I wasn't looking to be spoiled, but it happened, and now I know who River Song is. That fact was revealed at the end of "A Good Man Goes to War," the mid-season finale of Doctor Who, which aired today in the U.K. Fans won't be getting that episode until next Saturday ("The Almost People" airs tonight on BBC America). That means from about this point on, American Who fans read at their own risk if they don't want to be spoiled for the show's biggest twist since Steven Moffat took over the reins last year.
Ready?
And now, the point of no return: River Song is the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams. That really surprised some people; others had predicted it. I fall in the middle: that had been a theory of mine but I was surprised it actually came to fruition. So now that we know who River is -- oh, by the way, she's actually part Time Lord because she was conceived in the time vortex, probably due to Rory and Amy ignoring their bunk beds -- how does this affect the show? Well, it certainly changes the way we should look at "The Impossible Astronaut."
We know that this girl, at an early age, was with the Silence in 1960s America. We know that it was this girl because of the pictures of her with Amy in her room at the orphanage. How she came to be in the orphanage in the 1960s, or with the Silence, is still unknown.
We also know that the girl was put in a space suit, which the Silence engineered by causing humanity to create the space program. The suit had advanced life-support technology, which the girl apparently was able to break out of. Here's where the rub lies.
We also saw a spacesuit rise from a lake toward the beginning of "The Impossible Astronaut" and kill the Doctor. Since we saw young River (then called Melody Pond) in the spacesuit later, it makes sense to believe that she killed the Doctor in that scene by the lake. After all, River says that she killed the best man she ever knew. It fits.
And then there's the fact of the regneration that took place at the end of "Day of the Moon," where young Melody suddenly started glowing orange as she regenerated, due to her deteriorating health after escaping from the space suit.
And who can forget little Melodies debut, when Amy Pond -- her own mother-- shot at her and missed. Ironic, huh? Or how's this for irony -- and a big of a wrench in the works -- River shot at the astronaut after it killed the Doctor. Had she forgotten that she did this? Was she deliberately missing her mark? Was it even her in the suit?
My head is spinning, and I'm sure yours is too. Steven Moffat's wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey implications are always crazy, though they sometimes don't quite have a satisfying ending. Trust me, Moffat, this is one you can't muck up.
Doctor Who airs tonight (6/4) on BBC America with the episode "The Almost People." For the U.K., the Doctor will return in the fall for the episode "Let's Kill Hitler."
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