she seems familiar to 'The Woman' from 'The End of time'.
because 'The Woman' is a mysterious time lady and River is mysterious too. And she opposed Lord President Rassilon's plan to destroy Time itself and began guiding Wilf on how to help the doctor which led to his regeneration. As the Doctor looked at her, she briefly uncovered her face and looked at him. They seemed to share a recognition of each other.
Perhaps she has something to do with River?
She just as a mysterious character as River, she is only referred to as 'the woman'. Maybe this might be explored in the future and link to River somehow? River's meetings with the Doctor aren't exactly 'in order'.

Well that's my theory
Stupid theory I know

As good as any others I've seen, but with more thought!

I would like The Woman explained too!

Not at all stupid (especially not when compared to some theories I've read on here)

I hope we get some explanation of the woman in white at some future time, whether it's connected to River or not. Maybe Russell T Davies left it deliberately vague so that Moffat could develop her story if he wanted to.

And me I hope she wasn't just put there for no reason as that seems a bit pointless I would like The Woman explained sometime in the future


Same here

Various places have the Woman in White as the Doctor's mother, including at east one report of RTD (not) stating this and being trumped by the rest of the production team.

Sadly I can't remember where I read this. DWM?

I cannot put my finger on why I feel this way, but if the Woman in White is ever identified, I would really like her NOT to be his mother. Let her be Romana, Susan, River Song, even Sally Sparrow, anyone but his mother!

Yeah. That would kind of ruin the magic a bit. Of course, in my mind, shes Chancellor Flavia. And maybe the other one is a younger Borusa? But I'll stick with the Flavia for now.

I quite like the idea of it being his Mother to be honest .. I like the look they give each other, kind of an acknowledgement of each other but not ..

Helped sell that scene for me; The Doctor seeing his Mother, trapped in the Time Lock and punished by Rassilon, being so close to her again but so far and knowing that he can't acknowledge or rescue her...

... So sad

I can't believe River Song is an old character from Classic Who. I just don't see Ste Moffatt going down that route with her... So (for me) she is either an existing character from new Who in a new form? or just simply a new character, playing mind games or something.


I also now believe that this will apply to the 'silence'. I believe they are new foes and nothing we've seen before, which contradicts my original belief that it is Omega - I'm not seeing it now.


I sense there will be more of a twist with River Song than The Silence, and I've always wondered if that book from Human Nature would ever cause the Doc problems (coincidentally a story where the Doc gets married (sort of..) and also a book showing 10 of his faces...)

I thought at one time River Song was The Doctors 12th incarnation , we know from past shows, the older show Trial of a Time Lord, that his 12th is bad.
The Doctor is the one she kills and she takes his place as his 12th regeneration.

One additional thought I had on River is that she is pretty effective in her own right as a character, she doesn't really need to be anyone else to have more of an impact. Her appearances in the two adventures in series 5 that she featured in have added plenty to her character and I found having seen those that her speech at the end of Forest Of The Dead "Everybody knows that everybody dies..." becomes a lot more moving. I can only imagine that effect will increase with more appearances from her and the audiences gets to know her better.

One day when her story is "complete" if you like, it will be quite interesting to watch her episodes in the order that she experiences them in

The Valeyard (the 'Bad' Doctor) was from between his 12th and final regeneration. This is far too vague to state his 12th is evil. Also, if she kills the Doctor and takes his place, it will no longer be the 12th Doctor, it would be River impersonating the Doctor - your theory doesn't really hold water, I'm afraid.

Not only that but so much has changed in the story with the removal of the Time Lords and so on that the Valeyard is on rather thin ice as regards being a version of the Doctor from the future. I would imagine the Valeyard would be "wibbly wobbly timey wimeyed" out of existence, if the show even bothers to address it at all.

Time War means Time Lords gone, making the future, including the Doctor's totally different never giving rise to the Valeyard at all. Two second explanation and frankly I'd be surprised if we even got that.

I'm ni complete agreement with you in all that you've said. I also feel that they won't bother to address this at all.

random thought but maybe she is a time agent? Ste Moffat introduced the character of Captain Jack as a time agent so he may be developing time agents further?

Rusty wrote in "The Writers Tale" that the woman in white was the Doctors Mum.
It can be argued that it was never actually stated in the episode (therefore not 'canon' ), but it was certainly Rusty's intention.

I think River Song is possibly the silence itself, or a member of it.

It's funny you should say that, considering the first story she was in was "SILENCE in the Library"...

Just wondering if people have changed their opinion on who River is after watching TIA/DotM.