This episode was the third worst so far this series.

1. The Rebel flesh
2. The Almost people
3. A good man goes to war

Was entirely predictable. There was one moment, where i thought moffat might be smart and make that "Army" girl into River.

It had its good and bad parts but it was an overall rubbish episode. Even the "Dark doctor" appearance didnt help.

i thought it was brill! the whole river thing was predictable but that was only due to all the online rumours. oh and 'Scorpio', why don't you do better then ;).

THIS WAS THE BIGGEST COP OUT IN DOCTOR WHO EVER!!! I thought for a moment River was the doctors' mother which would have been awesome, but no MoFAT has disappointed me for the fourth time in one series. And we're not even through it completely. A good man goes to war 2/10. I found timelash more entertaining then this piece of trash.

I thought it was great, and anyone who's complaining about how the River Song surprise wasn't surprising... well you did choose to read the spoiler posts!

A great episode, and I don't know how it can be compared to Timelash... the danger in that story was tinsel.

It's a two-parter though isn't it? The Doctor hasn't fallen yet and River hasn't had to reveal anything bad. Not to mention Moffat obviously wants to continue to use River so she's going to have more to her. There's also that skeleton hand holding the sonic. It's a very solid episode even if you saw the end coming (as if no one foresaw TIA or TRF cliffhangers a mile off).

@DoctorWhoGlobal
I meant all of it was predictable. All except for Dorium being idiotic and trying to reason with the headless monks.

Why would that weird woman let amy near her child at all? wasnt it obvious that her child would be taken from her? And who didnt expect another Ganger

River was predictable because it was an episode which had a new charecter introduced. In established shows they rarely introduced new charecters except to kill them off unless they`re already in the plot.

¬_¬ Good retort. Why not have River being that army woman who waited her entire life to see the Doctor again?

It also took about 20-30 minutes of set up. Was still waiting for something to happen 20 minutes in. Other than the Rory scene nothing happened.

I see the trolls have landed on this site. instead of whining like little girls why don't you go out a produce the biggest programme outside of soaps, then come back and and give us your considered, professional opinion. Now run off to bed I think your Mummy's just called you...

A little down because of all the spoliers Ive seen.
I think I'll try to give this site a miss from now on.
(by the way, has anyone else been hit by viruses??)

I like discussing the series, but based on what I've seen on screen. Trying to work out the clues when there are people sitting smirking about knowing stuff in advance has become very tiring.
This would have been great if I didnt know all the surprises first, and I'm sad about that.

In terms of the writing, I cheered at 'Would you like me to repeat the question'?

Needed more fighting.. The Samurai girls were underused.
Again, would have benefited from an extra 10 minutes, and NO preview DVDs sent out..

Now hold on, when River and the doctor touched hands on the cradle thingy didn't anyone get the impression that River was the doctors mother? I did. All I'm saying I'm just incredibly disappointed that my first prediction of who River Song is was not to be. And wouldn't have that been great, if River was actually the doctors mother. They could have had a few adventures with River then killed her off then the doctor would have been distraught, another time lord/lady bites the dust and the doctor has to deal with being the last again. Anyway I am sorry for calling Steven Moffat MoFAT earlier.

Pauluus;

It honestly makes me ashamed to see that you will not allow anyone to have a negative view on a TV programme. Using such mediocre terms as used by uneducated children on the internet doesn’t help either. I see you have an interest in Doctor who but please try to appreciate that some people don’t like every episode as much as you do. I and others who dislike this episode are not “trolls” as you refer to us; we are simply people with an opinion which we are allowed to share.

I thought River was the Doctors mum at first, with the cradle and everything - that would have been better! Then she was revealed as Amys daughter, even without reading stuff on this site it wouldnt have been a big surprise!

I adore the title for the next episode "lets kill Hitler" Are the TARDIS team going to kill Adolf Hitler before 1939 and change history? Of course they aren't but I can't wait to find out.

Was anybody else really annoyed at how the sontaran had breasts?

Scorpio, who said i was talking about you? I meant Joshua... no matter what you think of the episode it's not "a piece of trash" by any stretch of the imagination.

No part of this season has been "trash", its had ups and downs but over all its been great. Yes you may have seen things coming, but as its been pointed out, would it have been quite so easy to foresee if it weren't so heavily discussed on great sites like this.

