What is river song

This was also the first time we'd caught up with her since her debut. It was also a memorable first return for the Weeping Angels and saw the crash of the Byzantium, as referred to in River's diary in her first outing, 'Silence in the Library' see point Straight after this she pops back to Earth to visit River shares a quick glass of wine with Amy and Rory in their back garden. After River explains what actually happened in season seven something to do with pretending and spacesuits , Amy discovers that not only is the Doctor not dead, but that she's also his mother-in-law.

Sadly for River she sees her parents trapped in the past due to those nasty statues. She won't see them again. A Christmas outing as Peter Capaldi's take on the time-traveller meets River — but this time, rather hilariously, River doesn't recognise him. For the first time in their relationship, he has the upper hand. After a fairly forgettable 55 minutes or so featuring Greg Davies as grouchy robot King Hydroflax, we're treated to an emotional denouement. The two spend a final night together at the Singing Towers of Darillium, as she mentioned when the pair first met see below.

Thankfully, for both concerned, a night on this planet lasts 24 years. That's a lot of Time Lord lovin'. River meets the Doctor, then played by David Tennant, who has never met her before.

Shockingly for us and the Time Lord, we discover that she knows his name. Lucky gal. Professor Song sacrifices herself, but the Tenth Doctor "saves" her as a data ghost and she ends up in what we can only describe as an eternal digital spa. Escaping the idyllic digital spa for a few hours, River "meets" the Paternoster Gang and Clara via conference call. After kidnapping all but River as she's dead , the Great Intelligence and the Whispermen bring them to the Doctor's tomb on Trenzalore.

River finally says goodbye to the Doctor, and they share a smooch. Of sorts. Now, if that lot wasn't enough to scramble your mind, then please do bear in mind that River has also had numerous adventures in DVD-only eps, books, comics, audio plays and even video games — and continues to do so….

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? River and the Doctor were repeatedly invited to attend the fish people 's annual parties. The Doctor at one point decided to visit one of these gatherings, where they were tied up, dipped in guacamole , and hung upside down over a fire pit. River joined a date of her parents on the Doctor's initiative. Amy and Rory were disappointed by the unexpected double date. The Doctor and the Ponds had to decide where to go for their bank holiday and their ideas were conflicting.

River Song decided to leave them, making her own vacation plans as the Doctor and her parents went to Florana. River and the Doctor were chased by Judoon on Riftan Five. They were found because of her posts on the social network Bookface , but she defeated them by spamming their accounts with a game invitation.

She showed jealousy that Leela and Polly Wright commented the Doctor's profile. Info from Stop, Thief! Amy, Rory and River went to a cafe to find a version of the Eleventh Doctor two hundred years younger than the one inside the Teselecta. Adhering to the Doctor's rule against "spoilers" which could collapse time, she feigned ignorance of her childhood self's identity.

The only information she gave the Doctor about her old spacesuit was that which she could have reasonably determined by her inspection of it and she offered Amy and Canton no forewarning about what they would find in her old orphanage.

Any knowledge she may have retained about the Silence she kept to herself. River after killing a room full of Silents. TV : Day of the Moon. River, Amy, Rory, Canton, and the Doctor split up to investigate the Silence across America over the next three months. She helped the Doctor defeat the Silence by using their brainwashing of humanity against them, while making sure she did not meet her first incarnation. River killed all of the Silence who were holding her mother hostage.

At her request, the Doctor returned her to Stormcage, where she kissed him. He was shocked and she realised that from his perspective, it was their first kiss. Using her her vortex manipulator , River returned to Demons Run shortly after the conclusion of the Battle of Demons Run , mere minutes after Kovarian had fled with her infant body.

As the Doctor angrily confronted her on her refusal to help, River pointed out how his own actions had led to the events of the battle due to making people so afraid of him. As the Doctor demanded to know her real identity, River showed the Doctor his old cot and the prayer leaf inside it, cluing him in to her parentage and true nature.

