It is no secret that River Song is one of my favorite Doctor Who characters, and while I think the character has already gotten a fantastic sendoff (one of the best in Doctor Who history), there is still a part of me that wants to find some way to get River to interact with the Thirteenth Doctor. According to actress Alex Kingston, this might still be on the table.
CBR reports that in an interview with Radio Times, Kingston talked about the day she met Jodie Whittaker at last year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, which made so many Whovians excited to see the Doctor and her wife together. (Remember the unfortunate incident when the official Doctor Who account deleted its original caption on a photo of them together? That was not as exciting.)
“Yeah I did meet her,” Kingston revealed. “We chatted about me coming back to Doctor Who! I love the character, and I think that, my gosh, there are wonderful potential opportunities down the road. But it’s not my decision. The fact is, because they’re all the same person ultimately, I don’t think she would think of her any differently to any of the others in a way. Because they’re the same spirit inside. It’s just a different, deep love. And you know, technically the Doctor is River’s second wife. Cleopatra being the first.”
What I love is that Alex Kingston is affirming that the Doctor is always the Doctor no matter what gender their body presents as, which is super important and really warms my heart. They are the same person and I’m glad that Kingston understands this, which is why I would love to see River’s reaction to the new Doctor. Sadly, there are very few ways to make that happen unless we can get 13 to visit the world of the library that River was projected into back in series four.
We know that is where her “soul” lives on, however, and we’ve already had one episode of that version of River saying goodbye to 11 before, and so it’s not completely out of bounds.
Kingston then went on to say, “River Song, the world that her character lives in, and the world of Doctor Who, and time travel … everything is sort of heightened in a way. The experiences are much more heightened. The reactions. It’s all a little bit larger-than-life.” When it comes to River, a character who already been the vehicle through which a lot of over-the-top storylines have come together to create, I leave nothing off the table, because River is one of the greatest Mary Sues of all time (this is a compliment) and she can do whatever the hell she wants.
Right now, there are no official plans for Kingston to return to Doctor Who, but Kingston was sure to let us know, “I’m always at the end of the phone. We’ll see.”
What would you think about the possibility of River Song returning to Doctor Who and what would 13’s reaction be like?
(via CBR, image: BBC)
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