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"Mels" redirects here. For the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's companion MEL, see Melanie Bush
River Song (born Melody Pond) was a Time Lord archaeologist, and a convicted murderer.
She was the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and shared a close and somewhat romantic relationship with the Doctor, becoming one of the few people to learn his true name. She was a doctor of archaeology, and later a professor, in the 51st century. Like Melanie Bush and Charley Pollard before her, she was an example of the rare companion whose timeline was not synchronous with that of the Doctor.
Biography
Birth
Melody Pond was born on the asteroid of Demons Run to Amy Pond and Rory Williams, after her mother had been kidnapped. Shortly after birth, Melody was replaced with a Ganger, and taken from Amy by Madame Kovarian to be used as a weapon against the Doctor. She was chosen for this purpose because she had traces of Time Lord DNA as a result of being conceived onboard the TARDIS while inside the Time Vortex. This was similar to how exposure to the Untempered Schism on Gallifrey had caused the Time Lords to evolve from normal humanoids over generations. Kovarian's scientists experimented on Melody to bring these traits to the fore. The extent of her Time Lord-like abilities and characteristics are not yet known. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Early Life
The Spacesuit
As a child, Melody was indoctrinated by the Silence and raised as a weapon to kill the Doctor. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
At an unknown point in her time-stream, while still a little girl, Melody ended up in a Silence-run orphanage in 1969 America (where photographs were left of her and Amy) and later at a warehouse base in Florida. They inserted her into an Apollo astronaut suit that had been upgraded with alien life support systems. She was able to use the suit to make calls directly to President Nixon in the Oval Office, begging for help. This led to her first meeting with the Doctor, though a brief one, due to her escaping from the spacesuit. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)
First Regeneration
Six months after the moon landings, in New York City, Melody was suffering from an illness, causing her to regenerate. (DW: Day of the Moon) She later remarked that her new incarnation started as a toddler. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
She then moved to England, where she befriended the young Amelia Pond and Rory Williams.
Nicknamed "Mels", she became strong friends with the two and helped them get together, but was also responsible for getting into trouble and for outbursts of unthinkingly destructive criminal behaviour. She was obsessed with Amelia's "Raggedy Doctor" as well, dreaming about marrying him and claiming in school that historical disasters were the fault of the Doctor not intervening. Through all of this, she was fully aware that Amy & Rory were her parents and that she intended to kill the Doctor. She would later call herself a "psychopath". (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Adventures with the Doctor
Second Regeneration
When the Doctor arrived in the year 2011 in a Leadworth cornfield, Mels forced her way onto the TARDIS at gunpoint to escape the police. She ended up damaging the TARDIS by accident, leading them to meet Adolf Hitler in 1938. Mels was shot by Hitler but, to the suprise of everyone, regenerated into an older woman. Shortly after regenerating, she tried to kill the Doctor with poisoned lipstick. She cheerfully called herself - and her previous incarnation - a "psychopath" and ran amok in 1938 Berlin. However, she had a change of heart when she saw how devoted the Doctor was to his friends and to the "River Song" he kept mentioning, and how he kept trying to save her from the Tessalecta. When she asked her parents if the Doctor was worth saving and they said yes, she used her regeneration energy to revive him at the cost of any future regenrations.
The Doctor took her to a hospital in the 52nd century and gave her a TARDIS-shaped diary. She later applied to study Archaeology at Luna University, so that she would be able to find him again. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Imprisonment
Some time after this, River was imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility for murdering someone she described as, "A very good man. Best man I've ever known". (DW: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone) The Doctor would discover from other time travellers that the person she'd murder was him, in April 2011 in Utah. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
The Battle of Demon's Run
River travelled to meet the Doctor, Amy, and Rory at the end of the battle of Demons Run. It was here that she revealed her true identity, first to the Doctor. After he left, she assured Rory and Amy that their daughter would be safe, that the Doctor would find her and told them who she was.
At one time, River was taken by the Doctor for her birthday to the last Winter Frost Fair on the Thames in 1814. Stevie Wonder unknowingly performed before being taken back to his original time. Returning to Stormcage from this escapade, River enountered Rory in his Roman uniform. She refused his request when asked to come aid them at Demons Run, saying she could be there for only the "final moment". (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Silence in America
On receiving an invitation containing co-ordinates from the Doctor, River escaped from Stormcage to meet him in United States of America in 2011. She met the Doctor, Amy, and Rory in the middle of the Utah desert. After reminiscing with her about Easter Island and Jim the Fish, The Doctor took them on a picnic, where they saw him murdered by someone wearing an astronaut's space suit. River, Amy, and Rory cremated the Doctor's body in a "Viking Funeral". They went to a cafe and discovered another Doctor, claiming to be approximately two hundred years younger than the one they had seen die. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
River helped the Doctor defeat the Silence by using the Silence's brainwashing of humanity against them. At her request, the Doctor returned River to Stormcage, where she kissed him goodbye. From his shocked reaction, she realised that from his perspective, it was their first kiss, and may have been her last. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Opening of the Pandorica
The TARDIS rerouted a phone call for the Doctor from Winston Churchill to River. She escaped from prison to try and save the Doctor from a deadly prophecy of the TARDIS exploding. After getting a Time Agent vortex manipulator from Dorium Maldovar, River travelled back in time to the Roman era of Earth where she met the Doctor and Amy.
