River Song

[Caliburn24]

The question I have is are they are going to recast River with someone younger? Alex Kingston is 47 or so, and I think it would be really hard for her to play a younger age believably. If River led a long life of adventures with the Doctor she had to have met him when she was what in her 20s or possibly early 30s.

Presuming that River ages at the normal current day human rate.

 

[David cgc]

Presuming that River ages at the normal current day human rate.

Which isn't necessarily the case. Liz 10 was, what, three hundred when we first saw her? And reigned for another two thousand years after that, with only slight greying of the hair?

We never found out how old Jack was before his accident, either.

 

[MyCylon]

I had to think about River's name recently. Her first name could be seen to be linked to time, as in the flow of time. But it was her last name that had me remembering the Ood and the tenth Doctor's 'song' which was coming to an end. I wonder if there's any connection there (not necessarily to the tenth Doctor's song but a song like the song of the Ood).

 

[Starkers]

I'm still waiting for the Doctor to read her diary...

On every page the same sentance over and over again...

All work and no play makes the Rani a dull girl...

Before the second part of the library 2 parter I actually halfway suspected she was JAck (hey if he can end up a giant head a woman isn't that much of a stretch)

 

[Saul]

Well, something to consider is that when the Library episodes were written, no one know Tennant would be leaving so soon. He even spoke with Moffat about his plans for the fifth season, while he was considering whether or not to stay. So Moffat probably believed River Song and the Tenth Doctor would meet again. That's probably why the Crash of the Byzantium came first. In fact, that whole litany makes a hell of a lot more sense if we assume that it was the Tenth Doctor at the Byzantium and Asgard. "Going by your face, it's early days for you." Much simpler than the convolutions we have to go through now "Oh, she meant how befuddled he looked." "Oh, she doesn't know precisely which order the Doctor comes in, so she had to guess if he was younger or older than she'd yet seen."

I would have agreed with you if I had not rewatched the Libraryepisodes before the new series and it seems that she finds him to be young in his eyes, not the face. She just knows it's the doctor, possibly she thinks it's a new regeneration, but the eyes are younger.

 

[David cgc]

I think we're talking about two separate lines in the same scene. I'm referring to the bit early on.

RIVER:
OK, shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time? Uh, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you. Yes? So, um... crash of the Byzantium, have we done that yet?

So, Tennant = The earliest Doctor that River has met, with whom she went to Asgard and, later, the Byzantium.

You're talking about a couple lines later, after she hasn't hit anything they've done yet. Then she suddenly realizes exactly how young and innocent he looks in the eyes.

 

[G2309]

If she's seen all the Doctor's faces, that likely includes the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors. In comparison to them, the Tenth Doctor would be very young indeed.[/QUOTE]


Yeh that makes sense.

 

[Saul]

I think we're talking about two separate lines in the same scene. I'm referring to the bit early on.

RIVER:
OK, shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time? Uh, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you. Yes? So, um... crash of the Byzantium, have we done that yet?

So, Tennant = The earliest Doctor that River has met, with whom she went to Asgard and, later, the Byzantium.

Idea 1 : Ok if we accept that this is what she meant by early days then. But we still don't know for sure who the heck this chick is, what the deal with her is. If she is even being honest as recnet episodes seem to suggest that events might be occurring in order for her.

Idea 2: Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

Idea 3: By "Early days" she might think regeneration. Maybe she thought he had regenerated recently since she last saw him as the 11th Doctor and might think he is the 12th Doctor, or maybe she thought recently is only 4 years ago, early days for a timelord that lives 900+.

Also note how she says "you aren't my Doctor". It's interesting to see how Moffat used this to refer to the 5th Doctor when the 10th said to him that "you were My Doctor" meaning a totally different regeneration. As we fans too say when we talk about our favorite Doctor, "..Tom Baker, David Tennant, Matt Smith etc... was my Doctor.."

You're talking about a couple lines later, after she hasn't hit anything they've done yet. Then she suddenly realizes exactly how young and innocent he looks in the eyes.

Well I do feel Smith is playing the older head on younger shoulders a bit more.

 

[Cyke101]

Back when River Song first appeared in the Library episodes, I have to admit I found her mostly annoying. I was a bit leery when I found out she'd be coming back this season, but by the end of "Flesh and Stone" I found I actually liked her. By the end of "The Big Bang" she was probably my favorite female character of all time. Someone who can make a Dalek beg for mercy just by telling it her name is OK in my book! And she's brilliant enough to keep up with the Doctor on an intellectual level. The Doctor is certainly warming up to her as well; in "Time of Angels" he couldn't get away from her quick enough, but in that last scene in the garden he actually smiled when he heard her voice. I can't wait to find out who she really is next season. I wouldn't even mind if she did turn out to be the Doctor's wife at some point. At first I was rolling my eyes at the very idea, but if anyone in the universe is a match for the Doctor, River is. Anyone else finding they like her a lot more than they did at first?

River Song follows the school of Tina Fey:

http://s852.photobucket.com/albums/ab82/rvilor1/?action=view&current=BGSD.gif

(linked for profanity)

 

[captcalhoun]

for River, her stories are happening backwards. Pandorica is her earliest adventure we've seen, Flesh is in the middle and Library is her last.

 

[danellis]

I need to rewatch Eleventh Hour very carefully: I have this horrible feeling that River's the real Prisoner Zero.

dJE

I at least got the impression from the final scene of Big Bang that it was her who caused the Cracks

 

[Auriq]

And we don't know how much time passed between seasons 4 and five since there were no human companions going grey to prove that a few dozen birthday candles might have been added to his impending cakes.

Well, the Doctor does tell Wilf he's 906 in The End of Time. The last time he gave his age was Voyage of the Damned, and he was 903. So The End of Time has to be three years after Voyage of the Damned.

From Amy's Choice:
Doctor: No. No. No, sorry wasn't it obvious? The Dream lord was me. Psychic pollen, it's a mind parasite, feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. 907. Had a lot to go on.

So, given the fact that Time of the Angels, Flesh and Stone, Vampires in Venice and Amy's Choice all happen in quick succession, we can assume that when the Doctor meets River at the crash of the Byzantium, he's 907 years old.

 

[The]

One-thousand nine-hundred and seven, maybe...

 

[The Wormhole]

And we don't know how much time passed between seasons 4 and five since there were no human companions going grey to prove that a few dozen birthday candles might have been added to his impending cakes.

Well, the Doctor does tell Wilf he's 906 in The End of Time. The last time he gave his age was Voyage of the Damned, and he was 903. So The End of Time has to be three years after Voyage of the Damned.

From Amy's Choice:
Doctor: No. No. No, sorry wasn't it obvious? The Dream lord was me. Psychic pollen, it's a mind parasite, feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. 907. Had a lot to go on.

So, given the fact that Time of the Angels, Flesh and Stone, Vampires in Venice and Amy's Choice all happen in quick succession, we can assume that when the Doctor meets River at the crash of the Byzantium, he's 907 years old.

Okay, so he celebrated his 907th birthday at some point between The End of Time and Amy's Choice.

One-thousand nine-hundred and seven, maybe...

I like Steven Moffat's explanation that the Doctor honestly doesn't know how old he is and is just telling people he's nine hundred and whatever years old since they'll get the point that he's really old.

 

[Sci]

My theory is that somewhere along the line, he just lost track of how old he was and decided to start over at 900.

Alternately, in "The Empty Child," the Doctor refers to himself as having travelled in the TARDIS for 900 years -- perhaps for him, it had been 900 years since "An Unearthly Child," and he decided to stop counting the years before he stole the TARDIS as part of his age?

Either way, it's probably been 7 years for him since he met Rose.

ETA:

Another thought.

We know that the Doctor was in 1913 as John Smith for three months, and then in 1969 after encountering the Weeping Angels for another three months. On top of that, in "The Infinite Quest," he's separated from Martha for three years, and in "Last of the Time Lords," he experiences a full year of his life that is later reversed but which he still recalls.

 

[The]

^I agree. The erratic nature of his lifestyle means a linear tracking of his age is a guess at best...

 

[Auriq]

I read a fanfic once that claimed that when the Doctor says "900 years" he means Time Lord years, which may be much longer than human years.

 

[DAK]

^ That would make some sense. I've wondered how he could be 900 if each of his incarnations only lives a few years at most.

 

[captcalhoun]

well, the first one lived over 700 according to the second saying he was ~750 in Tomb of the Cybermen...

 

[Peacemaker]

For some reason, I get this sense that River is Amy's daughter. When the Doctor meets her, the twist is that he is there when she's born, and everything changes. Maybe something happens to Amy and Rory, and the Doctor is left to raise River; or perhaps they leave the Doctor, but the Doctor pops in and out on them periodically as River grows up; or maybe she is separated from her parents and they don't see her again until she's grown. I get the sense,however,that River has fallen in love with the Doctor, but the Doctor is also her mentor in this incarnation.