I've been reading threads and have seen that some fans seem to be confused with elements of the show. Now, I know that I don't have all the answers and I may be mistaken - hence the question mark in the title) but this is how I have interpreted things

#1 River's Time line.

Misconception? River's time line is running backwards (or opposite) to the Doctor's,

(My) "Reality"
River's Time line is moving in exactly the same direction as yours or mine. Forward. However, she meets The Doctor at unliniar points because they both time travel. (Doctor & TARDIS, River & Vortex manipulater).

This is why she needs the diary.

I think this diagram from MrPowered sums it up beautifully:- Doctor/River timeline's

*I was going to write this last night, MrPowered's post reminded me.

More Misconceptions? to come...

sorry ... what ?

what's your point ?

No point, just trying to be helpful.

I assume that was supposed to read 'causal nexus'? Corsal, as far as I'm aware, isn't a word...

You seem to have misconstrued what a time line is. In regards to the television show Doctor Who River Songs timeline is indeed backwards.

Just because her timeline is backwards doesnt mean we have a curious case of benjamin button on our hands

It's not backwards, they just don't meet in the right order.

Here's one for you then.

How come she can be in prison in the 51st and the 52nd Centuries supposedly for the same crime but with the 52nd Century term happening to her first?

I think that when River said that her timeline was running in the opposite direction to the Doctor, she was generalising a bit. There certainly seem to have been instances in which both River and the Doctor (and Amy and Rory) have all lived the same event.

On a side note, I have noticed at least a couple of posts who seem to be under the misapprehension that River is indeed living a Benjamin Button style life, which is of course not true.

Dare I say it? Wibby-Wobbly Timey-Wimey.

I don't recall anyone onscreen ever saying that River's timeline runs backwards - just that they meet in the "wrong order".

I explained it in http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...485920&page=36 - post 881 and onwards - and illustrated how they both have forward running timelines (and why they can't have backwards ones), why she currently knows his "future" and why the first/last kiss thing sorrow actually goes away. It also explains why her death in the library is irrelevent and doesn't need to be reversed - she can appear in DW for years to come and even be re-cast without regenerating.

Thanks to jonnyjackov and kitthekat in particular for asking good questions - they made me double check that the thing really does make sense and encouraged me to come up with different examples to illustrate how it works.

They are not running backwards, it's just that the doctors meetings with River (So far) have been in a backwards order.
Rivers meeting with the Doctor are not all backwards else she would not have just got back from being with him when Rory went to get her.
I'll bet also now River has given her identity out the next time the Doctor meets it won't be in a back to front manner where from River's point of view she hasn't yet told them who she is.
That would get very confusing she knows that she's Amy and Rory daughter but hasn't told them yet and Amy and Rory know she is their daughter but can't tell her about her future!!!!!
Now I'm getting myself confused!

But she has already said that the Doctor knew all about her when she first met him. That now has to mean when she's old enough to remember/know who he is. It could still be in mostly reverse order.

so the River we saw in the latest episode doesn't know about the doc getting killed in america ?
right ?

Well, you see now it's getting complicated.

Up until now we have had the Doctors timeline and River's timeline. River has known stuff about the Doctor's future because it was her past, and the Doctor has known about her future because it was his past.

At the end of TIA/DOTM she was shocked that the Doctor hadn't kissed her before, yet when she met Rory it seemed as if the Doctor has shown her a real good time on her birthday (and other birthdays) so this was deep in relationship territory. So I would assume that Demon's Run is earlier in her personal timeline than TIA (following the normal River Song rule of every later appearance being earlier for her and later for him) and therefore she wouldn't know about America from personal experience (or indeed about the girl in the suit).

But River clearly did know what was about to happen at Demon's Run, and that should have been in her future. She told Rory such things as "This is the day he finds out", "This is the day he rises and falls" and "I can't be there till the end" so when she turned up at the end it would seem to be after her meeting with Rory in prison (because otherwise she wouldn't know when to turn up and would have just gone with Rory).

So somehow she had access to spoilers, she knew what was coming up for her. So someone must of told her. It's entirely possible that she was told of the events surrounding her birth long ago by Amy and Rory, because that's the kind of story a parent would tell a child. But if they told her of those events what else did they tell her? How much backstory? Did they tell her about Ganger Amy , if they did did they tell her it happened "before America" and if they mentioned America did they tell her what happened in America?

Then again if they had told her about America "now" (in A Good Man Goes to War) then she would still have the memory of it "later" in The Impossible Astronaught.

So in answer to your question no, yes, and maybe

[It's also "possible" (in a wierd alien way) that she remembered the events of A Good Man because she was there, as little Melody, and that being Human+ she remembers her entire life from the first second. Only she forgot it at some point in the future before the America trip ]

She did say that her future was the Doctor's past, so I'm assuming they keep meeting each other in the wrong order, as in: as the Doctor knows here more, she knows him less and vice versa. Soon we should reach a point where The Doctor knows her more than she knows him.

It isn't a misconception, her timeline is running backwards to the doctors, his first meeting with her is his last and vice-versa
Their may be a few exceptions but broadly speaking that's correct.
River acknowledges it by saying something along the lines of "My worst fear is knowing one day he'll kiss me and that'll be the last time he does."

She wouldn't say that if their timelines just crossed at random points.

Edit: Ignore me, I see what you're getting at.

Well technically we just saw that day, as baby Melody she didn't know that strange man in the bow tie at all whereas he knew several adventures they had had and knew how she was going to die.

Not really - it's quite easy to accept that she was a later version at the beginning, and that her turning up in Demons Run was an earlier version. She was telling Rory from personal recollection of not being there. Her turning up at that point could be from information she had been told by her parents later (after all, they were there to witness what she was doing...).

Also, her resolute certainty to not let spoilers out would mean that she had probably been brought up with that ethos. They would only tell her things she needed to know at that point - or just where she needed to be. She's an intelligent woman, she can work things out from only a small amount of knowledge.

I'm referring to Adult River. Idk how Baby River or Child River fits into this time flow thing.

Aaaagh!! Another Paradox if River only knows she's Amy and Rory's daughter because they told her and they only know because she told them.

I didn't mean about her parentage! I think being around them would make it obvious that she is their baby. I meant information for other things - like when she needs to be at certain places...

This is the best diagram of their timelines that I've seen....

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-conte...11/06/song.jpg

Forbidden - I don't have permission to access this.

No.

If River and the Doctor are only ever meeting from opposite ends of their individual life spans (or portion of those life spans), then the older she is at any visit, the younger he is and vice versa.

However, it doesn't mean that she literally counts the days backwards - one "meet" doesn't equal one day - or one hour - or one second. Basically she is not moving backwards through time - she merely visits past events in a certain order. She can stay a while and when she does, time passes normally for her in the same direction as it does for everyone. After that, she leaves.

The current "event" has lasted months - during that time, they are going through time side by side and all cause & effect events will occur in the right order.

It means that each time we see River on a completely new meet (the ones she says are coming - "next time we meet") that's something she actually did when she was younger. She hasn't become younger - it's just something she'd already done in her own past.

Eventually, the River that attends those "meets" will have been when she was so much younger that she will look it - that's why I say they don't need her to regenerate to recast the role. That younger River will also know less about the Doctor's future and he will know more about hers until finally, their roles will be completely reversed and he'll be the one who knows her entire life history and she'll know nothing about his.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-conte...11/06/song.jpg

there was a typo in it.