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rabid1stI think that it helps me to sleep on things for a bit. Not that sleep makes me any more insightful...but it does allow me to see even more connections between things...to address other people's points of view.
I'm about to do what that again...re: episode 9.
And first, let me say that it could be ironic that I would give this much attention to a Moffat episode while poohing his relevance...but the very reason why I do pooh-pooh is that I think Moffat might actually lack any relevance and all of us are just wasting our time trying to uncover some greater meaning to this that isn't even there. Far too many hailed "geniuses" of television writing simply don't know what they are doing and aren't working toward any sort of plan and fans waste years trying to figure out "deeper meanings" that don't exist*.
However, I was wasting my time in my sleep anyway. So, I woke up with a renewed look at River being the Doctor's mother. Someone mentioned that in passing as a possibility...on some LJ I visited or in some comment I read.
And I was all...PFFT! But, then, I was responding to the question of his interbreeding with humans and I mentioned that old chestnut from the DWMovie about how he is "half-human on his mother's side."
What if he really is, but never knew his mother? Because Gallifreyans don't actually have Dads? Or because they aren't naturally domestic? So what if he was taken and raised by the collective society...or taken at some early age to "the academy" and never really knew his parents? Or his father raised him because his mother died in a library? What if she was human and so was spared the total devastation of Gallifrey and the Time Lords and he doesn't find her until later. It would explain putting her on that throne at the end...with the crown of thorns headpiece. The elevation of the mother figure of the savior. Yes, I know that's corny...just as bad as the Christmas Angels of 2007.
But it would also explain the "Hello, Sweetie" and the "Sometimes I hate you" and even the, "I know." He was a Dad once so he knows how you can hate your kids sometimes when they won't listen. More than that...it explains the "Hush, now." That was quite maternal. It would explain her whole attitude to him which was as if he were a wonderful but stubborn and brilliant child, who thinks he knows everything.
It would explain him dropping by and taking her to wonderful places. He wouldn't have to live with her to be always in her heart and to have her feel he should know her anywhere. It would explain the sense she has that she knows him inside and out and how proud she is of him when she doesn't seem to know him at all. My son THE Doctor, as it were. It would explain calling him "difficult young"...especially if she knew she had no hand in raising him. It would explain the tender touch to his cheek, yet the total lack of sexual chemistry (something that it is very hard to do with David Tennant). It would explain her interesting reaction to Donna and her desire to protect her boy. It would explain decking him.
Yes, the innuendo about handcuffs might be icky but only if we absolutely insist that it's about bondage...maybe it's not about that at all. Maybe it's about something spoilery in her life that he can't know yet. Maybe she's had to deck him and go on with her business before this. Obviously, she loved every minute of her time with him...and there are definite deep overtones of her importance to him...and I must say it is very tempting to just think of her as the woman he loves from the future who he doesn't love yet.
But two things put me off on thinking they were lovers. Not the lack of chemistry (but as I say above that could be important...as she was presented as the literary whore figure, yet not completely successful in seduction...I mean Ten kisses everybody...why draw the line at a future wife?). He doesn't try to touch her at all...and he even touches DONNA in this episode. But, what makes me wonder is that she knows telling him his name will hurt him...she apologizes for telling him.
And if it only means they were married or something, then I see no need to apologize.
Second, he doesn't react like he wants to know more. He reacts like he's scared to know more, like he dare not change anything. And that isn't something I think he would do to some random lover or even a wife. Maybe it is a soulmate issue or something. But I doubt that. It strikes such an out of place note in the story at this time...as the reaction of the Rose-fans indicate. It really does seem like lunacy to introduce a soulmate figure here, just before Rose returns. I think River has to be linked to his family somehow to get that sort of reaction from him. Originally, because of the tendancy to look at things through a romantic filter...and Moffat definitely trying to lead us there...I thought she might be the mother of his future children.
But I tell you...if what I think is going to happen with Rose is true...having the Doctor's human mother pop in at this juncture...would be relevant. It would, essentially, remind him that he has another heritage...one where he still has family...one that could be equally as important to his life as his Gallifreyan heritage. And instead of all of River's recollections actually diminishing her relevance...they would compound it. I mean, if she's a "true love companion" then everything he ever did with her...has been spoiled...and lacks meaning. But if she is his mother...then he has something to look forward to in earnest. And we could well have River mentioned again, too, so I'd owe Mr. Moffat another apology.
