Strange Conversations: Part Three Hundred and Sixty
Posted 20 May 2011 in Strange Conversations by Catriona
ME: So there’s a rumour that River Song is Bernice Summerfield? Surely that makes no sense?
NICK: None whatsoever, even though Moffat’s a huge Cornell fan. And of course River Song bears some resemblance to Benny.
ME: Yes, in that she’s an archaeologist. But Bernice is in the Doctor’s past. She was a companion of the 7th and 8th Doctors.
NICK: Yeah. It’s more of an archetype thing there. It would be the kind of revelation that makes no sense to 99% of the audience.
ME: Oh, you mean like when the Master killed Rassilon with laser bolts from his hands and everyone said, “Who?”
NICK: Mmm, ok, make that 99.9999%.
ME: RTD was not afraid to bewilder 99% of the audience and drive the other 1% psychotic with fury.
Share your thoughts [5]
1
Drew wrote at May 20, 11:21 am
Bernice Summerfield?
2
Drew wrote at May 20, 11:25 am
never mind. I googled her. Yes, would make no sense whatsoever.
3
Catriona wrote at May 20, 10:43 pm
Sorry, should have stuck a link in there. Benny is awesome, and all, but the books are only intermittently canonical, and, anyway, Benny was the Seventh and Eighth Doctor’s companion, so it would make absolutely no sense that the Tenth Doctor wouldn’t recognise her.
You could argue “Time War”, I suppose (and I believe Benny also got caught up in something that was analogous to but yet was not the Time War), but there’d really be no point. As Nick points out, only about 1% of viewers would know who she was, and that 1% (rather than saying “Cool!”) would pretty much do what we’ve just done here.
4
richard wrote at May 22, 04:38 am
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say River Song is River Song. Not Bernice, not Romana, not the Rani, not Omega’s twin sister…
I will be so disappointed if there’s some timey-wimey, retcon or regeneration connection to the past. Moffat’s better than that.
Also: if she turns out to be the Doctor, his daughter or Amy’s Child I think we will have crossed some serious lines that cannot be rewritten.
If she’s a future version of (the animated) K-9, I’m probly OK with that. Probly.
5
Catriona wrote at May 22, 05:36 am
If she turns out to be the Doctor, that would be incestuous on a previously unexplored level. Okay, except for that bit in The Time Traveler’s Wife. Previously unexplored except for that bit.
I’m thinking not Amy’s child, but only because I suspect the little girl wandering around New York in the 1960s is Amy’s child. I don’t know that, mind: I just suspect it. And I’m pretty sure River’s not a Time Lord, because we’ve seen her die, and she didn’t show any signs of regeneration.
I think I’ve argued this before, elsewhere on the site, but I also hope that she’s just River. Tying her into pre-existing characters would be something of a zero-sum game, to my mind.