As the Doctor raced off to locate baby Melody, Amy demanded answers from River. In response, River showed her parents the prayer leaf upon which the name "Melody Pond" became "River Song" in the language of the Gamma Forests and explained that she was their daughter. Eleventh needs to be added. Stevie Wonder performed, not knowing where and when he had truly been brought, before being restored to his proper time. Back at Stormcage, River met Rory in his Roman garb.

Looking in her diary , River realised that he was there about the Battle of Demon's Run. Having already experienced the event, she refused to come aid them at Demons Run, saying she couldn't be there "until the very end".

When Rory pressed her for a reason, River simply explained that it was the day that the Doctor would learn her true identity. River attended a party with the Doctor and helped him search pet shops for a Queen of England who had become a goldfish. She graffitied a diamond cliff at the dawn of time with the coordinates, then travelled to England in AD to meet the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, posing as Cleopatra in order to blend in with the Roman garrison stationed there.

The Pandorica lay under Stonehenge , transmitting a signal to summon an alliance of the Doctor's enemies. Instead, it took her to Amy's house on 26 June TV : The Pandorica Opens Unable to leave, she was trapped in a time loop of the first moments of the explosion.

River told the Dalek to look in its data banks for her, taunted it into begging for mercy, then killed it. After the Doctor had rebooted the universe by erasing himself, River left her now blank diary at her parents' wedding so Amy could remember him back into existence. After a brief conversation about her marital status and identity, River told the Doctor he was "going to find out very soon", and left him wondering.

TV : The Big Bang. River realises that her timeline is being rewritten. In , River escaped from her cell in the Stormcage Containment Facility using her hallucinogenic lipstick, after receiving a phone call saying that the Doctor needed her help. She located her vortex manipulator and used it to travel to London in where she rescued her stranded husband. She helped the Doctor fight off Cybermen , Daleks , Silents , and Silurians in different eras of London ; each had a piece of the fabled Eternity Clock to fuel their plans against humanity.

She and the Doctor collected the pieces and brought them back to the TARDIS, which was at the heart of a temporal storm being caused by the Eternity Clock pieces trying to pull themselves together.

River discovered, much to her shock, that there was an entry about the clock in her diary that she hadn't written; the Doctor explained that it was due to the temporal anomalies the clock was causing to time.

No sooner had this been explained, the clock began tracking all fixed points in time and began attempting to rewrite them. At some point, River was taken out of Stormcage due to her famed escapology attempts from the prison. After encountering some of the prisoners at the Institute , she learned that the Director was in fact a " solidogram ", a solid hologram. When Missy , the female incarnation of the Master , came to the Institute, River helped her to escape.

To throw off the Director, they created a set of solidograms, one to be placed into the detention cells, and another to crawl through the sewers in order to be caught by the Director and the cubes , a trick to allow both River and Missy to meddle with the Institute's computers.

It was at this point that the two women figured out that the prisoners were all solidogroms, generated by the Institute's main computer. River and Missy also figured out that they were brought to the Institute to find confirm if the Doctor was still alive after his assasination at Lake Silencio. They finally escaped after Missy tricked the computer into thinking that the inside was the outside and vice versa.

River devised a plan to help the Tenth Doctor get over the loss of Donna Noble. She sent him a message on psychic paper , telling him to meet her at the Apocalypse Vault , making him believe she intended to disrupt a fixed point in time. At his refusal, she led him into a chase from planet to planet, where she arranged different situations where he could solve problems and help people.

When the Doctor eventually found a forged copy of the Scroll of the Last Days , she invited him to a date at the Cafe du Paris , That message, however, mistakenly arrived to the Fifth Doctor. After an initial disappointment, River manipulated the Fifth Doctor into stealing from the Tenth Doctor the faked Scroll, before drugging him and making him forget what had happened. Eventually, though, her continual messages to various incarnations of the Doctor to reach her at the Vault came to the attention of the Tenth Doctor, who berated her and called her a thief, saying she was only using him.

