[penny @replies]

I have another question:

Didn’t Clara learn of the Doctor’s name in that book she found while she was trapped inside the Tardis, but then forgot it when he reset time?  Couldn’t she just be suppressing the knowledge.  If River is the only person who knows his name then….

?

[penny @replies]

Just wanted to share this since we have been talking about the River Song timeline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv3rDSvmumI

[penny @replies]

@Shazzbot yes, I have seen the entire Amy/Rory story arc and I hold to my statement that in that moment the line was rather throw-away in that it was funny to hear the Doctor say it.  It contrasts with what we know the Rory and Amy dynamic to be and I guess that is also one of the reasons that makes it (supposedly) funny.  Also because it plays on stereotypes mentioned above.

By pointing out that there is a narrator behind the emotions of the characters, I was trying to make us aware of the fact that we (the audience) are being manipulated into thinking there are motivations behind the characters’ portrayals of love, when really we are told who really loves who, just as the characters are told (by their older selves) who to love.  Let me emphasize that point, we are told facts about characters emotions.  We could have been shown, but on this point (how the Doctor and River came to love one another) instead we are told.

[penny @replies]

@Shazzbot I think the Doctor calls Rory when Amy is “having emotions” is because the writers think it’s funny to make woman somehow more emotional then men.  This plays into conventional stereotypes of women being hysterical and over-emotional, while men are portrayed as playing it cool under pressure.

I think River will appear again if the actor playing her agrees to be in more episodes and therefore has little to do with what we have already learned about her character.  Although this final “sweeps” episode seems to attempt to bring closure to Rivers demise.  The Doctor tells Clara that she is in fact (some sort of) “ex” [girlfriend].

My original point about River never deciding she is in love with the Doctor has to do with the problem of their relationship more broadly.  That both of them are more or less told by older versions of their spouses that they will in fact marry and therefore everything happens as it should to avoid a paradox (they agree because they believe that their future selves do in fact agree to the relationship).  They have to because the narrators (the writers) tell them what to think and feel.  We have to remember that characters in stories are not in fact autonomous agents capable of making decisions.

 

 

 

[penny @replies]

@craig thanks for sharing the mini-sodes

@Shazzbot

[penny @replies]

@scaryb

Not necessarily, because we know from the mini episodes that Eleven is the face that says goodbye to River Song forever.  So River’s stories on screen will have to end before they recast Matt Smith.

[penny @replies]

Questions:

Does this mean that the Doctor will never have contact with River again?

More importantly, when the heck does River decide for herself that she wants to be with the Doctor?  None of the maps that show where their timelines intersect mention when River actually falls in love with the Doctor of her who free will.

[Author]

Posts