River Song ' s diary River Song kept a diary of her adventures with the Doctor . The cover was TARDIS blue and resembled the exterior of the Doctor ' s TARDIS . Since the diary was written from River ' s point of view , she didn ' t let the Doctor read it , teasingly saying " spoilers ! " and often putting her finger on her lips . The book acted as an indicator of where the Doctor was in his personal timeline ; whenever River met him , she would name events she had experienced with him to see if he had experienced them yet . The Eleventh Doctor , in his personal future , explained the purpose of the diary to her ; she had no clue what it was supposed to be for until then . History . Upon saving the Eleventh Doctor ' s life ( after killing him ) by giving up her remaining regeneration s , River ended up in the best hospital in the universe . It was there that the Doctor gave her the diary . This was done to make sure she kept track of their meetings to keep their timelines from becoming corrupted . ( TV : " Let ' s Kill Hitler " ) The day after her admission to the hospital , River described that the only things she was left with were a bag of clothes with too many short skirts and her diary . Since pens were not readily available in the 52nd century , the nurses had to order her one from an antique shop so she could write in her journal . Tucked inside the diary she found a business card for Professor Arthur Candy from the Department of Antiquities at Luna University and numbers for a comlink code . ( GAME : " The Eternity Clock " ) While River Song was studying at the Luna University , she did research on the Doctor , and learned a story he was going to die at 5 : 02pm on 22 April 2011 , at Lake Silencio ; she recorded this in her diary . ( TV : " Closing Time " ) River brought her diary with her on a trip with the Eleventh Doctor shortly after she had been imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility . The Doctor explained his rules for the diary : River was to use it to keep track of their meetings and adventures together . ( HOMEVID : " First Night " ) In the 52nd century , in Stormcage , River was writing about one of her outings with the Doctor before taking a phone call from Winston Churchill and escaping to help her husband . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) After the Eleventh Doctor reset the universe at the cost of his own erasure from existence , River temporarily gave Amy Pond her diary as a wedding present to bring him back . Later , the Doctor returned the diary to River , telling her that all the writing had returned , but he hadn ' t peeked ; foreknowledge is dangerous . ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) River spied on the Doctor ' s first nine incarnations , learning what her husband looked like in his past to help her identify him for their future meetings . However , she ended up getting caught by his first incarnation before he left Earth with Ian and Barbara . Hearing Susan call for her grandfather , River left , not ready to know if she ' ll be the mother of one of Susan ' s parents ; she had no clue if this Doctor was one she ' d meet . ( GAME : " The Eternity Clock " ) At some point or another , River also learned about the War Doctor and obtained a picture of him , ( TV : " The Husbands of River Song " ) as well as pictures of every other incarnation of the Doctor up to the end of his first regeneration cycle . ( TV : " The Time of Angels " , " The Husbands of River Song " ) On returning from a trip with the Doctor for her birthday , River met Rory at Stormcage ; he wondered if they ' d met yet in her timeline , letting River know that he still didn ' t know she was his daughter . She checked her diary to be sure of where the Eleventh Doctor was in his timeline . By this point , she ' d already been to Demons Run in her past and revealed her identity to the Doctor and her parents . ( TV : " A Good Man Goes to War " ) In 2011 , River and an 1103 - year - old version of the Eleventh Doctor compared diaries . At this point in his time stream , the Doctor had a similar diary . By this point , she ' d visited Easter Island and met Jim the Fish . She seemed fond of Jim when the Doctor mentioned him . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " ) After the crash of the " Byzantium " , Amy asked River what her diary was . The Eleventh Doctor , who had yet to experience many events recounted in it , told her to stay away from it ; he called the diary " her past , my future " before going on to explain their timelines rarely intersect in the right order . ( TV : " The Time of Angels " ) During her imprisonment , the Eleventh Doctor visited his wife and asked , for the first time , to break their rules and read her diary , because he was charged with war crimes he couldn ' t remember and he had to find out the truth . She said to have read it several times " from cover to cover " and to be sure he couldn ' t be guilty . After a first denial , River agreed and lent him the diary ; eventually , he chose not to read it and hired her directly in his mission . ( COMIC : " The One " ) River used to her diary to chronicle her experience of being hired by DreamInc on the construction project for New Venice . ( PROSE : " Death in New Venice " ) By the time the Twelfth Doctor met River , River noted her diary was almost full and that the Doctor would know exactly how many pages she needed . It turned out to be providential , as in the middle of a dangerous scrape where River and the Doctor had tried to recover a priceless diamond , they noticed a familiar planet right before they ended up crash - landing on it : Darillium . Following the crash , Doctor decided to set in motion their long - delayed date to see the Singing Towers , a night lasting for twenty - four years which would be his very last encounter with her . ( TV : " The Husbands of River Song " ) When the Tenth Doctor met River Song for the first time from his perspective , she attempted to " do diaries " with him , naming events which they had experienced together ; he did not know who she was . When the Doctor tried to read the diary , River stopped him and told him that , by his own rules , he was not allowed to read it . ( TV : " Silence in the Library " ) After the events in the Library and River ' s death , the Doctor left her diary in the biography section of the Library , now completely full . He and Donna Noble considered reading it to find out their futures , specifically Donna ' s ( given River ' s reaction to her identity ) , but chose not to . By this point in River ' s timeline , the diary had seen quite a lot of action . Its pages had been heavily written in and weathered . The cover had also become worn , and the spine of the book was now cracked and peeled away slightly from the bindings . ( TV : " Forest of the Dead " ) Nardole retrieved River ' s diary from the Library after her death and delivered it to the Twelfth Doctor after his night on Darillium ended . While confronting the Monks , a virtual version of the Doctor had the diary with him . ( TV : " Extremis " ) Non - adventure entries . Alien records . In addition to adventures , River ' s diary also contained detailed information on alien creatures including handwritten notes , drawings , photographs , cutouts , and the names and events surrounding various people who have encountered these creatures . These entries include : Weeping Angel s , Saturnyn ians , and Silurian s . ( WC : " " , " " , " " ) Less detailed alien entries include those of Eight Legs , Zygon s , Pakhar , Chelonian s , and Raxacoricofallapatorian s . ( GAME : " The Eternity Clock " ) Miscellaneous . One diary entry contained notes for piloting the TARDIS , including a drawing of the console , and another was a to - do list prior to River ' s archaeological expedition of the Library . ( GAME : " The Eternity Clock " ) The Doctor . River ' s diary has pictures of the Doctor ' s first twelve incarnations , including the War Doctor . However , she does not possess a picture of the Twelfth Doctor as she believed his regeneration cycle ended with the Eleventh Doctor . ( TV : " The Time of Angels " , " The Husbands of River Song " ) When speaking to Donna Noble , the Tenth Doctor suggests that River may have information on Donna in the diary , but this is unconfirmed as they choose not to look . ( TV : " Forest of the Dead " ) Behind the scenes . As production on the 2012 video game " The Eternity Clock " game predates the War Doctor ' s debut in the 2013 television story " The Name of the Doctor " , the entries in River ' s diary involving past incarnations of the Doctor do not refer to him . Following the broadcast of " The Name of the Doctor " , in the 2015 television story " The Husbands of River Song " , it is revealed that River has met the War Doctor as well when his face is included among the photos of the Doctor she owns .