More theories on River, and more questions on series 6

[eve11]

I don't have a River icon but here's Amelia instead:



So if River turns out to be Amy's daughter (which it seems is the heavy implication), I will be a bit... disappointed. And a bit squicked out too. Mostly because of the whole relationship with the Doctor thing--first Amy tries to get in his pants and then he ends up at least somewhat romantically involved with her daughter? Ugh. That just rubs me the wrong way. And it's too soap opera, honestly.

And... it's predictable. Unless they take this twist and twist it more or something. I don't know that they will, though. I think Moffat isn't quite that clever and he underestimates his audience sometimes. I can see, for example, the Silence taking Amy's DNA and making a kid (who is also part Time Lord? So they use the Doctor's too?) and it being kind of a Connor from Angel kind of thing where the kid doesn't really know the parents at all. But for that the be the "big reveal"? I most likely should stop emotionally investing myself in this show. I'm trying not to be pessimistic here and honestly I really did find lots to like in the first two episodes but I don't see Steven Moffat as the JMS of Doctor Who and I really really hope he has his shit together better than David Kemper from Farscape--they were all "Oh the last half of season 4 is the best ever! Season 4 is the best stuff we've ever written! Watch season 4! etc. and I made the mistake of possibly believing them and it was not good. I want to believe Moff and the team but at the same time they are really pushing it. And the whole "you can just dive in whenever; we do arcs but we also are standalone", yeah Farscape sang that tune too, right before it got canceled. So I'm nervous. Very much so.

Bah. Pregnancy storylines. BAH! Anyway, currently I have very little faith that Moffat's resolutions are going to live up to the hype and buildup that has been going on.

Things I am still intrigued about:

1) Who was the lady in the door and WTF was with that scene. "No, I think she might be dreaming." Amy is dreaming? The little girl is dreaming? How did the door just appear and then disappear like that? Was the orphanage some kind of TARDIS? Is a grand portion of this series going to be retconned as somebody's dream? Most likely Amy's?

2) Who shot the Doctor? My current theory is that it's a post-"greatest fall" Doctor in the space suit, somehow reconciling time lines. It would be interesting if the Doctor's darkest hour resulted in some long-lasting repercussions. It would be interesting to me if somehow eg, his TARDIS blows up as a result of the war with the Silence or he loses his ability to regenerate or something catastrophic like that, wherein he meets River Song at that point in his life and she somehow helps him through it. Or, she both engineers the situation AND then redeems herself. But this also would be predicated on the idea that River is the Time Girl at the end of 6x02 who is being engineered into some kind of weapon against the Doctor by the Silence... which, it could be that the Time Girl is someone else entirely.

3) Who is the Time Girl? She is some kind of Time Lord, but is also a scared little kid from 1969, who is being minded by the Silence. But she escapes the Silence somehow and ends up regenerating in an alley in New York City. Does that mean the Silence have failed in whatever their mission was? What do the Silence really want? What does "Silence will fall" really mean? Why do they need TARDISes and proto-Time Lords? Is it instead that she's running from the Doctor?

3a) What is the deal with the Silence? What do they want? Why and how much have they been messing with the Doctor (and for how long)?

4) How much and what does the younger (ie not dead) Doctor know? Seems like way more than he's telling, I don't know.

infinity) How much of this crack is Moffat making up on the spot, and how much does he have down from the beginning? All the retconning with River's timeline is making me wary. Sorry to be angsting over here but my past experiences are not encouraging :(

Comments

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Okay, my questions/thoughts as they pertain to yours:

The Pregnancy - if the Silence were just mining Amy's DNA, that makes it harder to explain the photo of Amy and the baby. I'm curious about how Amy relates to the little girl, but currently more intrigued by the positive-negative pregnancy scan the Doctor runs on Amy at the end of the episode.

The woman in the door - as we talked about before, I do feel like it's a possibility that Amy is the one the woman is referring to, but I don't necessarily like that idea. What are they planning? Some sort of Matrix-like thing where Amy's been dreaming her whole life? Or a 'who shot JR' scenario where the Doctor's death and everything after that was a dream (that's a really bad scenario that better not be true).

