River Song
River Song, (born Melody Pond), was a mysterious archaeologist and a convicted murderer.
She was the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and shared a close somewhat romantic relationship with the Doctor, becoming one of the few people to learn his true name. She occasionally used the title of doctor and later, professor. 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
River Song was an archaeologist already very familiar with the Doctor when they first met, from his perspective, in the 51st century. She was, in fact, a future companion of his who would (or, from her perspective, had) travelled with him on and off. According to her, he would come to trust her implicitly, although he was generally suspicious and occasionally almost hostile, during his first adventures with her.
Birth
Melody was born on Demon's Run to Amy Pond and Rory Williams after her mother had been kidnapped. Shortly after birth, Melody was replaced with a Ganger and she was taken from Amy by Madame Kovarian to be used as a weapon against the Doctor as she had traces of Time Lord DNA mixed in with her human DNA. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Adventures with the Doctor
Some time prior to the Battle of Demon's Run, 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)
Demon's Run
River travelled to meet the Doctor, Amy, and Rory at the end of the battle of Demon's Run. It was here that she revealed her true identity, first to the Doctor. She then explained who she was to Rory and Amy, reassuring them that their daughter would be safe and that the Doctor would find her.
At a later date, River was taken by the Doctor for her birthday to the last Winter Forst at the Thames in 1814. There, Stevie Wonder unknowingly performed, before being taken back to his original time. Upon returning to Stormcage from this adventure, River encountered Rory in a Roman uniform. She refused his request when he asked her to come to their aid at Demon's Run, knowing she could only be there for the "final moment". (DW:A Good Man Goes to War)
Silence in America
After receiving an invitation containing geographical co-ordinate from the Doctor, River escaped from the Stormcage Containment Facility, in order to meet him in United States of America in 2011. River met the Doctor, Amy, and Rory in a cafe in the middle of the Utah desert. After reminiscing with him about Jim the Fish, The Doctor took all of them to a picnic, where they saw the Doctor murdered by someone wearing an astronaut's space suit. River, Amy, and Rory cremated the Doctor's body in a 'Viking Funeral'. They returned to the cafe and discovered another Doctor, approximately two hundred years younger than the Doctor 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 Storm Cage where she kissed him goodbye. From his shocked reaction, she realised that from his perspective it was their first kiss, and she would never kiss him again. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Opening of the Pandorica
The TARDIS rerouted a phone call meant for the Doctor from Winston Churchill to River. She then escaped from her prison to try and save the Doctor from a deadly prophecy of the TARDIS exploding. After obtaining a Time Agent vortex manipulator from Dorium Maldovar, River travelled back in time to the Roman era of Earth where she met the Doctor.
They proceeded to Stonehenge where they searched for the Pandorica. After locating it, they discovered that Stonehenge was transmitting a signal, bringing an alliance of the Doctor's enemies to Earth. The Doctor managed to convince the assembled aliens to back away for a time, and sent River to bring the TARDIS to him. However, the TARDIS brought River 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 River to escape. Instead, she found herself trapped as the TARDIS came under control of an unknown external 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 the vortex manipulator River had acquired, was able to retrieve her and bring her back to 1996. Upon joining the Doctor, River killed the Stone Dalek that was hunting them.
After the Doctor restored the universe to life, erasing himself in the process, River left her now blank TARDIS-shaped diary with Amy Pond on her wedding day in 2010 so that she could remember the Doctor back into existence. After a brief encounter with the Doctor, River teleported away with the vortex manipulator. (DW: The Big Bang)
Crash of the Byzantium
At some point, 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 Byzantium ship. She infiltrated the lower levels to find the Home Box, into which she carved the message "Hello Sweetie" in the Old High Gallifreyan language to attract the Doctor's attention. 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 was given a surprise visit by the Doctor. He took her on a trip to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. Unknown to River, the Doctor knew 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 chartered by Felman Lux to lead an expedition to the Library in order to discover exactly what had happened there a hundred years earlier, when a cryptic final message had been sent: ">>> 4022 saved. No survivors <<<". Anticipating trouble during the expedition, 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. Although she tried to us it to discover where the Doctor was in his timeline, she realized that she was with a much younger version of the Doctor, who did not know who she was, nor did he trust her.