I owe him the first apology for the 5.4 rating...it seems that was a reaction to the episode being a two-parter. I looked back over the ratings...and many of the two-parters from S2 onward...suffer from lackluster ratings. Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit had the same problem. Though 5.4 is still an alarming drop and doesn't bode well for a Doctor Who without David or Russell.
Rae
*by the way, this is what I love about RTD...so far, he has never left me feeling it was a waste of my time to wonder where he was going with something...so far...he's always been going somewhere.
I'm about to do what that again...re: episode 9.
And first, let me say that it could be ironic that I would give this much attention to a Moffat episode while poohing his relevance...but the very reason why I do pooh-pooh is that I think Moffat might actually lack any relevance and all of us are just wasting our time trying to uncover some greater meaning to this that isn't even there. Far too many hailed "geniuses" of television writing simply don't know what they are doing and aren't working toward any sort of plan and fans waste years trying to figure out "deeper meanings" that don't exist*.
However, I was wasting my time in my sleep anyway. So, I woke up with a renewed look at River being the Doctor's mother. Someone mentioned that in passing as a possibility...on some LJ I visited or in some comment I read.
And I was all...PFFT! But, then, I was responding to the question of his interbreeding with humans and I mentioned that old chestnut from the DWMovie about how he is "half-human on his mother's side."
What if he really is, but never knew his mother? Because Gallifreyans don't actually have Dads? Or because they aren't naturally domestic? So what if he was taken and raised by the collective society...or taken at some early age to "the academy" and never really knew his parents? Or his father raised him because his mother died in a library? What if she was human and so was spared the total devastation of Gallifrey and the Time Lords and he doesn't find her until later. It would explain putting her on that throne at the end...with the crown of thorns headpiece. The elevation of the mother figure of the savior. Yes, I know that's corny...just as bad as the Christmas Angels of 2007.
But it would also explain the "Hello, Sweetie" and the "Sometimes I hate you" and even the, "I know." He was a Dad once so he knows how you can hate your kids sometimes when they won't listen. More than that...it explains the "Hush, now." That was quite maternal. It would explain her whole attitude to him which was as if he were a wonderful but stubborn and brilliant child, who thinks he knows everything.
It would explain him dropping by and taking her to wonderful places. He wouldn't have to live with her to be always in her heart and to have her feel he should know her anywhere. It would explain the sense she has that she knows him inside and out and how proud she is of him when she doesn't seem to know him at all. My son THE Doctor, as it were. It would explain calling him "difficult young"...especially if she knew she had no hand in raising him. It would explain the tender touch to his cheek, yet the total lack of sexual chemistry (something that it is very hard to do with David Tennant). It would explain her interesting reaction to Donna and her desire to protect her boy. It would explain decking him.
Yes, the innuendo about handcuffs might be icky but only if we absolutely insist that it's about bondage...maybe it's not about that at all. Maybe it's about something spoilery in her life that he can't know yet. Maybe she's had to deck him and go on with her business before this. Obviously, she loved every minute of her time with him...and there are definite deep overtones of her importance to him...and I must say it is very tempting to just think of her as the woman he loves from the future who he doesn't love yet.
But two things put me off on thinking they were lovers. Not the lack of chemistry (but as I say above that could be important...as she was presented as the literary whore figure, yet not completely successful in seduction...I mean Ten kisses everybody...why draw the line at a future wife?). He doesn't try to touch her at all...and he even touches DONNA in this episode. But, what makes me wonder is that she knows telling him his name will hurt him...she apologizes for telling him.
And if it only means they were married or something, then I see no need to apologize.
Second, he doesn't react like he wants to know more. He reacts like he's scared to know more, like he dare not change anything. And that isn't something I think he would do to some random lover or even a wife. Maybe it is a soulmate issue or something. But I doubt that. It strikes such an out of place note in the story at this time...as the reaction of the Rose-fans indicate. It really does seem like lunacy to introduce a soulmate figure here, just before Rose returns. I think River has to be linked to his family somehow to get that sort of reaction from him. Originally, because of the tendancy to look at things through a romantic filter...and Moffat definitely trying to lead us there...I thought she might be the mother of his future children.
