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== is river the Little girl? ==
I don't think the little girl in the astronaut suit from [[Day of the Moon]] should be included in this article, as we do not know for sure that it is her[[User:Lord Aro|Lord Aro]] 20:23, June 4, 2011 (UTC)
:Completely agreed. Nothing says that the little girl is River. For all we know the little girl is River and the Doctor's child, hence why she's seen that cot before... and why he then knew they would be kissing. Nothing at all says that River is the child, or that Madam Kovarian was working with the Silence. --[[User:The Thirteenth Doctor|The Thirteenth Doctor]] 20:38, June 4, 2011 (UTC)
::The flashback where the Doctor was piecing things together stated that the girl was River, well Melody it was at the time. --[[User:Revanvolatrelundar|Revan]]\[[User_talk:Revanvolatrelundar|Talk]] 20:39, June 4, 2011 (UTC)
:::But that's the thing... we don't know it is. All we know is that the little girl is part Time Lord... not that she is definitely River... we're still presuming that the little girl ''is'' Melody... --[[User:The Thirteenth Doctor|The Thirteenth Doctor]] 21:42, June 4, 2011 (UTC)
::::In that case any mention of the he little girl should be removed as it is just speculation until confirmed otherwise - we should only be detailing the confirmed facts.[[Special:Contributions/95.145.220.97|95.145.220.97]] 00:11, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
::::
::::Would someone mind explaining the fact that in the little girl's room, among pictures of her, was a picture of Amy holding Melody/River? Because it's her. Would anyone also mind explaining why whenever discussing Melody, there were flashbacks to the little girl? What about the reference to Melody/River being able to possibly regenerate? Or how it was stated that the little girl was a human, and yet we saw her regenerate? Human plus Time Lord. For crying out loud, the little girl is Melody/River, how more obvious could it get? Why, among there her pictures, would she have a picture of Amy holding Melody/River? Why flashback to the girl when talking about Melody/River? Some people are so stubborn. [[Special:Contributions/90.199.247.156|90.199.247.156]] 03:45, June 5, 2011 (UTC)


:::::I've got a picture of my grandmother holding my father as a baby. Does that actually mean my grandmother is actually my mother? I don't think so. Why were the flashbacks related to her? Because that's what the Doctor was ''thinking''... not what was true... and like the Doctor said.... it's ''possible'' she could regenerate... not ''definite''. It's entirely possible that the little girl is the Doctor and River's child... nothing has been concretely said that it is her. If you can just go with the implication that the little girl is River... I want it also stated on the page that the Doctor and River are lovers... cause that's been implied as well. --[[User:The Thirteenth Doctor|The Thirteenth Doctor]] 12:12, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
== Revisiting the split pages decision ==
:::::::I totally agree that the little girl is Melody/River. It would be absurd for her not to be. It is true that some are stubborn. Perhaps there is some merit in being "sure of the facts" but I think we are as sure as we can be. In the event that a blinder is pulled, the facts can always been changed. Perhaps a solution would be to say that '''it very much appears '''to be the case that the little girl is River, for the reasons explained by the person two paragrapshs above me. But we all know the internet...
Almost ten years ago, [[Forum:River Song incarnations or full page?|it was decided]] that River incarnations were to be all merged under a single page. However, more recent decision led me to propose we split the River pages again into new incarnations. They are as follow:
:::::::: Just because when The Doctor was piecing together little bits of information regarding Melody and thinking about the little girl does not make them the same person - its just where his mind and ours have gone, due to all the facts that are available - you have to remember, The Doctor doesn't the little girl regenerated only the homeless man knows that - and he wont know for sure what was going on. The question was "could she regenrated" the doctor thought and replied "maybe" I dont see that as confirmation that they are the same! Those flash backs were for our, the viewers interests, probably to make us think the little girl is indeed River. Is she, well who knows? So far we are led to beleive so, but until we have confirmation we can't be sure - who knows - the the little girl could be a child of Rivers and the Doctors - its not uncommon for there to be pictures of a grandparent holding a grand child - and we have as much fact to say this is the case too! Also, did anyone watch confidential? Im fairly sure that Moffat mentioned something in the episode about "who is the little girl?" this makes me think there might be more to it that "she is a younger River Song" - but hey who knows? just be patient guys - if you are indeed right, it will get put in [[Special:Contributions/95.145.221.134|95.145.221.134]] 01:53, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
* Put simply, [[River Song]] is a name that applies '''only''' to her third incarnation. It's as wrong to call the baby Amy gave birth to, or the young girl that was Amy and Rory's childhood friend "River Song" than it would be to call the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in the Time War by "Twelfth Doctor", "the Curator" or "War Curator", even though these are all names used by future versions of him. In fact, this was one of the reasons I argued so hard that [[the Eleven]]'s incarnations absolutely ''could not'' have a single page a few years ago. The same surely applies to River.
* As has been done with several Time Lords recently, splitting their incarnations into a single page allows better coverage ''and'' readability.
* Naming the majority of pages regarding this character would be extremely easy (something which was argued otherwise in the original discussion). It's very explicit that River/Melody had three incarnations:
** From birth to the [[User:OncomingStorm12th/Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut)|little girl]] from ''The Impossible Astronaut'' we see regenerating on the streets of New York
** [[User:OncomingStorm12th/Mels Zucker|Mels Zucker]], who grew up alongside her parents
** [[User:OncomingStorm12th/River Song|River Song]] her third and final incarnation
* Now, that only leaves the problem of whether to use "Melody Pond" to her first incarnation or the overall page. As Mels also uses the name on her deathbed, and River Song also uses her real name on [[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)]] to reveal her true identity, I'd vote for keeping [[Melody Pond]] for [[User:OncomingStorm12th/Melody Pond|the overall page]], while using "little girl" for the first incarnation (as she was credited as such).
* Mind you, it wouldn't be the first time we use credits/conjectural names for a Time Lord splitting, as per [[Renegade Time Lord (The Eleven)]]. And, like that page, the bad term also happens to describe the exact subject we're talking about, as River/Melody was also ''the'' Impossible Astronaut.


