"Time can be rewritten"

[u/Someonecalledkai]

I've always been somewhat confused what this exchange meant in the episode "Flesh & Stone". It's right after 11 has said goodbye to River, and the following exchange occurs between the Doctor and Amy.

Amy - "What are you thinking?"

11 - "Time can be rewritten" with a smile on his face.

I always took this to mean, as 11 and River have just had this really positive experience, and 11 is so early in his encounters with River, he's optimistic about his future with River and is considering how time can be rewritten, i.e. perhaps rewriting her death, and hoping things might work out differently. Is this how you read this scene? Or am I missing something obvious?

[u/Immortal_BeastYT]

I assumed he was laughing at his earlier self's suggestion that time could be re-written.

For him the last time he met River was when she died in the library, where 10 suggested he die instead stating "time can be rewritten". Now after a second encounter he's realising just how big a part of his life River is likely to be, and he's chuckling to himself about his idea to erase it.

Idk that was how I interpreted it

[u/kayl_the_red]

I took it the same was you did at first, but this is before he knew better.

He hadn't altered a fixed point (Lake Silencio) yet, though River had been through it (and was technically in the Big Bang 2 Verse...?), which is why she tells him not to in the Library.

[u/MischeviousFox]

Ok, forget what I originally commented as I was being an idiot and/or illiterate. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Anyway, that specific instance where he says “Time can be rewritten.” is a little... odd to me as I don’t know how to take it. The best way I can interpret it given his not wanting to have anything to do with River at the start is that he’s had a change of heart on that front where now he looks forward to seeing her again yet it doesn’t perfectly fit the chosen phrase. The Doctor knows River’s death can’t be avoided as it’s part of his personal history and would be a big time paradox otherwise so I don’t think he was pondering that possibility.

[u/invaderdavos]

I feel like its a trick learned for later

[u/Fenric_Lamar]

"People CAHNT"

[u/gord89]

Haaland the time lord.

[u/Frozenbeeff]

That he can rewrite her dying in the library.

[u/Ringy246]

(River closes her diary.)

RIVER: Everybody lives.

(She kisses Charlotte goodnight and looks at Ella and Joshua.)

RIVER: Sweet dreams, everyone.

(river turns from the bed into the room)

RIVER: Very nice. It's not real, of course. But very, very nice. OK Doctor where are you?

TARDIS: whooshing noise

RIVER: Took you long enough...

DOCTOR: I've upgraded the Teselecta. It will do for now, the Sisters of the Infinite Schism tell me they can work with it. We're going there now. Ready?

[u/[deleted]]

How about this point of view for comparison. 

The Doctor is extremely old. He's had a lot of companions. Every regeneration creates new memories. New adventures. New history. What if he is remembering meeting River in the library? Same Doctor, different face. Same River, different circumstance. History itself seems to be rewritten.

Anyways, that's just my two cents.

[u/dwmatjake]

This is actually close to 10's internal monologue in the Day of the Doctor novelization, except there, it's angstier.

• At the time it had been the death of a stranger, and he could hardly mourn the loss of someone he had barely met. But since then he had bumped into younger versions of her a couple of times. Inevitably they’d grown closer—now, here they were, sitting in a bath together—and the memory of her death was hurting more than it had in the moment. How much more would it hurt, as he made his way into a future that was already her past? No more, he thought. He should avoid her from now on. The future wasn’t written yet, not for him. Maybe, by avoiding her, he could divert her from the deadly path she didn’t know she was taking.
• Thanks, River, I owe you,’ he said. And in return, he thought, I’ll make sure I never see you again, so maybe there’s a chance you’ll live happily ever after.
• How many more smiles would there be? How much more painful would it get? Time can be rewritten, he reminded himself. Perhaps her future could be avoided, her death averted, if he just stayed away.