Is the Teselecta a fixed point in time and space?

Question

In the episode "The Wedding of River Song" we see the Teselecta, resembling The Doctor, being shot by River Song wearing the astronaut suit. The community, to justify the messing with a fixed point in time, agrees on the fact that's how the things should always had to go and The Doctor never meant to die at Lake Silencio.

Point is, and that's always bugged me, why the universe tears apart when River fails to incapacitate the Teselecta? I mean, even assuming that the robot was so important (and I fail to see why, considering what it is meant to do) to be a fixed point, it's just a robot. People are giving it purpose, they could rebuild another one, not even similar, and there will not be any change in history. It's like the most important toaster in the world.

How could that ever be a fixed point in time and space?

Answer 1

When the Doctor talks to Dorium Maldovar, Dorium mentions that the Silence are using a "still in point in time" (5:02 PM on 22 April 2011 by Lake Silencio) to try and make the Doctor's death a fixed point in time.

Now, why isn't the Doctor's death a fixed point in time? Consider this - each time we see the "Doctor" being killed, we're really seeing the Teselecta.

Why is the Teselecta important enough to become a fixed point in time? Honestly, in itself, it isn't.

However, at the time, the whole universe believes that the Doctor was killed at that time. It is that belief which makes it a fixed point in time - just like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, a small number of people are privy to the truth. However, the Doctor goes on to erase himself from history (with the help of Oswin Oswald in the Dalek asylum).

Of course, the Doctor being the Doctor, he can't help himself and begins to interfere again.

But, the point is fixed - almost everyone believes he was killed by Lake Silencio at 5:02 PM on 22 April 2011

Answer 2

The event of the Teselecta resembling The Doctor being shot is a fixed point in time. Remember that The Doctor has referred to many fixed points in time and they do not all directly relate to The Doctor himself. The fact that this "death" was fake and never The Doctor is therefore irrelevant.

The shooting of the Teselecta was the end result of a conspiracy by The Silence that spanned aeons. It only ended because they believed that they had killed the real Doctor, and it is that conclusion which is a fixed point in time. The Silence had to witness The Doctor shot and his body burned, otherwise their hunt for him would have continued across space and time as it already had.

Because The Doctor travels through space and time and people encounter him in a non-linear fashion, his continued adventures would not necessarily have led The Silence to believe they had failed in their mission to kill him. They were trying to prevent the question "Doctor who?" from being answered, so as long as they believed they had killed him at some point in his life and that the question remained unanswered in the universe their mission was complete.

This is confirmed at the conclusion of The Wedding of River Song when The Doctor tells Dorium that he is letting them believe he is dead so they can all forget him. He says that he has "got too big, too noisy" and that he is going to "step back into the shadows", presumably to allow them to continue to believe he is dead.