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Anonymous: Do you think that was River's last appearance?

lol

No. I think the “Spoilers!” and River-Clara connection was left hanging for a reason.

Whether we still have pre-Library or post-Library (or both?) yet to come is anyone’s guess.

willstr1: Thanks about that bit about Alex might be in the 50th. I mean really why wouldn't she be. River is Moffat's favorite.

I agree. I’ll be really surprised if she’s not. I also think they’re waiting to announce more names until after the finale tomorrow. It makes sense. If there are surprises in the finale, they wouldn’t want to give them away by announcing them early. With River there’s already a lot of “will she? won’t she?” about the finale, so it’d be silly to announce her for the 50th if they want to keep that suspense. So we’ll see.

kerjenfanfic: River's not in the 50th; they had the closing party for it and Alex was never there for filming. :( It's Rose/Doctor and Doctor & Clara. Unless you've seen something that shows Alex was there?

Well, I don’t really think the closing party proves much of anything quite frankly. We know Billie was in it, but we literally never saw any filming pics of her at all, only one of her double that was promptly deleted by the actress/double (but not quite fast enough because Whovians still caught hold of it) and a picture of Billie out to dinner with Jenna and Hurt, I think.

We also didn’t know the Zygons were in the 50th until the day of filming, when it became obvious, so the BBC made an official announcement knowing that people would see them anyway, but they still waited until the last possible second.

So if they’re playing things that close to their chest, why on Earth would they reveal all their cards at a closing party? For all we know, several Classic companions and Alex Kingston could’ve been secretly filming in studio with Billie, and yet we won’t know until they either decide to tell us or show us. I think there’s even an interview that David gave that might allude to this. I’ll go see if I can find it.

Yeah, check out this interview (it’s audio) between David Tennant and Billie Piper’s ex-husband, Chris Evans. Chris says Billie has been texting him about filming info during the week prior to the interview:

Chris: A little program? It sounds like - it sounds like Doctor Who could use a bandaid from what I’ve been hearing!
David: Well, you know, you’ve got to [something I can’t decipher] for a - for a birthday. I mean, fifty-years-old! Not many television programs can claim that.
Chris: No, but all the old faces there — a lot of the old faces there have met, you know, met the viewers by Doctor Who, but not each other. You must be having a whale of a time!
David: We are having fun, yeah. It really is good fun. I mean, it could’ve been a bit tricky bringing lots of people from different eras to sort of work with each other, but I-I guess the current team with Matt and Jenna are so welcoming and enthusiastic about the whole thing that it’s been - it has been a really fun time, I have to say.

I’m too lazy to transcribe the whole thing, but you can listen to it if you want. It’s only a minute and thirty-nine seconds. But obviously the parts I bolded imply by both Chris and David that there are a lot more people that fans are familiar with that nobody knows about. And if we know about Billie, but never saw her, they certainly could’ve gotten away with it.

Anonymous: wait, but Alex is stunning! What are people saying about her appearance?!

I had some direct quotes in an essay/research paper I’d written on the fandom reaction to River Song several semesters ago, but the flash drive got stolen last semester and I’m not sure if I have a paper copy of the essay in my assignments tub or not. (I’m a pack rat, so I actually have two giant rubber bins of all my old assignments out in my garage. There are literally assignments dating back to elementary school.)

The Facebook group that I’m referring to is River Song, go away, nobody really likes you except Steven Moffat. You have to be logged in to view the older posts/comments and I don’t use FB anymore, so it won’t let me see past the five most recent comments without logging in. However, scroll through if you have the stomach. I remember one of the quotes I used in my essay (as an example of ageism) was talking about how Alex was an ugly cow and how the poster thought that Matt Smith probably ran home after he kissed her to wash his mouth out and was lucky to have a super model girlfriend to kiss to make up for having to kiss Alex. (And if my paraphrase sounds awful, just imagine how bad the direct quote was.)

And even though this is labeled as an anti “River Song” group, even one of the five most recent comments from January 24 says:

1. I guess I can stop watching “Arrow” now. Maybe she…

And then of course to see the rest of the comment, you have to log in to your FB account. But clearly River Song isn’t in Arrow, so whatever this Steven Milesevic goes on to say is a dig at Alex, not River.

Also, the second post on this forum says (post #152):

River Song. God I can’t stand that fat, ugly cow. I don’t mind the IDEA of River Song, I just hate how she’s written and how the actress portrays her.

[…]

River Song: Guilty of being an ugly, fat, self-smug bitch who somehow seduces the Doctor. I mean, he could have had so many HOT, SMART women and he passed… for her? It even somewhat spoils my like for the 11th Doctor, as much as I like Matt Smith- who is probably my third favorite Doctor overall.

In response to someone asking how River was possibly fat, this same person says (post #155):

Compare her to Rose or Martha or Sarah Jane or Romana or Leela or Barbara or…..well you get the picture. Ok, perhaps River isn’t FAT fat, but definitely chubby. Doesn’t help that she always wears a low cut dress that’s a bit tight and has a double chin.

These ones specifically refer to “River Song,” but since s/he’s calling her a “fat, ugly cow” it crosses over from character hate to actress hate, because s/he’s bashing Alex’s physical appearance. I would bet you that s/he is one of the same members of the FB group I linked to, because those are the same type of comments I’m talking about.

Seriously, this is one of the best quotes and bits of characterization ever. I mean, just think about all the times The Doctor has scoffed at any kind of sentimental explanations like that when they have real scientific (as scientific as you can get in the Whoniverse) explanations. I think of when Craig said he defeated the Cybermen with love and Eleven was like, “No. That’s impossble. And also grossly sentimental and over-simplistic. You destroyed them because of the deeply-ingrained hereditary human trait to protect one’s own genes.” But here, The Doctor is standing in his TARDIS with his wife and he’s about to take her on an incredibly romantic date and he excitedly explains that “it’s like daylight only magic!”

It just gets me every. damn. time.