River and the Doctor's Timelines

[stareyed2]

I've been struggling with exactly how to envision River and the Doctor's relationship.  We've been told that its back ot front but there are clearly some points when an older River meets an older Doctor (or younger meets younger) and if it were COMPLETELY backwards (or even if these points were almost unheard of) then there really would be no need

Comments

[misspopuri]

For some reason, I'm imagining two parabolas coming together at a single point or two, but they slowly converge outwards. It seems so tragic if the only moments they are close to each other are for a few brief moments in their history together.

[stareyed2]

Keep in mind that in my image it's just a general trend line - nothing says that some of the 'points' may not encompass years in time, or that there might not be a whole series of them occuring in the right order for both River and the Doctor.

The parabola image just doesn't work as well for me - but I suspect that understanding their timeline is one of those things that works very differently for each of us. Human minds are not meant for non-linear time.

[lit_wolf]

The timeline between River and the Doctor has always made my brain ache. So I'm just going to point you to this post that makes much more sense than I could ever hope to achieve: http://doctorwho.livejournal.com/7714015.html

[stareyed2]

Thanks. It's an interesting post.

Although my interest isn't so much in the order of the episodes we've seen so far (that's relatively simple) as the general SHAPE of their timelines, including the parts we haven't seen yet (and may never see). There has to be more to it than just plain old backwards, or they would just be able to assume that they have no events in common.

The graph idea is my best way of representing that without MY brain aching.

[eryndil]

This makes a lot of sense. I'd never thought of portraying the Doc/River's timeline in a graph with a trend line, but it appeals to my nerdiness so thank you for this.

[stareyed2]

Nerdiness is catching.

And I have no idea where the graph image comes from, just that its my best way of visualising their relationship without getting a headache.

[niyalune]

That's a really good concept ! Thank you. It's good to have a way to visualise the whole of their interactions (past and future) without having to draw complicated timelines that aren't even complete.

[stareyed2]

Of course the advantage of those complicated timelines is that they can show their entire lives. The graph can only show their interactions, not what goes on in between.