The Doctor's Wife

[promethia_tenk]

I really, really didn't like the big reveal in the last episode at first, but I'm gradually coming around by realizing it's a lot more complex and interesting than it seems on the surface.  Then I realized this:

I think it very possible that the TARDIS made River so that the Doctor wouldn't be alone.  Or, at the very least, that she stacked the deck [ETA: much discussion of the creepiness of this in the comments, with meta-y implications]:



From "The Doctor's Wife" we learn:

1) The TARDIS exists in all of time and space and can see futures.
2) She stole him.
3) She always takes him where he needs to go (like, say, Amy's house).
4) She can't talk with him all the time, but she loves him.
5) She seemed very preoccupied with River right before she died--asking for water and repeating the line about the forrest.

In 6x07 we learn exposure to the time vortex during conception causes pseudo Time Lord-y-ness!  Somehow the idea that the TARDIS rigged things makes me more willing to accept the timehead explanation, which I found pretty lame at first . . .

And then there's the stuff that's more just suggestive:

1) That very ambiguous episode title: "The Doctor's Wife."

2) The echoed "hello" greetings with both the TARDIS and River.

3) All the TARDISes were dead, but together they built a new TARDIS--"It's not impossible as long as we're alive."  All the Time Lords were dead, so she built him a new Time Lord?

4) Of course the TARDIS routes calls to her and keeps her from exploding.

5) "She's the TARDIS, and she's a woman!"  "Did you wish really hard?"

6) It's all rather Adam's rib, which I find a bit :-\  But then on the other hand, that is rather delightfully meta since, as a character of course, River was written for the Doctor, so I think I prefer that the text acknowledge that?  Also River has an apple on the shelf in her cell in Stormcage.  Or she did last season--it seems to be missing now, which the obsessive part of my brain really wants to mean something.

 

Now I'm just trying to decide if this was a wholly unselfish move on the TARDIS's part, or if she wants timebabies who could pilot her after he's dead . . .

ETA: Been stuck on this vid of late, and since it's gorgeous and oh so relevant (Doctor/TARDIS), might as well do a pimp: Suzanne, by such_heights .

Also been having to remind myself that, as incongruous as the "River is Amy and Rory's daughter" reveal seemed, the way Moff's written it, it's actually all tied up in all the themes and ideas I was thinking about, oooh, last July, and had since gotten bored of and moved on from.  *smacks head to dislodge thoughts*

 

Comments

[elisi]

The first one of the recs in this post. :)

(I think I love the second one even more...)

[promethia_tenk]

Ahhhh . . . gracias <3