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

[promethia_tenk]

I'll admit that I'm hinging a lot on faith right now. But my precedent is definitely Amy's story last year. I spent big chunks of last season deeply uncomfortable about Amy's storyline--convinced that she really did not want to be with Rory and worried that the show was going to push her into an ill-advised marriage and try to sell it as a happy thing. And the worst of all that was that I really couldn't tell whether I was meant to be uncomfortable or if the show was oblivious to all these problems. But, I'll hand it to Moff, it turned out so much better than I was expecting. Now he's playing an even more delicate and dangerous game this season, not just with River's backstory but also with Amy and Rory and their baby and how that'll go. But . . . I'm willing to wait and see and assume that I'm meant to be feeling uncomfortable right now. (Also with the Silence--I have a sneaking suspicion the Doctor's actions in DotM are going to turn out to be ill-advised as well.)

It's usually about characters or romances or life choices that the world isn't aware of but are the entire reason for the visible faces we present and and lives we lead. Maybe because within those hidden plotlines is when we are most honest and that's what calls me to it.
I'm a fan of this kind of storytelling as well. And, indeed, I think it's a big aspect of what I find so appealing in River's character. It's throwing me quite a lot that the specifics of that hidden plotline are so different from what I'd assumed, but at the same time I feel like my underlying sense of the character is getting affirmed and reinforced, so I'm, like, very unsettled and very reassured all at the same time? It's been an exceedingly weird plot twist to adjust myself to.

From that point of view, I imagine her doing this and then going, "You'll be happy. She was happy. What is the problem?" Then the Doctor says something about the nature of choice and she giggles herself sick.
Oh, very good point about Idris being like a Greek goddess--that is so much what she feels like! And the Olympians were always so careless with how they intervened in human affairs. Your little dialogue has me cracking up--that's exactly how it would go if they could ever talk again, lol.

[cinderbella333.livejournal.com]

I am definitely working off faith right now too. Of course, it feels like I've been working off faith this entire series so far. However, River and Eleven are worth it.

And what you said about the new info both challenging and affirming your sense of who River is . . . I feel like I've been going through the exact same thing. It's very emotionally confusing. And exhausting.

"And the Olympians were always so careless with how they intervened in human affairs." Exactly! I'm glad you agree with my interpretation. :)