So, before the episode aired, my thoughts were pretty much the same as promethia_tenk’s, in doctoreleven’s Official Squee Reaction Post:

RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER! RIVER!

And after the episode, my thoughts echoed this tweet by James Moran:

OMG TEH THING WITH THE THING AND THE THINGS AND WHEN THAT THING OMG TEH DOCTOR AND THING AND OMGGGGGG

(This started out as a review, then turned into meta and then became a love letter to Eleven... I don’t even know. It was late when I wrote it.)

Well when watching the start of the ep (once we’d got past poor Vincent and Churchill & Bracewell (HELLO continuity, ILU!) the River squee above was pretty much what my brain was doing.

I didn’t think they could top her entrance in Time of Angels, but this blew it straight out of the water. I might have mentioned once or twice that competence is probably my biggest kink of all, and River being OMG!Awesome tapped into that like you wouldn’t believe.

Btw I think River made short work of the Smilers, hence Liz Ten deciding to confront her personally. Also the little stick figure with the curly hair is the most BRILLIANT thing ever! And then - Cleopatra! :D

“You graffittied the oldest cliff face in the world!”
“You wouldn’t answer your phone!”

Srsly, she is *totally* the perfect woman for him. *ships them liek whoa*

‘One Oh Two am. No pm. No - AD!’ is one of those beautiful little moments that highlight the way the Doctor sees time, and the madness of time travel, without any great speeches. I love it. :)

Everything to do with Stonehenge was fabulous - the Indiana Jones feel of it all, the Doctor’s face when they opened the big, HUGE doors, the way the three of them fall into a family dynamic... It’s all good!

Also good is the Pandorica. Just generally. Looks good, works well... *waves hands about in Eleven-y fashion to indicate general approval*

Am skipping lots of stuff, to get to the (to me) important parts.

Firstly the Amy/Doctor talk about the ring. I just love it on too many levels to count. The Doctor’s protectiveness of the ring - when he says ‘Someone I lost’ the weight of Rory’s loss sits so heavily on him. And then the way he tries to get her to remember ‘Sometimes people fall out of the world , but they leave traces...’ [from memory, it was longer than this I know] (This little speech also neatly explains how the photo of Amy with Rory survived.) - he wants it so badly, and yet the connection is, once more, snapped.

But the conversation leads to the Doctor admitting that he did have a reason for choosing Amy (other than loneliness): Too many empty rooms in her house... (It’s that duck pond again, I’m telling you!)

“Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life makes no sense?”

I can feel how important this’ll all be, but I’ll be darned if I can work out why. (DON’T SPOIL ME! Not even with speculations!!!)

Of course this *fascinating* discussion is cut short by the cyberarm’s firing at them, leading to that most marvellous of moments:

“Look at me! I’m a target!”

♥ ♥ ♥

Also kudos to Moffat/the team for managing to make a cyberman simultaneously creepy/scary (were they ever?) and hilarious!

And then... RORY!!!!

I had hoped he’d be back, of course, but being unspoiled paid off BIG TIME! *dances*

The Doctor’s reaction was just right, absentminded old buffer that he is. ♥ And then the rather awkward conversation that follows, which included one of my favourite quotes to come out of the show: “The universe is vast and complicated and sometimes impossible things just happen and we call them miracles.” It was used in the BBCA trailer, and I’ve loved it ever since first hearing it, and it absolutely breaks my heart that Rory was the first miracle the Doctor was ready to believe in in 900 years...

And then Amy wakes up and breaks poor Rory’s heart. And it only just occurred to me today that the Doctor knows *exactly* how Rory feels. He, too, has witnessed his best friend walk past him as if he was just another guy, not worth a second glance.

Of course he then sends Rory to do what he himself can’t - try to get the girl to remember. Except memory turns out to be as fatal for Amy as it would for Donna - she remembers Rory at precisely the wrong moment, because the things she’s seen whilst travelling with the Doctor (oh Bracewell) make her fight for Rory’s humanity when she ought to have run...

(And how beautiful is the Amy/Rory theme? *sniff*)

But back to the episode, and River. River who is brilliant and competent and gets taken to Amy’s house by the TARDIS (OMG the screen cracking was *perfect* and exceedingly worrysome), and particularly loved her: “Oh Doctor, why do I let you out?” upon seeing Amy’s dolls. And it ties in with her previous comment about how she dislikes white wizards in stories because they always turn out to be him - she loves him (obviously), but has no illusions about him and, I think, knows exactly how much his wizarding can cost the people who follow him. (Will we maybe one day get her back story? Where does she come from? How did she become such an adept criminal? And how does the archeology fit into that? etc. etc. She’s fascinating!)

But now for the Doctor. Oh Doctor, Doctor, how much do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

I love you for smiling when you see River’s message.

I love you for being so HAPPY and intrigued to have found the Pandorica.

I love you for pointing out how the Daleks are always cross.

I love you for your gentleness in dealing with Amy when trying to get her to remember.

I love you for ridiculously throwing yourself into danger, arms thrown wide.

I love you for trusting River completely.

I love you for not running away this time. (“Run where?” “Fight how?”)

I love you for your great big speech (re-using parts of the speech you did as Nine! ♥) - for basically standing there and being the Oncoming Storm, and for the fact that every. single. word of that speech fits with you being ‘the most feared being in all the cosmos’.

I love you for playing match maker even at the most inopportune time possible, because you want people to be happy.

I love you for the look on your face when you realise that the Pandorica is for you, for the despair and terror and pleading as you are locked away. For being just this slightly ridiculous looking man, with a face too young for your eyes and a bowtie, looking neither like a villain nor a hero, but a madman with a box.

And I love you for having a huge blind spot when it comes to yourself, and thusly needing things spelled out for you sometimes - like Amy does at the end of ‘The Beast Below’. And I love how that speech contrasts with the one about the warrior in the Pandorica, because - impossibly - you are both. I hope and pray that you - somehow - save the universe by being kind.

♥

(Also I love this wallpaper and this fic: Cautionary Tales for Incautious Children. Both very relevant to this post!)