Howling:The Wedding of River Song speculation

As we know it, the last episode of Series 6 will be entitled "The Wedding of River Song". Here's the one million dollar question : who is she marrying ?

The first answer that pops into anyone's head is "the Doctor", but it would be too expected... though I'd like to see the Doctor as a Groom, and I'd really like to see the tenth Doctor invited as a guest (as he said once : "I'm rubbish at weddings, especially my own" : maybe he was referring to this one)

Or maybe it will be a metaphorical wedding (as Idris was a metaphorical wife to the Doctor)...

Nafoute, R. C. with a P. in the M. 08:19, August 26, 2011 (UTC)

My best guess would be that is the same kind of deal as Idris being "the Doctor's wife." If she is actually getting married then it would be too obvious if it was the Doctor. Besides, they'd probably call it The Wedding of the Doctor if that were the case. If it is an actual wedding, then it will probably be a younger River who isn't involved with the Doctor yet. Unless the Doctor finds her when she's still a child, she will probably end up growing up to be a bad guy for a while, anyway.Icecreamdif 19:09, August 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, The Doctor's Wedding is one of the alternate names that were considered and not used. But, as always, that could be an intentional leak to mislead everyone, rather than a clue.


 * There's also a rumor that Jack will be in the show this season, playing the best man at a wedding, and what other current Doctor Who character would want him as the best man? However, that rumor is probably false, especially they've already revealed that Barrowman was secretly contacted for this season, but the plan was for Jack to be one of the allies in AGMGTW, and it fell through because of scheduling conflicts with Torchwood.


 * Anyway, the Doctor has married both Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe off-screen, and Scarlette in a novel, and Patience (possibly twice) both in a novel and in the distant past, and who knows how many others, so maybe it's about time we get to actually see one of these weddings. On the other hand, it would be kind of sad if the Doctor got married and the only people there were his in-laws (especially after the turnout that Benny got for her wedding). --173.228.85.35 02:33, August 27, 2011 (UTC)


 * Wait... in Let's Kill Hitler, that was the first time River met the Doctor. Meaning... wouldn't that be the last episode with her? I'm confused.
 * Moogleknight24 12:50, August 28, 2011 (UTC)Moogleknight24
 * It's only confusing if you assume that River's statements about meeting the Doctor in reverse order, his firsts being her lasts and vice versa, are to be taken absolutely literally. In any case, it wasn't the first time River met the Doctor, unless we're being misled about who the girl in the spacesuit was, because she met him in the warehouse, while she was in the suit (and got shot at by her own mother). LKH may, though, have been the first time she met him knowing that he was the Doctor. --2.96.17.180 19:46, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 * And it was without question the first time she met him in her River Song incarnation (since she regenerated into River right in front of him).
 * Anyway, Moffat dropped a whole lot of clues in our lap both implying that they were and that they weren't going to get married, just to keep us in suspense—and, of course, because it was funny. (A great quote from Moffat: "It's the ultimate cliche for mixed messages, do you want to kiss me or kill me, but how often does it turn out that she wants to kiss you _to_ kill you?") At this point, we can't know whether the two of them will marry, she'll marry someone else, or the title is metaphorical like The Doctor's Wife (or, for that matter, it's a complete red herring and they were lying when they announced the title). --173.228.85.35 22:38, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 * Mofatt said in an interview that The Doctor never tries to get involved with anyone, but he did with Amy, now he's with inlaws...
 * "Well, I think he likes young people around. He's like them. Obviously the Doctor is old, but that's thinking in human terms. In his terms maybe he's really quite young. I think what we're playing with is [his] concern that he should have been gone before the wedding. It's a little bit worrying. He's getting involved in their real lives and he never, ever, ever intended to. He tends to be the last fling before the altar and here he is, you know, with in-laws [laughs].
 * http://www.aoltv.com/2011/08/26/doctor-who-mastermind-steven-moffat-talks-river-song-matt-smi/
 * I think I've made my point. [Unsigned but presumably CzechOut 04:31, September 11, 2011 (UTC)]
 * "Well, I think he likes young people around. He's like them. Obviously the Doctor is old, but that's thinking in human terms. In his terms maybe he's really quite young. I think what we're playing with is [his] concern that he should have been gone before the wedding. It's a little bit worrying. He's getting involved in their real lives and he never, ever, ever intended to. He tends to be the last fling before the altar and here he is, you know, with in-laws [laughs].
 * http://www.aoltv.com/2011/08/26/doctor-who-mastermind-steven-moffat-talks-river-song-matt-smi/
 * I think I've made my point. [Unsigned but presumably CzechOut 04:31, September 11, 2011 (UTC)]
 * http://www.aoltv.com/2011/08/26/doctor-who-mastermind-steven-moffat-talks-river-song-matt-smi/
 * I think I've made my point. [Unsigned but presumably CzechOut 04:31, September 11, 2011 (UTC)]
 * I think I've made my point. [Unsigned but presumably CzechOut 04:31, September 11, 2011 (UTC)]