Who shot the Doctor - I had a thought about this which is probably completely wrong and impossible but here goes anyway. Is it possible that when the Impossible Astronaut disrupted the Doctor's regeneration cycle, instead of simply killing him, he harvested the Doctor's essence. Sort of siphoned him into some sort of life-force container within the suit. I know it didn't really look like that in the episode, but it's just something that occurred to me a few days ago.

[eve11]

I like that idea about harvesting; and it would make sense in the bigger picture idea of the doctor reconciling two timelines and versions of himself into one.

[cyber001.livejournal.com]

At this point, I think the little girl is probably Susan, The Doctor's granddaughter, from the very beginning of the show oh so many decades ago. And, if that's so, I do believe that Amy and Rory are the parents. Now, since the little girl is clearly a Time Lord is some capacity, where did the Time Lord part come from?

I'm thinking River and the Doctor are Amy's parents. Remember how Amy was living with her Aunt before the crack even appeared in her wall? What happened to her parents? I know some people appeared when Amy rebuilt the universe at the end of last season, but were they her real parents, her foster parents, or just some dreamed up version she had created long ago that she was able to bring forth into reality as the universe remade itself? I could see any of those three being a possibility with this show.

Remember at the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut how River said 'a Time Lord's body is a miracle' and then made a big deal about burning it. Now, I know the scene and imagery were really cool, especially with them all standing in a line lit by the funeral pyre, and it did serve to hammer home that The Doctor was dead, but it just seemed ever so slightly out of place. Like, if they needed to fill time in the episode there would have been better ways to do it, or she could have just said 'it's what he would have wanted', thus further reinforcing her special relationship with The Doctor. But that line, it just... stuck out somehow.

Also, in The Time of Angels, River pretty clearly took a blood sample from Amy and then gave some bullshit excuse about why she needed it. What was she really looking for? Her whole 'spoilers' thing is a great literary tool because it is the perfect answer to 'why didn't she mention this before?' but it still leaves just a hint of foreshadowing.

Also, I'm kind of wondering if they aren't leading up to having a new Time Lord take command of the TARDIS for a season? Possibly a female Time Lord. Matt Smith will have two seasons as The Doctor under his belt very shortly and I'm wondering if, as a younger actor, he's not concerned with being mentally cast as The Doctor for the rest of his career. I know I would be in his place.

It's possible they might be leading into either a totally Doctor-less season with, and I'll call her Susan for now, Susan in control of the TARDIS as a newly created Time Lord, lacking the experiences of The Doctor but still have the innate genius and cleverness that seems to come with the pedigree and with Amy and Rory, or possibly other companions, providing the experience. Or perhaps, some minimal Doctor involvement from time to time, like an entire season of Blink.

Either way, I think they are trending away from this 'Meet The Doctor, immortal being from beyond space and time who knows everything and has all the answers every time and these people he seems to like hanging around with' to a more companion centered show. These days, with television, at least good television, being very character driven, I'm wondering if they aren't looking to put The Doctor, who let's be honest experiences no character growth what so ever unless it's in the first two episodes after a regeneration, in a more supporting roll and let the lowly humans take the forefront. I think it might be a good idea, especially if done slowly and with proper planning (something the British excel at), since eventually they are going to run out of plot lines and risk the show becoming too formulaic.

[eve11]

You bring up some good points... and ooh I like the idea of Amy being the Doctor and River's daughter. That would be a twist. Regarding the Doctor's body; it is actually canon or close to it about the body ofa time lord being a sought-after commodity; there was a novel called "Alien Bodies" that dealt with it, and remembering the Master, this isn't the first time we've seen a funeral pyre for a time lord.

[roboticduck.livejournal.com]

1) This was driving me crazy, because the first time I saw that lady, I was all WTF, but then with all the barrage of other mind-blowing going on, I forgot it until I saw it the second time (which then made me think, how eerily that echoed the Silence reaction!). I know it only lasts about a second, but your mention of it is one of the very few mentions of it in any review I read. I am guessing that lady will be revisited with a lot more detail/exposition/plotty complexity later on.

I am with you, the River as daughter, Amy as daughter, Doctor children, etc theories going around would seem too easy. I want curveballs! :)