How Husbands of River Song showed River’s true ability to love the Doctor
BBC, Doctor Who, River Song
We all have our favorite relationships in Doctor Who. But River Song has been with three regenerations of the Doctor…what makes it so believable?
In the Husbands of River Song, we got to see what happens when River is off on her own. Normally, we’ve only seen her during or after her time in jail, but this time we see her when she’s late in her timeline. (I think. Who really understands the wibbly-wobbly that happens when it comes to the Doctor and River?)
First of all, this isn’t anything against anyone else who has been a love interest for the Doctor. If you prefer Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Clara, Jack, Rory, or Lynda with a Y, that’s definitely up to you. This is just the humble opinion of a River/Doctor shipper.
That being said, the previous people I mentioned are normally shipped strongly with one regeneration of the Doctor. For instance, people strongly ship Rose and Ten together, or Amy and Eleven, or Clara and Twelve. We often find ourselves with the actors having more chemistry with one specific actor, rather than really being able to realize that the Doctor is one person, no matter what face. Unfortunately, that’s the facts of having 14 different actors playing one character throughout Doctor Who– you end up with 14 different characters.
Love throughout regenerations
Part of this ability for River to love the Doctor so strongly whether he’s David Tennant, Matt Smith, or Peter Capaldi has to be partly thanks to Alex Kingston. It’s difficult to show chemistry with three different actors, especially when she only had one episode with David Tennant. However, even in Silence in the Library, she made us believe that she was someone from the Doctor’s future — someone important. We all shed a tear when she killed herself for the Doctor, and when she came back with Matt Smith’s Doctor, the chemistry was still there.
With Matt Smith’s Doctor, we had more time to get to know River, and it was her best performance. Not even Matt Smith wanted Alex Kingston to come back with Peter Capaldi, calling her “his wife”. He specifically told Steven Moffat he wanted to keep River with Eleven.
But fans from all over, including Russell T. Davies, wanted to see River with 12. And she didn’t disappoint. “Husbands of River Song” was a hilarious, sad, amazing ending to a story we didn’t want to end. And of course, River loved the Doctor because she was his wife. Even if she had two other husbands at the time.
Okay, we get it. You like River. What are you saying?
Not many actors can pull off making fans (specifically, me) hesitate when choosing their favorite Doctor with a character. Alex Kingston has been able to be on screen with three Doctors, and will officially have run into almost all the Classic Doctors in audios. Somehow, River is able to connect with every person the Doctor has been, and makes it real.
River is something we’ve never had, which is truly someone who helps us see that the Doctor, no matter what face, is always a madman in a box. The character isn’t perfect, but it is something unprecedented.
It’s definitely a credit to Alex Kingston, who plays the character so wonderfully — no matter your opinion on the character herself.