River Song is a fictional character in the British science-fiction series Doctor Who. She is played mainly by Alex Kingston. River Song was first seen in the series as a future companion of the Doctor. The Doctor is an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS. River Song is a time traveler herself. Because of this, her time spent with the Doctor does not happen in the same order his time with her does. The first time they met (in the series) is his first but her last time. In later episodes, River is a companion of the Doctor in his eleventh form (Matt Smith). River Song was created by Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat for the programme's fourth series in 2008. When moffat took over the job of executive producer from Russell T Davies, he started developing the character's background. He created adventures earlier in River's timeline. Alex Kingston went from being from a guest star to a recurring actor in the series. Other actresses have also played younger versions of the character. She has been an infant, a child and a young adult.
When the character was first seen, much about her was mystery. After the character's first time on the series, Davies said she was as "one of the most important characters" in the story. He said that she was "vital" to the Doctor's life. In series six (2011), Moffat's episodes showed more about the character. Born Melody Pond, River is the daughter of the Eleventh Doctor's companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). Kingston had appeared with these characters several times in series five (2010). Because she was conceived in the TARDIS as it travelled through the space-time vortex, Melody is born with genetic traits and abilities much like to the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.
Appearances
River Song first appears in the Doctor Who 2008 series two-episode story "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead". This story was written by Steven Moffat. Here, she meets up with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) in the 51st century. She tells him that she is someone he will come to trust completely. River, who wears a space suit, carries a diary that looks like the TARDIS. It is filled with her adventures. She is a professor of archaeology. The Doctor learns that he will trust her in the future when she whispers his real name into his ear. The adventure in the Library is River's last real-life meeting with the Doctor in her chronology. It is their first meeting in his. In the second of the two episodes she dies to save the people who were trapped in the Library's database, before the Doctor could do the same. The Doctor is then able to upload her consciousness into a computer. This allows her to live on in a virtual world created by the Library computer. He does this by using a sonic screwdriver that she was given by himself in his future (her past).
After Moffat took over from Davies as executive producer, River Song was in the 2010 series. At an earlier point in her timeline, in the two-episode story "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone", River meets the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith). She is more familiar to him and he is more familiar to her. At this point in her life, River is a doctor. She is not yet a professor. She leaves coordinates for the Doctor to find so that he may save her in the 51st century. With him she goes to learn about the crash of the spaceship Byzantium. She shows herself to be better at flying the TARDIS than he is. She tells the Doctor that she is imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility for killing, in her words, "the best man I've ever known." An even earlier version of River helps the Doctor in series finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang". After Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) talks to her while she is in prison, she takes the Doctor to 102 A.D. While River is travelling in the TARDIS on her own, it explodes with her inside. The Doctor, using an device that belonged River, is able to save her and teleport her out. She then helps him in closing the cracks in the universe. After the Doctor removes himself from all of history to close the cracks in the universe, River helps Amy Pond to remember the Doctor. This brings him back. She gives Amy her now-blank diary. At the end of the series finale, The Doctor asks her whether she is married. She says she is married, and answers yes to a question she pretends think is him asking her to marry him. She then tells to the Doctor that he will soon learn the truth about her, after which 'everything changes'.