<P> In 2011 series opener "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon", River, along with Amy and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill), is contacted by a future version of the Doctor to meet up in the United States . As they enjoy a lakeside picnic, the Doctor is killed by an assailant in a space suit, and the trio give him a Viking funeral, in Lake Silencio . In 1969, the present Doctor and company subsequently encounter a little girl (Sydney Wade) who wears the space suit, which River tells the Doctor is a life support unit; the suit has been designed by the hypnotic aliens known as the Silence . Homeless, the girl is later shown regenerating in New York City, 1970 . In "A Good Man Goes to War", it is revealed that River is Amy and Rory's daughter Melody (Harrison and Maddison Mortimer), who was conceived in the TARDIS while it was in the Time Vortex and consequently carries Time Lord DNA; the name River Song comes from a recursive translation of Melody Pond via the language of the Gamma Forests; which have no ponds, only rivers; hence the translation of "Pond" to "River ." Baby Melody is kidnapped by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) to become a weapon against the Doctor . </P> <P> "Let's Kill Hitler" establishes that Melody was trained by the Silence to kill the Doctor . At some point after regenerating in New York, Melody becomes Rory and Amy's childhood friend Mels (Maya Glace - Green) and grew up with them . When adult Mels (Nina Toussaint - White) is shot, and regenerates into her next incarnation (Alex Kingston), she proceeds to do what she was created for: assassinate the Doctor . Persuaded she will one day become River Song, who the Doctor cares deeply about and places in great trust, Melody chooses to resurrect the Doctor with her own regenerative energy, losing any future regenerations . The Doctor learns, however, that it is she who kills him in the future . While she is recovering in bed, the Doctor gives her the blank TARDIS - shaped / coloured diary, and in an epilogue it is revealed that Melody (now River) wants to study archaeology . At the end of "Closing Time", on the day she receives her doctorate, the Silence and Kovarian recapture her and trap her in the space suit in order to kill the Doctor as history will record . In the series finale "The Wedding of River Song", River refuses to kill the Doctor as she is supposed to, creating an alternate reality in which time has frozen and all realities are occurring at once . In order to restart time and repair reality, the two of them must touch . The Doctor marries River and convinces her to repair the timeline by letting her know that he plans to fake his own death and how . River goes to prison for his murder in order to corroborate the deception, though it is established that she regularly breaks out of prison to go on dates and adventures with him with the aid of hallucinogenic lipstick and other tricks . </P> <P> River appears again in the fifth episode of the seventh series, titled "The Angels Take Manhattan" (2012), where she encounters the Doctor and her parents; Rory and Amy, in 1930s New York City . At this later point in her timeline, she is a professor of archaeology and a free woman, having been released from the Stormcage Prison after the Doctor erased all evidence of his existence . When her parents are sent permanently back in time by the Weeping Angels, to be forever parted from the Doctor, she arranges for Amy to leave the Doctor a message in the form of an epilogue in a book they have been reading written by her in the 1930s . Although she agrees to travel with the Doctor for the time being, she declines his offer of being a full - time companion . In "The Name of the Doctor" (2013), the deceased River's consciousness is summoned from the Library computer, where she has existed since "Forest of the Dead", into a psychic' conference call' by the Doctor's friend Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh). There, she and Clara (Jenna Coleman) learn that the Doctor's grave, "his greatest secret", has been discovered . River maintains the psychic link with Clara after the call ends, and counsels her throughout the discovery of the Doctor's tomb, although she seems to be invisible to everyone else . When the Doctor and his companions are threatened by the Great Intelligence, she whispers the Doctor's name in order to open his tomb which is inside the TARDIS . After Clara enters the Doctor's time stream to save him from the Great Intelligence, who entered it first so he could destroy the Doctor in all his regenerations, the Doctor reveals that he could see River all along, but had been avoiding confronting her continued existence because it was too painful for him to bear . After he kisses her, River feels closure and fades away . However, before disappearing River points out that her continued presence indicates that Clara has not been destroyed by entering his time stream; and therefore, he can save her . </P> <P> When the Doctor next encounters River, in "The Husbands of River Song" (2015), as the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), she does not initially recognise him and he is able to learn more about what she is like when he is not around . The Doctor accompanies River (from her perspective, shortly after "The Angels Take Manhattan") on a scheme to obtain a rare diamond . He learns that in addition to him, River has had several spouses, both male and female, and is not above ruthless behaviour as she goes about her work . He also discovers that she truly loves him, but that she also genuinely believes that he does not love her back . She feels that the Doctor is above such petty emotions as love, and that he would never willingly jeopardise himself simply to help her . River ultimately discovers that the man she's been having this adventure with is actually the Doctor, with a new face she doesn't have a record of, thinking he only had 12 regenerations and that she'd already seen his last one . The pair later crash - land on the planet Darillium, where River had told the Doctor in "Forest of the Dead" that they would have their last night together . He uses time travel to ensure a perfect date, gifts her the sonic screwdriver that she had in "Silence in the Library", and comforts her by revealing that the nights on Darillium last "24 years", giving River a happy life spent with the Doctor before her impending death in the Library . </P>

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