 * Something that's been nagging at my mind for a while: Would it not be poetic justice if the River Song we see recaptured by Kovarian and company at the end of Closing Time -- and therefore the River Song in the spacesuit in the lake -- turned out to be a Flesh duplicate? Kovarian (in A Good Man Goes to War) was so smug about fooling the Doctor twice by using that trick, it would be rather sweet revenge if he fooled her with it at the critical moment. Various people have, of course, speculated that the Doctor who was shot might have been a ganger but that assumes a Flesh duplicate could at least appear to start regenerating. Replacing River with a ganger wouldn't have that problem. It also wouldn't (on its own) prevent the Doctor being killed but it would be a nice touch -- "nice" in the old-fashioned sense, as well as the modern one -- if it was part of the Doctor's way out of the trap. --89.240.240.113 01:41, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

I doubt it. Sure, we haven't seen the Doctor for 200 years, and we know that he has met an older River during that period(Jim the Fish), but the young River that Kovarian kidnapped at the end didn't seem like she had seen the Doctor since Let's Kill Hitler, so this leaves the question as to when the Doctor made the swap. I guess he could have done it before he took her to the hospital, but kidnapping someone and replacing them with a clone just isn't the kind of thing the Doctor would do. Besides, we already saw the Doctor die, so to get out of it either the Doctor needs to be the one replaced by a Ganger, or more likely, something timey wimey needs to happen that allows him to avoid his death while still being killed in front of Amy, Rory, Canton, River, and River. Based on his general mood in Closing Time, he doesn't seem to have any plan to survive and has instead accepted that he must face his upcoming death. If he was lying and was going to avoid his death, then why bother telling Craig and Stormy about it at all?Icecreamdif talk to me 05:59, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

It wouldn't really be sweet revenge at all for that to have been a Ganger-River. They made a very big point of talking about Gangers essentially being their human counterparts--they have all the same memories, etc. So Ganger-River would have the very same brainwashing that River has, and the big plan to put her in a spacesuit in the middle of a lake would still work. Revenge-in-kind would really be for the Doctor at Lake Silencio to be a Ganger. But... that's just too obvious. You know the writers must have something better up their sleeve. Possibly two-time-streams-Doctors (sort of like the two Amys in The Girl Who Waited)? That's at least been hinted at, and in any case where that happens they have to get rid of one anyway. But again, that'd be a bit obvious. Unless they're using some obvious way of not actually killing the Doctor, but all sorts of other mysteries will be raised/revealed about the Silence, River, Kovarian...

They have also, once again, done the thing with the clothes. The Doctor at the end of Closing Time is wearing a red tie, a solid blue shirt, and a long coat. The Doctor killed at Lake Silencio is wearing a houndstooth jacket with patchy elbows, a navy blue tie, and a plaid or stripey shirt. Obviously, he could have just changed clothes in the TARDIS, but such things have been clues before. 216.239.45.4 17:01, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

The mention of the TARDIS reminds me of the question Steven Moffat asked during an interview: In The Impossible Astronaut, where is [the instance of] the TARDIS belonging to the 1100-year-old Doctor? Naturally, SM didn't answer that question. The TARDIS belonging to the 900-year-old Doctor was parked in the cafe and was briefly visible over his shoulder as he walked in to meet River, Amy and Rory after they'd seen the shooting but there has to have been another instance of the ship -- 200 years older than that one -- around the place, somewhere.

There's also the point about "petrichor" (see the topic "Messages for Amy Pond"). As far as I can see, attention was drawn to the word and, therefore, (if you think about it) to the oddness that Amy, before the events of The Impossible Astronaut and afterwards (Closing Time was set a few calendar days before the Doctor's death), was advertising a perfume by that name but, in The Doctor's Wife (later in Amy's timestream), she'd never heard of the word, needed to have it explained to her by the TARDIS (in the body of Idris) and that explanation subsequently gave Amy the clue she needed about how to use the TARDIS password. The word "petrichor" does seem to be a clue -- not a clue about how the Doctor will manage to survive, perhaps, but a clue that there's something adrift with Amy's timeline. --89.241.65.202 17:29, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

Well, technically the TARDIS explained the meaning of petrichor to Rory, not Amy, but I see your point. It probably makes more sense if we assume that the newspaper thing was a error, and CLosing Time takes place some time after The God Complex. The name Petrichor would then simply be a reference to The Doctor's Wife, as Amy would likely remember the TARDIS telling her what it means. Alternatively, if the Amy and Rory in Closing Time were from before The IMpossible Astronaut, then Amy may have known that Petrichor was the name of the perfume she modelled for,but she didn't know what the word actuaally mean.t Icecreamdif talk to me 21:34, September 30, 2011 (UTC)

Or there's a timey-wimey explanation. Boblipton talk to me 03:58, October 1, 2011 (UTC)

If I were a betting man (which I'm not), I'd put my money on the timey-wimey explanation, if I'd any money to bet (which I don't). --89.242.79.206 11:03, October 1, 2011 (UTC)