Then again, I seem to have struck a chord with my comments, maybe when you critique an episode you might want t be a little less subjective and try and remember that this is a 13 episode story arc, you might find (spoilers allowing) that your in for a few surprise yet but if you do think its all "rubbish" buy the end of the series it feel free to go and watch something else thats not quite so predictable..

I agree with Pauluus... if you go on spoiler blogs then prepare for the episode to be more predictable!

From what I've heard from friends it sounds like people were expecting River's entire story to conclude in this episode. Why do you think Moffat was so eager to reveal her identity midway through a series? It's a mere milestone in what's to come. We know she's part timelord, we know she was raised in America by the Silence, and the Doctor has immediately departed in the TARDIS upon hearing the truth and we don't know where he is.

I was just disappointed with the reveal of River Song, my expectations were way too high and the episode wasn't really worse than timelash but down there at the bottom of the list all the same. Anyway we're half way through the series, I enjoyed the doctors wife (10/10)and every doctor who fan has a few episodes that they don't like.

@Blink I don't frequent spoiler blogs but I still guessed a while back. Looking at blogs wasn't the only way of guessing this, between the obvious name comparisons and the fact River couldn't shoot the person in the spacesuit (and neither could Amy).

That said, I really enjoyed it anyway because it's so rare I get anything right! I wasn't spoiled but I enjoyed the episode.

Last time a woman kissed me passionately and then revealed herself to be an early version of my mother, my reaction was exactly like the Doctor...

Hold on! Maybe everyone is right. River is Amy and Rory's daughter but she is also the Dr.'s mother. "Sweetie," "my love,"...there are only two ways she could say that: she's his wife or she's his mother. The words work both ways. Did the Dr acknowledge her as Amy's daughter -- no. We don't know what the Dr thought -- though River referenced the crib in some way.

I took River putting her hand on the crib and saying "been a while since I've seen that" (or something to that effect) as a hint that she was going to be the mother of the Doctor's own child someday. I dunno. I was a bit underwhelmed overall, I felt like Steven Moffat was just pulling all these people who owed the Doctor something out of his arse, to be honest. Apart from Lorna from the Forest, I found I didn't give a stuff about any of them, to be honest. I already knew who River was but NOT from reading spoiler posts, unfortunately so many blogs were inconsiderate enough to put it in blog titles or insert it into other, seemingly unrelated posts that I found out even though I was trying to avoid it. Sigh.

I think I have post-Doctor depression now.

The best thing about this melodramatic sop fest was the announcement of the title for the next episode.

I don't understand the continued theorising that River could still be the Doctor's mother or Joshua's annoyance/disappointment that in the reveal for her character, she wasn't. To those people, did you never notice the overt flirting from her very first appearance onwards? The references other characters make to them obviously having more of a romantic relationship? Add that to the numerous innuendos in River's dialogue with the Doctor and other characters and, most blatantly, her full on kiss with him. Now if this is the kind of behaviour you expect from a mother to her son (alien or not) then I'm quite disturbed.

Enormous thanks for providing us Americans with Doctor Who!

I just finished watching and like many, I was a bit disappointed. For an epic episode, I expected a lot more. I say this as someone who thought the Rebel Flesh and Almost People were fine episodes. As far as the notion of River being the Doc's mom - that also struck me as cool for about 2 seconds until I thought about the overt flirting and kissing...seriously, people, we don't need the Doc going oedipal and cutting his eyes out.

In the end, River is Amy's daughter who is also Time Lord (and is apparently the little girl who regenerates and also kills the Doc, as trained). That provides an entire interesting storyline (and *cough* spinoff for a female Timelord) but it seemed this episode only set up that future exploration. This episode itself had no real climax. Just a cameo that made everything okay in the end. Maybe comparable to the Wizard of Oz...interesting group of characters join together and in the end all that and to be done was to click heels together after learning a valuable lesson. Except the Doctor didn't really learn anything and the secret was revealed in too facile a fashion.

It was a whole lot of setup, mostly irrelevant. I didn't hate it or anything...but I expected more.