They rode to Stonehenge to find the Pandorica. After finding it, they discovered Stonehenge to be transmitting a signal summoning an alliance of the Doctor's enemies to Earth. The Doctor managed to convince the assembled aliens to back away for a time. He sent River to bring the TARDIS to him. Instead, the TARDIS took her to Amy's house on the 26th of June, 2010. When River told him the date, the Doctor realised the TARDIS was about to explode and urged her to escape. Instead, she found herself trapped as the TARDIS came under the control of an unknown force and started to explode. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
Inside the TARDIS, River was stuck in a time loop of the first moments of the TARDIS explosion. The Doctor, using River's vortex manipulator, retrieved her and brought her to 1996. On joining the Doctor, Amy and Rory, she learned of the Doctor's plan to use the Pandorica's restoration field to reverse the erasure of the universe. However, the Doctor was soon badly wounded by an energy blast from the Stone Dalek that was hunting them. Angered at the apparent loss of the man she loved, River told the Dalek to look into its data banks for her identity and taunted it into begging for mercy before killing it.
Right after the Doctor restored the universe, erasing himself in the process, River (who was somehow in 2010) left her now blank TARDIS-shaped diary with Amy on her wedding day in 2010 so that she could remember the Doctor back into existence. After a brief conversation with the Doctor, River teleported away with the vortex manipulator, leaving the Doctor curious as to whom she was married to. (DW: The Big Bang)
Crash of the Byzantium
Some time after River had returned from 2010 to prison, she was put in Father Octavian's custody. If she were to carry out the mission assigned to her, she would earn her pardon.
While working for Father Octavian, River was sent to be a guest on the ship Byzantium. She infiltrated the lower levels to find the Home Box, into which she carved the message "Hello Sweetie" in Old High Gallifreyan writing to attract the Doctor's attention twelve thousand years later. Leading the Doctor to Alfava Metraxis, she helped him defeat an army of Weeping Angels who had been awakened in the planet's Maze of the Dead. (DW: The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone)
Darillium
At some point, River earned her pardon and received a surprise visit by the Doctor. He took her on a trip to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. The Doctor knew, although River did not, that her death was impending, and gave her an upgraded version of his sonic screwdriver. This would be the last time that River saw "her" Doctor. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
The Library
River, now a professor, was hired by Felman Lux to lead an expedition to the Library to discover what had happened there a hundred years earlier, when a cryptic final message had been sent: ">>> 4022 saved. No survivors <<<". Anticipating trouble, River summoned the Doctor by sending him a message via psychic paper. The earlier version of the Doctor who turned up had not yet met her. Though bewildered, he agreed to help River and her team.
River still had her TARDIS-shaped diary describing her travels with the Doctor. She tried to use it to discover where the Doctor was in his timeline, but soon realized that he was a much younger version of the Doctor who did not know who she was, nor did he trust her.
As the situation with the Vashta Nerada deteriorated, River realised she must prove to the Doctor that she was someone he would come to trust completely and, with profuse apologies, whispered his true name into his ear. The Doctor was stunned by this information, and River had won his trust.
River physically died when she chose to sacrifice herself in the place of the Doctor to save Donna and the other 4022 people trapped in the Library's computer. She pleaded with him to not try and change history, not to change one moment of what had/would come for them. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
After saving all the trapped people, the Doctor realized his future self must have given her his sonic screwdriver for a reason. Inside he found a data chip, a "Neural Relay", which contained River's Data Ghost. The Doctor saved her by uploading her into the virtual world contained in The Library's data core, CAL. The library's data core, was controlled by a human girl (Charlotte Abigail Lux, or CAL) wired into its mainframe. CAL had also saved the data ghosts of all of River's dead archaeological team, giving her company in the virtual world. River would go on to take care of her two virtual children and Charlotte in the virtual world, reading out her diary of her life with the Doctor and how "everybody lives" when the Doctor comes to call. Her story ended with her wishing the sleeping children sweet dreams. (DW: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)
The Doctor would later remember her death when Davros reminded him of the people who had died in his name. (DW: Journey's End)
Undated/Unchronicled events
- The Doctor and River had a picnic at Asgard. (DW: Silence in the Library)
- The Doctor and River shared an adventure in "the Bone Meadows". (DW: The Time of Angels)
- The Doctor and River visited Easter Island together. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
- The Doctor and River met a being named "Jim the Fish". (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
Known family
- Amy Pond – mother
- Rory Williams – father
- Tabetha Pond – maternal grandmother
- Augustus Pond – maternal grandfather
- Sharon – maternal great-aunt
Personality
River had a feisty and cheeky personality, traits she shared with her mother, Amy. She inherited traits from her father, Rory, such as a sense of responsibility and deep compassion for loved ones. She enjoyed showing off her knowledge in front of the Doctor, particularly knowledge of him and his personality. She would use the word "spoilers" to refer to her knowledge of the Doctor's future, or his knowledge of her future. River was good at keeping secrets from the Doctor, especially anything which could change the future. This included keeping her personal diary from him. (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)
River was devoted to the Doctor and cared very much for those around her. She could also be merciless, killing the Stone Dalek after it had shot the Doctor even though it pleaded for mercy when it realised who she was. She taunted the Dalek before killing it by ordering it to beg for mercy. River Song was very confident of her abilities, intelligence and sexuality. She was often flirtatious, but was serious when the situation called for it. (DW: The Big Bang)
River was willing to sacrifice herself and took the Doctor's place when he attempted to release the people who were saved within the computer that controlled the Library. She pointed out that if the Doctor hooked himself up to the computer it would incinerate both his hearts and he would not regenerate. To prevent the Doctor killing himself, River knocked him out and handcuffed him before hooking herself up to the computer. Just before her death she comforted the Doctor by saying that although it was her last meeting with him it was his first meeting with her and he would see her again. (DW: Forest of the Dead) She was also willing to sacrifice herself to close the Time Field on the Byzantium to stop the Doctor from doing it, until the Doctor told her it wouldn't be enough. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Other information
- River Song seemed to take shorter trips with the Doctor, living a more or less normal life between trips, rather than having one extended trip with the Doctor and never seeing him again after parting ways.
