River Song is arguably the most divisive character to fall to Doctor Who in the preceding five age . She ’s a swashbuckling archeologist who outwits almost everybody , and an unabashedly aphrodisiacal older woman . She ’s also so dependent on the Doctor as to be kind of a satellite .
So which is she : resourceful , self - reliant explorer , or the Time Lord ’s hanger - on ? Today ’s Christmas special , “ The Husbands of River Song , ” tries to get to the bottom of the number , once and for all . Spoilers ahead !
The conundrum of Doctor Who
River is emblematic of a whole gang of cleaning woman who have number to Doctor Who since 2010 . In addition to companions Amy and Clara , the show has bestow some formidable semi - revenant character . include Vastra and Jenny ( a Silurian - human lesbian couple ) ; Ashildr , an immortal varlet ; a novel version of the paramilitary organization UNIT where everyone is distaff ; and of course of action Missy , who ’s the positive feedback of the Doctor ’s arch - nemesis the Master . And despite some major flaw , Clara ’s storyline forms a pretty solid emotional discharge , with an ending that ’s both satisfying and empowering .
So it ’s hard to deny that Doctor Who has made major onward motion in this area during the past few twelvemonth .
But even as the show seems to be making an movement to push female characters frontwards , it’scome under more fervency for sexism . citizenry have studied the show and chance that it passes theBechdel Testless often than it did when Russell T. Davies was showrunner . And there ’s a cosmopolitan sentiency that the female characters are less independent .
What ’s going on here ? A few things . First off , Davies ’ approach to Who storytelling orb much more around break his companions earth - bond fellowship , and in particular Rose and Donna had complicated human relationship with their mothers . Also , the main way we see that Rose is a smart , wondering mortal in the first time of year is that she sing to ordinary citizenry and witness out things , including a lot of female servants and maintenance workers .
But also , as much as Davies frequently had everything in his storey orbit around the Doctor in the end , the Doctor is even more the centerfield of the universe with Moffat . ( Read our whole rant about this tendencyhere . ) So for good example , Vastra and Jenny are fun , exciting grapheme , who seem as though they have their own adventures , but they mostly worry about the Doctor whenever we see them . ( Except for “ The Crimson Horror , ” which is advisedly structure as a story about them investigating something on their own , and stumbling on the Doctor . )
So on the one paw , River Song is a wild and individualistic IE , who is busy romp around the galaxy when she ’s not trading saucy banter with the Doctor . But on the other , her whole life story revolves around the Doctor , even more than most characters on this show , and she seems to have a pathologically one - sided devotion to him . ( He ’s creditworthy for her nascency , her childhood brainwashing by creepy outlander , her vocation alternative and her demise . She ’s created as a weapon against him , make up positive feedback for him , and finally gives her living to save him . It ’s a storyline that never quite hold water , despite having many rattling here and now along the way . )
So which is it : Is River a female Han Solo / Indiana Jones , or is she purely define by her human relationship to the doc ? Her latest ( possibly last ) episode explores both of those roles , before attempt to indicate that it ’s a bit more complicated than either .
Does River’s life actually revolve around the Doctor?
“ The Husbands of River Song ” has a deliberately provocative title , because the Doctor is supposed to be her hubby — although you’re able to debate the legality of a shotgun wedding in a bubble universe after meter was stopped , but whatever . ( And the Doctor , as River is spry to point out , has had other wives . )
The first half of the episode toy with show us a much more spare - rolling and irresponsible version of River than we ’ve ever seen before . The conceit of the episode is that even though she assemble the Doctor early on , she fails to tell apart him because she believes that he ’s only able to have the twelve faces she already knows ( due to the Time Lord regeneration limit . )
Does River actually figure out it ’s the Doctor betimes on and just adjudicate to troll him ? It ’s operose to say . But I ’m think … no . After watch out the sequence a couple time , she really seems startled and amazed when she gain who this random clown she ’s been running around with really is . It ’s a herculean worked up snatch , and the linchpin of the episode , and its potency depends on you believe that she did n’t know all along .
So contract the episode at nerve time value , we learn a lot about River by realise “ what she ’s like when I ’m not around , ” as the Doctor puts it . She ’s a cunning plotter , who marries the malefic King Hydroflax just to get at the priceless ball field that ’s gotten embed in his brain . She has no compunction about kill the King , and perhaps others who get in her way . She does n’t seem that upset about Ramon , who ’s also her hubby , even after she gets him decapitated and attached to a jumbo robot ( and in fact , she ’s erased Ramon ’s retention of their marriage , because he was getting irritating . ) She ’s 200 days sometime , much older than the Doctor realizes , mean she ’s had a lot of adventures without him .
