Doctor Who - Regeneration 4

[Gold Samurai]

The Doctors had a hand messing up Amys life already.

From 8 to 22 and frequent visits to the psychiatrist with drawings of the raggedy doctor ever since he landed.

It's amazing she hasn't cracked.


And does anyone think the regeneration moment has been lessened? It use to be a momentous occasion now it's lost it's oomph.

 

[Speedball]

Rivers timeline (for the new thread) :

Spoiler

- Born in Demon's Run [melody]
- Brainwashed and brought up by those ppl. [melody]
- Shoots The Doctor in the space suit. [melody]
- Regenerates in NY alley [-> mels]
- Travels to Britain and befriends Amelia [mels]
- Gets Rory and Amy together [mels]
- Takes them to Berlin and regenerates [-> river]
- Gives up regeneration ability to save The Doctor [river]
- Starts studying archeology [river]
- Season 5 and 6 takes place? Her episodes in reverse order.[river]
- The Doctor meets her for the first time and she meets him for the last time in Silence in the library/Forrest [river]

I bolded where I guess Season 5 and 6 takes place but I am not sure.. Is this correct?

If Mels was a friend of Amy and Rorys as a child, then that wouldn't have been the same regeneration as the one in 1969, unless she can alter her age without regenerating. Amy was born in 1989, so could she have stayed a toddler for 20 years?!

 

[Manic]

Melody could've had access to time travel technology of some kind. After she regenerated in New York in 1969, someone could've come and got her, then deposited her in Leadworth so she could be near her parents.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Or she ran away from adoptive parents in New York and made her way to leadworth

 

[ThDWgeek]

Maybe she's got some messed up biology due to being part time lord? Sort of like growth spurts, but... different. Like, she regenerated in 1969/1970 and became a toddler. She stayed a toddler for 20ish years, ageing slowly, until she started ageing more normally when she was at school with Amy and Rory, or something like that?

Or time-travel, or future science. It's anyone's guess really.

 

[The Squirrel]

Goodness, how many pages can you guys write in a day and a half? I don't have time to catch up on anything, but I thought it was a good episode. I can't believe I didn't see that Mels = Melody earlier.

 

[regwec]

Heh, when Mels turned up, I said to my girlfriend that she and River Song were equally as irritating.

Mels was easier on the eye, though.

 

[obin_gam]

Hmmm, I hope they weren't implying the regeneration we saw at the end of the New York episode was the only one. If "Mels" was "born" in 1969, then she'd be 42 when we last saw her, which makes no sense. Right?

If Mels was a friend of Amy and Rorys as a child, then that wouldn't have been the same regeneration as the one in 1969, unless she can alter her age without regenerating. Amy was born in 1989, so could she have stayed a toddler for 20 years?!

Ah crap haha, you're right... well now my brain officially hurts. DAMN YOU MOFFAT!

Melody could've had access to time travel technology of some kind. After she regenerated in New York in 1969, someone could've come and got her, then deposited her in Leadworth so she could be near her parents.

This I believe would be the most logical "solution". The Silence just pics her up and drops her off to begin "Plan B"

 

[Vapor]

SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't seen the new episode...







Just caught the episode on iplayer. Was pretty good... couple points to raise/make;

- Maybe the girl in the alley does regenerate into Mels... Doesn't the newly regenerated adult Melody in the Hitler episode, say something about shedding a few years - to make herself look younger, which I took as a joke remark but perhaps she does age at a normal rate and once she tracked Rory and Amy down in Leadworth she was able to de-age herself somehow.

- If The Silence brainwashed Melody into killing the Doctor, why would Mels grow up dreaming of marrying the Doctor? Now it seemed that the kill instinct only seemed to trigger once she regenerated into River/adult Melody but why would they brainwash her with a time delay like that and also wasn't young melody in the space suit trying to kill the Doctor.. so that kinda didn't make sense to me... unless it's someone else in the space suit.

 

[Manic]

- Maybe the girl in the alley does regenerate into Mels... Doesn't the newly regenerated adult Melody in the Hitler episode, say something about shedding a few years - to make herself look younger, which I took as a joke remark but perhaps she does age at a normal rate and once she tracked Rory and Amy down in Leadworth she was able to de-age herself somehow.

It's been implied that Time Lords (other than the Doctor) can control their regenerations. The Master intentionally made himself much younger, and then there's that episode back in the 70's where Romana cycled through a handful of forms during her regeneration until she found one she liked.

I think while Melody is still in the middle of regenerating, she has some control over her looks. That would explain everything except why she regenerated into a toddler in the 60's but was still a child in the 90's.

- If The Silence brainwashed Melody into killing the Doctor, why would Mels grow up dreaming of marrying the Doctor? Now it seemed that the kill instinct only seemed to trigger once she regenerated into River/adult Melody but why would they brainwash her with a time delay like that and also wasn't young melody in the space suit trying to kill the Doctor.. so that kinda didn't make sense to me... unless it's someone else in the space suit.

I'm gonna skip over the space suit theories, since there are about 12,000 different ones floating around these threads.