:It's quite an absurd suggestion that the show's creators would use flashbacks as a narrative device to tell us that the girl is Melody, and then, four months (or more) after the fact, use a 'gotcha' reveal that there are in fact two abducted-by-hostile-forces-childhood-connection-to-Amy-time-lady girls running around. I would have great difficulty coming up with such an example of poor story telling in any modern TV show.
As always, feel free to make any further suggestions and/or edit my sandbox pages. [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 16:52, 26 July 2021 (UTC)
:I agree that some degree of skepticism should be employed and speculation avoided, but there are limits. We can't write articles to accommodate all possible outlandish theories; we have to go with what we have been shown.--[[User:BBCXI|BBCXI]] 22:39, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
::While I agree, that it does sound far fetched that there will be two abducted-by-hostile-forces-childhood-connection-to-Amy-time-lady girls running around and the little girl will probably turn out to be River - the fact remains nowhere has it been confirmed that they are indeed the same person, people are arguing the flashbacks are good enoughevidence. But they really are not. The Wikia doesnt deal with speculation, just fact and until there has been confirmation, actual spoken confirmation - it will only ever be speculation that they are indeed the same and as such should be left from the article....
::The same thing happened last year, with the aparent continuity error with the Doctors Jacket in the forest - it was quite clearly a future Doctor, however until actual proof came in the last episode it couldn't be put in its respected article[[Special:Contributions/80.193.71.144|80.193.71.144]] 10:03, June 7, 2011 (UTC)
::
::
::Yeesh! Think about! Why would the Doctor have a flashback to the little girl in America and River's discription of her, hmm? This means that the little girl IS River, making it a completely logical reason to merge her page into River's. There can;t be another person with Time Lord DNA besides her and the full Time Lord Doctor. [[User:Forgetful 10th doctor fan|Forgetful 10th doctor fan]] 19:59, June 8, 2011 (UTC)
:::I'm sorry, but thats absolute rubbish! The Doctor did not have the Flashback! He didn't even see the girl regenerate and correct me if I am wrong, but no where has it been stated Melody/River could. Just that it was possible. The flashback was for our purpose..As stated to make us think they are the same and in all honesty it looks to be working - as I have said before I think River and The Little girl will probably be the same person, however it can't beput in the article, we don't have the confirmation and they have about the same ammount of chance to be different people. [[Special:Contributions/95.145.221.134|95.145.221.134]] 22:03, June 8, 2011 (UTC)


::*You've highlighted the exact problem, that you have to "think about it". Until there is explicit proof (which we currently do not have beyond supposition from a flashback), it's speculation. '''<font color=#609000>d</font> [[User:Witoki|<font color=#609000>●</font>]][[User_talk:Witoki|<font color=#FF6090>●</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Witoki|<font color=#6090FF>●</font>]]''' 20:07, June 8, 2011 (UTC)
: I am in support of this split. I agree that [[Melody Pond]] should go to [[User:OncomingStorm12th/Melody Pond|the overall page]] as it was used by all incarnations to a degree. [[User:Bongolium500|Bongo50 (aka Bongolium500)]] [[User talk:Bongolium500|<span title="Talk to me"></span>]] 18:52, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
: This is not the same as the Doctor's jacket. That was a small teaser inserted for the eagle eyed viewer, and even though it seemed like a future Doctor, we could not be sure. What did seem obvious was that it was put there for our amusement and theorising. Moffat wanted us to debate it. He wanted it to be controversial The issue of the Little Girl has been put beyond reasonable speculation now. The links are clear. To anyone with an iota of logic, we're not supposed to be left in doubt. After all, to pull the rug on us now and say that the girl isn't River would just be illogical and detract from the story. By refusing to sanction a merger, all that is being achieved is an exercise in pedanticism.[[User:JoelJoel321|JoelJoel321]] 21:30, June 8, 2011 (UTC)
:: No - this is the same thing as The Doctors Jacket. countless people argued it was too much to be a continuity error and as you put it "a small teaser for the eagle eyes viewer" did it get put in? Yes! but only after we had confirmation at the end of the series. My point was while there seems to be a lot of evidence to suggest the girl and river are one and the same - theres no actual confirmation and until we get it. It can not go in [[Special:Contributions/95.145.221.134|95.145.221.134]] 22:03, June 8, 2011 (UTC)
::
:: Here is all the evidence we have to them been the same person:
:: 1 They are both time ladies and could regenerate (it was never confirmed River could).
:: 2 The picture in the girls room of Amy holding a baby.
:: 3 The flashback the doctor had.
: It is not beyond the limits of belief to have Moffet lead us down the wrong route and the Doctor has less proof they are the same person than we have.
: Also having two young Time Ladies is not impossible. What could be better than useing one Time Lady as a weapon? How about two.
: As for the picture, I have just realised its biggest oddity of WHEN could it have been taken? Korvain took Melody of Amy before she had a chance to take it and there was no time after getting the flesh copy. --[[Special:Contributions/82.11.57.232|82.11.57.232]] 19:55, June 11, 2011 (UTC)
:...Amy had Melody for a month after her birth and before Korvain took her. Plenty of time for a quick photo. --[[User:Bold Clone|<span style="color:darkblue">'''Bold'''</span>]] [[User Talk:Bold Clone|<span style="color:gold">'''Clone'''</span>]] 20:11, June 11, 2011 (UTC)
:
:Actually, the thought occurred to me this week. There are all those pictures of the little girl in the little girl's room. Does anyone keep a picture of herself among her keepsakes?. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 16:07, August 10, 2011 (UTC)


