History Characters / DoctorWhoRiverSong

[[caption-width-right:300:''"Hello, sweetie."'']]

-->''"Spoilers!"''

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions Revival Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], '''River Song''', [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

[[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor 14]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifteenthDoctor 15]]\\

[[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor 14]]\\

[[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]]\\

* CloningBlues: River is given at least the opportunity of such a situation in “The Lady in the Lake” when she finds a group of ‘proto-Time Lords’ created from her DNA who possess at least some of her potential abilities, including a limited ability to regenerate. While at least one of these clones independently became a psychopath, River considered the proto-Time Lords as a whole to be her family, and [[spoiler:is able to help the rest turn against Madam Kovarian]].

* CatchPhrase:

** She and the Doctor give ''each other'' the "Spoilers!" CatchPhrase during their respective first proper meetings.

* TheNthDoctor: She's been played by Creator/AlexKingston, Harrison and Madison Mortimer, Sydney Wade, Maya Glace-Green and Nina Toussaint-White. Technically, some of those actresses are [[TimeShiftedActor differently-aged versions]] of the same incarnations: River gets three on-screen[[note]]She goes from a little girl in 1960s America to a toddler in 1990s Ledford, so there's room for other incarnations in between[[/note]] incarnations in total.

* ForegoneConclusion: She dies in her first appearance, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]. Her subsequent appearances are earlier in her timeline. [[note]]With one post-death appearance by her saved consciousness: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]][[/note]]

->''"Goodbye, sweetie."''

----

* ArchEnemy: While it may be a stretch to refer to them as such, River ended up encountering several incarnations of the Master, setting them up as perhaps her most frequent foe.

* LuckyTranslation: The French language uses two different forms for "you", the informal "tu" (for family and close friends) and the polite "vous" (superiors, people you don't know, etc.). In the French dub, the Doctor and his companions usually address each other with "vous". During River's first appearances, up until [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]], she uses "tu" when talking to the Doctor, and he uses the polite "vou bys". This switches around in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler "Let's Kill Hitler"]], with River using "vous" and the Doctor using "tu". By [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan "The Angels Take Manhattan"]], however, they're both using "tu".

* PoisonousFriend: She bitterly self-identifies as a psychopath.

--->'''The Doctor:''' ...[[ShesGotLegs the Legs]], the Nose, and Mrs. Robinson.\\

* TokenEvilTeammate: She calls herself a psychopath (even though she's really not — psychopaths lack empathy, which River has loads of), but is still by far one the most violent allies of the Doctor.

* TokenEvilTeammate: She calls herself a psychopath (even though she's really not — psychopaths lack empathy, which River has loads of), and is by far the most violent of his allies.

* ArchEnemy: While it may be a stretch to refer to them as such, River ended up being forced to deal with the Master several times over in various incarnations.

River pays the Doctor the visit, but finds that he's younger than she remembers.

** Involving the Doctor, particularly against her, is yet another. [[spoiler:She is particularly unhappy when she finds out the incarnation of the Doctor who receives the Rulers' party invitation is Eight. She views Eight as [[Literature/TheIngenue naïve]], and finding out this version from him is from the early days of the Time War makes her all the more incensed.]]
* TheBusCameBack: After her final appearance in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]].
* CallForward: River has her sonic trowel in "The Diary of River Song", before it was established on-screen in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]".

* {{Troll}}: She realizes that Missy is the Master as soon as they meet in "The Bekdel Test", but pretends at first to think she's the Rani, and then the Meddling Monk, just to get on Missy's nerves.

''The Doctor's Wife/Professor of Archaeology''

A half-human/half-Time Lord, Melody Pond was the child of Amelia Pond & Rory Williams, conceived on the TARDIS after their honeymoon. We wouldn't know this until much later; we first meet her (before we meet her parents!) under the alias "River Song", as a professor of archaeology who we'll come to find has an unusually close relationship with the Doctor for many reasons. The first of which is that she and the Doctor never meet in the right order; the Tenth Doctor first met her in the Library in the 51st century, where it would be the last time for her (sort of — it's complicated), and it only gets more confusing from there. They move ''roughly'' in opposite time directions, and depending on what end of the timeline they're on respectively, they each know secrets about each other that they're unable to talk about without creating paradoxes. As a result, she's a walking collection of "Spoilers!" and very much aware of it.

The other reason is that her mother was abducted by a splinter group of the Papal Mainframe, a religious order who nominally protected certain sections of the universe. This splinter group, led by Madame Kovarian, foretold of the Doctor's arrival on a world called "Trenzalore", where, due to a confluence of events, the Last Great Time War would begin anew leading to the Doctor's permanent death. Engaging in extremes to prevent this, Kovarian abducted Amelia, held her captive on the asteroid "Demon's Run", and forcibly removed Melody from her mother upon birth, the idea being to train her as an assassin who would utilize her Time Lord abilities to insert herself into her parents' timeline as a friend called "Mels". Gaining intel, she would then move in and at the right time, kill the Doctor for good, succeeding in one timeline. What Kovarian didn't count on was Melody genuinely falling in love with him, even marrying him at a moment where his death was prevented, causing time to freeze but history to happen all at once.

** The 12th Doctor encounters River, who obviously doesn't recognize him in his [[TheNthDoctor new regeneration]] and he just strings her along for the entire episode.

* ForegoneConclusion: She dies in her first appearance, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]. Her subsequent appearances are earlier in her timeline.

* LoopholeAbuse: Think that setting your base in a field that prevents time travel will save you? Not when the depot that supplies you isn't covered by a similar field. [[spoiler:River exploits it for all it is worth, and [[UpToEleven then some]].]]

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[[caption-width-right:250:''"Hello, sweetie."'']]

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