River Song

Doctor Who character
Melody Pond/River Song
Affiliated	Tenth Doctor Eleventh Doctor
Species	Human with Time Lord DNA[1][2]
First appearance	"Silence in the Library" (2008)
Portrayed by	Alex Kingston
Other portrayals	Sydney Wade Nina Toussaint-White Maya Glace-Green

River Song is a fictional character created by Steven Moffat and played primarily by Alex Kingston in the British science-fiction series Doctor Who. River Song was introduced to the series as an experienced future companion of series protagonist the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time in his TARDIS. Because River Song is a time traveller herself, her adventures with the Doctor occur out-of-synchronisation; their first meeting (from the audience's perspective) is his first and her last. In later appearances, River is a companion of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation, portrayed by Matt Smith. River Song was created by Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat for the show's fourth series in 2008, under the tenure of executive producer Russell T Davies. When Moffat took over Davies' duties as executive producer, he began expanding on the character's background, depicting adventures earlier in River's timeline, upgrading Alex Kingston from a guest star to a recurring actor in the series. Other actresses have subsequently portrayed younger versions of the character, from infant to child, to young adult.

When the character was first introduced, much about her origins remained a mystery. Following the character's initial appearance, Davies had described her as "one of the most important characters" in the narrative, and "vital" to the Doctor's life.^[3] In series six (2011), Moffat's episodes unveil more about the character. Born Melody Pond, River is the daughter of the Eleventh Doctor's companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), alongside whom Kingston had appeared several times in series five (2010). Having been conceived in the TARDIS as it travelled through the space-time vortex, Melody is born with genetic traits and abilities similar to the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.

The reason for the character's name "Melody Pond" becoming "River Song" are given as due to a slight miss-translation from English to an alien language, and then back. "Pond" became "River" as the language her name was translated into had no word for a pond, the planet had no ponds, only rivers.

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, carries a TARDIS-colour/pattern diary of her adventures, 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 people who were trapped in the Library's database, before the Doctor could do the same. In turn he is able to upload her consciousness into a computer, in which she is able to live on in a virtual world created by the Library computer. He achieves this via the use of a sonic screwdriver given to her by his own future self. 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 the Doctor that she is imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility for killing, in her words, "the best man I've 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 in order to completely close the cracks 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 answers 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'.

In 2011 series opener "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon", River, along with companions Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy (Karen Gillan), is contacted by a future version of the Doctor to convene in the United States. This Doctor is killed by an assailant in a space suit, and the trio give him a Viking funeral. In 1969, the present Doctor and company subsequently encounter a little girl (Sydney Wade) who wears the space suit, which River tells the Doctor is a life support unit; the suit has been designed by the hypnotic alien Silence. Homeless, the girl is later shown regenerating in New York City, 1970. In "A Good Man Goes to War," it is revealed that River is Amy and Rory's daughter Melody, who was conceived in the TARDIS and consequently carries Time Lord DNA. Baby Melody is kidnapped by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) to become a weapon against the Doctor.^[4] "Let's Kill Hitler" establishes that Melody was trained by the Silence to kill the Doctor. After regenerating in New York, Melody became Rory and Amy's childhood friend Mels (Maya Glace-Green) and grew up alongside them. When adult Mels (Nina Toussaint-White) is shot, she regenerates into her next incarnation (Kingston) and proceeds to assassinate the Doctor. Persuaded she will one day become River Song, in whom the Doctor places great trust, Melody chooses to resurrect the Doctor with her regenerative energy, losing the ability. The Doctor learns, however, that it is she who kills him in his future. The Doctor gives her a blank TARDIS-shaped diary, and Melody—now River—enrolls to study archaeology. At the end of "Closing Time", on the day she receives her doctorate, the Silence and Kovarian recapture River and place her in the space suit to kill the Doctor as history records. In series finale "The Wedding of River Song", River resists killing the Doctor, creating an alternate reality. The Doctor marries River and convinces her to return to the established course of events by letting her know how he plans to fake his death; River goes to prison for his murder to corroborate the deception.