==Sydney Wade==
:: I don't have a problem with the split, and I agree that Melody Pond would be best for the overall page name. [[User:LauraBatham|LauraBatham]] [[User talk:LauraBatham|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 07:47, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


It's not yet definitely confirmed that the Little Girl is River. Sydney Wade should be removed from the infobox. - [[User:Sikon|Sikon]] 07:26, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
::: I also think this is a good idea, but why not use Melody Pond for both the main page ''and'' her first incarnation? "Little girl" will have to be dabbed anyway, so why not use [[Melody Pond (The Impossible Astronaut)]] instead? [[User:Danochy|Danochy]] [[User talk:Danochy|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 12:39, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
:::: I think 'Little Girl' is better for the incarnations navigation template. It accords both with the credits of the episode, with dialogue to an extent (the characters do call her "the Little Girl" for lack of a better term at some points in the script of ''[[The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)|The Impossible Astronaut]]''/''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]''), ''and'' with how non-Wiki-editing fans would usually speak of her if discussing River's incarnations. [[User:Scrooge MacDuck|Scrooge MacDuck]] [[User talk:Scrooge MacDuck|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 12:50, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


Done----<u>[[User:Skittles the hog|Skittles the hog]]--<small>[[User talk:Skittles the hog|Talk]]</small></u> 10:41, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
::::: With the template, sure, but [[:Template:Rassilons|templates needn't use just page names]]. The name "Melody Pond" is more accurate than "little girl" in that regard, especially in light of her other appearance (albeit as a [[The Flesh|Flesh]] clone for most(?) of her on-screen time) where her identity as Melody is quite important. Also I just realised that her first appearance is actually [[Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)]] which rather throws a spanner in the works for that dabbing. [[User:Danochy|Danochy]] [[User talk:Danochy|<span title="Talk to me"></span>]] 13:05, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


The little girl is obviously her! The Doctor SAID it! The little girl REGENERATED! MELODY WAS A TIME LORD! Jeez. - [[User:BillyWilliam3rd]] 20:12, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
: When I was thinking on how to title the first incarnation page, I cycled through <nowiki>[[Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut)]], [[Melody Pond (The Impossible Astronaut)]] and [[Melody Pond's first incarnation]]</nowiki>, but went with the former because it was the only one of these to already exist. In all honesty, I'm happy with either options.
: As for the technicality of [[Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)]].... yeah, it's not optimal. Using DPL, the only match for a page dabbed with a prequel is [[Silent (Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut)|Silent (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut))]], so we ''could'' go with <nowiki>[[Little girl (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut))]] or [[Melody Pond (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut))]]</nowiki>, but I half-think we "overlook" this mistake, in order to achieve a simpler dab and avoid the double parenthesis. [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 22:20, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


Maybe. Another hypothesis is that she is the daughter of the Doctor and River -- River was nauseated during THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT. Speculation is one thing, but proof is another. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 11:19, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
:: Of course [[Melody Pond's first incarnation]] is a good option if we want to avoid the dabbing dilemma. But otherwise I'm also happy to overlook the prequel or to otherwise consider it a ''part'' of the TV story for the purposes of dabbing the character. [[User:Danochy|Danochy]] [[User talk:Danochy|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 23:08, 29 July 2021 (UTC)


Okay, to the previous guy, ARE YOU A MORON!? It;s obviosuly River we see in the opening two parter! Why else would there be a "near-human" little girl in the story if its not her!? ([[Special:Contributions/173.167.179.77|173.167.179.77]] 22:12, August 22, 2011 (UTC))
::: Okay, hold the phone, where exactly did we get [[Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)]] from ''anyway''? On the BBC website this is called [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fxf06 ''The Prequel to Episode 1'']. That title's not going to win any awards, but we do have precedents for using such "functional" titles like we would normal titles, such as ''[[The Novel of the Film (novelisation)|The Novel of the Film]]'', so… why don't we call this thing [[The Prequel to Episode 1 (webcast)]]? Granted I'm not ''thrilled'' about the prospect of [[Little girl (The Prequel to Episode 1)]] but it wouldn't have any double-parentheses.


