Name – Professor River Song
River Song was an archaeologist already very familiar with the Doctor when they first meet (from his perspective) in the 51st century. She was, in fact, a future companion of his who travelled with him on and off. According to her, he came to trust her implicitly, though at the start of their relationship (from his perspective) he was generally suspicious of her and almost hostile to her at times. Prior to her encounter with the Weeping Angels, she was imprisoned in the Stormcage Holding Facility for the murder of someone she described as, "A very good man. Best man I've ever known."
In the 52nd century, an imprisoned River Song received a phone call from Winston Churchill, who was calling from 1941, attempting to call the Doctor. She escaped from prison after kissing a new guard whilst wearing hallucinogenic lipstick, and stole an old van Gogh painting, which foretold a deadly prophecy of the TARDIS exploding, from Liz 10, who confronted her about her intentions. River then made a deal at a black market for a Time Agent vortex manipulator that she used to travel back in time to the oldest planet in the universe. There, she wrote a message on the cliff face to the Doctor, telling him to go to the Roman era of Earth. Once there, she disguised herself as Cleopatra and used her hallucinogenic lipstick to fool the Romans. She explained the situation to the Doctor once he arrived and showed him the painting of the TARDIS exploding. They then proceeded to Stonehenge where they search for the Pandorica. They located it, but then discovered that Stonehenge was transmitting a signal, bringing in Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and many other alien races. The Doctor managed to convince the assembled aliens to back away for a time, and sent to bring the TARDIS to him. However, the TARDIS brought River to Amy's house, on the 26th June, 2010. Looking around, River discovered burn marks scorched into the garden by alien craft and the front door broken distached from the house, and found a book on Romans and another on Pandora's Box in Amy's room, the book on Romans containing the exact likenesses of the Roman troops in 102 AD. Returning to the TARDIS to inform the Doctor, River then found herself trapped as the TARDIS as it came under control of an unknown external force and started to explode.
Inside the TARDIS, River was stuck in a Time loop of the last few moments until the Doctor (using her vortex manipulator) was able to retrieve her and bring her back to 1996, where she mercilessly killed the Dalek responsible for shooting the Doctor. After the Doctor restored the universe to life (erasing himself in the process), River left her (now blank) Tardis-shaped diary with Amy Pond on her wedding day in 2010 to trigger her memories of the Doctor, thus reviving him. When she and the Doctor parted ways, she apologised for something in his future and answered "Yes" to a question she interpreted both as "Will you marry me?" and "Are you married?" before teleporting off with the vortex manipulator. Before she left however, she told the Doctor he will know who she really is very soon, but apologized, warning him that that's when everything changes. Sometime after these events she was presumably imprisoned once again, however in an earlier century. She remained so until she was put under Father Octavian's custody. If she were to carry out the mission assigned to her she would earn her pardon.
Doctor River Song was a guest on the Byzantium ship in the 51st century. She was working for a military organisation at the time in exchange for the pardon of a murder. She infiltrated the lower levels to find the Home Box, into which she carved the message "Hello Sweetie" in the Old High Gallifreyan language to attract the Doctor's attention. About 12,000 years later the Doctor found the Home Box in a museum. The Doctor used the cube to see who wrote the message. Seeing her being pursued by guards and giving him the co-ordinates of her location, he went to rescue her. She then jettisoned herself from an air lock, where the waiting Doctor and Amy Pond picked her up in the TARDIS. River then showed exceptional TARDIS flying skills landing it next to the Byzantium, which had crashed into the Maze of the Dead. Along with the Bishop and his Clerics, River accompanied the Doctor and Amy into the maze. She made it out of the maze alive along with Amy and the Doctor, to be imprisoned once more, but she thought she may have done enough to earn a pardon. She then mentioned to the Doctor about their meeting at the Pandorica.
River's expedition to the Library was financed by Felman Lux and was chartered to discover what disaster had happened there, 100 years previously, with a cryptic final message, ">>> 4022 saved. No survivors <<<". When her team ran into trouble during the expedition, River summoned the Doctor by sending him a message via psychic paper. The version of the Doctor who turned up had not yet met her. Though bewildered, he agreed to help River and her team. River and the Doctor appeared to be very close, even considering the strong bonds the Doctor forms with his companions. She still had her Tardis-shaped diary describing her travels with the Doctor. There was a suggestion that in the Doctor's personal future he would carry a similar journal, as she commented about needing to "compare" diaries. She carried an upgraded version of the Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver which a later Doctor had given her.
As the situation in the Library deteriorated, River realised she must prove to the Doctor that she was, or will become in his case, someone he trusted completely and with profuse apologies, she whispers his true name into his ear. The Doctor was stunned by this information, and River succeeded in winning his trust.
River physically died when she chose to sacrifice herself in order to stop the Doctor from sacrificing himself in order to save Donna and the other 4022 people trapped in the Library's computer. She pleaded with him to not try and change history, not to change one moment of what is to come for them. After saving all the trapped people, the Doctor realized his future self must have given her his sonic screwdriver for a reason. Inside he found a data chip called a "Neural Relay", which contained River's Data Ghost. The Doctor saved her by uploading her into the virtual world contained in The Library's data core. CAL, the library's data core, controlled by a human girl (Charlotte Abigail Lux, or CAL) wired into its mainframe, also managed to save the data ghosts of all of River's dead archaeological team, so she would have company in the virtual world. River would go on to take care of Donna's two virtual children and Charlotte in the virtual world, reading out her diary of her life with the Doctor and how "everybody lives" when the Doctor comes to call, her story ending with her telling the sleeping children sweet dreams. The Doctor would later remember her death when Davros reminded him of the people who had died in his name.
|