And her attitude to the Doctor , when she thinks he ’s not around , seems a lot more high-handed . She steal his TARDIS when he ’s not expect , using it for ages and then pass it precisely where he left it , a second later — and he ’s never observe before , apparently . She refers to him as “ the Damsel , ” because he involve rescuing so often . She says he ’s nobody particular , except that he ’s terribly utilitarian every now and then . She even says that men ( like the Doctor ) will think any story that they ’re the hero sandwich of — suggest that her whole history with the Doctor has been nothing but a long inmate , with her manipulating his vanity .
This all seems so over - the - top that it read like a parody of an independent adult female , but it also feel a bite like River is cover .
She preserve saying that she did n’t really King Hydroflax , she “ splice the diamond”—and this becomes a possible metaphor for her relationship with the Doctor , too . Did she really just latch on to the Doctor because of the access to his time machine and his “ awfully useful ” skills and cognition ? Is she really just using him , the way she used Hydroflax ?
No , of course not . In a passably sudden pivot , the episode ’s plot of land change completely , and so does River ’s attitude . River is being chased by the robot body of King Hydroflax , which wants his straits back ( and which is vocalize byNonso Anozie ! ) . But then the robot dead body decides that its original biological forefront is done for , and an insectoid waiter convert it that there ’s a great alternate head : the medico ’s . ( Poor Dorium Maldovar does n’t even get considered for the job . )
And because River is the Doctor ’s “ consort , ” she probably knows where he is , or they can employ her as lure to get him . This leads to her delivering a spoken communication where she declare that she loves the MD , but he does n’t love her back . You might as well expect the stars to love you back as the Doctor , and he ’s off doing whatever he does while she has to live her life history without him . The Doctor is much too self - centered to bother rescuing River , she insists — before realize he ’s really correctly there with her .
This , too , experience like a somewhat exaggerated variation of River ’s family relationship with the Doctor , even as the “ terribly useful ” high-handed rendering was . The Doctor pitilessly teases her about the whole “ stars and sunup ” poppycock , and clearly does like a slap-up hand about her .
So we get over - the - top parodies of both versions of River , and then — maybe — we get something a piece more nuanced . Possibly closer to the truth ?
The Singing Towers
At this point , the plot dead twine up , because River ’s always had a perfectly skillful escape path from this doomed starship . And the Doctor and River both adjudicate to get each other to safety while the other tries to bring through the crashing ship , before they both declare that they deal about and value each other much more than a ship full of aggregated murderers and war criminals , whose deaths have been part of the historical disk for centuries in River ’s time .
Then , at last , it ’s sentence to treat the Doctor ’s relationship with River — with a sudden sombre tinge , because they ’ve arrived at theSinging Towersof Darillium , where they are fated to spend their last dark together . And the Doctor gives River the sonic screwdriver that we know will “ write ” her from death in “ Forest of the Dead . ” We also learn that the Doctor has been putting this last meeting with River off over and over , because he ca n’t bear to say bye-bye to her .
River , like Clara not too long ago , expects the Doctor to find some cagy way out of the fact that their time together ( and her life ) are ending . But the Doctor move over one of his speeches about how it ’s always the last time for something , and nobody can commute that , and “ happy ever after ” is just a prevarication we tell ourselves . To which River responds that “ happy ever after ” does n’t actually mean constantly — the Doctor , with his unnatural life and foreigner perspective on time , is incapable of understanding that “ happy ever after ” just mean a little more time .
The vocalizing Towers themselves become a metaphor for the human relationship between the Doctor and River — River says they ’re incapable of loving you back , the same style she feel the Doctor is . But the Doctor responds that it ’s the exact distance between them , not any place of the tower themselves , that make them sing .
And then it rick out that their “ final night ” together will actually be 24 years because of the recollective nights on Darillium , thus prove River ’s point that “ happy ever after ” is just a matter of more time , not interminable time .
This episode feels almost metafictional in its desire to put exaggerated versions of these two opposing sight of River opposite each other . And the main response that it offers , in the oddment , to the critic of the show ’s determination to make all other eccentric satellites of the hero , is the same one we ’ve take heed a fate latterly . The Doctor is a reasonably tragic flesh . His power is also his cage . He ca n’t change what ’s going to happen to River , just as he should n’t have commute what happened to Clara . sentence levy costs on him , even more than everybody else .
In the ending , River Song ’s story has already been told , and the most this episode can do is be sick it in a new lighter . But I like to consider of River steal the medico ’s TARDIS and take in cargo of adventures while he was out and about , never the wiser . That , much like Clara and Ashildr in their diner TARDIS , arrive at for an paradigm that ’s immensely satisfying , and revisionist in a near way .
Edit : Tweaked the hatchway discussion section to elucidate , add in a judgment of conviction I intend was in there already .
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