:Cut the attitude, or I might block you. There is not an in-universe source that says the Little Girl in TIA/TDOTM is River, that's is yet to be confirmed. If you want to believe that it's River, that's fine, but we as a wiki need to wait until we have a solid statement. [[User:Mini-mitch|MM]]/<small>[[User talk:Mini-mitch|Want to talk?]]</small> 22:26, August 22, 2011 (UTC)
::: But… We also need to discuss the option of [[the Little Girl]]. There are other "little girls" in the DWU, but she ''is'' the only one whom the Doctor & friends referred to, for several months, over the course of  ''[[The Impossible Astronaut (TV story)|The Impossible Astronaut]]''/''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]'', as ''the'' Little Girl. Interestingly, the adult River Song herself uses "the Little Girl" several times in dialogue in ''[[Day of the Moon (TV story)|Day of the Moon]]'', which is interesting if we want to talk self-identification…


I don't believe I'm a moron, but of course, none of us do, and any of us could be mistaken. To answer your second question, the little girl could be a 'red herring', intended to lead the viewer to an incorrect conclusion. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 22:24, August 22, 2011 (UTC)
::: Now granted, "The Little Girl" isn't intended to be, or presented as, a "the" name in quite the same way as "The Doctor" or even "[[The Editor]] — but I would point to [[The Woman (Hell Bent)]] and [[The Woman (The End of Time)]] as precedents for using the credited "the Something" descriptor as a page name even though it's unlikely the characters would introduce themselves with "Hello, I'm usually referred to as the Woman". Also, the way we titled our page about [[Tzim-Sha]] "[[Tim Shaw]]" for quite some time, for as long as we lacked certainty on the spelling of "Tzim-Sha", is precedent for the idea that when the other potential names are unviable,- we do sometimes use the name Team TARDIS give an entity, even if we have reason to suspect the entity called itself something else. [[User:Scrooge MacDuck|Scrooge MacDuck]] [[User talk:Scrooge MacDuck|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 23:26, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
== Human Plus ==


We know that biologically speaking, River is essentially [[human]]. What's more, they seem to suggest that Melody was not a proper [[Time Lady]], but rather she was born with the ability to [[regenerate]]. I would suggest removing Time Lady from her species information and either leaving her as just human, or creating a new article for the species "Human Plus". [[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 22:50, June 5, 2011 (UTC)
:::: I would much rather the prequel name stay as it is, to be honest, and just bend the first appearance dabbing rule (if we were to go down that road). There are a lot of "episode 1"s, making the searchability pretty poor. Though we could always name it "Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut", such as it is on imdb. [[User:LauraBatham|LauraBatham]] [[User talk:LauraBatham|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 02:07, 30 July 2021 (UTC)


<p style="margin-left: 40px">I agree! We dont actually know she has the ability to regenrate - the episode didnt confirm she could regenerate, just that it was possible. The episode then showed the little girl regenerating, however thats not what the Doctor was thinking at the time as he doesnt know that actually happened [[Special:Contributions/80.193.71.144|80.193.71.144]] 10:06, June 6, 2011 (UTC)</p>
::::: I think that the Prequel(s) current name(s) just come from a lack of title cards, and if they're Prequels to release X, instinctively they're titled <nowiki>[[Prequel (release X)]]</nowiki> (that's certainly what I did when creating a few of the recent Big Finish ones)
:: In fact, until we have confirmation that River is the Little Girl from TIA/DooM, there's no reason to list "Time Lady" at all. [[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 17:54, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
::::: Now, as for using The Little Girl as a title... well, as you pointed you it could work, as precedent exists, but I think that works well enough '''''in the lack of any other names'''''. Like, if it was a random unnamed Time Lord Little Girl we saw regenerating, and then later in a spacesuit etc, I'd 100% agree with you. But as soon as we learn that Little Girl is actually Melody Pond/River as a little girl (sans capital letters), I personally think the argument looses strength a bit. Right now, I'm leaning either for [[Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut)]] (no capital letters), or [[Melody Pond's first incarnation]], to circumvent the dabbing issues. [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 02:23, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
::: We shouldn't just ignore the Time Lady part, we need to add: human (with some Time Lord DNA) or similar. --[[User:Revanvolatrelundar|Revan]]\[[User_talk:Revanvolatrelundar|Talk]] 18:02, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
:::: But it isn't Time Lord DNA, it's vortex-altered Human DNA (hence the "Human Plus" term). [[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 18:05, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
:::: It was said in the episode that the DNA had Time Lord patterns in it. --[[User:Revanvolatrelundar|Revan]]\[[User_talk:Revanvolatrelundar|Talk]] 18:07, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
::::: Then it resembles Time Lord DNA, but that does not define it as actually being part Time Lord. Until we know for certain that she does carry the genetic traits of a Time Lord, we cannot suggest for sure that she is a Time Lady. We either need to see her regenerate (or confirm she was the Astronaut Girl) or have two hearts before we can make the claim, especially considering both her parents are human. [[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 18:17, June 6, 2011 (UTC)
:::::
::::: Also, we don't know that she can complete a regeneration until we have some onscreen verification. We've all seen interrupted regenerations -- heck, there was one in the previous episode. Nonetheless, while we know that the little girl has the genetic capacity to release the energy associated with regeneration, we don't know, as yet if she can channel it into a regeneration. Mind you, I'm willing to take reasonable odds that it is regeneration we see occuring, but there's a difference between belief and knowledge. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 16:15, August 10, 2011 (UTC)
== The Doctor's Mom ==


River could be the Doctor's mom, and through an eternal time paradox, she will be born late in the Doctor's life only to give birth to the Doctor and restart the cycle. How the Doctor could still have grown up, lived on, and frequently visited Gallifrey would have to be revealed through some wibbly wobbly timey wimey manipulation on the writer's part, but the time lock on the Last Great Time War has been penetrated before.
:::::: Well not ''this'' is a coincidence if I ever saw one. Big Finish has recently released a webcast (''[[The Story of the Diary of River Song (webcast)|The Story of the Diary of River Song]]'') which recaps a lot of River's adventures and her timeline and, little do we know, they mention both of their previous incarnations. Aside from referring the River by her birth name of Melody Pond, River herself calls her second incarnation [[Mels Zucker]] (the full name), while her first incarnation is called (guess what) [[Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut)|little girl]].
:::::: Now, I'll not give any rulings, given I was the one to start the discussion, but this serves as a quite nice food for thought, and a bump in the talk page as well. [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 16:41, 3 August 2021 (UTC)


Most of my back up comes from the latest episode (A Good Man Goes To War), so spoiler alert.
::: I now notice that a few days ago, [[User:SOTO]] standardised prequel naming via bot, so now we have [[Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut (webcast)]] instead of the clunky [[Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut]]. That means that we can now safely and unambiguously have the "First Melody" at [[Melody Pond (Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut)]], and more generally:
* [[Melody Pond]]
** [[Melody Pond (Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut)]]
** [[Mels Zucker]]
** [[River Song]]
::: Is this approach agreeable for everyone? [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 21:46, 13 October 2021 (UTC)


River arrives on the seen. While she ignores the Doctor's initial anger she becomes intrigued with the Doctor's "cot", recognizing it even though she is quite young in her own timeline. She may have had it made for her son, the Doctor. The Doctor himself would not currently have recollection of River knowing about the cradle due to the time line thing.
:::: I'm fine with that. [[User:LauraBatham|LauraBatham]] [[User talk:LauraBatham|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 21:52, 13 October 2021 (UTC)


River asks the Doctor rhetorically if he can read. Everyone attempts to read the Gallifreyan on the side of the "cot" (I'm sorry, I'm Canadian and we call it a crib so that word is weird for me). The Doctor, being able to read it, clearly notices something about his own name on the cot that allows him to recognize who River is. REMEMBER: The doctor never saw the prayer leaf and so the Gamma Forest translation was not something he used to deduce who River was. Strictly the gallifreyan on his OWN cot. Mother child relationship.
::::: Agreed. I think we can move forward with this. <span style="color: #baa3d6;font-family:Comic Sans;">[[User:Scrooge MacDuck|'''Scrooge MacDuck''']]</span> <span style="color: #baa3d6;">[[User_talk:Scrooge MacDuck|]]</span> 10:23, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
 
When the revelation dawns on him, the Doctor, starts making awkward references to his kiss with River. This could have been since he was kissing his companion's daughter. But also he could be making awkward references because he realizes he kissed his own mom. Yuck. But viable.
 
The banter between them can be viewed as mother/childish. "How do I look?" says the son. "Amazing" says the proud mother. River is constantly chiding the Doctor in such a motherly role.
 
Lastly. And most importantly. Is a comment made by the EIGHTH doctor. That he was PART HUMAN....ON HIS MOTHER'S SIDE. Something that encourages a connection between all this.
 
 
 
: Is this a joke? [[User:JoelJoel321|JoelJoel321]] 07:06, June 12, 2011 (UTC)
:
: Yuck. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 16:23, August 24, 2011 (UTC)
 
 
 
: No! If this was the case it would be disgusting and Incesty because the doctor would have snogged his mother and his grandmother!!!!! [[User:Doctorpenguin]] [[file:DoctorPenguinSig.png]] 07:17, June 12, 2011 (UTC)
:
: Well to be fair Doctor Who HAS had some akward sexual moments. Lactating Sontarans, Rory and his two Amy's in Time and Space. Amy and her other self in Time and Space. But the guys above are correct this one is a bit too weird for your theory to be true.
:
:
:-this is messed up [[User:DarkShadowSword|<font color="#Green" size="2px">'''DarkShadowSword'''</font>]] 01:12, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
 
== River's incarnations ==
 
I'm probably jumping the gun on this one, since I don't think this is confirmed, only incinuated. But River can regenerate, in fact we saw her regenerate at the end of Day of the Moon (though some might argue that wasn't confirmed, I'd argue they are wrong so it doesn't matter). So, should we have separate pages for her different incarnations? Okay, we've only seen two to date, First and Last River, (first being baby River, and the child in the suit played by Sydney Wade; and last played by Alex Kingston) and it's probably not a big deal to have them under one page. I'm just curious, if one of her earlier incarnations makes a major appearance, are we going to create a page for Second-to-Last River?
 
I'm just saying this because we have pages for each of the Doctor's incarnations, each of the Master's incarnations, each of Romana's incarnations. Why not for River's incarnations? But, like I said, I'm probably jumping the gun. I'm an impatiant man. - [[User:BlackWidower|BlackWidower]] 00:52, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
 
It may be true, but Steven has fooled us before. Though if it is true (I'm betting it is. River has natural curly hair (obviously) so she must have regenerated. this may even explain how Jenny regenerated) we should make a new page for each regeneration. But the down to earth situation is we are a FACTUAL site. And as contributers, we need to provide those facts. and unfortunately, they are not facts untill aired or published. So please keep to information that has been approved by moffat himself - [[User:Landisnicholas|Landisnicholas]] 21:19, June 14 2011 (EST)
 
== "And a last time" ==
 
My edit to soften the claim that River "would never kiss [the Doctor] again." after the events of Day of the Moon was undone without comment, so I'm posting it here for discussion. We know that River's adventures are generally so far in reverse order from the Doctor's, meaning he knows her less and less each time, so when he kisses her and reflects on their first kiss from his perspective ("First time for everything"), she says "And a last time."
 
It doesn't make sense to me to suggest that this statement means the character somehow knows that she will never kiss the Doctor again. In-universe, there is simply no way that she could know that. From the audience's perspective, we know at the very least that a future Doctor visits her just before the Library to say goodbye; no reason not to expect a kiss there.
 
I interpret the statement to be a general statement on her time with the Doctor slipping away as they progress through their generally "back to front" relationship. But we know it's not exactly back to front, so it doesn't make sense to say that this is the absolute last kiss. -[[User:BBCXI|BBCXI]] 00:10, July 9, 2011 (UTC)
 
== From beginning to end. ==
 
Example: the Donna Noble page shows her original name to be as such and is later named Donna Temple-Noble.
 
 
So it would make sense for the character page to say "Melody Pond (later River Song)". And for River Song to be one of her aliases. So much more sense- making than leaving it as it is. ([[Special:Contributions/173.167.179.77|173.167.179.77]] 14:34, July 30, 2011 (UTC))
 
 
 
Very logical, and in many ways correct. However, until they start calling her "Melody" regularly on the show, it would perhaps be best to stick to 'River Song.' If we ever get to the stage where we have onscreen confirmation that she regenerates, we may wish to have separate articles for her various incarnations. However, we have had several Time Lords appear in different incarnations with just one article to cover all of them -- Borusa springs to mind. I think, in the end, it's a matter of convenience to have separate articles, lest they become too large. And then we can argue about whether she is Melody Pond or Meoldy Williams. [[User:Boblipton|Boblipton]] 16:22, August 24, 2011 (UTC)
 
 
 
i'm pretty sure the new episode made it pretty clear that she can regenerate... [[User:DarkShadowSword|<font color="#Green" size="2px">'''DarkShadowSword'''</font>]] 07:06, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 
==The order River & The Doctor Meet==
River said that they are meeting in the reverse order.
We know the first time The Doctor meet her was the day she died.
Which, using River's statement would imply that the last time she will see him is the day she is born.
 
We just say that. So this should mean that River is gone. But she isn't. So I'm confused. [[User:Deb1701|Confused Fan]]
 
:I think "meeting in the wrong order" would be more precise, and I know the Doctor said that in "The Time of Angels". It seems to be somewhat reverse, but not ''completely''. Did River actually say "reverse" order in an episode? [[User:Glimmer721|Glimmer721]] 18:56, July 31, 2011 (UTC)
 
== Pictures ==
 
I think River may need a few more pictures on this page. Could someone please do that. Thanks [[Special:Contributions/78.105.95.95|78.105.95.95]] 13:12, August 18, 2011 (UTC)
 
== She's Always Lying ==
 
I think there's a lot more that we need to learn about River Song.  I also think that some of what we think we know may yet be plain wrong.
 
Right after 'A Good Man Goes To War' was aired (9th June 2011), Twitter user @TravelByTARDIS asked Steven Moffat: "@steven_moffat If River is Melody, and Melody is girl in the space suit, then how come River doesn't know who she is? Unless she is lying..."
 
His reply to that was "@TravelsByTARDIS Check out her dialogue in Silence In The Library".  Now I just rewatched Silence In The Library and the dialogue that I think Moffat is referring to is when River says "I was lying.  I'm always lying."
 
If that's true then we may yet find things are not as they seem.  We only have her word that she is Melody.  Is she lying?  Maybe she isn't benevolent at all.  She could turn out to be an enemy of the Doctor.  Perhaps she was successfully turned into a weapon against the Doctor and has simply been playing him.
 