To prove him wrong, River forced him to go the Vault and steal the Scroll - only for the Doctor to leave the Scroll there and tell her to make her choice of how to use it. By that time, however, River had already used the TARDIS to go back in time, change the Scroll and also the future without disrupting the fixed point in time, thus proving her valour to the Doctor.

River was put in Father Octavian 's custody in the 51st century for a mission to try to earn her pardon. This attracted the Doctor's attention twelve thousand years later , leading Amy who at this point in time had not met River before and the Doctor to her and the Byzantium 's crash site on Alfava Metraxis.

River hinted they would meet again by the opening of the Pandorica before being returned to Stormcage, though she hoped she had done enough to earn a pardon. TV : Flesh and Stone. Following this adventure, she visited Amy and Rory after they witnessed the Doctor's "death" in Utah and exposed some of the truth behind her many lies to her parents.

In her diary , River made records of several species. WC : Monster File: Weeping Angels Though she was not there personally, she demonstrated an awareness of the Eleventh Doctor 's confrontation with the Saturnynians in Venice in as well as other vampire species, namely the Ogri , the Three Who Rule and the Plasmavores.

WC : Monster File: Silurians. River escaped Stormcage for a date with the Eleventh Doctor on Asgard , a planet-sized theme park. Throughout their date River wrestled with her deep desire to have a child, even though she knew she didn't lead a life conducive to raising children. She attempted to ask the Doctor his views on her or them having a child multiple times, but was either too nervous to get her thoughts out or interrupted by the continuing problems occurring on Asgard.

After she and the Doctor saved Asgard from Tomith , River decided to enjoy a private picnic with the Doctor and not ask him about having a child. River was later pardoned and released from the Stormcage Containment Facility after it was discovered that there was no evidence of the man she had murdered having ever existed.

This was due to the Doctor erasing himself from all databases in the universe. The staff at the Harmony and Redemption remembered this for her future visit and installed a deadlock seal. River was hiding in the s when she was lured away to Mesopotamia to investigate a mysterious tomb. She realised someone had planted saline drones in the tomb and that kept Prim in a state of life in order to attract River's interest. After killing Prim once and for all, River opened an invitation given to her by Bertie Potts that invited her to a party on a spaceship.

River discovered Bertie Potts did not die in the tomb in Mesopotamia, but couldn't get him to reveal how he survived. While he was distracted she snuck around restricted areas of the party he invited her to and discovered the murder of Jenkins and was asked for help by Spritz , a woman pretending to be one of the robotic waitresses. With a subterfuge, she ended the manipulation program of the Rulers of the Universe , which used to condition other planets' development. Eventually, she was approached by Mr Song , who claimed to be a future incarnation of the Doctor AUDIO : I Went to a Marvellous Party until she discovered he was a member of the Kamishi pretending thanks to information taken from her diary.

River knew she couldn't reveal to him her identity, so — by radio communication — she dealt with him under a fake identity. Together, they scuppered the plans of the Sanukuma caste of the Kamishi , then parted their ways.

River came to know that a bounty had been put on "young Time Lords "; fearing for the safety of the Doctor, she went to London, She managed to be hired as a history teacher at Coal Hill School , while also taking a second job as an assistant patrolwoman at night, to look for bounty hunters.

It was during this time that she met Susan , her step-granddaughter; she also befriended Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright , as well as briefly meeting the First Doctor. With the help of Ian and Barbara, she was able to track down a Ravenous who took control of Sheila Page , one of Susan's classmates. Assisted by Susan who vaguely recognised she had "an air of family" around her , River managed to get it out in the open and then neutralise it, thus ending the threat.

