16 October 2012

The Doctor and River Song: Part 1

After series 6 of Doctor Who ended, I'd see a lot of talk about the Doctor's attitude towards Dr. Song.  About his contempt towards her and how he clearly didn't want to marry her.

Even if you haven't watch the Night and the Doctor mini-episodes, I think it's pretty clear that the Doctor does have strong affection, at the very least, for River.

In his own timeline, the first time he kisses River at the end of Day of the Moon, even if taken by surprise, he seems to quite get in to it.  Earlier in the story, he had at least a couple of obvious flirting moments with her.  When they first get to the warehouse where the little girl is as he looks out the window, and when they rescue Amy.

In A Good Man Goes to War, he doesn't act anything less than delighted when he's miming out kissing to River, after he finds out who she is.  In Let's Kill Hitler, when Melody turns into the body they'll know as River Song, when she kisses him, he obviously is kissing her back.

But let's talk about The Wedding of River Song, shall we?  When he arrives at the pyramid, sees River.  They have a short exchange:

River:  Am I the woman who marries you?  Or the woman who murders you?
Doctor:  I don't want to marry you.
River:  I don't want to murder you.

And people ask, if the Doctor truly does care for her, why would he say that, and convincingly?

The Doctor knows what it means to marry River Song.  He knows what she can't know yet, he remembers the Silence in the Library.  He knows that even if she survives in the computer, that she willingly, enthusiastically even, gave her life to save all those thousands of people, even more accurately, to save him.  And he knows that to get to that point, she had to have information that she could only have if they married each other.  If they don't marry, he can ensure the day is put off as long as possible for her, possibly is even re-written.

So yes, he may resent marrying her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to marry her.

And the only reason I'm talking marriage specifically rather than love without doing the formal deed, is that marriage is the only circumstance under which he can reveal his true name, if I understand correctly.


Note: The Doctor's views on River Song are so much more obvious by this point in series 7, but this is from the point of view of the end of series 6.  More on their relationship at some point in the future.