The Diary of River Song, S2: She dreamed of having two Doctors at the same time. Just not these two
(A review)
Last year, when The Diary of River Song Series 2 came out, I decided to take a break from Doctor Who spin-offs. Since the third installment of The Diary of River Song is coming soon (whenever that is), I decided to go back and listen to Series 2, the adventure with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.
Series 2 is about the end of Earth some time in the future and the lengths River goes to try to stop it, while making sure Six and Seven don’t make the problem worse.
It’s not really apparent that the end of Earth is even happening, as the series starts with “The Unknown.” Here we start off with River on the Saturnus, advising the crew of the ship when something odd appears in Earth’s orbit. Meanwhile, to River’s horror, she runs into Seven. I thought the narrative was jumbled here and left some plot elements (in this story, not the overall story) unsolved, unless I wasn’t listening close enough. And I didn’t like River and Seven’s interactions here. This initially disappointed me, but they interact later in the series.
The second audio, “Five Twenty-Nine,” is my favorite. It’s Doctor-free unlike the other installments, and the growing sense of doom is strong throughout this audio. The previous audio ends with a “Synthetic,” Rachel, found among the wreckage of this post-apocalyptic world. The start of this article finds River traveling in time to attempt to save Rachel and the people caring for her before the world ends. It ends on a heartbreaking note. I feel if this was a standalone story for, say, BBC Books or for a hypothetical River Song series series for Titan Comics, it would have a stronger message of River not always being able to save people. But this audio series actually cast Alex Kingston’s real-life daughter, Salome Haertel, as Rachel, so I don’t think I want to advocate River not being able to save people (let alone Rachel) here.
“World Enough and Time” shouldn’t be confused with the Series 10 episode of the same name; this “World Enough and Time” doesn’t deal with the same themes as said episode. River works in an ominous company which deals in dreams, and is headed up by...Six. This audio was fun for a River/Doctor matchup. River flirts with Six and ends up going on virtual dates with him, and I came out shopping them, much to my surprise. And the story was good as well.
“The Eye of the Storm,” set in London, 1703, before and during the Great Storm, gets River closer to what is causing the end of the Earth. However, Six and Seven are in her way. The only person she can turn to? Daniel Defoe, almost on his way out of Newgate at the start of this story. This story has all sorts of callbacks to the River Song story from the TV series, innuendos (“[...][T]entacles. And not the good kind!”), as well as a shout-out to The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, the TV movie that was Kingston’s big break (it was because of that adaption that Kingston was asked to join ER). The story itself for this audio isn’t bad, despite all the callbacks. What’s disappointing, though, is the very end, which does a bad job of tying up some of the looser plot ends from the earlier audios.
The digital release ends the fourth audio with the audio’s part-instrumental, part-sci-fi sound score.
The behind the scenes documentary, unlike the one for the first season, is a bit clearer in introducing the people featured in the production. It’s an interesting documentary. I’m still wondering how and why Kingston ends up going on drunken nights out with various actors, lol. (I’ve read about these nights out, thank you very much.)
As a follow up to the first Diary of River Song, this series does its job-have River bump into two Doctors before they inadvertently destroy Earth. But part of me wishes that, instead of their planned team ups with Five for the next installment coming soon, and Four (to be released in Augustish), they’d do a whole series where the universe can be saved by one person...River Song.
This entry was originally posted at https://merryghoul.dreamwidth.org/364774.html. Comments on either site are fine.
Last year, when The Diary of River Song Series 2 came out, I decided to take a break from Doctor Who spin-offs. Since the third installment of The Diary of River Song is coming soon (whenever that is), I decided to go back and listen to Series 2, the adventure with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.
Series 2 is about the end of Earth some time in the future and the lengths River goes to try to stop it, while making sure Six and Seven don’t make the problem worse.
It’s not really apparent that the end of Earth is even happening, as the series starts with “The Unknown.” Here we start off with River on the Saturnus, advising the crew of the ship when something odd appears in Earth’s orbit. Meanwhile, to River’s horror, she runs into Seven. I thought the narrative was jumbled here and left some plot elements (in this story, not the overall story) unsolved, unless I wasn’t listening close enough. And I didn’t like River and Seven’s interactions here. This initially disappointed me, but they interact later in the series.
The second audio, “Five Twenty-Nine,” is my favorite. It’s Doctor-free unlike the other installments, and the growing sense of doom is strong throughout this audio. The previous audio ends with a “Synthetic,” Rachel, found among the wreckage of this post-apocalyptic world. The start of this article finds River traveling in time to attempt to save Rachel and the people caring for her before the world ends. It ends on a heartbreaking note. I feel if this was a standalone story for, say, BBC Books or for a hypothetical River Song series series for Titan Comics, it would have a stronger message of River not always being able to save people. But this audio series actually cast Alex Kingston’s real-life daughter, Salome Haertel, as Rachel, so I don’t think I want to advocate River not being able to save people (let alone Rachel) here.
“World Enough and Time” shouldn’t be confused with the Series 10 episode of the same name; this “World Enough and Time” doesn’t deal with the same themes as said episode. River works in an ominous company which deals in dreams, and is headed up by...Six. This audio was fun for a River/Doctor matchup. River flirts with Six and ends up going on virtual dates with him, and I came out shopping them, much to my surprise. And the story was good as well.
“The Eye of the Storm,” set in London, 1703, before and during the Great Storm, gets River closer to what is causing the end of the Earth. However, Six and Seven are in her way. The only person she can turn to? Daniel Defoe, almost on his way out of Newgate at the start of this story. This story has all sorts of callbacks to the River Song story from the TV series, innuendos (“[...][T]entacles. And not the good kind!”), as well as a shout-out to The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, the TV movie that was Kingston’s big break (it was because of that adaption that Kingston was asked to join ER). The story itself for this audio isn’t bad, despite all the callbacks. What’s disappointing, though, is the very end, which does a bad job of tying up some of the looser plot ends from the earlier audios.
The digital release ends the fourth audio with the audio’s part-instrumental, part-sci-fi sound score.
The behind the scenes documentary, unlike the one for the first season, is a bit clearer in introducing the people featured in the production. It’s an interesting documentary. I’m still wondering how and why Kingston ends up going on drunken nights out with various actors, lol. (I’ve read about these nights out, thank you very much.)
As a follow up to the first Diary of River Song, this series does its job-have River bump into two Doctors before they inadvertently destroy Earth. But part of me wishes that, instead of their planned team ups with Five for the next installment coming soon, and Four (to be released in Augustish), they’d do a whole series where the universe can be saved by one person...River Song.
This entry was originally posted at https://merryghoul.dreamwidth.org/364774.html. Comments on either site are fine.