But I tell you...if what I think is going to happen with Rose is true...having the Doctor's human mother pop in at this juncture...would be relevant. It would, essentially, remind him that he has another heritage...one where he still has family...one that could be equally as important to his life as his Gallifreyan heritage. And instead of all of River's recollections actually diminishing her relevance...they would compound it. I mean, if she's a "true love companion" then everything he ever did with her...has been spoiled...and lacks meaning. But if she is his mother...then he has something to look forward to in earnest. And we could well have River mentioned again, too, so I'd owe Mr. Moffat another apology.
I owe him the first apology for the 5.4 rating...it seems that was a reaction to the episode being a two-parter. I looked back over the ratings...and many of the two-parters from S2 onward...suffer from lackluster ratings. Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit had the same problem. Though 5.4 is still an alarming drop and doesn't bode well for a Doctor Who without David or Russell.
Rae
*by the way, this is what I love about RTD...so far, he has never left me feeling it was a waste of my time to wonder where he was going with something...so far...he's always been going somewhere.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 12:34 pm (UTC)I really like this theory. It makes River interesting where I found her kind of annoying before.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 12:43 pm (UTC)So, all that has to happen is for the Doctor to have that switch in his paradigm...mention his human mother and then tell Donna..."You've met her. At the library?" And Donna to go..."What? Oh...River?" And we all feel a lot better. Plus, I do know that RTD has been longing to explain that half-human comment for years. This could be his chance.
Rae
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Date: 2008-06-09 12:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 02:05 pm (UTC)Examine it very closely for details though...because you see how I am with gnawing away at things.
My brain never stops creating new stories by putting the pieces of canon together in new ways...I stumble across what is happening in canon because I tend to look at it from so many different angles and that's also how I know when I'm being snowed by some "so called genius" because his pieces don't fit.
I dislike my brain sometimes because I just can't turn off that feature and believe in the "genius" of say...Ron Moore or Joss Whedon or Steven Moffat. Hints about the canon are particularly painful for me. All they do is take me down the road to disappointment and disillusion for the most part. I would rather wait for all that.
Rae
who hopes she won't be disappointed in RTD...who does seem to want things to make sense as much as I do.
(no subject)
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From:Hey...Cat...look at this!
From:...
Date: 2008-06-09 01:24 pm (UTC)You know, if I could believe Moffat to be that clever, it would have really made this two parter worth while. This theory is just.. brilliant. I think it tops all the others I have heard up to this point. Whoa...
Because you are completely right about the lack of chemistry, even from her end. The whole Time Traveller's Wife theme just felt out of place.
That's it. Until proven otherwise, this'll be my canon.
Re: ...
Date: 2008-06-09 01:48 pm (UTC)I do hope this is what they were going for...and then Moffat doesn't really need to be clever either...he could know that the Doctor being half-human was relevant to the end of the series...what RTD was working on...and have presented him with a tie-in story. I mean, at this point RTD has to be giving Moffat some idea where it is all going...so Moffat can start working on other things...RTD even mentions that he was riding along in a car with some writers from the show and talking about where the 2009 episodes would go...he would naturally do that with Moffat.
Rae
You know what else...
Date: 2008-06-09 01:58 pm (UTC)Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 01:26 pm (UTC)Alex Kingston did play River that way! Maternal.. even when she touches the Doctor's face in the first episode, it has nothing sexual... It's very maternal. They're like family! And she would know his name, as she's his mother! You're right!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 01:52 pm (UTC)And family has been so important this season.
This isn't really my theory...but it is one I am quite comfortable with and would love to see confirmed in canon.
River as a lover is just so very out of place at this juncture...even if RTD means to crush all hope and laugh at us for believing in the Rose/Ten love at the end...you would think he would get more milage out of the laughing if he waited a couple of episodes. This timing just seems totally wrong for a future lover...but it is completely right for his human mother to stop by at this point. And for him to lose her as he lost Jenny...and everyone else from his current perspective.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 01:49 pm (UTC)This theory actually makes me sort of like River a bit better.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 01:56 pm (UTC)Rae
giving Moffat lots more credit than he deserves on that one...I think, but still...willing to accept it if River is the Doctor's mom. Oh...and also...if he's a "Song" then the Ood comment has more relevance, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 02:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 02:42 pm (UTC)The laughter then is designed to let us think that's not it until the end...or...the laugh is because RTD and DT and Moffat know that the Doctor being half-human is important to the finale...but don't know if Moffat is serious or not.
