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The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River
Let’s begin with something lovely. Say hello to singer-songwriter Ally Rhodes, who has written a beautiful song titled “River Song,” which is actually about River Song (as opposed to being a song about a river).
She writes that the song is about “the triumph of love over predetermined destiny.” The lyrics contain lines like “You and I breathe constellations/And twist them in our lungs to stay alive/You’ve lain in silence on the ground/But from the dirt and tears, you learned to rise.”
We think it combines the mysticism of Stevie Nicks with the voice of Christine McVie. Your experience may vary:
Naturally, a quick-working fan has already set Rhodes’s song to clips from the show, and this is also something to be applauded:
Here’s what else is going on this week:
• While we’re waiting for the next series of Doctor Who to get started, who wants to play a game? Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is set to be released on PS3 and PS Vita in March, with a PC version coming shortly after, and as you can see from this trailer, it pits the Doctor and River Song against some of his most despicable foes.
• A few weeks back, we pointed to some clips from the David Tennant-narrated Earthflight, the BBC’s latest look at life in the wild. Well, here’s more of Tennant’s musical Scottish burr at work, as brightly colored macaws soar over the Amazonian jungle:
• In another treat from the BBC Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel, Clive Doig explains what it meant to be “a vision mixer” in the early days of the series.
• What does Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy want for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who? Here he is interviewed alongside Sophie Aldred (Ace), who says that Russell T Davies had plans for her to appear on The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• YouTube user SaphireRain42 has re-made the Doctor Who instrumental piece “The Mad Man with a Box” from Season 5 using “70 tracks, 65 of them violins.” You know, the word “EPIC” is so overused that it’s now nearly meaningless, but, this time, the term has rarely been so fitting.
• And while we’re on musical matters, here’s that Radiophon-A-Tron again. It’s the ancient flash game made by the classic Doctor Who website in the early 2000s, which features all the sounds from the old theme tunes.
• This week’s companions are action man Steven Taylor and bullish teen Vicki (she appears to have had no surname) who traveled with the First Doctor, and were the first replacements for the classic early traveling team of the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara. Read all about them.
• Fans of classic Who will probably be very familiar with the story of Shada, a Douglas Adams-script for the Fourth Doctor which never finished filming thanks to a strike among BBC technicians. Some of the footage ended up being used in The Five Doctors, but the script languished in the vaults for years until it was resurrected for a series of special animated webcasts (which are here, narrated by Paul McGann and Lalla Ward). And now it’s been novelized too. Is novelized a verb? Let’s say it is for now. We can argue about it later.
28 Comments
Excuse me while I vomit. What kind of sick crack-pot writes a love song to a creepy, gross, stalking, sociopathic puke from hades?
Someone who isn’t playing with a full-deck that’s who!
In the beginning River was okay. nothing special but okay and if Moffat hadn’t been such an incompetent pinhead he would have just had this pain-in-the -butt just turn out to be a future companion who loved nothing better then to mess with the Doctor. THAT would have made her a cool companion. BUT NO! Moffat decided to go straight up his rear-end and pull out every cliched, predictable, boring and just plain insane storyline he could find up there.
now she is a sick pathetic artificial wanna-be time lord who has (to date) DONE NOTHING special! Everything that puke has ever done has already been done by previous companions pre 2005.
And before any young punks start babbling that the old stuff doesn’t matter, get bent! I’m 22 and I love the old stuff and a little of the new.
It matters. everything from flying the tardis, shooting weapons, talking back to the dr. in fact almost every female companion post 2005 talked back to the dr so to try and make it look like something special now is just a joke.
and river is hardly the first companion to be willing to sacrifice for the dr. Jo Grant threw herself in front of the 3rd dr and told a Daemon to take her instead of the dr. If he hadn’t gotten so confused by her willingness to sacrifice herself for the dr she could have wound up dead.
And the 3rd dr was obviously in love with both Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith. And the 4th dr was obviously in love with Romana. The Dr’s one and only true equal. River is a just a sad insane joke.
anyone who thinks the dr could ever fall in love with such a repulsive character is just plain sick in the head. and that goes double for moffat.
oh and they are NOT MARRIED! thank goodness. whatever happens in one timeline ceases to exist in the original time line. And for all the idiots running around prattling that they are married because they “remember being married”. LMAO!! following that insane and laughable lunatic “logic” then if Amy and Rory remember NOT BEING MARRIED then would they suddenly cease to be married? Of course not. That would be…..Insane? lol
And don’t get me started about how stupid and lame the whole mystery surrounded the dr name. UH, HELLLLLOOOO!
