Essay (not mine): Understanding/Analysing the ultimate fate of River Song

[elisi]

So, I guess most people have lurkers. And sometimes they de-lurk, and it's great. However, I think my most recently de-lurked lurker is in a category entirely of their own: They wrote me an essay.

Well - they wrote an essay, I should say. I was just fortunate enough to be the person they first showed it to. Although it is - at various points -

Comments

[elisi]

This comment is amazing (how did you write it so quickly?), and I do not have the time to delve into it properly right now. However, I shall come back to it, don't worry.

(I should also comment on the essay myself, as I merely sort of flailed and said 'Let me post it, pretty please?')

ETA: Right, let's see what I can say...

So, basically, River is a sentient book downloaded into the CAL Library. I can deal with that.
I like that phrasing. Also 'we are all stories'...

It's Doctor Who, just because something is not "biologically" alive, doesn't mean it's not a person.
Absolutely! Heck, just look at the TARDIS.

And, yes, eventually computers and programs do fail, so it was still just a stop-gap measure to save her there. The Doctor had to do something, the woman had just died for him, he would never let that stand if there was another way.
That's it. (Just like he could never let Donna die.)

If there is nothing new left to live for, and no loved ones left to make life worth the effort, then death becomes not a nemesis, but a release.
Exactly. As you say below - immortality isn't a blessing.

which makes me wonder about 12, since he doesn't now know how long he'll live. I could see that being a much better basis for his existential angst [in the very literal translation] than wondering if he's still a good man.
Have you seen the Prologue? Although I don't think the Doctor has ever been particularly worried about dying - he's a very Carpe Diem kinda guy. He'd much rather live, of course, but he's accepted death many a time without blinking.

Anyway, regardless of River's afterlife, be it heavenly or digital, the show has put into place a great device that allows her to come back periodically alive anyway.
This. Just because we know her ending - which we did right from the start - doesn't mean we know everything about what comes inbetween.

Eventually, we, the viewers, and the Doctor himself, will see River for the last time. But we, like him, never know which visit that will be.
*meeps sadly*

I sincerely hope Moffat doesn't decide he needs to "change" something now.
I can't imagine why he'd even consider it. He's got plenty to play with.

We can still see stories of River alive, just because, like the Doctor, she never shows up in the right order.
This. :)