River Song's Chronology (Spoilers abound!)

[doubleohfive]

Hi everyone-

First of all, this post and thread will be spoiler-heavy for everything up to series 6 of the new Doctor Who. Consider thyself warned!



























































I'M NOT KIDDING!



























































I've been very interested lately in re-watching Doctor Who on Netflix, and I had an idea I wanted to query everyone about. Admittedly, many of you know far more about Doctor Who than I do, so I wanted to see if anyone could help me here.

I'm trying to construct a viewing order for episodes based solely on the filter of River Song and her chronology. Much is made in the series about how she and the Doctor are a "love story in reverse" -- he's moving forward, she's moving backward. And since the typical Doctor Who episode is told from the Doctor's timeline/chronology/vantage point, I was interested in seeing if, once we came up with the viewing order for River's chronology, any of the story points would make sense.

This is all in good fun though, so let's keep it civil.

Here's what I've got so far:


The end of "The Almost People" (Amy's double revealed; Real Amy discovers she's been captured and already given birth to Melody.

Because young Melody appears in the space suit in them alongside adult River, I'm holding off on "Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" (will explain later.)

So, next on the list:

--End of "Day of the Moon" (Melody regenerates in New York City, presumably in to "Mels")
"A Good Man Goes To War"
"Let's Kill Hitler"

--"End of Closing Time" (Madame Kovarian recaptures River)
"The Impossible Astronaut" (River kills the Doctor)
"Day of the Moon" (The younger version of the Doctor

"The Wedding of River Song" (River doesn't kill, then does kill the Doctor)

"The Pandorica Opens"
"The Big Bang"

"The Time of Angels"
"Flesh and Stone"
--End of "The Wedding of River Song" (River mentions she's just come from the Byzantium when she meets Amy in her backyard)

"The Silence in the Library"
"Forest of the Dead" (River's death)

I'm certainly open to corrections here, but I'd love to know what you guys think. Thanks!


005

 

[captcalhoun]

you're missing A Good Man Goes to War and the other part of that story.

 

[doubleohfive]

No, I'm not. Both are listed in there. I listed them before "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" because they include portions of River's early life - being the little girl calling Nixon, regenerating in New York, and Mels first appearance.

These two episodes are the tricky ones, in terms of placement because so much of them features both Melody and River at different times in their lives.... and which is why I started this thread to begin with.

 

[RoJoHen]

There is one part of River's story that has fascinated me since I saw the scene. It's such a tiny thing, but it intrigues the hell out of me.

Towards the beginning of "A Good Man Goes to War," Rory the Roman meets River at the prison. She is just getting back from a date with the Doctor, where apparently Stevie Wonder sang in 1814.

Rory asks River if they've met yet, and she responds, "Yes, we've met. Hello, Rory." And there is just something odd about the way she says it, like it's been a very long time since they'd last seen each other, and she is so happy to see him now. I dunno, there is something in her tone that really intrigues me in that scene. I'm almost wondering if it's the first time she's seen her father since they left her in the hospital in "Let's Kill Hitler."

 

[Peacemaker]

Doubleohfive, this may help.

 

[Iamnotspock]

There is one part of River's story that has fascinated me since I saw the scene. It's such a tiny thing, but it intrigues the hell out of me.

Towards the beginning of "A Good Man Goes to War," Rory the Roman meets River at the prison. She is just getting back from a date with the Doctor, where apparently Stevie Wonder sang in 1814.

Rory asks River if they've met yet, and she responds, "Yes, we've met. Hello, Rory." And there is just something odd about the way she says it, like it's been a very long time since they'd last seen each other, and she is so happy to see him now. I dunno, there is something in her tone that really intrigues me in that scene. I'm almost wondering if it's the first time she's seen her father since they left her in the hospital in "Let's Kill Hitler."

My interpretation of that was that they had not "met" as such, as River claims, but that she knows that Rory is her father and is shocked to be meeting him for the first time. Given that she can't reveal the truth to him at this point, she's simplifying by saying, "Yes, we've met."

 

[RoJoHen]

^That would make sense, except that River has in fact met him before (at least once), in the very next episode when she transforms from Mels into River.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

No, I'm not. Both are listed in there. I listed them before "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" because they include portions of River's early life - being the little girl calling Nixon, regenerating in New York, and Mels first appearance.

These two episodes are the tricky ones, in terms of placement because so much of them features both Melody and River at different times in their lives.... and which is why I started this thread to begin with.

Probably best to just list them multiple times, once for each chronological instance of River in them.

One other encounter between River & the Doctor that hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet is the picnic at Asgard. In "Silence in the Library," she implies that this was, from the Doctor's perspective, before the crash of the Byzantium (as seen in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh & Stone"). There's not really much time for the 11th Doctor to have had this adventure with her prior to "The Time of Angels." So, more likely, this was an additional encounter she had with the 10th Doctor sometime after Donna left in "Journey's End" but before the 10th Doctor regenerated in "The End of Time." Perhaps this happened very soon after Donna left in "Journey's End," with the Doctor particularly despondent over Donna's fate. This might explain why River seemed to have such a heavy reaction to meeting Donna for the first time in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead."