![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merryghoulA review of the latest River Song audio drama, where River meets Five and is reunited with Madame Kovarian, the woman who kidnapped River, turned her into an assassin, and failed to kill the (Eleventh) Doctor in the end.
Series 3 expands on the mythology surrounding Kovarian’s chapter of the Silence, specifically what happened after the Battle of Demons Run. It gives River “siblings,” more or less, to investigate and save. River must also prevent Five from dying.
“The Lady of the Lake” starts with River digging a grave for someone, as someone else is alerting River that another person (revealed to be Five in the next story) is waiting for her after she sends out a distress call. The story flashes back to River going to a planet that specializes in assisted death via various scenarios (e.g. being sacrificed, burned to death by a dragon). River teams up with an employee dressed up as Death from The Seventh Seal to investigate one of her “siblings,” Lake, and his followers who believe they can regenerate to no end. (The grave mentioned earlier is for a character in this story, and the person who tells River about Five is the Death employee.) I tend to love the standalone River stories in these audios, and this was a great, tragicomic story, one that features “Death” as River’s companion, River showing compassion to others, and a scene where River flirts with, and relays information to...herself.
“A Requiem for the Doctor” has a distraught River traveling with Five and his companion Brooke. (Yes, Brooke is a new companion for Five, without getting heavy into spoilers.) They travel to Vienna, shortly after Mozart’s death, to investigate other deaths caused by a poison. This was my least favorite story, if only because the poison is more of an applied phlebotinium substance and less, well, a real world-style poison. I also felt some of the accents verged less towards the natural and more towards AC/DC’s "Big Balls." But the story does establish Brooke as a figure that seems happy to travel with the Doctor at first, then slowly becomes jealous as the Doctor and River trade barbs, sexual innuendos, and act like a married couple.
“My Dinner with Andrew” starts off with River picking up a man named Andrew, in the middle of gardening on Earth, and taking him to a restaurant outside time. River plans to use Andrew, a man who looks like Five (but doesn’t exactly sound like him, as he has a Yorkshire accent) as a decoy to save Five’s life, but things don’t go exactly to plan. The narrative goes back and forth in time, framed as if bits of the story are courses served to you in a classical restaurant, but the framing is handled impressively well.
“The Furies” finds River confronting Kovarian as well as more of her “siblings.” River can’t kill Kovarian (like, literally cannot kill her because of a fail-safe), but there are other ways to stop Kovarian. I found Kovarian’s ultimate fate befitting and, in a way, a better way to conclude her arc than her fate in the show (it was only fatal in an alternate timeline). Brooke also shows up. I don’t want to spoil her fate, but, in a way, I also feel it’s an alternate fate for a character that appears briefly in “Let’s Kill Hitler.” I felt the Doctor’s fate in this story was hastily tied up, but otherwise this was an enjoyable story.
This audio drama’s behind the scenes documentary audio is illuminating as always. I really like hearing some tales from Frances Barber this time around.
All in all, Series 3 isn’t perfect. But Series 3, even without Korvarian, feels like the closest thing to a throwback to Series 6 of the television show, expanding and clarifying more of the early River Song mythology.
Series 3 expands on the mythology surrounding Kovarian’s chapter of the Silence, specifically what happened after the Battle of Demons Run. It gives River “siblings,” more or less, to investigate and save. River must also prevent Five from dying.
“The Lady of the Lake” starts with River digging a grave for someone, as someone else is alerting River that another person (revealed to be Five in the next story) is waiting for her after she sends out a distress call. The story flashes back to River going to a planet that specializes in assisted death via various scenarios (e.g. being sacrificed, burned to death by a dragon). River teams up with an employee dressed up as Death from The Seventh Seal to investigate one of her “siblings,” Lake, and his followers who believe they can regenerate to no end. (The grave mentioned earlier is for a character in this story, and the person who tells River about Five is the Death employee.) I tend to love the standalone River stories in these audios, and this was a great, tragicomic story, one that features “Death” as River’s companion, River showing compassion to others, and a scene where River flirts with, and relays information to...herself.
“A Requiem for the Doctor” has a distraught River traveling with Five and his companion Brooke. (Yes, Brooke is a new companion for Five, without getting heavy into spoilers.) They travel to Vienna, shortly after Mozart’s death, to investigate other deaths caused by a poison. This was my least favorite story, if only because the poison is more of an applied phlebotinium substance and less, well, a real world-style poison. I also felt some of the accents verged less towards the natural and more towards AC/DC’s "Big Balls." But the story does establish Brooke as a figure that seems happy to travel with the Doctor at first, then slowly becomes jealous as the Doctor and River trade barbs, sexual innuendos, and act like a married couple.
“My Dinner with Andrew” starts off with River picking up a man named Andrew, in the middle of gardening on Earth, and taking him to a restaurant outside time. River plans to use Andrew, a man who looks like Five (but doesn’t exactly sound like him, as he has a Yorkshire accent) as a decoy to save Five’s life, but things don’t go exactly to plan. The narrative goes back and forth in time, framed as if bits of the story are courses served to you in a classical restaurant, but the framing is handled impressively well.
“The Furies” finds River confronting Kovarian as well as more of her “siblings.” River can’t kill Kovarian (like, literally cannot kill her because of a fail-safe), but there are other ways to stop Kovarian. I found Kovarian’s ultimate fate befitting and, in a way, a better way to conclude her arc than her fate in the show (it was only fatal in an alternate timeline). Brooke also shows up. I don’t want to spoil her fate, but, in a way, I also feel it’s an alternate fate for a character that appears briefly in “Let’s Kill Hitler.” I felt the Doctor’s fate in this story was hastily tied up, but otherwise this was an enjoyable story.
This audio drama’s behind the scenes documentary audio is illuminating as always. I really like hearing some tales from Frances Barber this time around.
All in all, Series 3 isn’t perfect. But Series 3, even without Korvarian, feels like the closest thing to a throwback to Series 6 of the television show, expanding and clarifying more of the early River Song mythology.