As the situation against 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 in order 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 called 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, 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, in the process giving her company in the virtual world. River would go on to take care of the 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 telling 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
- One of the earliest adventures that the Doctor and River shared was when they had a picnic at Asgard. (DW: Silence in the Library)
- The Doctor and River at one point visited Easter Island together. They also 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, much like her mother. She often enjoyed showing off her knowledge in front of the Doctor, particularly knowledge of him and his personality. She would often use the word "spoilers" in reference to her knowledge of the Doctor's future, or his knowledge of her future. River was also persistent at keeping secrets from the Doctor, especially anything which could change the future. This included keeping her personal diary from him.
River was devoted to the Doctor and cared very much for those around her such as Amy (obviously) and her team in The Library but 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 also taunted the Dalek before killing it by ordering it to beg for mercy. River Song was shown to be very confident in her abilities, intelligence and sexuality. She was often flirtatious but was serious when the situation called for it.
River was also willing to sacrifice herself and took the Doctor's place when he attempted to release the people who were saved within the giant 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 ensure that he would be unable to regenerate. In order to prevent the Doctor from killing himself, River actually knocked him out and then 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 therefore he would see her again. 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.
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.
- River Song was a skilled TARDIS pilot (with very different techniques from the Doctor). She mentioned that she "learned from the best," but joked that the Doctor wasn't available that day. (DW: The Time of Angels) Later she stated that the Doctor had indeed taught her. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
- Song appeared to have knowledge of Time Lord anatomy, including knowledge of regeneration. She indicated that destruction of both of the Doctor's hearts could be a circumstance after which regeneration was not possible. (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 had the ability to write in High Gallifreyan, but it is unknown where she learned this. (DW: The Time of Angels, The Pandorica Opens)
- River possessed pictures of all the Doctor's incarnations (DW: The Time of Angels), though she did not know the order of the Doctor's incarnations.
- 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) These are 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)
Behind the scenes
- Except for a flashback, River Song has only appeared in two-part stories that have been 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.
- There is some confusion over the nature of River's encounters with the Doctor. Initially it appeared that they could meet in any order, but The Impossible Astronaut had River stating that they were moving in opposite directions. Technically, this would mean that River's practice of checking her diary (to identify where in the Doctor is in his timeline) is pointless, as she is always meeting the Doctor earlier in his timestream and he has therefore obviously not done any of the things recorded in the diary (since the only things he has done are the things that she is yet to do; unless there are events in the diary which River herself has not yet experienced, and she has been told about them by the Doctor). This is also contradicted in the episode itself, when River meets a future version of the Doctor and they have shared experiences (an adventure on Easter Island and an encounter with "Jim the Fish"); this meeting is explicitly out of order, since she later encounters a younger version of Doctor. If River is correct, then her later appearance in A Good Man Goes to War is earliest in her timeline, while presumably occurring (for the Doctor) between the encounters in The Impossible Astronaut. The most logical explanation would seem to be that River notices that her encounters with the Doctor tend to be earlier in his timestream, and the distress this causes her leads her to make rash generalisations.
- Another problem thrown up by River's statement relates to the Singing Towers. In Forest of the Dead, River mentions that the Singing Towers were the location of her most recent encounter with the Doctor; the Doctor knew she would shortly be going to the Library and thus to her death. If River's comments about inverse linearity are true, this meeting would logically have to occur between Forest of the Dead and The Time of Angels for the Doctor. However, it seems possible that this meeting was intended to happen much later in the Doctor's timeline, when he had a more developed relationship with River.
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