Don’t click below if you haven’t seen the episode. I’ve found a visual spoiler.
It’s related to the well-known fact that Craig Owens (played by James Corden) will return in Series 6.
UIPDATE: must-read review at Tor. No spoilers.
Screenshots from series 5’s episode, The Lodger:
Screenshots from series 6 episode 1, The Impossible Astronaut:
Discuss.
Also, my speculative thoughts:
– the silent aliens – called “silents” by fans already – seem to have a similar voice to the one which mysteriously intoned “silence will fall”. The fanbase pages have already made the leap that these are teh same aliens (“The Silence“) who made the Tardis explode (and likely the missing pilots for the proto-TARDIS above Craig’s house).
– the 1100 year old Doctor says right before he goes to meet his death, “Human beings. I thought I’d never get done saving you.” This implies that his death is a sacrifice for humanity, yet again.
– River alludes to (her-timeline) future meeting the doctor who won’t know her. That was of course the tenth Doctor in the Library. River forbodes her own “death” on that episode.
– a while back, River says she was in jail for murdering the best man she ever knew. I immediately assumed she would kill the Doctor. Recall her face when teh Doctor grills her about who she killed, to demonstrate his lack of trust in her. Putting this together, I speculate that person in the astronaut suit IS River Song. However, it’s not a child in the suit:
clearly an adult. look at the arm and hand, relative to later with the girl in the suit:
plus the girl is clearly shorter than the adults (from the “next time” preview):
Is the girl River Song? It is possible, since River herself says that teh astronaut stuff in 1969 is “probably” related to the one in Utah who kills the Doctor. This could be the start of the origin of River which was promised by Moffat for this season.
A wilder and wackier theory is that River is actually Amy and Rory’s (well, Amy’s anyway) daughter. But that is just way out now 🙂
The most way-out theory is that River *is* Amy Pond, although that seems too much of a stretch. If nothing else, River’s not Scottish.
She’d also have to change her hair color. Likely would if she were Rory and Amy’s kid too. I find it unlikely but…
Im actually rethinkig whether River was in eth suit actually, because i assume that whoever River killed (and thus why shes in jail), it was in her personal timeline’s past. If it were her in the suit it must be in her personal timeline’s future. And why would she be in jail for a crime to be committed later?
The other puzzle piece is that River knows how to fly the Tardis better than the Doctor, and she said she learned how to fly from “the best”. Thats definitely NOT the doctor! And she can read High Gallifreyan, so she clearly has has some sort of exposure to the Time Lords. Probably the Doctor’s doing in her personal past and his personal future.
She also alluded to having known the Doctor since she was a girl, which is where I think teh Amy = River stuff comes from. But I just don’t buy it.