Just some more River speculation/thoughts
Note: This post contains spoilers for 6x07 - A Good Man Goes to War
River has pretty much said the same sentence twice. But on both occasions her intent was completely different. Let's compare!
4x09 - Forest of The Dead
River: Now, MY Doctor... I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the door with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor... in the TARDIS. Next stop: everywhere.
The Doctor: Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that.
River: It does for the Doctor.
The Doctor: I AM the Doctor.
River: Yeah. Some day.
The older River looks full of warm, happy memories. Smiling a nostalgic, pained smile. She seems thrilled that the Doctor is such a powerful being in the future.
The Doctor overhears her and the timey-wimey effects are set in motion. She's already started influencing him to become the Doctor she knows in the future. By the end of this episode, he tries opening the TARDIS by snapping his fingers, like she said. And it works. He tries to scare off an army of Vashta Nerada by saying his name. (I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.) And it works.
(Recall that the Doctor also scared off an army by saying his name in 5x12 - The Pandorica Opens.
So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceships, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you. And then, AND THEN... do the smart thing: let somebody else try first.)
Now for the deja vu:
6x07 - A Good Man Goes to War
The Doctor: I didn't do this! This wasn't me!
River: This was exactly you! All this, all of it! You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. "Doctor". The word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are... what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word "doctor" means "mighty warrior". How far you've come. And now they've taken a child. The child of your best friends. And they're going to turn her into a weapon, just to bring you down. And all this, my love... in fear of you.
But in this scene, we see a younger River ADMONISHING him using the same words the older River would someday use to PRAISE him. I'm not surprised that the Doctor is reduced even further to tears by her unexpected criticism. Here's a woman who encouraged him to turn in this direction, and now she's saying it's wrong?
It's a strange turn of events. You'd expect her younger self to be intoxicated by his power, and as she grows older to realize it's not that great after all. But it's the other way around.
What do you think? Did one of them lie? The younger River or the older River? Did she just grow up to change her opinion on the Doctor's attitude? Maybe it's just a case of remembering the past through rose-tinted glasses? Or simply a writing error?
One thing is for certain... this Moffat guy is making us overthink the weirdest little things. :P
River has pretty much said the same sentence twice. But on both occasions her intent was completely different. Let's compare!
4x09 - Forest of The Dead
River: Now, MY Doctor... I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the door with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor... in the TARDIS. Next stop: everywhere.
The Doctor: Spoilers. Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that.
River: It does for the Doctor.
The Doctor: I AM the Doctor.
River: Yeah. Some day.
The older River looks full of warm, happy memories. Smiling a nostalgic, pained smile. She seems thrilled that the Doctor is such a powerful being in the future.
The Doctor overhears her and the timey-wimey effects are set in motion. She's already started influencing him to become the Doctor she knows in the future. By the end of this episode, he tries opening the TARDIS by snapping his fingers, like she said. And it works. He tries to scare off an army of Vashta Nerada by saying his name. (I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.) And it works.
(Recall that the Doctor also scared off an army by saying his name in 5x12 - The Pandorica Opens.
So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceships, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you. And then, AND THEN... do the smart thing: let somebody else try first.)
Now for the deja vu:
6x07 - A Good Man Goes to War
The Doctor: I didn't do this! This wasn't me!
River: This was exactly you! All this, all of it! You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. "Doctor". The word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are... what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word "doctor" means "mighty warrior". How far you've come. And now they've taken a child. The child of your best friends. And they're going to turn her into a weapon, just to bring you down. And all this, my love... in fear of you.
But in this scene, we see a younger River ADMONISHING him using the same words the older River would someday use to PRAISE him. I'm not surprised that the Doctor is reduced even further to tears by her unexpected criticism. Here's a woman who encouraged him to turn in this direction, and now she's saying it's wrong?
It's a strange turn of events. You'd expect her younger self to be intoxicated by his power, and as she grows older to realize it's not that great after all. But it's the other way around.
What do you think? Did one of them lie? The younger River or the older River? Did she just grow up to change her opinion on the Doctor's attitude? Maybe it's just a case of remembering the past through rose-tinted glasses? Or simply a writing error?
One thing is for certain... this Moffat guy is making us overthink the weirdest little things. :P