- After her final regeneration, River decided to deliberately and slowly reverse her age through life to "freak people out". (DW: Let's Kill Hitler) This is a tongue-in-cheek reason for why River looks the same age as Alex Kingston despite her appearances being in reverse-order.
- River Song was a skilled TARDIS pilot, whose techniques were very different from the Doctor's. She mentioned that she "learned from the best", and joked that the Doctor wasn't available that day. (DW: The Time of Angels) It turned out she learnt from the TARDIS itself, which recognised her as its "child". (DW: Let's Kill Hitler) One time when the Doctor said she was flying it wrong, however, she claimed that he had taught her (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
- River had knowledge of Time Lord anatomy, and knew about regeneration. She knew that destruction of both of the Doctor's hearts would make regeneration impossible. (DW: Forest of the Dead). She also understood that if the Doctor died before his regeneration cycle was complete, he was dead for good. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
- River Song wrote in Old High Gallifreyan, but it is not known where she learned this. (DW: The Time of Angels)
- River had pictures of all the Doctor's incarnations (DW: The Time of Angels), though she did not know what order they came in.
- River was sentenced to prison for murdering a man described as "a hero to many" and whom she called "A very good man. Best man I've ever known." Octavian felt that the murder victim's identity was something that the Doctor "really [didn't] want to know." (DW: Flesh and Stone)
- Before his death, Octavian told the Doctor that "You think you know [River], but you don't. You don't understand who or what she is." (DW: Flesh and Stone) This was later explained in DW: A Good Man Goes to War. River has traces of Time Lord DNA due to her parents "beginning" her while on board the TARDIS; she is Amy and Rory's daughter.
- River told Rory that she and the Doctor were meeting in reverse order and that every time she met him, he knew her less. She feared the day when she met a Doctor who did not know her. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
- Generally, River met the Doctor in reverse order respective to their timelines. This was not always the case, as River once met a version of the Doctor who had shared an adventure to Easter Island and a meeting with Jim the Fish.
- From Mels answers to historical questions at school, t seems that at least part of the brain washing she recived, is that she was told the Doctor was evil, as he didn't stop terrible things from happening. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Behind the scenes
- Except for a flashback in DW: Journey's End, River Song has only appeared in two-part stories written by Steven Moffat.
- In a recent interview for a short video about the Eleventh Doctor's companions, Alex Kingston stated that River Song has encountered many incarnations of the Doctor and that the Doctor "sends her into his past, where he knows he needs her expertise". Arthur Darvill stated that Kingston had been told more than anyone else about who River really is.
- The episode A Good Man Goes to War revealed that River Song (born Melody Pond) is actually the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and has Time Lord DNA as a result of being conceived in the TARDIS while travelling in the Time Vortex. It was implied in the episode, through the use of flashbacks and speculation by characters that Melody might be able to regenerate, that the little girl is Melody/River; however, this has not been explicitly stated on screen.
- Humorously, the conversation at the end of The Doctor's Wife implies River was conceived on a bunk bed. When asked about this, both Steven Moffat and Neil Gaiman independently and simultaneously acknowledged this, joking about the possibility of the ladder. They later suggested they had accidentally canonised this by agreeing on it at the same time.
- To date, River has been played by six different actors.
- River Song is the only Time Lord to change skin colour via regeneration on-screen, as the actresses who played her in both her 'Melody Pond' and 'River Song' incarnations were white, while both of Mels' actresses were black. Earlier in SJA: Death of the Doctor, the Doctor noted that his racial characteristics were not limited to white; he "can be anything." While Rassilon has been portrayed by white actors Richard Mathews and Timothy Dalton on-screen while black actor Don Warrington was Rassilon's voice actor and cover-art model in Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories.