Doctor Who companion actor Alex Kingston reveals her wishes for a potential return, explaining how River Song could have a reunion in a new form.
Summary
- Alex Kingston, who played River Song in Doctor Who, reveals her hopes for the character’s return, suggesting that River could use her connections with technology to appear and offer help across the galaxy.
- As River Song’s story was explored throughout Doctor Who, her relationship with the Doctor became more complex. While her fate seemed sealed within The Library’s system, Kingston’s idea could open up the possibility for future reunions.
- River Song’s unique relationship with the Doctor sets her apart as one of the show’s most complex companions. Kingston’s idea of using River’s digital state could create a new dynamic for her character in future episodes.
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Doctor Who companion actor Alex Kingston reveals her wishes for a return as River Song, explaining how the character’s fate seemingly leaves plenty of ways for the archaeologist could cross paths with the Doctor once more. Kingston made her debut as River Song in the Steven Moffat-penned season 4 two-part story “Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead”, as the leader of an expedition with an at-the-time unexplored relationship with the Doctor. River’s life and true relationship with the Doctor would be explored when the writer took on show-running duties from 2010 to 2017.
Ahead of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary, speaking to RadioTimes, Kingston addressed whether River Song could reunite with the Doctor in the next era of Doctor Who, sharing ideas about just how the characters could cross paths once more. While River’s final chronological appearance in 2013’s “The Name of the Doctor” placed her still within the Library’s systems, Kingston suggests that she could use her new connections with technology to appear and offer help across computer systems across the galaxy, though the actor stated that she’d be more than happy for River to appear in the flesh and take part in more action sequences as well. Check out Kingston’s full suggestion below:
“Obviously, in terms of the Benjamin Button of it all, I am not getting younger! Even though the Doctor isn’t getting any younger either, he looks it – whereas I don’t! But I did actually think that River could always be called back through the internet. Because she’s saved on a computer, she could hack into any computer in any system in the universe. She could become anything, she could be an avatar, she could be anything that you want her to be off a computer screen. I thought that would be a very interesting way to go with that character – if one wanted to…
I would have liked to have done some more flying through space! I really enjoyed it, I would have really loved to have been strapped up again and whizzed along a zip line from one end of the studio to another – I can always do a bit more of that!”
Is There Room In River And The Doctor’s Timeline For A Potential Doctor Who Return?
River Song’s presence across Doctor Who‘s television stories explored the complexities of knowing a time traveler on a personal level, as audiences were introduced at a complex point in her and the Doctor’s timeline together. While the meeting in The Library marked the first time the Doctor met her in his Tenth incarnation (David Tennant), it would be the final time they met for River, as she would sacrifice her physical form to save The Library’s attendees. However, with Moffat becoming showrunner following Russell T Davies’ first departure, River would play a key role in Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor’s era.
Related: Doctor Who: Every Version Of The Doctor River Song Has Met (& When)
Across Smith’s era, River’s life would fully be explored, from her being raised as an assassin to kill the Doctor, to her marriage to the Doctor in season 6. Moffat would then bring her story full circle in Doctor Who‘s 2015 Christmas special “The Husbands of River Song“, as Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and River spend their final night together before their meeting in The Library. Despite this, “The Name of the Doctor” did establish River as being able to return via psychic links with individuals, leaving room for potential returns in a limited capacity with the aid of other companions.
River Song’s and the Doctor’s unique relationship marks her as one of Doctor Who‘s most complex companions, both in terms of their development together and how events unfold. While River’s solo adventures in expanded media have seen her meet other incarnations of the Time Lord, her story has always seemingly had a set destination thanks to her fate within the Library’s system. However, Kingston’s idea could allow River to reunite with future Doctors, finally having the pair free from the confines of set timelines of her diary with a unique new dynamic thanks to her digital state.
Source: RadioTimes
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