Hello! These are my Doctor Who shoes, themed with the Eleventh Doctor and River Song.
My experience with Doctor Who began in 2010 when I was looking on BBC America for Star Trek reruns and stumbled upon Vincent and The Doctor. I was immediately enthralled, despite not knowing what the back stories were, and I loved the characters. I remember promptly making a button with the quote "Is this how time normally passes? Reaallly slowly, and in the right order?" --The Doctor and wearing it all through Girl Scout Day Camp. I didn't watch Series 5 in the right order, and I loved every minute of it.
Which leads me to River Song. I loved her, she was witty and beautiful because she was herself. She was a mystery, and I knew something amazing was going to come from her. The concept of living time backwards has always fascinated me, including my continued love of Arthurian legend. I wanted to watch this tragedy of a love story unfold gracefully and slowly, taking the time to explore the depth of a loved one losing their memories. I wanted to watch River find out all of the little details about The Doctor that she uses to find him and help him and know him. I wanted to watch her fall in love with him after we watched him fall for her.
Instead, Series 6 was a jumbled mess. Instead of the implied backwards timeline, we were jumped around various pieces of River's life. She was the middle of a conspiracy, had been brainwashed, and was actually Amy's best friend and child? To me, while I liked the actors and the characters generally, it felt like a lazy letdown of this brilliant thing that had been set up. Why does everything have to end in a conspiracy theory?
The biggest let down, I feel, was the love story. The River/Doctor romance was painful and stilted to me, and I never felt the Doctor really fell in love. It felt like Moffat handed the romance to us on a platter, saying 'Here you go!' without investing us in it from the Doctor's side. It felt like an awkward obligation to him; he was clearly more invested in Amy. If it came down to a choice between Amy and River, I have no doubt the Doctor would choose Amy.
Series 5 River held a mystery for the Doctor, and admittedly, mysteries were what attracted Eleven. It seemed to me that once the mystery was gone, this budding attraction was somewhat stilted as he went into problem solving mode, first for Amy, and then for himself. I wanted to watch him tell her 'I love you' (if he was able), and watch River's face light up and then plunge into sadness. I wanted to watch them enjoy the golden period where they both loved each other. I wanted to watch River no longer love him. Let's Kill Hitler attempted to show this transition, but I felt it was clunky and far too early. I felt that River had very little free choice in the matter of whether or not she would love him. And choice for me is what makes a love worthwhile.
After the universe saving mystery of Series 5, I feel that a personal story of a truly personal nature would have been wonderful for Series 6. I think they tried to do the story of River Song, but the universe-saving, time-unraveling mishmash of the finale was bombastic and unnecessary. It feels as though there aren't any consequences in this universe, with little real tragedy. Of course the universe will be okay, of course the major characters will all make it through, of course the Doctor does not experience real suffering.
It was handled really well in Series 7 with Amy and Rory. The Doctor was clearly invested in them, and he breaks down completely afterwards. We never see that type of investment with River. We never see her exit from his life, except as the last shadow in the S7 finale. I was just so disappointed by that. The loss of her knowledge of him could have been so poignant. I would have loved to see her start to fall for him, and he saying goodbye.
River Song is a wonderful character that I think was mishandled horribly. I may write my own ending to her story myself.
On to the shoes!
I bought a few pair of navy canvas shoes at Ross and used acrylic paint to freehand the designs.
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| The Doctor, with stardust / nebula background with TARDIS |
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| River Song |
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| From The Impossible Astronaut |
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| From Forest of the Dead |
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| From The Wedding of River Song |
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| From A Good Man Goes to War |
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| From The Time of Angels |
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| From The Angels Take Manhattan |
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| TARDIS close up |
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