Holy hell, I hate this laptop.
To continue this post…
Nah, once the lights are out they can move again. At least they could before when lights strobed and nobody could see them.
Time is a river?
-Joe
But I thought the doctor wasn’t allowed to go back on his own personal timeline? Or is that only other people’s timelines?
Yeah, I don’t think she’s the Doctor, especially since we saw her die (more or less), but . . . could she be some sort of possible Doctor or projection of the Doctor like the Valeyard? Could she be the Valeyard? I don’t think so, either. I almost suggested she could be Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter, after a regeneration, but that would make the sexual tension between them reaaaaaly creepy.
The short answer is, he can’t, except when he can. And that’s about as far as I’m going to go, there.
I will point out that he’s had adventures with past selves several times, though, and actually seemed to think that Jackson Lake was his future self until he realized that he wasn’t.
I think people are thinking waaaay too hard here. She might be a rogue time agent, she might be a Gentlewoman Adventurer, she might be a Time Lord (Lady?), but I can’t be the only person who thinks that there isn’t a chance in hell of her being a future Doctor.
-Joe
I think everything that happened in the cool opening sequence, against the dashing Alistair, clearly says “Time Agent”.
Yes, I noticed that as well! I thought “the TARDIS is always a bit late” was shaping up to be a plot arc for the series, tying in with the crack, but I guess not. Or maybe it has a “except when needed for a really cool opening sequence” corollary. 
You’re not.
I don’t think she’s a Time Lady either. We saw her die. She didn’t regenerate.
Time Agent like Jack Harkness, possibly.
MAybe it has something to do with keeping the brakes on and making that ‘Tardis noise’ he loves so well. 
Honestly, if the TARDIS is gonna be smooth and just ‘appear’ quietly from here on out, it’s gonna lose some charm!
(Incidently, my 7 year old sons have both now made Police Box Tardis’ out of Legos.)
Time is a stream.
:smack: I just figured it out. It’s so obvious, the rest of you probably figured it wasn’t even part of the mystery and went without saying, but I’m a bit slow. I’m so sure it’s at least mostly correct, I’m going to spoiler it even though it’s speculation, in case anyone else is as slow as I am. She said she escaped from prison. She’s the cause of the cracks in time and space. The Doctor will have to save the universe by erasing their whole relationship.I suspect from the preview that at least some of this will be revealed in the next episode.
It’s just boring, now! They’re boringers! Blue boringers!
Of course, it’s entirely possible that she knows what the deal with the tardis is, and was able to send him coordinates to compensate. Amazing what you can do with future knowledge!
-Joe, kinda hopes Allan is wrong, can’t contribute because he doesn’t watch the promos
When she calls the Doctor, she doesn’t know which one will show up, and therefore doesn’t know if the Tardis is being temperamental, or in which way it’s being temperamental.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tardis has a sort of puppy dog crush on River (she knows just how to pull its knobs) and thanks to some timey-whimey stuff, knew it was River they were going to rescue and made sure it nailed the landing, as it were.
I like this theory! 
Presumably the poor old Tardis liked that, for once, somebody took the bloody parking brake off.
takes off shoes and relaxes after fifty years
Didn’t River say she learned how to pilot the TARDIS from “the best” when the Doctor was out?
If so who could this be as all the other timelords are dead and presumably not many other people can control a TARDIS?
It occured to me that maybe the trick is that she sent coordinates, period. If the Doctor normally pilots it more by “feel,” perhaps the Big Scary Cracks are throwing off his game, but a numeric coordinate is always the same.
Does this mean that it’s all over for the classic TARDIS noise? If that’s all it was, I can’t really believe a) that the Doctor will jam the handbrake on again, and b) that the previous 10 Doctors all failed to figure it out!
No, it just means we may not be hearing it inside the Tardis in future. It used to be that the materialisation noise was heard outside, but not inside. Just as the Tardis didn’t used to swing and bang about inside, while in flight. River Song just returned the Tardis to the classic era settings, that’s all.
I assume she meant the best of the Doctors she’s encountered. If we believe her, she must have spent a lot of time with a future Doctor who (small w) told her his real name, gave her an upgraded sonic screwdriver, and taught her how to pilot the Tardis like a pro.