Before the Dr ran away from Gallifrey with his Granddaughter in a rickety old Tardis, he USED HIS REAL NAME EACH AND EVERY DAY!
Seriously how stupid would someone have to be not to figure that one out? So before Gallifrey was time -locked there were probably hundreds if not thousands of time lords who knew the Drs real name.
Borusa, his teacher at the Academy, his classmates The Master, The Rani, Drax, Runcible. And the list could go on.
And now there is rumor that Sophie myles from the GITF might return. speculation is running wild on whether or not she will play the same role or if she might play a different role.
If the moron Moffat has her playing a descendant of Madame de Pompadour then that is nothing new. Dodo Chaplet was a descendant of Anne Chaplet a character the First Doctor had met in the previous story “St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre Eve”. And had thought Anne had died which is why Steven Taylor had temporarily left the Dr before he returned later to warn him about some police officers who wanted to talk to the Dr.
If she is a descendant she had better be the offspring of Madame de Pompadour and the king or some member of his court. otherwise the character would be multiple great-granddaughter of the Dr. And therefore there could be no romance as that would be incest. but then again, seeing how sick some of you are you might be into that. But those of us who are decent and normal would be thoroughly sickened by such a storyline and those would be more then sufficient grounds for the BBC to fire Moffat. So we will assume that if she is the Dr’s multi-great-granddaughter there would be no romance.
So basically, you don’t like her…
I think you Jessica need to get a life and lighten the hell up. how long did it take you to comment that incessant whiny post? You don’t like her? Oh boo hoo now go find something else to whine about.
Sorry Jessica….stopped reading after you threw up…
Jessica, you jelly?
@Jessica
Wow. If you feel that way about the song and this character, then isn’t such an amount of hatred a little strange as well? Personally, I find River Song to be a fantastic character. Alex Kingston is brilliant in the role. I also enjoy what Moffat has done with the show as well. He has created some very memorable stories and characters. One thing that has always bothered me about many Who fans is that they whine about everything, as if the show cannot stay as good as it is or improve. If something changes (such as a writer) or if a new character is introduced, it’s always worse than what came before. The show has always been great and it is now. Yes, even with River and Moffat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znREQyTyTgA&list=UU0mkrCNEJsT4pfexlNlKfdA&index=19&feature=plcp
Watch this!!
Thats a Dr Who song!
Jessica, get over it. She’s a FICTIONAL character and yes she does add some new creative ideas to the show. While the past companions have done a whole lot, Moffat used her character in a fantastic and creative way. From the time she was introduced in season four to when she “killed” the Doctor in the last season finally, her story has been amazing! So boo-hoo, you don’t like River Song, but dont cry to everyone about it.
To the rant above: I get that some people don’t like River Song, and I get that some people don’t like the direction series 6 went. However, I DON’T get why anyone would dislike where the show has set itself to be heading for series 7. And just to address a blatantly incorrect point, the Doctor NEVER went by his real name before, even in the classic seasons. It was always fake, i.e. John Smith; Doctor Caligari; Dr. James McCrimmon; also, Foreman was Susan’s last name, but it was clearly specified that it had nothing to do with the Doctor’s name. It’s been seeded in numerous eps of revived Who (“The Girl in the Fireplace”, “The Shakespeare Code”, “The Fires of Pompeii”, “Forest of the Dead”, etc.) that his true name is a dreadful secret that has never before been revealed, except to River at some point in the future. So, future Who storylines relating to his true name are perfectly sensible, canonical, and IMO exciting.
Anyway, Ally Rhodes’ song was enjoyable, and the cover of The Mad Man With a Box was brilliant too. Cheers my fellow Whovians
Wow, I think Jessica needs a life! The flirting alone is worth the price of admission! Sorry Jessica but since time lords must have routinely dealt with paradoxes and alternate time lines, time lord law would compensate and recognize the marriage! Now run back to the bathroom and let it go girl! By the way, I was born the year D.W. was first o the year, watched the old show as much as possible, and never thought that Tom Baker could be beat as the Doctor. If only he had been around for modern effects and writing!! The new show is 1000% better than the old, and Matt Smith is amazing! He isn’t better than Tenant: he is just as good in completely different ways…Now go back on your meds and take a nap….
Guys! Jessica’s point are as fair and valid as anyone else’s. She is not the only person who feel the character of river song is too forced, too fake to really get behind. She has valid points against the character and if you love river then agree to disagree. People have varying opinions.
