[spoiler]I don't think we've seen the last of River at all. Yes, this is the far end of her timeline, but until today her first appearance was the far end of her timeline.
There are two pretty specific teases that we haven't seen the last of her: her question at the end of how she's still there if Clara's gone, and her earlier offhand remark that she made the Doctor tell her his name a long time ago.
Even if we take Moffat at his word and the Doctor's birth name is not important, he's spent FIVE YEARS hammering the importance of the moment the Doctor tells it to River.[/spoiler]
Anyway, let's go back to the prophecy:
DORIUM: "On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature may speak falsely or fail to give answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered."
THE DOCTOR: "Silence will fall when the question is asked..."
DORIUM: "Silence must fall" would be a better translation. The Silence are determined that the question must never be answered. The Doctor must never reach Trenzalore.
THE DOCTOR: I don't understand? What's it got do do with me?
DORIUM: The first question. The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Would you like to know what it is?
THE DOCTOR: Yes.
DORIUM: "Doctor who?"
I think it's fair to say that [spoiler]GI shouting "Doctor Who?" wasn't the question any more than the Master's four knocks were what signaled the Tenth Doctor's doom.
Are we to reasonably assume that this was the Fall of the Eleventh? He certainly did fall out of the sky, and later fell to the ground, and finally fell into the rift. Metaphorically speaking, you could say this was the "fall of the Eleventh" in that we discovered he's not really the Eleventh at all. Or, as I said, "fall of the Eleventh" could be something that's going to happen to Tennant in November, since he's the secret real eleventh incarnation.
It would certainly seem that Clara asked the question, if not verbatim -- she asked "Who's that? Who is he?"
As for "on the fields of Trenzalore [...] when no living creature may speak falsely or fail to give answer", well, even if they were inside the Doctor's own head there it sure LOOKED like they were still on the fields of Trenzalore. And if they were inside the Doctor's head -- or the nexus of his timelines, or whatever the hell that was -- maybe THAT'S the reason he couldn't speak falsely or fail to answer.
Or not. We don't know if the question's been asked yet or not; we don't know if the Eleventh has fallen or not; we don't know if this was the point when no living creature could speak falsely or fail to give answer. Maybe that's what we just watched, or maybe it's still to come. As always, Moffat answers some questions but raises others.[/spoiler]
And then there are the cracks. This episode certainly alluded to them again, and last week's had Mr. Clever noting that people could find the Doctor by looking for the holes he left. I think all that stuff's definitely related to the secret. And we still don't know what "Silence will fall" means.
[spoiler]As for what happened during the Time War, even with this latest tease, I hope we never really find out. It could never meet the hype[/spoiler]
[spoiler]I certainly agree that we should never learn the WHOLE story, but in general I think the dribs and drabs we've been given over the past 7 seasons/year of movies have been pretty satisfying. First we learned there was a Time War. Then we learned that the Time Lords and the Daleks were both wiped out. And THEN we learned that the Doctor himself was the one who made the decision. And then we learned that the Time Lords were planning to destroy the universe and left him no choice. And now we learn -- or at least assume that we've learned -- that neither McGann nor Eccleston was the one who wiped them out, that the "Doctor" who killed the Time Lords is a secret, shameful incarnation who subsequently declares himself unworthy of the name.
I certainly think that, come November, Moffat can get some more mileage out of that premise without taking all the mystery out of the Time War.[/spoiler]
Welp, six months until the next one.
Meanwhile, Charlie Jane Anders has a post titled
The Central Problem With Steven Moffat's Doctor Who. It's spoiler-free, though she'd seen a preview copy of the episode before posting it. Indeed, I'm damned curious where the preview cut off, because she says it didn't include the ending but it sure sounds like she knew how it ended. Granted, as I've noted, there have been rumors floating for months.
Extra Bonus Thought: [spoiler]Rule One: The Doctor Lies. That could be wordplay too -- as in "Here lies the Doctor."[/spoiler]