Rae
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Date: 2008-06-09 02:43 pm (UTC)Wow.
I love this theory. Love it. To me, it even fits with "pretty boy" and those familiar addresses that, as you say, had no chemistry. An affectionate mother could dote on him that way, tease him about his good looks in this incarnation.
That'd be glorious- after all this time, feeling isolated and alone (as the only one of his species) to end this season with a daughter and a mother... that would be incredibly touching, I think.
Glad you posted this idea, even if it doesn't prove true in the future. It's lovely.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 03:07 pm (UTC)I do think he will end this season with a wife, too.
Fingers crossed for our Rose, being the lucky girl.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 03:26 pm (UTC)Yes! It would be a very good explanation for this (the lack of chemistry... sexual or otherwise... was the biggest problem for the lover/wife theory for me).
One big problem, to me, with the theory, though, is that this option does not seem to occur tho him. Yes he does seem scared by the fact that she knows, but he's also quite convinced that he told her his name. Which he wouldn't have to do if she was his mum.
all of us are just wasting our time trying to uncover some greater meaning to this that isn't even there.
Yeah, i firmly believe Moffat has no plan. Besides to laugh at us and piss off the D/R shippers. No way he put in all that stuff about spoilers and isn't VERY aware of fandom.
He set up River to be a mystery future VIC (very important companion), with specific romantic undertones. No more, no less. And I think I hate SM more with every passing hour.
Last night while I lay trying to sleep, I was lamenting the ruination of "Everybody lives!" *pouts*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 03:33 pm (UTC)But yeah, I'm totally willing to believe that all of this is just a way to upset our side of the fandom and RTD goes along with it because he knows that his story has a limit that is preset and Moffat's story goes on. I don't think RTD cares anymore than I care that the Doctor might love again someday.
What I care about here is the horridly bad taste this will leave in the mouth of Rose-shippers if we get no other explanation. It tarnishes what is to come for no good reason if River is just another companion he loved. On the other hand...as I said...he doesn't appear to really love her...so the Rose-shippers can dismiss her even as the Rose-haters cling to her with both hands.
RTD is, no doubt, completely aware of how his love story is mocked by some factions in fandom...and as you say...this episode speaks directly to the fans and mocks them. It could be their way of saying..."If you need another lover than the one you are about to get...with Rose...stick around and we might give you one."
Rae
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Date: 2008-06-09 05:31 pm (UTC)I was listening to the commentary and RTD asked Moffat who River Song was, and he said, jokingly, I thought, that she was "the Doctor's mum." So I would be surprised if this did end up being the story, but it makes a lot of sense to me anyway. I think it's more likely that it's just irrelevant.
But still. Theorizing is fun. :)
Yeah...I heard that he was joking about it
Date: 2008-06-09 08:07 pm (UTC)The fulfillment part is the part that I am interested in...and I hope RTD is interested in...there have been special companions before Rose...people the Doctor could have loved, like Sarah Jane. There have been women who were fascinating and beautiful and maybe he had sex with those women...as we see addressed in GitF. Maybe he's been married before...like we see indicated in Blink and Tooth & Claw. But I don't think he has ever surrendered his heart before Rose. I don't think he's ever been willing to change. I don't think anyone but Rose can fulfill him.
And he's going to outlive her...and love again...that's sort of a given in the shape of RTD's storyline. It wasn't the shape I gave Disheveled...but it is the shape of RTD's storyline...because RTD believes that what Jackie told Rose was the kindest thing she could do. He said Jackie was acting as "a real friend" to Rose telling her that she would lose her humanity if she kept traveling with the Doctor. And the main reason I feel RTD believes this...is that RTD believes Rose's humanity is what the Doctor sorely needs. He needs that dose of compassion and simplicity that only Rose Tyler can provide. He needs her to be "so very human."
Rae
We talk about Moffat, because he makes little sense
Date: 2008-06-09 06:13 pm (UTC)River says he's not ready yet, that he's not her Doctor. How can she say that, when he presumably carried him inside her for the first days of his life? But even if she had her genetics harvested from her, like Jenny, he should always be her son.
