Howling:River's Timeline in Light of TATM: Difference between revisions
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:On the vagueness: Think about the situation the Doctor & River are in with respect to each other (generally, not just in this episode). They're 2 time travellers who meet in a fairly random order. At any given meeting, one of them will know about things that, for the other one, are still in the future -- "spoilers", to use their term. Sometimes it'll be River who needs to be careful about "spoilers", sometimes it'll be the Doctor. (It ought to be a fairly even divide, about 50:50.) They'll both be in the '''habit''' of keeping it vague, when they speak of events, except when they've been able to compare diaries & each has figured out where the other is in his/her timestream. In this episode, they'd no opportunity to sit down & compare diaries. They were plunged straight into fast-moving events. Sometimes, vagueness won't be enough & they have to lie. River told Amy that in the garden scene at the end of ''The Wedding of River Song''. Occasionally, they slip up. The Doctor did in ''The Time of Angels'', when he introduced River to Amy as "Professor River Song" & River pounced on that: "You mean I'm going to be a professor, someday." | :On the vagueness: Think about the situation the Doctor & River are in with respect to each other (generally, not just in this episode). They're 2 time travellers who meet in a fairly random order. At any given meeting, one of them will know about things that, for the other one, are still in the future -- "spoilers", to use their term. Sometimes it'll be River who needs to be careful about "spoilers", sometimes it'll be the Doctor. (It ought to be a fairly even divide, about 50:50.) They'll both be in the '''habit''' of keeping it vague, when they speak of events, except when they've been able to compare diaries & each has figured out where the other is in his/her timestream. In this episode, they'd no opportunity to sit down & compare diaries. They were plunged straight into fast-moving events. Sometimes, vagueness won't be enough & they have to lie. River told Amy that in the garden scene at the end of ''The Wedding of River Song''. Occasionally, they slip up. The Doctor did in ''The Time of Angels'', when he introduced River to Amy as "Professor River Song" & River pounced on that: "You mean I'm going to be a professor, someday." | ||
:It's possible -- no more than just possible -- that River slipped up this time & that that's why the Doctor replied the way he did. If so, it would mean that it '''is''' the Doctor who's erasing the records but that '''he hasn't done it yet'''. River's comment (combined with the memory of what Oswin did in ''Asylum of the Daleks'') has tipped him off & he's now going to '''start''' erasing the records, so we'll see him doing that in later episodes of the series. A major theme of the episode was that they were doing things '''because they'd found out that they were going to have done them'''. | :It's possible -- no more than just possible -- that River slipped up this time & that that's why the Doctor replied the way he did. If so, it would mean that it '''is''' the Doctor who's erasing the records but that '''he hasn't done it yet'''. River's comment (combined with the memory of what Oswin did in ''Asylum of the Daleks'') has tipped him off & he's now going to '''start''' erasing the records, so we'll see him doing that in later episodes of the series. A major theme of the episode was that they were doing things '''because they'd found out that they were going to have done them'''. (Urgh! English tenses ain't designed to cope with time travel. We need a "future past perfect" tense, among others.) His reply could have been intended to conceal from River that she had slipped up & given him information about his personal future. (I was 89 but I'm 2 again, just now.) --[[Special:Contributions/2.99.198.167|2.99.198.167]]<sup>[[User talk:2.99.198.167#top|talk to me]]</sup> 20:29, October 3, 2012 (UTC) | ||
