10 Notorious Doctor Who Urban Legends

8. River Song's Name Came From A Dirty Joke

Doctor Who River Song Silence In The Library
BBC

Despite both of them being former Doctor Who bigwigs, the likes of Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat are just as silly and nerdy as the rest of us, and if there was ever any doubt about that, then here's something that absolutely confirms it.

Back when the two writers worked together during the Eccleston and Tennant eras, they would both try and come up with episode titles that carried rude acronyms, just to try and wind up people on internet message boards.

At one point, Moffat suggested "A River Song Ending", purely because its acronym spelled out the word "ARSE". When Davies questioned him about what "River Song" meant, Moffat responded with "I'll just call somebody River Song", which, of course, he eventually did - although neither of her debut episodes has a rude acronym.

If all of this sounds ridiculous and stupid, then we totally agree, but our source is none other than the Moff himself, so this one is 100% true.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!