It has been reported that Kingston will reprise the role of River for the fifth episode of the upcoming seventh series, to be broadcast in 2012.^[5][6]

Other 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.^[7] This series had previously (in 2008-9) been narrated by John Barrowman in character as Captain Jack Harkness. The exclusive to DVD bonus serial, Night and the Doctor, included on the Doctor Who series six DVD release, features River in the episodes "First Night" and "Last Night". During the serial, the Doctor attempts to take River on a date shortly after she imprisoned in Stormcage, but their time in the TARDIS is interrupted by two future incarnations of River, and all are in turn suspicious of the signs of "another woman" being aboard the TARDIS. The Doctor is able to be rid of the two future Rivers, but not before learning from his future self that one of them is shortly to die in the Library adventure where he first met her.

River, alongside Smith's Eleventh Doctor, is one of two main playable characters in the PlayStation 3 Doctor Who console game The Eternity Clock. Kingston provided voice acting and motion capture physical acting for the character. In regard to River's role in the narrative of the game, the game's producer Simon Harris explains that she "realises that what’s in her diary is not what she wrote and that actually the Eternity Clock is playing with her history, as well as the Earth’s history."^[8]

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.^[9] 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!"^[10] Kingston had been a fan of Doctor Who as a child.^[11] 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.^[12] 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.^[11] In regards to having to speak complicated 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!"^[13]

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."^[14] 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."^[13]

Conception and development

The character was originally created purely for the plot of "Silence in the Library". Moffat knew that the team of archaeologists would have to trust the Doctor, but the Doctor's psychic paper could not explain and convince the team why he had appeared in a sealed-off library. Therefore, Moffat intended for the Doctor to know one of the archaeologists, but decided that idea was "dull" and instead decided to have one of them know him.^[15] When Kingston returned to the show, Moffat explained to her some details about her character's back-story, knowledge which Smith, Gillan and Darvill did not receive until later. 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.^[11] For the filming of the sixth series, Kingston was aware of River Song's relationship to Amy and Rory, while the other cast only found out upon reading of the mid-season cliffhanger script for "A Good Man Goes to War".^[16]

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.^[17] 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.^[12] Moffat also had planned out that River was Amy and Rory's daughter for "a long time" and used "Pond" as Amy's last name to create a link between the two.^[18] Kingston 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.^[11]

Kingston characterises the character as being "like a female Indiana Jones" in regards to both characters being archaeologists and having action hero qualities. She also took inspiration from Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ellen Ripley in the Alien film franchise commenting that she'd always been "so envious of her for having that kind of role."^[19] 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 she feels that viewers have responded warmly to the notion of an action hero in her 40s.^[20] Matt Smith has noted that in his characterization of the Doctor that "River Song frightens the Doctor but he finds himself strangely attracted to her" and that "what makes her a great companion is that when she turns up all hell breaks loose!". ^[21]

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.^[22] In 2011, Laura Pledger of Radio Times listed Kingston as the fourth best Doctor Who guest star, writing, "For my money we’ve seen rather too much of River in the last two series, but there’s no denying Kingston has created a memorable character in Melody Pond."^[23]

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."^[24]

Neela Debnath of The Independent praised Nina Toussaint-White in her role as Mels, saying she was "every bit as sassy and vivacious as her later incarnation...it was shame that she regenerated so early on because she brought a different energy to the character".^[25] However, Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph thought that her sudden introduction as Rory and Amy's childhood friend showed that Moffat was making it up as he went along.^[26]

Whilst critical of the typical characterisation of British female science fiction characters, The Guardian's Krystina Nellis singles out River Song alongside Torchwood's Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) as positive depictions of strong female characters, stating: "It'd be difficult to find two superwomen in less need of a man to save them."^[27] For her role as River Song in the 2011 series of Doctor Who, Alex Kingston won the Best Actress prize at the 2012 SFX Magazine Awards.^[28] In a 2012 poll conducted by SFX Magazine to find the 100 sexiest female characters in science fiction and fantasy River was voted number twenty-two.^[29] Character Options have also released official toys based on River Song as part of their Doctor Who range.^[30] Upon being notified of her own action figure, Kingston stated she did not "quite believe it" as "you don't get that on ER."^[14]

References

External links

• River Song on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• River Song on the BBC's Doctor Who Series 5 website
• River Song on BBC America's website