Howling:River pretending not to know Clara?

The Howling → River pretending not to know Clara?

There be spoilers about un-released stories here.
Run back to the forums if you're scared.

This is my first time posting one of these, so let's see if I can get my thoughts out right. Also, I have to say I'm a big River Song fan, so I might just be keeping my hopes up that she'll return!

Did anyone else find it strange that River Song seemed not to know Clara when they were introduced? This is the River who, having died, apparently knows all she'll ever know about the Doctor, but seems like she's never seen or heard of Clara. But after Clara is in the Doctor's time stream, she says "Spoilers", hinting that she knows who Clara is to the Doctor, and what's going to happen. She also seems to be familiar with the Doctor going to Trenzalore. I just feel like there's more going on here than meets the eye, especially since all of these characters have a propensity to lie. [Unsigned but appears to be Rhoslynn 08:29, May 20, 2013 (UTC)]

River certainly does lie (& pretend -- quite convincingly) in order to avoid "spoilers", so it's entirely possible she's doing it again.

River died in the first story we saw her in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, so the fact that The Name of the Doctor was later in her timestream than that (meaning she's dead, except on CAL's hard drive) needn't prevent her appearing again -- alive.

We still don't know who was the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS phone number, thereby getting her to Trenzalore to save the day (rather a lot of days, in fact). River has always seemed to me the most likely suspect. Clara's failure to recognise River doesn't mean much. At the point when Clara met the "woman in the shop", she'd not be likely to pay that much attention to what the woman looked like, so even a fairly thin disguise would have been enough. (It's generally only after they've travelled with the Doctor for a while that companions become properly alert for signs that things aren't what they seem to be.) Clara having that phone number was utterly vital & there aren't many people who'd have known it & been able to give it to her. If it wasn't River, it was still someone important to the events & we don't know who.

"I just feel like there's more going on here than meets the eye": I reckon that's as safe a bet as you'll ever find! --89.242.72.3^{talk to me} 10:32, May 20, 2013 (UTC)

i always thought that the woman in the shop was clara herself but one of her incarnations or a future one who geve herself the number to set up her meeting the doctor.....but yes i think river will be back she knew why trenzalore was so terrible for the doctor when nobody else did (as it is his biggest secret after all) even to the point of her reaction was of shock and fear where as her reaction to soon be going to the pandorica before was pretty relaxed even though in both situation the universe was going to die........she knows what the secret means to the doctor even if she doesnt know what it is exactly (which she might) she will be back

rule number 2: river always knows more than she is letting on 87.83.10.218^{talk to me} 10:54, May 23, 2013 (UTC)

87, "i always thought that the woman in the shop was clara herself": That thought did occur to me but the big problem with it is that all Clara's incarnations look like Clara & we know that Clara can recognise herself. Of course, a much older Clara is a possibility & it wouldn't need to be one of her other selves. It could be the original Clara at a greater age. Alternatively, it could be a Clara in some kind of disguise.

My own main suspect for the "woman in the shop" is still River. Like the creator of this discussion (presumably Rhoslynn), I simply don't believe that River didn't already know Clara. River is good at that sort of pretending. She has to be. An outstanding example is in The Time of Angels, when River pretends she's never met Amy before. Amy is her mother but, thanks to time travel, she grew up with Amy in Leadworth, she helped to get Amy & Rory together as a couple, Amy was there when she regenerated into her River incarnation & so on. If she could pretend so convincingly that she didn't know Amy, pretending that she didn't know Clara would be a stroll in the park.

Clara didn't seem to know River, either, of course, & that probably was genuine. It doesn't rule out River as the "woman in the shop". A disguise is possible &, at the stage where she met the "woman in the shop", Clara hadn't started travelling with the Doctor, so she hadn't developed the alertness to things not being quite what they seem that tends to go with being a companion. --2.96.17.223^{talk to me} 12:43, May 23, 2013 (UTC)

As an afterthought: Since we don't know yet if Clara will become as good at pretending as River is, it's still possible that she could become good enough at it to get away with being her own "woman in the shop". That would mean that Clara the companion set her younger self up to become a companion. Yet another bootstrap paradox -- something of which Moffat is especially fond! --2.96.17.223^{talk to me} 12:50, May 23, 2013 (UTC)

Clara was rather ignorant of all things tech at the time and seemed to ask anyone and everyone for guidance. Just because she was the one who mentioned the woman in the shop it doesn't follow that she met that woman herself.DCT ☎ 15:39, May 23, 2013 (UTC)