We do know that River is in prison for killing a great man.  We assume it's the Doctor.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.  But I think there's much more to find out about that woman.{{Unsigned|213.107.114.165}}
 
:Please take this to the forums. Talk pages are for discussing the editing of their articles.--{{User:Skittles the hog/sig}} 12:07, August 23, 2011 (UTC)
 
== River Song Family - The Doctor's Lover ==
 
Come on guys, surely it can be now be assumed that The Doctor is River Song's Lover, she basically confirmed it in AGMGTW!
 
Please ellaborate.
 
:Please take this to [[Howling:The Howling|The Howling]]. Speculation has no use on talk pages. [[User:Mini-mitch|MM]]/<small>[[User talk:Mini-mitch|Want to talk?]]</small> 20:28, August 27, 2011 (UTC)
 
== different incarnations pages ==
 
Maybe we should give each of River's incarnations a seperate page? I even made a template (just to show you what it'll be like, delete it if its unnecessary) [[User:DuduDoctor|DuduDoctor]] 20:26, August 27, 2011 (UTC)
 
{{Rivers}}
 
Completely agree with you. I has been confirmed in Let's kill hitler that Rivers the astronaut/ girl in alley, So i think this should be made.
 
: Definitely. I think we should do it. [[User:Rassilon of Old|<font color="00B000">'''Rassilon of Old'''</font>]] <sup>([[User talk:Rassilon of Old|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Rassilon_of_Old|Contribs]])</sup> 04:30, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 
== Just want to say... ==
 
Hey, I know the admins have to temporarily protect articles like these after big revalations/events, but an article about River's past incarnations (alike the doctor), should be added to this wiki. And also don't forget that 'The Girl' of america is now revealed to be River, because when Mels was regenerating, she said that the last time she regenerated she was in New York, alike 'The Girl.'
 
It should be advised that you instate this information where necessary (River Song article, as well as creating some new ones) ASAP. Thanks.
 
[[cascade11]] (Not logged in)
 
== Rivers ageing ==
 
In Lets Kill Hitler, River jokes that "I might take the age down a little bit, just gradually, to freak people out". The line is obviously leaning on the fourth wall about the fact that she is younger in Silence in the Library etc. but should it be added to the article? [[User:LoneWolf2056|LoneWolf2056]] 21:25, August 27, 2011 (UTC)
 
== Second Melody may not be Mels ==
 
The First Melody (if it even ''was'' the first) that regenerated in New York did so in the 1960s.  Unless Mels, as a ''very'' young child, found some manner of time travel, there would be at least one more regeneration there.
 
Namely, we've got
*Melody Pond
*(Possible other regenerations)
*Little Girl (possibly Melody #1)
*Toddler in 60s New York
*(Possible other regenerations)
*Mels
*River Song
 
'''<font color=#609000>d</font> [[User:Witoki|<font color=#609000>●</font>]][[User_talk:Witoki|<font color=#FF6090>●</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Witoki|<font color=#6090FF>●</font>]]''' 02:40, August 28, 2011 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 10:23, 14 October 2021

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Revisiting the split pages decision[[edit source]]

Almost ten years ago, it was decided that River incarnations were to be all merged under a single page. However, more recent decision led me to propose we split the River pages again into new incarnations. They are as follow:

  • Put simply, River Song is a name that applies only to her third incarnation. It's as wrong to call the baby Amy gave birth to, or the young girl that was Amy and Rory's childhood friend "River Song" than it would be to call the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in the Time War by "Twelfth Doctor", "the Curator" or "War Curator", even though these are all names used by future versions of him. In fact, this was one of the reasons I argued so hard that the Eleven's incarnations absolutely could not have a single page a few years ago. The same surely applies to River.
  • As has been done with several Time Lords recently, splitting their incarnations into a single page allows better coverage and readability.
  • Naming the majority of pages regarding this character would be extremely easy (something which was argued otherwise in the original discussion). It's very explicit that River/Melody had three incarnations:
    • From birth to the little girl from The Impossible Astronaut we see regenerating on the streets of New York
    • Mels Zucker, who grew up alongside her parents
    • River Song her third and final incarnation
  • Now, that only leaves the problem of whether to use "Melody Pond" to her first incarnation or the overall page. As Mels also uses the name on her deathbed, and River Song also uses her real name on A Good Man Goes to War (TV story) to reveal her true identity, I'd vote for keeping Melody Pond for the overall page, while using "little girl" for the first incarnation (as she was credited as such).
  • Mind you, it wouldn't be the first time we use credits/conjectural names for a Time Lord splitting, as per Renegade Time Lord (The Eleven). And, like that page, the bad term also happens to describe the exact subject we're talking about, as River/Melody was also the Impossible Astronaut.

