Essay (not mine): Understanding/Analysing the ultimate fate of River Song
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 - ( Read more... )
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 - ( Read more... )
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.
This. My point -okay, one of my MANY points- exactly.
The show has a longstanding opinion that immortality isn't the blessing many believe it to be anyway. The Doctor himself has never wanted to be immortal (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.
For a man who never wanted to become immortal, especially when he was all set to die, that might not be quite the "gift" it was cracked up to be.
Well, 11 generally being suicidal every 3 episodes and gracefully accepting his death on Christmas, doesn’t mean that 12 must have any such angsty problems. First of all, the Time Lords didn’t make him *immortal*, Jack style for instance (and even he dies eventually), they just extended his life. Secondly, none of us really know how long we’ll live anyway; I imagine exactly realizing “you have *that* much time” must have been a much more serious, emotionally-affecting, thought-provoking process before. Third, he now has the chance to try and find Gallifrey, which he would clearly really, really like to do, and which he can’t do if he’s dead.
But, yeah, wherever her soul goes when she died, or whether or not souls exist at all and all that's left of her is a digital download that is "fading."
Anyway, regardless of River's afterlife, be it heavenly or digital...
And that’s what I was trying to say.
If one believes in a heavenly one, objectively, nothing can stop her or anyone from (okay, eventually if you want) reaching it. Technology can't change that, the most it can do is record brain patterns and create copies, or give a very cool life “extension” if you interpret it like that, it has nothing to do with a metaphysical concept. Otherwise we are going into “What does God need with a starship?” territory.
If one doesn't, well, she gets the digital one which, like everything, is finite by default -which is a good thing by itself considering all that afforementioned jazz about immortality not being a blessing in the secular, worldly, non-spiritual sense anyway- but since there's nothing else one can do or hope for in such a worldview, and it's a pretty darn nice place to boot, it's still a very nice gesture, which we see that she clearly likes and appreciates in any of the two scenarios (Best. Speech. Evah.)
Basically: “Whovians, stop arguing and being confused or dissatisfied, any way you slice it, everything works out in the end, it’s cool, really, let me enlighten you, poor mortals”.
Let there be light! Geeky light.
We can still see stories of River alive, just because, like the Doctor, she never shows up in the right order.
This. :)
Christmaaas! for instance. And the audio adventures with 8 I logically assume.
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