelling alone. I'm looking forward to seeing Oswin at Christmas, hopefully joining the Doctor for a while.  I can't wait to see what happens with that.  If he saves Oswin, does he start to exist again?  It should be interesting.  As far as River, I imagine it will be ages, if ever, before we see such fun interaction again. I doubt there will be many times that we see them when they are both aware of the fact that they're married and should be flirting.   I'm pretty sure that we only got those happy moments to make up for the extreme sadness we endured.  It may take a while, but hopefully we'll eventually get all our questions answered!

DFTBA and Stay Shiny!
Jana and Kristin

I have a Christmas list, too! (Doctor Who 7.1&2)

I know we’re growing in distance from our first Dragon Con experience, but I’m still overwhelmed and I just can’t narrow it to a readable amount.  So here's my thoughts so far about Doctor Who- Season 7.  (Other than one TINY thing, the first part of this review is actually spoiler free.)

What I was thinking when I heard this quote...

Right after watching the second episode of the season, I realized I MISSED RIVER!!! (That's the tiny thing.) I then turned right around and watched The Time of Angels (S5.4), just to see River, but it made me notice a few other things.  Matt Smith has a come a long way as the Doctor.  You don’t notice the change from mere quippyness right away.  He still carries himself in a similar manner and says the same clever lines, but he somehow seems less superficial.  It’s almost like at the beginning he was saying lines and acting like the Doctor, but now he really IS the Doctor. 

I know most Whovians who adored Tennant will never be satisfied with Smith, and I get it.  Tennant was able to convey deep emotion with an eyebrow while Smith fills episodes with jokes and quips.  It's easy to fall for someone when he wears his hearts on his sleeve. The thing is, Smith has created a Doctor who is believable. You can’t let everything rip your heart out for 900 years without building some walls, and you can believe that Smith’s Doctor is laughing to keep from crying.  He’s living with some barriers.  I came to adore River, and she adores the Doctor.  I thought that I just fell for him with her, but in retrospect I realize now that I also came to believe in him through the later episodes.

As for particulars about the new episodes, I’ll keep it short. 

SPOILERS!!

I loved meeting Oswin. She’s fantastic.  I miss River, but I understand she’s not always around.  What’s weird is them not mentioning her at all. Is something up with that; are we supposed to be questioning why no one even talks about her?  I mean, the “gang” was gathered up for episode 2, and the Doctor’s gang has no River?  Is it possible this is to distance her storyline from the Ponds?   I also felt like meeting the extra characters in the second episode was kind of random.  They seemed like such full characters, but it also doesn’t look like we’ll see them again.  I hope we do, because it just felt strange and disconnected.   I loved the Doctor and his Christmas list, and I appreciated meeting Rory’s dad.  He was fun, and he made me feel like I knew Rory a little better. 

So Jana, do you want to share some thoughts on Doctor Who, or do you want to dive into Dragon Con?  Take your pick!

Stay Shiny!

Kristin