Moffat: Season Six & River Song's True Identity

An interview with Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat reveals the following informative tidbits when 'Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011' comes out later this month. As well as repeating how Christmassy the Christmas special is going to be, as he has a few times already, he also goes on to address the ongoing story arc including River Song's true identity.

Regarding the story lines left dangling from this past series:

"We’re going into the silence and what they are… There’s been a sort of tradition, which I semi-followed through with the crack, of there just being a sort of meme through the series, and I think, actually, a bigger mystery and a bigger story is possible now. I’m going to handle it slightly differently next year.”

On River Song’s true identity:

“That’s absolutely coming. You’re going to find out very soon, and that means we have to do it next series, really… The critical thing here is I want to explain who she is, not explain away who she is. If you don’t deliver on most people’s expectations, and you just say, ‘Ooh, she’s a specially programmed android who believes she’s the Doctor’s wife,’ people will go, ‘That‘s a cheat.’ You can’t do that… It’s a really good story, and it’s sort of the story of next year.”

Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011, edited by Clayton Hickman, comes out on September 30th  from BBC Books (RRP £12.99).
Read more on this topic at the SFX website.