As always, feel free to make any further suggestions and/or edit my sandbox pages. OncomingStorm12th 16:52, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

I am in support of this split. I agree that Melody Pond should go to the overall page as it was used by all incarnations to a degree. Bongo50 (aka Bongolium500) 18:52, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
I don't have a problem with the split, and I agree that Melody Pond would be best for the overall page name. LauraBatham 07:47, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
I also think this is a good idea, but why not use Melody Pond for both the main page and her first incarnation? "Little girl" will have to be dabbed anyway, so why not use Melody Pond (The Impossible Astronaut) instead? Danochy 12:39, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
I think 'Little Girl' is better for the incarnations navigation template. It accords both with the credits of the episode, with dialogue to an extent (the characters do call her "the Little Girl" for lack of a better term at some points in the script of The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon), and with how non-Wiki-editing fans would usually speak of her if discussing River's incarnations. Scrooge MacDuck 12:50, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
With the template, sure, but templates needn't use just page names. The name "Melody Pond" is more accurate than "little girl" in that regard, especially in light of her other appearance (albeit as a Flesh clone for most(?) of her on-screen time) where her identity as Melody is quite important. Also I just realised that her first appearance is actually Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut) which rather throws a spanner in the works for that dabbing. Danochy 13:05, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
When I was thinking on how to title the first incarnation page, I cycled through [[Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut)]], [[Melody Pond (The Impossible Astronaut)]] and [[Melody Pond's first incarnation]], but went with the former because it was the only one of these to already exist. In all honesty, I'm happy with either options.
As for the technicality of Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut).... yeah, it's not optimal. Using DPL, the only match for a page dabbed with a prequel is Silent (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut)), so we could go with [[Little girl (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut))]] or [[Melody Pond (Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut))]], but I half-think we "overlook" this mistake, in order to achieve a simpler dab and avoid the double parenthesis. OncomingStorm12th 22:20, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
Of course Melody Pond's first incarnation is a good option if we want to avoid the dabbing dilemma. But otherwise I'm also happy to overlook the prequel or to otherwise consider it a part of the TV story for the purposes of dabbing the character. Danochy 23:08, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
Okay, hold the phone, where exactly did we get Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut) from anyway? On the BBC website this is called The Prequel to Episode 1. That title's not going to win any awards, but we do have precedents for using such "functional" titles like we would normal titles, such as The Novel of the Film, so… why don't we call this thing The Prequel to Episode 1 (webcast)? Granted I'm not thrilled about the prospect of Little girl (The Prequel to Episode 1) but it wouldn't have any double-parentheses.
But… We also need to discuss the option of the Little Girl. There are other "little girls" in the DWU, but she is the only one whom the Doctor & friends referred to, for several months, over the course of The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, as the Little Girl. Interestingly, the adult River Song herself uses "the Little Girl" several times in dialogue in Day of the Moon, which is interesting if we want to talk self-identification…
Now granted, "The Little Girl" isn't intended to be, or presented as, a "the" name in quite the same way as "The Doctor" or even "The Editor — but I would point to The Woman (Hell Bent) and The Woman (The End of Time) as precedents for using the credited "the Something" descriptor as a page name even though it's unlikely the characters would introduce themselves with "Hello, I'm usually referred to as the Woman". Also, the way we titled our page about Tzim-Sha "Tim Shaw" for quite some time, for as long as we lacked certainty on the spelling of "Tzim-Sha", is precedent for the idea that when the other potential names are unviable,- we do sometimes use the name Team TARDIS give an entity, even if we have reason to suspect the entity called itself something else. Scrooge MacDuck 23:26, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
I would much rather the prequel name stay as it is, to be honest, and just bend the first appearance dabbing rule (if we were to go down that road). There are a lot of "episode 1"s, making the searchability pretty poor. Though we could always name it "Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut", such as it is on imdb. LauraBatham 02:07, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
I think that the Prequel(s) current name(s) just come from a lack of title cards, and if they're Prequels to release X, instinctively they're titled [[Prequel (release X)]] (that's certainly what I did when creating a few of the recent Big Finish ones)
Now, as for using The Little Girl as a title... well, as you pointed you it could work, as precedent exists, but I think that works well enough in the lack of any other names. Like, if it was a random unnamed Time Lord Little Girl we saw regenerating, and then later in a spacesuit etc, I'd 100% agree with you. But as soon as we learn that Little Girl is actually Melody Pond/River as a little girl (sans capital letters), I personally think the argument looses strength a bit. Right now, I'm leaning either for Little girl (The Impossible Astronaut) (no capital letters), or Melody Pond's first incarnation, to circumvent the dabbing issues. OncomingStorm12th 02:23, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
Well not this is a coincidence if I ever saw one. Big Finish has recently released a webcast (The Story of the Diary of River Song) which recaps a lot of River's adventures and her timeline and, little do we know, they mention both of their previous incarnations. Aside from referring the River by her birth name of Melody Pond, River herself calls her second incarnation Mels Zucker (the full name), while her first incarnation is called (guess what) little girl.
Now, I'll not give any rulings, given I was the one to start the discussion, but this serves as a quite nice food for thought, and a bump in the talk page as well. OncomingStorm12th 16:41, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
I now notice that a few days ago, User:SOTO standardised prequel naming via bot, so now we have Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut (webcast) instead of the clunky Prequel (The Impossible Astronaut. That means that we can now safely and unambiguously have the "First Melody" at Melody Pond (Prequel to The Impossible Astronaut), and more generally:
Is this approach agreeable for everyone? OncomingStorm12th 21:46, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
I'm fine with that. LauraBatham 21:52, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
Agreed. I think we can move forward with this. Scrooge MacDuck 10:23, 14 October 2021 (UTC)