Alex Kingston Central

Doctor/River + TTTW quotes → “Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust.”

The Fall of the Eleventh

I never dreamed that I could love you so much. You stole what was left of my heart. And now I have lost you forever. I swear, no harm will come to you as long as I live. And not a day shall pass that I don’t miss your smile. (x)

you should have faded by now

I love this because the Doctor chose the restaurant for their date like a normal married couple, but they still ended up being kidnapped and held as sacrifices to the Rain Gods. 

This isn’t the first mention of an off screen date between River and the Doctor and I love knowing that they go to restaurants and that the Doctor makes grand gestures on her birthday, but the focus of this scene is what happens when a romantic date goes wrong.

We don’t know what happens in between the time the two of them go out to dinner and end up being marched along as sacrifices, but these are two people who are drawn to dangerous situations, so this outcome isn’t unexpected.

River is clearly already annoyed with him when the scene begins, so we know they found themselves facing the pointy ends of two spears because he couldn’t resist coming to this planet and finding trouble even though they were supposed to be having a romantic dinner in a restaurant.

River is a time traveler who seeks out dangerous situations much like the Doctor. She thrives on it like he does, but she knows how to step away from it and continue living life when she needs to. She’s not addicted to it like he is.

River goes home or back to prison after her adventures, she declines full time traveling twice, she has a job as a professor later in her life, and she can stay in one place for a long period of time (even in the Angels Take Manhattan, she’s clearly been working there for quite a while rather than jumping from planet to planet like the Doctor does with little looking back). She can take an evening off for a date without seeking trouble and that’s exactly what they were supposed to be doing.

Very noticeably, River doesn’t have her gun with her. A dinner date shouldn’t have involved the need for weapons, but he brought them to the planet of the Rain Gods and so we are thrown into the middle of a tense moment, but it’s ok in the end. We know very well that River doesn’t hate dangerous situations (just ones she’s unprepared for), he saves them with a little help from the Rain Gods, and it ends in one of the more adorable moments between them.

She may have been irritated with him, but the smile on her face as they huddle under the umbrella and run away says it all. She loves him as he is - the goofy man who can save the day in the most improbable of ways.

The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.

Doctor/River + TTTW quotes → “He’s fascinating. But he’s dangerous. All the women he’s been with fall apart. I just don’t want you blithely waltzing into the arms of this charming sociopath…”

It’s confusing.  It’s like two emotions at once.  It’s like you’re malfunctioning.

What happened to time? A woman.

Doctor/River + TTTW quotes → “But sometimes you tell me something and I feel like the future is already there, you know? Like my future has happened in the past and I can’t do anything about it.” “That’s called determinism,” I tell her. “It haunts my dreams.”

Doctor/River + TTTW quotes → “It’s so strange to be talking, almost like we always did, but the physical proximity makes it hard for me to concentrate.”

What once was mine.

You think I wanted this? I didn’t do this! This, this wasn’t me! This was exactly you. All this, all of it.