I've just watched the big bang and was wondering if anyone knew when Moffat had decided who the River character was. I had hoped he'd decided beginning of season 5 but watching the big bang makes me doubt it She says to Rory "I dated a nestene duplicate once. Swappable head. Did keep things fresh." Hardly something you'd expect her to say to her parents.
Hardly something you'd expect someone else to say to their parents. River Song on the other hand? River who might not have been raised by her parents?
It's possible that since Rory technically didn't exist at that point, that she didn't know that she was talking to her father.
Has Moffat said about this in any interviews? I haven't seen any where he said when he gave River a history. I can't remember did he say the confidential episode on the library episodes?
Also in "The Big Bang," Amy says to the Doctor "oy! we haven't even had time for our snogg in the bushes yet." That's hardly something you say in front of your husband! But it makes sense for the character, so it makes sense River would have inherited that flirtiness and lack of inhibition.
I'm sure Moffat had an idea of what and who River was before he took over the show but the details are a different matter. For example he had to write and extra scene into TIA to have things make more sense.
But River remembered the Doctor after the Big Bang while everyone else forgot him. Like the Doctor always remembered Rory. She's part Time Lord. She must remember him even though he doesn't exist.
I don't know what it was but it was filmed with the scenes in Az. you can see some of it during the Dr. Who In America special that ran before the premiere. It's part of what was filmed at the lake though.
Moffat has mentioned on a couple of occasions that when he was unsure whether Alex Kingston would commit to a recurring role in the series and in order to persuade her he told her River's entire storyline.
That makes sense, since we all figured the lake scene would make more sense at the end of the Season, so that would mean it was deliberately planned to hold back that clarification, and not some "Oh Crap, that doesn't make any sense, here, let's add this" response
I can't find the article now, but Stephen Moffatt recently said in an interview (either at SDCC or TCA, can't recall which with certainty) that we only think we know who River is.
Not necessarily. It could be in the present of whomever is in the spacesuit (and Doctor Who in America gave that away) or in the present of the Doctor aged 1103 if the timeline of the series had reached that point.
I think Moffat knew, hence the random Doctor quote to Amy "when is a [duck] Pond, not a Pond?" well I think the answer to that would be "When it's a River"