Theory talk:Timeline - River Song

The Angels Take Manhattan
The problem with The Angels Take Manhattan is that while it seems easy to place, (she is now pardoned and a professor), it directly contradicts the bit about seeing a younger and younger doctor from the events of the end of Demon's Run on. It's a little hard to excuse this with "River lies" because of River Song: Her Story in which she isn't speaking to anyone and therefore isn't trying to preserve a timeline and prevent spoilers. Both of these things cannot be correct. The Angels Take Manhattan (and therefore the night in Darillium) cannot take place after the events of the Byzantium if from Demon's Run on she sees a younger and younger Doctor. And Angels Take Manhattan is what we use to date the night in Darillium. In Forest of the Dead River says that the last time she saw the real doctor, the proper doctor, the older doctor was in Darillium. And if you take that to mean a Doctor who knows her, loves her and is married to her than the events of Darillium could easily take place before Demon's Run. All of those events (Demon's Run, Lake Silencio, Pandorica, Byzantium) involve a Doctor who isn't married to her and doesn't even know her real identity. The Angels Take Manhattan taking place after Flesh and Stone does however really screw this up. Either River is lying or there are errors in Angels. Anoted ☎  16:16, May 10, 2013 (UTC)

Here's a very easy explanation: River is mistaken. At the point when she claims they're always meeting in the opposite order, she is not lying. That is really how it has happened for her so far, but it's just a coincidence; there isn't a "rule" that says that's how it has to go. 68.227.236.101talk to me 03:23, April 10, 2015 (UTC)

Vortex manipulator
Don't forget to account for River obtaining the vortex manipulator in "The Pandorica Opens". Assuming she hasn't had more than one, this places any episode using the vortex manipulator after that one in her timeline. This includes the second copy of River in "First Night"/"Last Night" and likely the second copy in "A Good Man Goes to War". (I *think* she used the v.m. to get to Demons' Run in that episode.)--Cap&#39;n Calhoun ☎  20:36, January 14, 2014 (UTC)

Another timeline
In a sandbox I have drafted another possible timeline, if you mind giving a look! HarveyWallbanger ☎  17:41, October 10, 2014 (UTC)

Husbands of river song
Husbands of river song is the last time river meets the doctor before silence in the library given what is stated in those stories 2.30.191.51talk to me 20:48, August 7, 2017 (UTC)
 * "The real you, the future you", she says, so she could have met earlier Doctors. -- Saxon 14:58, March 21, 2018 (UTC)

Rain Gods....?
Based on when "Rain Gods" was released and what the Doctor was wearing, isn't it more likely that this occurred sometime close to The Angels Take Manhattan? They also both seem to know each other pretty well at this point, as opposed to any of the periods where River is some big mystery to the Doctor, or the Doctor knows more about River. They seem to very mutually have gone on a date.

I realize that the general mood of the story doesn't fit as well with a more somber time for the Doctor, but it's not like he's never acted with a different mood to protect his friends before.

... having posted that, I gave some thought to exactly what it would mean in River's timeline and I guess I can see it a little better. A later Doctor with a late, but not quite Angels Take Manhattan late, River. Ok. I'd still love to hear a little more about how the minisode was placed exactly where it was placed.

DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL AN UNRELIABLE SOURCE
Doctor Who Confidential is frequently used as a definitive source for placement of several events in River's Timeline, even though that episode was based on an early assertion within the show that was subsequently contradicted by the show itself: that River and the Doctor were meeting in opposite directions. While that bit of DWC was narrated in first person by Alex Kingston as River Song, I would argue that it should not be given precedence over what is shown diegetically within the series itself. For instance, any story in which River has a vortex manipulator should be placed post-Pandorica Opens; any story in which she is a professor must be set after her pardon.