Which leads to a time blip. Why does River assume that the first time the Doctor turned up in her life is the earliest version of him she's allowed to encounter? She has a diary that tells us he pops into her life at different ages in his, sometimes earlier and sometimes later. Why should the library encounter make her feel rejected? Surely she's done the "I'm important to you, in your future" a few times before?
Then there's the name thing. If names can only be mentioned to family, what defines a family? The houses/chapters of cousins at the Academy? If so, why was Romana allowed to tell her full name to everyone as President?
So, true names can be freely exchanged on Gallifrey, assuming you haven't been stripped of your Time Lord status and forced to take another name. But the Time Lords are gone now, so why does the Doctor still hide his name? The Doctor says to Jenny that Time Lords are a shared history, a shared suffering. If he identifies as a Time Lord, he has to hide his name still. But maybe that's why the Doctor despairs to hear his name from a woman in his future. Maybe the Time Lords have come back in his future and reinstated his name freely, which means all this lonely emo survivor's guilt has been for nothing. That's despair.
The handcuffs are funny, but only because the Doctor asks why she carries them when he carries a wind up cat toy. Handcuffs obviously proved useful at the end of season three. The handcuffs are part of the 'reference things from the first three seasons.' The Doctor being stuck to a wall unable to reach for someone about to die is reference to Rose losing her grip on the level in Doomsday, and all he can do is watch.
Well...this woman is obviously another loss
Date: 2008-06-09 07:47 pm (UTC)I think the name thing could be important...or none of it could be important...Moffat has never really seemed that relevant to me. To me, he's always been about expanding the Doctor's story beyond RTD's story. A sort of reminder that the Doctor has known lots of women, had lots of sex, been married a few times and had many companions who adored him...Moffat is the reality check on RTD's reign.
Moffat gives us a very non-involved, impressive to the natives Doctor...and RTD gives us emo-broken-hearted Doctor. These two sides of one being will, hopefully, be reconciled before David Tennant and RTD leave...because I seriously doubt that Moffat is capable of reconciling anything so complex. His Doctor for all the lofty hyperbole piled on him by the impressed natives...isn't really very complex.
To me, though, it is quite simple to reconcile complexity if we suppose that 1) The Doctor is alien and eternal. 2) The Doctor has never had an oridinary life and wants one a lot and 3) He can have that life, if he accepts the limitations in it...that it will end and he will be alone again.
If we assume that happily ever after is conditional...for him...he can indeed have a happy life with Rose...and that will sustain him until many lifetimes from now...someone else sustains him. And so on...after River dies...there will be someone else. They are all important to him...companions aren't lovers and River isn't Rose, but maybe she did give him some comfort...or children.
As for her being his mom...and his not being ready...she could mean he's not ready to know what she represents for him. Like you said...Time Lords back...or maybe just that she is still alive and he does have family of some kind...maybe he's not ready to know how.
Or...maybe he needs to make the choice to go to Rose before he can make a choice to have ANOTHER human lover...River might know that...she might know, once she meets Donna, that she has hopped into his life before he understands about loving human woman...and she wouldn't want to explain it all.
The fact is there are too many variables here to narrow any of this down. And I think it won't really matter one way or another in the long run.
Rae
Of course...now...in hindsight...
From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-09 08:36 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'd basically agree wholehearted if it weren't for the handcuffs and the fact that, y'know, this is Moffat. Everything is about sex. And I'd rather she be his wife than the Doctor have the Oedipus complex. *grin*
yet the total lack of sexual chemistry (something that it is very hard to do with David Tennant) - ROFL, you are brilliant.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-10 12:35 am (UTC)But then again...I'm not one to romanticize the God figure. This is exactly why I like Rose...Rose has an attitude that is far more in line with my own morals and standards. I believe in equality, respect and support in a relationship. I could never be Martha and love without any return. Nor could I be Reinette or River and simply stay home waiting for him to drop by and take me on a picnic. I want him to cuddle my arm and say things like, "Your wish is my command," I want him to pine for me when I'm gone, not just find me a good location to live out a comfortable existence.
