River Song Revelations

The question that must never be answered is of course nothing more complicated than doctor who, and the convoluted route to discovering that fact was a real treat for all fans of this iconic TV series, as it concluded for this season at least with a hell of a bang.

As a life-long devotee of science-fiction, I have always felt that the irrepressible time lord was a wondrous creation, sort of a mobile Salvador Dali construct that shifted realities quicker than the onlooking mind could ever process, but why the doctor had to fall in love with and marry the daughter of his time travelling side-kick Amy pond was never clear to me. But then, why should it be, because that has always been the beauty of who – understanding it is simply impossible.

I loved the poignancy of the marriage ceremony, when the nuptial kiss sent the world spinning back to the really that was  intended, in this dimension anyway, but having lived with the doctor and his foibles for many years now, who can be sure which reality is actually the correct one, or indeed if any of them reflect the true face of the way of things at all? As ever, a million questions were left hanging like floating paper lanterns.

How could the destruction of an android which presumably had nothing of the life-force that is the doctor have fooled the silence so completely that time went back to normal?  With their awesome powers – presumably extending to long-distance telepathic communication, how could this secretive bunch not have known that the doctor still lived? How come, if everything had gone back to the way it had been, was Amy pond holding a conversation with a daughter older than her who supposedly had not yet been born?

Perhaps I am just splitting hairs, something that all lovers of fiction and fantasy are prone to do, but I cannot help but suspect that the characters who populated this series will be back in the next, their convoluted, intertwined histories leading to ever more complicated plot lines, until they blur so much that any future River  Song revelations come not as surprises but half-expected developments in this brilliant never-ending story that holds millions spellbound.

I personally cannot wait to see the next stage in the saga, just as I long for the next series of Game of Thrones, because I have to know what the dragon lady does next, having seen her incubate those eggs within a raging fire that should have burned her to a crisp but left her unscathed, yet adorned with three baby dragons and a gigantic, breathless question mark?

Then we come to the new series of Merlin, another legend dear to me fiction writing heart, and the revelation that Morgana, having sacrificed the damaged Morgeuse on the altar ripped the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead, only to discover that there was one who would ultimately be the death of her. Obviously, her powers are now great, but then young Merlin will be certain to have a few tricks up his sleeve.

he point is, with reference to all these wonderful TV shows that they provide not only entertainment for millions but also inspiration to lots of writers like myself, showing that nothing need be impossible in fiction, and that the written word provides the greatest entertainment media of them all. The revelation here is not that we now know the big question, but that we writers always have had the answer, and all we need do is share it with the world, in whatever form we choose.