@Jessica I agree she is vile and i switch off when she is in an episode now
granted i was interested in her story when she first appeared but now i wish i didn’t know.
Here’s what I’ve read some where (sorry cant remember where, will post a link when I find it again):
River is part Timelord/galifreian, right? the only timelord around is the Doctor…hmm… think about it…Doctor blames the poor old TARDIS for his slip up!
River Song hasn’t done anything special so far in the series, but it took some time for all of the previous companions to be outstanding. Maybe, she will be more valuable to the Doctor since she isn’t a traditional companion.
Take Wilfred, who accompanied the Doctor during one of his darkest hours. Noone gives him credit for being remarkable, but without him the Time Lords would have returned.
So, give River some time, she could outshine Rose, Donna, and even Amy.
Mark! Yes, when someone dislikes a character, that’s fine. Unfortunately, the majority of Jessica’s points are completely invalid. So, let’s examine them, shall we? (1) Having River just turn out to be a random future companion of no importance would have been insanely boring and would have made everything she did in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead that much more meaningless. (2) River isn’t a Time Lord wannabe — she’s a proper Time Lord as described by show canon. Maybe you don’t like that she used the rest of her regenerations to save the Doctor. If you want a scene where regenerations are REALLY used improperly, go back to the transition from Romana I to Romana II from the classic series. (3) The point isn’t that River talked back to the Doctor when other companions didn’t, the point was that she KNEW MORE about some things than the Doctor did — including things about his TARDIS and his future. A companion actually knowing more about the Doctor than he knows about himself is a plot idea that hadn’t remotely been explored in Who, and a companion who had the expertise to challenge him in other areas hadn’t really been touched since Romana. (4) As for Jessica’s cry that River and the Doctor aren’t legitimately married, that’s something that the cast themselves already acknowledged isn’t a certainty — Alex Kingston voiced that point herself in an interview; anyone who follows Who should already know this. (5) As I pointed out in my post above, the Doctor has as of yet NEVER ONCE used his actual name on screen. EVER. Not in the Classics. Not in the revived series. Never. Period. The End. If Jessica thinks so, she clearly doesn’t have quite so good a grip on Classic Doctor Who as she thinks she does.
So there you go. NONE of those points are valid beyond the fact that you and Jessica personally just don’t like the character. And as I stated previously – that’s fine by me. Just don’t spew nonsense attacking people who DO like River in order to rationalize your own dislike.
I’ve always loved the show. I’ve collected some Who stuff. Tardis ,sonic screwdriverS,daleks. I’m impatient for the next season to start.
Don’t care what long winded Jessica thinks about River Song. Personally, I would really enjoy a season with her (River) as the Doctor’s traveling companion. River has a point and fact way of dealing with things when it comes time to take care of the aliens she is willing and able to handle them.
Has no one else thought that River IS the Doctor’s Daughter?
I mean come on..Put two and 2 together ppl!
Doctor=Timelord
River= Part Timelord.
Oh but the Doctor says ‘blah blah’
ever heard of covering ya back especially against angry husband?
I have watched Dr Who for a long time now and it’s gotten very predictable, boring and down right disgusting. the reasons story/plot is flimsy and very predictable, so makes the show boring.
the reason it’s disgusting is how the character River Song is written/portrayed, she seems mentally unstable but somehow we should like her when she appears to be a stalker/psycho. I have no idea why this is shown as acceptable on a family show, when it shouldn’t be
#1: The Doctor definitley mentions his real name in at least one old episode. I’ve definitley heard of it used multiple times, and it was something kind of random that wasn’t as likely to be an alias.
#2: I never liked River, and I don’t think its legal for The Doctor to actually love her, but technically they did get married, even if by some law of whatever they’re not still legally married. (He also married someone else we’ll probably never hear about and was at least engaged to Marilyn Monroe… therefore its not completely accurate when he says ‘You’re THE WOMAN that married me’ to River.)
#3:The Doctor is NOT the doctor’s daughter, for the millionth time!
A) Do you really think he’d be so stupid as to marry her (even if he knew the timeline would change) if he knew she was his daughter?!
B) She was conceived when travelling through the time vortex- It specifically says that exposure to the time vortex caused timelords to become what they are, so it would make sense.
C) Amy tells Melody (as a baby, before she was ever known as River), that Rory was her father, which she probably wouldn’t have said (if the doctor was the father) considering neither the Doctor or Rory was there… and Melody wouldn’t remember it as to repeat it!
I’m rather smitten over River Song!