First a couple of points: 1) Moffat already knew that he was going to take over the show when he wrote the Library episodes. 2) RTD never edited Moffat's episodes (they discussed how they'd fit in with the overall arc and other technical points etc, but RTD literally didn't know what happened until he read the scripts).
So - everything that happens reflects Moffat's Who, and River truly is a 'from the future', arriving too early, not fitting with the world view, or the show, we know.
And Moffat's Who *is* very different. As this meta so exquisitely points out RTD's Who is all about what it means to be human. Moffat's is about stories. And viewed in that light River's fate takes on a very different meaning. Because River is the keeper of the Doctor's story, and she (or a electronic memory of her) ends up in a Library, her last scene one where she reads from her diary to children... Now think of Eleven by Amelia's bedside, telling the same story - the story about the daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. They are storytellers, and at the same time they are the story ("That's a fairytale." "Oh Doctor, aren't we all?").
And also - she always says yes. (I'm writing fic about this btw.) Sorry about nattering on at length about something so off-topic.
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Re: (1/2) Yes, my response is so long it needs two comments.
Date: 2010-09-07 12:23 pm (UTC)First a couple of points: 1) Moffat already knew that he was going to take over the show when he wrote the Library episodes. 2) RTD never edited Moffat's episodes (they discussed how they'd fit in with the overall arc and other technical points etc, but RTD literally didn't know what happened until he read the scripts).
So - everything that happens reflects Moffat's Who, and River truly is a 'from the future', arriving too early, not fitting with the world view, or the show, we know.
And Moffat's Who *is* very different. As this meta so exquisitely points out RTD's Who is all about what it means to be human. Moffat's is about stories. And viewed in that light River's fate takes on a very different meaning. Because River is the keeper of the Doctor's story, and she (or a electronic memory of her) ends up in a Library, her last scene one where she reads from her diary to children... Now think of Eleven by Amelia's bedside, telling the same story - the story about the daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. They are storytellers, and at the same time they are the story ("That's a fairytale." "Oh Doctor, aren't we all?").
And also - she always says yes. (I'm writing fic about this btw.) Sorry about nattering on at length about something so off-topic.