Wedge

Nice to see the Cybermat!

The Doctor is facing up to his destiny, and is paying a social visit. It's unnatural but it works, because he recognises that he doesn't have long left. It's the first time since he found out, that he's seeming to be resigned to his fate.

Will the skies go dark? There's the question.[1]

We now know beyond doubt that River was in the space suit. We know that she does the deed as a Doctor herself, and that presumably that is the timeline prior to the Time of Angels where she hasn't yet become a professor.

We even see him getting the blue envelopes that he's going to send to himself, River, Amy and Rory, AND him getting the Stetson.

There is still a discrepancy: when he dies, he's 1100 years old, so presumably he's done a lot of solo travel since dropping Amy and Rory off... I can't wait for the result!

Also, here's a thought, is there some reference to what he said in The Beast Below: about that he will have to change his name, because he won't be a doctor any more after killing a beautiful magnificent creature...

1.	Ref. Season 4, Forest of the Dead, "Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it."

Quote from Arantor on September 24th, 2011, 09:30 PM

There is still a discrepancy: when he dies, he's 1100 years old, so presumably he's done a lot of solo travel since dropping Amy and Rory off... I can't wait for the result!

This is indeed the case. See also this interview with Gareth Roberts:

Quote

Could you tell us a little bit about your episode?
Gareth Roberts: It's 200 years after The God Complex - for the Doctor, anyway. All the stuff you saw at the very beginning of The Impossible Astronaut, with him waving to Amy through all time and space, he's been doing that.

So yeah, he's aged considerably.

Cute resolution, very clever, something I certainly didn't see coming. And it explains what the eye patches are all about, something that had been bothering me. And yet again, Rory being the hero, and (nearly) dying again.

It didn't feel too rushed, either, but the subtlety and ingenuity of things that had been hidden, had been layered was incredible. Notably, Byzantium-era River talking to present-era Amy - remember the conversation from The Time of Angels, of who Amy thinks River is, in particular.

Plus the question, that must never be answered - but it is, quite correctly, the first question. That's probably the most devious thing I've seen yet from Moffat, the question in plain sight. There was me thinking all Douglas Adams, too, but the question will be answered, as it must, at the fall of the Eleventh - and we KNOW it's been answered because the consequences of having the answer have already been seen.

I'm not exactly sure, though, whether the last we see of River is after the Time of Angels double-episode, or *during* it... (And if 'during', when exactly?!)
Technically this has to be her *oldest* self so far, apart from the Library episodes, of course.

It's interesting that it's pretty much implied, given that Amy will be in S7, that everyone will be, including River, and hopefully she'll be there in a more casual capacity, rather than an arc mystery... Enough of seeing her in double episodes :P

Heck, why the hell did they get married BTW..? Not that it's not cool. It just doesn't make sense in the continuity etc. I don't even remember the Doctor saying her he loved her...
And why does time resume when she touches him, when it... shouldn't?

Yes, this is set just after the Time of Angels; she's still wearing the right outfit and she says that she's just come from the crash of the Byzantium - and there wasn't any time when she could have come from there 'during' it.

Yes, this is the oldest we've seen her, other than the Library.

I suspect we will see less of River now, or maybe not. Someone on Twitter said to Moffat about how it was becoming the River Song show, and he replied that she must be pretty pissed with not being in it that much.

Certainly, I think we have to see her one more time, when he meet her for the first time - from her point of view. Remember... "new suit, new haircut, and he just turned up on my doorstep and knew all about me". Plus, at the fall of the Eleventh, the question must be answered - because she knows the answer, and that's one time neither of them lied about it - "I told you my name. There's only one time I ever could."

That said, her arc is basically done

The whole marriage thing? Rewatch the end of The Big Bang. It's all right there in the continuity. That and, from the Time of Angels: "Are you his wife? Yeah you are, you're SO his wife." "Oh, Amy, this is the Doctor we're talking about, do you really think it could be that simple?" "...yep."

As for time resuming, yes it should from the show's own sense of continuity. She's the one that caused the time implosion by not killing him. He's the one who should be dead. Time is tricky and does funny things to you - and if the two halves of what caused the implosion touch, it's sort of like matter and anti-matter. It goes boom. I never found reason to question it, I guess.