River Song is Guinan

Think about it.

Exhibit A

In Time’s Arrow Data gets transported back into the 19th Century while the crew are investigating a group of time shifted aliens, Devonians, who are preying on humanity without anyone’s knowledge. If you haven’t seen the episode, somehow, seriously, just go watch it. It’s a two part episode, the last episode of season 5 with a great cliffhanger and the first episode of season 6.

During the episode Picard gets summoned by Guinan and she informs him that he needs to go down with the away team, to hell with whatever Riker and Worf say, because…”Spoilers!”. Unfortunately, she doesn’t say that word, but it’s what she means.

Hijinks ensue, heads are lost, Mark Twain shows up and circles are circled.

It’s like the Doctor and River in miniature without all the drama. It might also be one of the least convoluted time loops in all of Start Trek history. I’m something of a Star Trek time loop aficionado, well time loops in general. Picard and Guinan (or echo’s of her) have been in several other time loops that were more complicated and had more potential impact. But this loop is so simple it’s like an intimate poem between two deep friends written across the tapestry of time.

Exhibit B

The Devonians look remarkably similar to docile Silents if you removed the eyes, gave them forehead orifices for digesting human neural electric energy and shifted them out of phase with the rest of the universe by .04 seconds.

Here are the facts:

• The Silents, like the Devonians, have no mouths (ok, sort of).
• The Silents, like the Devonians, travel through time, rarely speak and prey on humanity without being seen.
• But most of all, the Silents, like the Devonians, are undeniably snappy dressers.

Exhibit C

In the movie Star Trek Generations Guinan is just an echo there to help out the Doctor Picard. Just like River did in The Name of the Doctor.

I was originally going to call this post “Guinan is River Song”. But given these facts and since “Time’s Arrow” long predates the modern Doctor Who it’s clear in which direction the arrow of causality must flow. It’s also certain that Moffat, being the nerd that he is, has seen all of The Next Generation episodes and movies.

I put it to you that …

Stephen Moffat came up with the idea for the River/Doctor time loop based largely on the relationship between Guinan and Picard in Time’s Arrow. Nothing wrong with that of course, it’s a fantastic relationship.

What do you think? It River really Guinan?

(initiate fanfic ideas for Mels’ life as a starship barkeeper before finding mom and dad…now)