I, too, expected more. The setup took way too long, but I enjoyed it, but I like complicated overblown setups. Why headless monks? That seemed to go nowhere. It would have been more fun to have the young girl who died to be Amy's daughter. I also thought that River being the Doctor's mother would have been, fantastic, but that leaves all the flirting as majorly gross. No real surprises, a bit sad. I hated the Rebel Flesh/Almost People episodes. With enuf cuts it would have made one good episode. 10/10 I agree for the Doctor's Wife. I am withholding judgement of the whole series arc until I see the rest.

Of course she's not the Doctor's mother if they've snogged so much. What I don't get is why the Doctor acted surprised at the revelation if it was apparently written on the side of the cot all that time.

OK: What is the line from the last series that took on greater significance?
What is the big mistake that Rory almost made?
Didnt look much like the highest the Doctor had ever risen.
Red bow tie again?
2 gay agendas in one episode.. been missing for a while.

Someone will use the Silence to program the young River to kill the doctor?
'She must be incredibly strong': That doesnt sound like River as we know her.

I really enjoyed the episode. OK, there would have been more of a surprise if the big pointy signs had not been set up in the previous episodes (someone in a space suit kills the Doctor (echo River song's first entrance in the Library), Amy is pregnant,strange child, Silents make you forget, Amy is not pregnant ,strange child, photo of Amy with baby, child regenerates, Ms one-eyed hatch dinner lady (reminds me of old style school dinners))keeps appearing. And the endless build up, imagine the story without hatch lady, without the regeneration. Would it have been more of a surprise? Did those scenes really need to be there. They are there for entertainment, the carrot to keep you watching. But it ended up that the only resolve had to be that River Song was Amy's and Rory's daughter. I did like the only water in the forest is the river bit, although that would make her 'Song River'.
I hope that the Doctor does fall further than we see him at the end of this episode (teaser skeleton hand hopefully indicates more to come). More of a step down than a fall so far thanks to River turning up (River turns up and hey guys its OK, I'm your daughter and the Doctor will sort it all out). The episode had to end on a positive note, its the law.

And I really like the Sontaran who is now a nurse, hoots all round.

The biggest reveal though is the Doctors name written on the side of the crib. Which is how River knows his name.

Oh, and the next episode 'Lets kill Hitler'. This is being ghost written by Tarantino in a pastiche of his film 'Inglorious B******s'. Rory will be taking over the role of the Bear. Amy will be serving ice-cream in a short skirt during the interval (at the cinema). During which the Doctor will be playing a compilation of Murray Gold's greatest hits on the organ as a dramatic build up to the explosion.

Can't wait.

Pauluus;

Same principle still applies please, respect others opinions on here. Seeing as we`re only 7 episodes into the series then some people including myself will feel disappointed. The cliff-hanger at the end of episode 7 really didn’t do it for me. Seeing as Rivers reveal meant that the child is found and does live a happy life. In fact the first half of the series pretty much sums up most of River`s early life; She is taken as a baby, somehow is lost/hidden on earth in the past at Graystark hall orphanage where the Silence eventually fit her into a spacesuit to preserve her life (As they don’t know she can regenerate at this stage)

She kills the Doctor in the suit, presumably this happens because river saw it and it can’t be altered, the doctor accepts this. She kills the future Doctor (I presume this will turn out to be a Ganger doctor; who one of the production team wanted to keep alive or a clone) She escapes from the astronaut suit (Maybe the suit controlled her actions?) and runs eventually regenerating due to unknown causes (Dying due to?) and then returns either as an adult under the guise of River song or is found by the Doctor.

I can't wait for the second half of season 6. Between River Song's revelations, the yet to be resolved plot points (Doctor's Death), the title for the next episode, I am really excited. The cybermen are also returning aren't they? They must be really angry with the doctor for blowing up their fleet. Also have a feeling we will be seeing the clerics again. There has to be a reason they change their opinion of the doctor between Demon's Run and the Weeping Angels two-parter.

@Scorpio: Wouldn't say it's that simple. For one thing the little girl escaped from the spacesuit about 40 years before that same suit was at the lake. So we have no real way of telling if it's still her by 2011.

And about Melody being on Earth. Well, the Doctor though that, and immediately went to see her. Isn't that a little too easy? I think there might be more to that. Alex Kingston also hinted that there may have been more than 2 babies (Doctor/Melody) in that cot at some stage in Confidential, so we still can't even be sure if she's the regenerating girl.

It's hard to tell at this stage what's simple and what isn't, because River's reveal was pretty much as simple as it looked. :S