A Good Man Goes to War

I thought he was testing the waters with the Dream Lord.

I would have preferred if nu-who had not started with the whole Time War/destroyed Time Lords.

I looked up the Valeyard on wiki, I've yet to wrap my head around it. He's an extra incarnation of the Doctor?

I don't think anyone can fully wrap their head around it, because the writers kinda sputtered out on what to do with him.

He was just kinda forgotten.

Oh, wait, got him mixed up with The Watcher, sorry.

That was extremely off putting. That and the portrayal of the Doctor as a figure of menace who gets innocent people killed.

Dunno why they felt they needed to kill off the Time Lords and all this stuff. The existing formula worked quite nicely.

But what you were saying about what you thought was The Watcher also applies for the Valeyard.

Huh, it's so simple, yet it just occurred to me.
The reason the Doctor let himself be killed... the reason he died...

Little-Girl-River-Song is the weapon designed to kill the Doctor. For little River to be free she must fulfill her programming.

The Doctor lets himself be killed to free River.

I really don't think River shot the Doctor. Her older self would have reacted differently, not just at the moment it happened but up until the young Doctor appeared in the restaurant.

That said, I preferred to believe River wasn't, y'know, who she turns out to be, so what do I know.

"Rule number 1, The Doctor lies... and so do I."

Like I said way back in this season's first thread, all of River's character moments are getting beat to hell because it turns out she was faking all of her reactions.

She was doing a pretty good acting job, then.

If River was in the suit and killed the Doctor, then River was shooting at herself when she shot at the suit. But on the other hand, I find it suspicious that River who shot the stetson off the Doctor's head just a few minutes earlier in the show could unload her six shooter and not hit her mark.