In search of family, River visited Terminus Prime where clients could choose their own means of demise and found a cult of Proto-Time Lords , cloned from her by Kovarian at Demons Run, regularly using the facility led by Lake. River worked with a recently regenerated proto-Time Lord, Lily, to stop him. After he shot Lily, River killed Lake who regenerated into Lily. After burying Lily, who she believed to be the last of her siblings, River summoned an incarnation of the Doctor to take a break with.

River had several adventures with the Fifth Doctor and Brooke, who she did not know, including their visit to Gadalax Prime. The Doctor took River and Brooke to 18th Century Venice where they investigated the mystery surrounding Mozart's final piece, discovering Aqua Galatia had been sold among disgruntled wives to kill their husbands.

River became suspicious of Brooke who was increasingly jealous of River. Brooke spiked the Doctor's tea with Aqua Galatia and attempted to use it to assassinate him but River neutralised it with her love for the Doctor.

She and the Doctor forced Brooke to take them to where she was meeting her employer, The Bumptious Gastropod , a restaurant outside space-time where the rules of causality did not apply.

She planned to infiltrate the restaurant to get revenge on Kovarian but was thwarted when the Fifth Doctor immediately returned and was noticed by Kovarian. River kidnapped and dressed Andrew Edwardson in the Doctor's clothes as an attempt to save the Doctor from Kovarian's new plot to kill him.

However, River was convinced by Maitre D' that this was immoral and something the Doctor would not approve of. Whilst River was caught up in increasingly complex timeline of events, Brooke found and killed the true Doctor using regeneration inhibitors to prevent further regenerations.

In fury, River shot Brooke, who simply regenerated, and was taken captive by Kovarian. Back in her old childhood prison in Concorde Well, she discovered that Madame Kovarian had created Brooke and numerous other new a proto-Time Lord.

As the Deterrent laid siege to Concorde Well, River was released to help the defences and convinced Brooke and the other clones to create a psychic link of the mythic Furies to taunt Kovarian with the image of the Fifth Doctor, eventually causing Kovarian to have a meltdown. Though he was unaware of her identity, River said a quick farewell to him. River left Kovarian a prisoner of her cloned siblings. She sent him away when they were attacked by androids disguised as the Queen's guard.

After her own escape from the Elizabethan era, River took over the Time Agency in an attempt to get Javic out of her way. River retrieved Katarina 's body from deep space to give her a proper burial.

She was attacked by the Nine who she quickly ascertained had been lured there by her future self. River moved into the Powell Estate and became a neighbour of Jackie Tyler. She asked Jackie for advice about her conflicting feelings for the Doctor and Jack, and they became friends by the time Jack arrived to visit Jackie. As a visiting professor at the University of Jaska Major , River took it upon herself to teach one of her students, Luke Sullieman , the finer poins of Archaeology.

Together, they sneaked into the local museum and opened a tomb which was recently brought there from Jaska Minor. However, in doing so they inadvertently woke up his occupant, who turned out to be the Master. On Jaska Minor, River witnessed the Master unprecedentedly murder their companions, but didn't stop him, acknowledging this allowed them to distract the local people, the Therians.

She was distressed, however, when the Master apparently caused Luke's death to keep open the door of the ziqqurat's inner chamber. After they turned off the sun relais preventing night from falling on the planet, River wanted to leave the Master, but realised she needed his help to get back safely to the shuttle they arrived in.

She recognised Luke in one of the Therians attacking them and, using the Master's solar capacitor , reversed the progress bringing him back to normal. River thought of using the capacitor to cure all Therians, but Luke persuaded her it was not her choice; she then left it to them and went off with Luke in the shuttle, abandoning the Master.

When a mysterious planet appeared out of nowhere, a message was sent to the Luna University , requesting the aid of its most eminent archaeologists. River accepted the message and went there with a class of students, where they found a tomb apparently untouched by scavengers.

As they opened it, though, they found that Bernice Summerfield was already in it: she arrived first upon receiving the same message as River, recognising that it came from the Doctor.

