Comments | justascrewup2: River, Eleven and the Season 7 Finale

justascrewup2

River, Eleven and the Season 7 Finale

May 21, 2013 19:52

Overall I liked In the Name of the Doctor and I'm definitely looking forward to the Fiftieth Anniversary special in November, even though that seems incredibly far away at this point. I have so many thoughts on this, some in general, but most about River...

( Spoilers sweetie )

doctor who, river, eleven, reviews

Comments 18

girltype May 22 2013, 00:14:25 UTC

River had such a great ending! I was so happy and pleased to see the Doctor and River be so affectionate towards each other. A few friends who have started with Clara were blown away not only by their chemistry but just how DIFFERENT AND BIZARRE it is to see someone so young be with someone who is older. I've never really noticed it and can only imagine how newer fans of the series are like, wait, WHAT?

justascrewup2 May 22 2013, 23:46:15 UTC

Yes, such a beautiful ending, even as sad as it was. It's so rare to get any actual emotions out of the Doctor except cleverness and anger, but this episode had huge amounts of it, including his obvious love for River ( ... )

dqbunny May 22 2013, 00:21:46 UTC

Try reading this meta. It gives me hope. Lots of hope.

I also think that maybe the it's not the end of younger River. I think we're going to see her again, because if she was done, Moffat would have admitted it by now.

justascrewup2 May 22 2013, 23:51:21 UTC

Wow. That is some incredibly detailed, rose-colored head canon. I like it, even if it just pays dividends in fanfic. Hey, we have at least six months until we can be proven wrong by Moffat, right? :)

I have a feeling though that River's story is done. There's a beautiful symmetry in the first River scene starting with "hello sweetie" and the last one ending with "goodbye sweetie". I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I don't think it's going to happen :(

betawho May 22 2013, 01:19:00 UTC

I always just took the "conference call" to mean Vastra contacted the Tardis (she does have a phone) and the Tardis set up a telepathic conference call. Which would include hacking into the Library to contact River.

The whole, "I like the new desktop," really made me think it was a Tardis thing, setting the call in River's virtual world, or maybe one of the Tardises own. And River "materializing" a bottle of champagne, could be a matter of her having learned to manipulate the "dreamworld" programming of the datacore over the years.

None of that, however, means that it couldn't have been a real River at the other end of that call. The Tardis could have been covering for her, because, after all, none of them were "really" there. And the place itself wasn't real, it was all a telepathic conference ( ... )

michellegermann May 22 2013, 05:20:32 UTC

Many apologies for a long post, but I felt the points were pertinent ( ... )

michellegermann May 22 2013, 05:21:54 UTC

I like the idea that a brave little girl made the choice to help 4,022 people that she never knew, giving them a happy life, never knowing if she would be able to survive the process. This is so much Clara, so very much like Clara. If you fight me on the name issue, remember that she lived a million lives and those lives each came with different parents and likely different names ( ... )

justascrewup2 May 23 2013, 00:38:14 UTC

Wow. You wrote a book! Not quite sure where to start. The River and the Doctor did have to hide so much from each other (from necessity) that it made a lot of their moments so much more poignant in retrospect. River, having to lie all the time, pretending she didn't know who Amy was, not being able to tell the Doctor who she was and why she meant to much to him until aGMGtW and her having to help investigate her own captivity with the Silence in IA and DotM... The Doctor not being able to tell River that she was going to meet her end at the Library, even when he sees her last at the Singing Towers and knows how much she means to him at that point... It is enough to make you want to run and hide from the world as long as you can ( ... )

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daxcat79 May 22 2013, 02:27:13 UTC

For me the thing that truly made me feel good about River and the Doctor's end was knowing without a doubt that he truly did love her. It was a very emotional end.

justascrewup2 May 22 2013, 23:55:30 UTC

Yes. This. There were many tears on my end. I've watched it a few times already and I know I'll be watching it many more in times to come. So sad and yet so good at the same time.

flowsoffire May 28 2013, 16:11:17 UTC

Loving the thoughts. I'm with you on this goodbye being River's final one (though I'm seeing some pretty great points in the comments to this, quite thought-provoking). Honestly, I was always very scared that River wouldn't get some proper closure, just "fade away"-because Moffat can't keep her around forever, no matter how much he loves her. Their timey-wimey-ness and the fact that they haven't been literally back to front for a while now allows him to pull her out of his hat whenever he likes, basically, and no matter how awesome anything River is… That could make her arc a bit messy. So I'm satisfied with the closure-no, scratch that, I'm BLISSED OUT with the incredibly passionate and beautiful kiss that ELEVEN started, and the line "You are always here to me, and I always listen, and I can always see you". MY. HEART ( ... )

justascrewup2 May 29 2013, 01:32:17 UTC

Yes, so, so thankful for a proper goodbye :)

True, I was also a bit upset at the idea of a post-library River and they did end up doing it well. So for now I suppose it's best to just not think about it. Honestly I might be completely ok with it as long as it doesn't necessitate re-numbering the new Who doctors.

Good point. River would have done something had she been around. And she could have easily done something for him that they didn't put in the show that they mentioned later.

The only comfort I have with the grave thing is that we don't know which version of the doctor it is at Tranzalore.

Yay shippers uniting!

flowsoffire May 29 2013, 08:34:50 UTC

Honestly I might be completely ok with it as long as it doesn't necessitate re-numbering the new Who doctors.
*nods* The idea seems rather odd, but kind of interesting from the more-or-less spoilery information I could see. We'll find out anyway… No use getting upset ;)

And she could have easily done something for him that they didn't put in the show that they mentioned later.
Yep-but they seemed to imply that in the dark days, only Vastra, Jenny and Strax were around.

The only comfort I have with the grave thing is that we don't know which version of the doctor it is at Tranzalore.
That's true-but if it's the Twelfth, that still means he'll have to go at some point… lol. *shoves into the drawer of not-thinking-about-it as well*

Yay shippers uniting!
*high fives*

justascrewup2 May 30 2013, 00:30:56 UTC

Yeah, no point worrying now. Will be trying to stay away from spoilers. I had heard before NotD that John Hurt would be playing some version of the Doctor, which took some of the impact out of that final scene for me :(

Yeah, more evidence for me that Eleven lost River shortly after that final scene with them on the Tardis in tATM. You have to admire the Doctor's loyalty with Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

Totally with you on this :)

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