Doctor Who Theory: Why the ‘Impossible Astronaut’ isn’t River Song

SPOILER ALERT! THIS POST CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS!

I’m one of many people that saw the first episode of series 6 of Doctor Who this past weekend and was in absolute awe. I thought Moffat couldn’t make it any better than series 5. With one episode, I was proved wrong!

That said, while many questions exist, both from series 5 and this new episode, one thing was brought up by the Doctor Who fans in my circle: Who was the astronaut at the beginning of the episode?

The astronaut killed the Doctor before walking back into the water that it had come out of. Now, given that River Song is imprisoned for killing a good man, the “best she’s ever known”, some might think that this astronaut could be River.

I beg to differ, however. At this point in time, River would know who it was that she killed. If she was the astronaut, she would know that, while waiting on the beach, the Doctor’s death was nigh. Yet, even she was surprised to see the astronaut coming up the beach.

Plus, as the astronaut was returning to the water, she attempted to shoot it. I doubt she would do that if she was really the astronaut.

Thus, this is why I don’t think the astronaut is River Song. But what are your thoughts? What do you think? Discuss this in the comments!