I think Mels knew she wanted to kill the Doctor, but she was also intrigued by him from Amy's stories. He was the target, but her mother also made him sound so wonderful. So when she met him, she wanted to see him in action before she killed him. I think that's why she waited until she regenerated into Alex Kingston before trying to shoot him.

 

[wiegeabo]

I think Mels knew she wanted to kill the Doctor, but she was also intrigued by him from Amy's stories. He was the target, but her mother also made him sound so wonderful. So when she met him, she wanted to see him in action before she killed him. I think that's why she waited until she regenerated into Alex Kingston before trying to shoot him.

And you could combine that with the personality changes that come with regenerations. Mels could have been more infatuated with the Doctor over killing him, whereas River was more about killing him with her infatuation taking second place.

 

[Manic]

I kinda wish the rumors were true and Mels stuck around as a companion.

 

[Lord Valumart]

You know Moffat has went MEN-TILE.

The "shock reveal" of River = Melody at the half series was the most obvious thing. And then the insane ammount of utter ********e in the latest episode... Just no. It had FAR too much going on and yet barely anything happened. If it weren't for the high point of Matt's floundering around like a dying fish...

 

[Manic]

I agree that this episode had too much going on, but I won't count the River/Melody thing against him.

My policy on plot twists:
If I didn't see the twist coming and I still can't if I rewatch the story = bad
If I didn't see the twist coming but I found clues while rewatching = good
If I saw the twist coming = I'm disappointed it wasn't trickier, but I commend the writer for not pulling a twist completely out of their ass just for shock value.

 

[Vapor]

It's been implied that Time Lords (other than the Doctor) can control their regenerations. The Master intentionally made himself much younger, and then there's that episode back in the 70's where Romana cycled through a handful of forms during her regeneration until she found one she liked.

I think while Melody is still in the middle of regenerating, she has some control over her looks. That would explain everything except why she regenerated into a toddler in the 60's but was still a child in the 90's.

I'm gonna skip over the space suit theories, since there are about 12,000 different ones floating around these threads.

I think Mels knew she wanted to kill the Doctor, but she was also intrigued by him from Amy's stories. He was the target, but her mother also made him sound so wonderful. So when she met him, she wanted to see him in action before she killed him. I think that's why she waited until she regenerated into Alex Kingston before trying to shoot him.

Ahh, makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Lord Valumart]

River could have been anything. But he made her the most obvious thing we'd all thought of right at the start and dismissed.

I feel cheated.

 

[The Squirrel]

River could have been anything. But he made her the most obvious thing we'd all thought of right at the start and dismissed.

I feel cheated.

I love that though, everyone was so sure that River couldn't be Amy's daughter. Well, who's laughing now?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

People who actually like River and probably would've been fine with whatever her origin turned out to be?

 

[Lord Valumart]

People who actually like River and probably would've been fine with whatever her origin turned out to be?

Alex Kingston has no say here...

 

[Anubis]

I liked the new episode. It was kinda awesome.

 

[wiegeabo]

My only problem is that it should have probably been a two parter that ended on River's regeneration.

Although then I think it would have been too slow. Would have fit best in a 90 minute episode.

 

[The Lizard]

I'm really, really, REALLY looking forward to some DW storylines that have nothing to do with River.

 

[regwec]

Amen to that. She is like this albatross around the show's neck. I know lot of people have warmed to her, but I find her to be so crudely written and charmlessly played that I am half minded to mute the TV whenever she turns up. The worst part, however, is how stretched out her character arc has been. I mean, for me it stopped being interesting about a year ago, but it seems I am still supposed to care about exactly which point in the Doctor's timeline River first decided to perm her hair.

I don't. Give me some Ice Warriors.

 

[Lord Valumart]

Bring out some of the old guys. Cartmel, Aaronovitch and Platt back to work on some proper classic monsters like Zygons, Ice Warriors or Silurians and that would kick all kinds of arse. Sure the old episodes had problems, but think of some of the stuff beefed up with better effects and an episode less of padding...

That would be better than the River shambles...

Actually, let Tony Lee write an episode. I'd love to see that...

 

[Kahoot]

So Rivers timeline is:

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Spoiler

- Born in Demon's Run [melody]
- Brainwashed and brought up by those ppl. [melody]
- Shoots The Doctor in the space suit. [melody]
- Regenerates in NY alley [-> mels]
- Travels to Britain and befriends Amelia [mels]
- Gets Rory and Amy together [mels]
- Takes them to Berlin and regenerates [-> river]
- Gives up regeneration ability to save The Doctor [river]
- Starts studying archeology [river]
- Season 5 and 6 takes place? Her episodes in reverse order.[river]
- The Doctor meets her for the first time and she meets him for the last time in Silence in the library/Forrest [river]

I bolded where I guess Season 5 and 6 takes place but I am not sure.. Is this correct?

I think last night's episode said [BLACKOUT]it wasn't Melody/River in the space suit. As soon as he was dead she went against her programming and saved the Doctor again. If she killed him in the space suit she wouldn't need to kill him again.[/BLACKOUT]