I recently decided to rewatch the entire fifth series of Doctor Who to try and evaluate Steven Moffat’s success or failure as show runner. Having just completed “Amy’s Choice”, I have to say that I am generally pleased. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. As I watched “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Blood” — the series’ first two parter that reintroduces the Weeping Angels and River Song — I had a revelation. I figured out the whole Doctor/River Song relationship. How Ms. Song continually has the upper hand on the Doctor. In fact, I was so inspired by my discovery that I created a graph to illustrate their relationship. If you choose not to have things spoiled, please click away now.
OK, here it is: as the Doctor travels forward through his timeline, River Song is traveling backwards through his timeline. Totally just blew your mind, didn’t I? Check out the chart below and see if it’s not true:
So let’s review things from the Doctor’s point of view (after all, that’s how we watch the episodes):
The Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
In this episode, the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) encounters the mysterious Professor River Song (Alex Kingston), a woman who seems to know a lot about the Doctor’s future. Throughout both episodes, the Doctor is continually perplexed about River Song: she knows him, but he has never met her. He is also tantalized by the mysterious blue diary she carries around, documenting their previous encounters (or, from the Doctor’s POV, their future encounters). She even has her own sonic screwdriver, claiming that the Doctor gave it to her at some point in the future. The mystery of The Library almost seems secondary as the Doctor tries to solve the riddle of River Song.
“Forest of the Dead” ends with River sacrificing herself to save the patrons of The Library and as the moment approaches she says to the Doctor “You knew the entire time”, indicating that in their previous encounters, the Doctor has withheld the secret of River’s death, perhaps in order to preserve the timeline. A final twist is revealed as the Doctor returns to the question of why he would give River her own sonic screwdriver. It turns out the Doctor, knowing the fate that awaited River, constructed a neural relay into the sonic screwdriver that preserved River’s consciousness. He then transmits River’s consciousness into The Library’s computer, where she can live forever in an artificial environment.
Wit and Wisdom of River Song
- About the Doctor: “I trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we’ve been.”
- Also about the Doctor: “You know when you see a photo of someone you know, but it’s from years before you know them: it’s like they’re not quite finished, not done yet. Yes, the Doctor’s here. He came when I called, just like he always does, but not my Doctor.”
- Talking to the Doctor about their future together: “You watch us run!”
The Time of Angels / Flesh and Blood
While visiting a museum, the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) discover a homebox (a device similar to an airplane’s black box) containing a message from River Song, a message transmitted from 12,000 years in the past. Upon rescuing River from the vacuum of space, the trio land on the planet Alfava Metraxis where the space liner Byzantium has crashed. Within the ship is one of the Weeping Angels, the universe’s oldest, deadliest assassins. River still seems to know more about the Doctor as she proceeds to order him around in a manner similar to “The Silence in the Library”. At one point, when introducing Amy to River, the Doctor slips up referring to River as “Professor” which has not happened in her timeline. Interestingly, it is revealed that River Song has been held prisoner in a Stormcage containment facility for a very serious crime and is out on parole in an effort to reduce her sentence.
By the end of the second part, “Flesh and Stone”, we learn something about the Doctor’s potential future: when asked why River is in prison, she replies that she killed a very important man. The episode ends with River saying that the next time they meet will be when the Pandorica opens. The Doctor scoffs, saying the Padorica is a fairy tale, but nevertheless, he looks concerned.
The Wit and Wisdom of River Song
- “Doctor! Can you sonic me?”
- To the Doctor: “It’s so strange when you go all baby face.”
- To the Doctor again: “You, me, handcuffs: must it always end this way?”
- Shout out to a future episode: “You’ll see me again quite soon: when the Pandorica opens.”
The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
The two part series finale begins with Vincent Van Gogh, Winston Churchill, Elisabeth the 10th and River Song all trying to get a message to the Doctor about a universe-shattering event that seems to directly involve his TARDIS. Leaving a message on a cliff face of the oldest planet of the universe brings the Doctor and Amy to ancient England where River is waiting with Van Gogh’s painting. It reveals the location of the Pandorica, a device said to hold within it the most dangerous being in the universe. Needless to say, the Pandorica is actually a trap for the Doctor, conceived and constructed by his most hated enemies including the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans. All seems lost — the Doctor is trapped in the Pandorica and River has piloted the TARDIS to the point in time which it exploded, which it does, wiping out the entire universe. Can the Doctor save creation?
Well of course he does. Through a series of time-hopping events, the Doctor manages to restart the universe returning everything to normal. At the end of “The Big Bang”, the Doctor and River share a private moment, where she apologizes to the Doctor, hinting that their relationship is about to change. Could this have anything to do with her previous statement at the end of “Flesh and Stone” about “murdering a very important man”?
The Wit and Wisdom of River Song
- In a showdown with a Dalek that believes she will not kill it: “I’m River Song. Check your records.”
- Responding to the Doctor’s question about her identity: “You’re going to find out very soon. And I’m sorry, but that’s when everything changes.”
And so the series ends with a bit of a mystery for the sixth series. Steven Moffat has hinted that when we next encounter River Song, she won’t recognize the Doctor, indicating that we will see their first meeting. But what does the future hold for River and the Doctor. It’s been hinted in several episodes that they are married. It has also been hinted in “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone” that River is in the Stormcage containment facility for murdering an important man, “a hero to many”. Could this man be the Doctor? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out what mysteries about the Doctor’s future lie in River Song’s past.
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