Rae
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Date: 2008-06-09 08:39 pm (UTC)I started reading Lungbarrow, the last Doctor Who novel from the original series. You can find a whole lot of his origins and his childhood in there.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-10 12:18 am (UTC)All you can say about Lungbarrow now is that it could be an alternative reality for the Doctor.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-10 02:15 am (UTC)The idea has potential though - if you put aside the things that could have been interpreted as lover-intimacy and cast them as relative-intimacy. I think it also gives additional weight to him being so disturbed - he must be terrified that he's crossed his own timeline and somehow screwed things up (of course, that could well be the case regardless of who River turned out to be.)
I'm going to try to see if the "mother" idea works for me - it at least lessens my dismay and sadness over having this interfere with the D/R story arc.
Thank you for verifying my "Crack Canon"
Date: 2008-06-11 02:14 am (UTC)I agreed with a totally (at the time) cracked theory with the following reasoning:
1. The references to the Empty Child "Are you my mummy?" in a previous episode.
2. CAL (the girl) being called sweetie by her "dad" which infers that this term of endearment is something a parent would call a child, not a lover call a lover. Therefore, River calling the Doctor sweetie has a different connotation to what I first thought.
3. The Doctor gave her his Sonic Screwdriver! If you can't trust your mum with your absolute prized possession, who else?
Everything that has been so eloquently said above rings very true to me, and the endless speculation around other coms that they were lovers was totally depressing me and making me think my theory was "rubbish" - at last, someone with creedence has the same thoughts as me! Wow!
Anyway, I love your theories as much as your fics, and was hoping I could add you to my friends list, just so I could keep up with all your posts :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-11 12:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-11 03:20 pm (UTC)Not so much with River...but in general...re: breeding with Rose.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-23 10:27 pm (UTC)However I think people are missing the point of the Doctor wondering about telling her his name. The assumption is that the "if" is if he's in some sort of relationship - be it familial or lover/marital. This is very unlikely since other timelords happily used their names so it doesn't seem to be a taboo.
However in the Pompeii episode whats her name the young seeress says that line "Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself". It could be that what he's saying is "if the Medusa Cascade is unsealed". After all it's supposed to be coming back to haunt us...
He's worried that he told her because the fact he could means something very bad is going to happen.
Or at least that's my theory.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-23 10:43 pm (UTC)Maybe his assumption of how he could have told her is wrong because he assumed the cascade stays sealed. There's been a lot of emphasis on his name this season and of the Medusa Cascade. Sometimes in combination. I'm sure it's significant somehow.
(no subject)
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Date: 2008-06-28 05:32 am (UTC)Brining in a future lover right before Rose would be a stupid move of Moffat's part, especially since he is taking over... It is like he wants an uproar >_< The mother theory is mush better :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-04 04:35 am (UTC)If you view River as a wife/lover, then her attitude towards the Doctor comes across as annoyingly condescending. If you view her as a mother, then it becomes totally understandable.
It really does seem like lunacy to introduce a soulmate figure here, just before Rose returns.
I absolutely agree with this. No matter whether you ship Doctor/Rose or not, it's very jarring and confusing.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-04 03:33 pm (UTC)I can almost accept your theory of River Song as the Doctor's mother, for many of the reasons you mentioned. No sexual chemistry, slightly patronizing behaviour, and the knowing of the name. Whatever the truth is, it seems pretty clear to me that there is no romantic/sexual relationship between them. And even if Moffat was trying to interject that element, in addition to there being no sexual chemistry between the actors/characters, David Tennant did not try to play any element of attraction for her.
My theory, however, is that River is actually Donna Noble, in the future. Maybe she looks different because of some kind of perception filter, or maybe it has something to do with how 'special' Donna is supposed to be. But it also explains the way River treats the Doctor. There is that caring, that maternal element, that closeness, but there is also the confrontation and teasing/mocking - 'pretty boy,' 'sweetie,' the handcuffs comment, the old married couple comment. And the visits to her would be because they remained friends after she stopped traveling with him.
But that's just my theory, and I do approve of yours, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-04 04:24 pm (UTC)The reason I didn't follow up on that line of thought was that River didn't recognize Donna. Now, it all depends on if you think you might not recognize yourself when standing outside yourself. It is possible that she went "You're Donna Noble?" because she was shocked at how big her nose had been. Or that she'd forgotten how she used to be...pre-Time Lording up...and had wiped all the events of this time from her mind...somehow.
She would also have to have amnesia of some kind to explain why it took her so long to remember anything about this version of the Doctor. But maybe all of that is explained in the finale.
Rae