Minutes later, the Eighth Doctor landed on the planet with his present companion, Ria , and River sent her class back, fearing for their safety. She later made the shocking discovery that the planet they were on was the ruins of Gallifrey after the Time War ; she wanted to keep it quiet, but Benny told the Doctor. Upon further searches, they found out that the Matrix was still active, and that the Doctor and Ria had the power to access it and control it. The arrival of another troop of scavengers then prompted the Doctor to use the powers of the Matrix not only to protect the ruins, but also to rebuild Gallifrey; River then encouraged him to do so, to make himself a god , thus snapping him out of his delusion.

By then, she and Benny had already worked out that the planet was not really Gallifrey, but instead the ruins of a TARDIS, which projected the illusion of Gallifrey by connecting with the mind of the Doctor. The Doctor then reprogrammed it to dispel any illusion after he, River and Benny had gone. River and the Doctor stood hand in hand and watched Gallifrey disappear, before leaving.

River visited Jack in Gallipoli. They planned to get married, but the ceremony was interrupted by Snorvlast , who was devoured by the vortex wraiths. Jack and River then visited the end of the universe for their honeymoon.

She posed as a Movellan herself and tried to keep his emotions in check, however struggled to control him as he began using a tractor beam to capture more and more vessels to attach to the crippled Movellan ship he'd been created on, forming Mto and tricking human colonists into believing they'd crashed here.

She diverted the Tenth Doctor and Anya Kingdom 's time jump to make them arrive nearby and lured them to Mto With a message of "hello sweetie" in a Dalek voice. As the Doctor and Anya investigated River maintained the pretence of being a Movellan, to the Doctor's frustration, until they managed to expose the truth about Kamen and send the humans on Mto to safety.

This drama caused her to lose control of Kamen's emotions, leading to him fatally overloading. Overwhelmed by the effort of trying to control Kamen, River advised the Doctor to find the First Movellan and then left with her vortex manipulator.

Whilst investigating Demonese , the most haunted planet in the galaxy, River summoned the Tenth Doctor. Devising a computer virus to help, the Doctor created holographic replications of River and himself who could make the computer accept it, and they discreetly guided their doubles to deduce the situation by themselves. River worked with the Tenth Doctor to investigate explosive jewels unearthed in Cheapside in , tracing their origins in to Gerald Pulman , who they found possessed alien explosive material and had killed his wife.

Tracking Pulman on a sailing ship, the Doctor confronted Pulman whilst River held off the crew who had turned on Pulman.

After Doctor persuaded Omara to use the energy to defuse the jewels, River encouraged him to let Omara go when she refused his offer to preserve her and faded away.

The Doctor then returned River to During this time she went by the alias "Melody Malone. When she encountered the man she recognised as Rock, he had no memory of their meeting in her office the previous day. After dealing with two thugs that were hired to kill her, River returned to her office only to receive a call from head of Starlight Studios, Max Kliener.

She agreed to meet him at his studio the next afternoon, where she was reintroduced to Rock, who claimed to remember their prior meeting. However, River knew he was lying when she asked about giving him coffee and he pretended to remember this although it never happened. She also noted that Giddy Semestre , Rock's co-star, also did not remember meeting her the day before at the party. Max then led River down a block from the main studio and revealed to her a room full of giant bell jars filled with what appeared to be clones of Rock Railton, Giddy Semestre, and of Max's bodyguard, Hank Sissy.

Max explained that they were not clones so much as everyday people who had had their flesh redistributed in their bodies to make them look identical to their template bodies. After being waylaid by a group of soldiers, River comes out with this unforgettable line.

This quote is heart-wrenching. One of her most powerful and emotional quotes, this one will go down in Doctor Who history for fans of River Song. For any River Song fan, this word will always have a heart-wrenching second meaning. She's currently studying for an MA in Gender, Society and Representation and has a special interest in diversity and representation on screen.

When she's not writing, Amii spends her time reading and staying up to date with the latest cinema.