a merry ghoul (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
merryghoul) wrote2023-01-14 12:02 pm
merryghoul) wrote2023-01-14 12:02 pm
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Review: The Diary of River Song 11 (Friend of the Family): She plays for all the teams
(Fannish 50 entry 3/50.)
Unlike other DORS entries (four separate stories or four stories that form one story arc), this audio drama is one story over four parts. River goes to a house on Earth to explore an anomaly at a house. Obviously things aren't what they seem.
At this point in her life River is still a student at Luna University, trying to eventually become a faculty member. She travels to a house belonging to the Mortimer family. Inside the house she finds pieces torn from her diary with things written on them resembling riddles. This unnerves River as she feels the pages in her diary are mostly dedicated to tracking her meetings with the Doctor, not sending herself a riddle. Scanning the diary pages traps River into a period of time later revealed to be mostly 78 years. River can only travel between certain years as well (1936, 1962, 1988, 2014). She meets Harry Mortimer and his boyfriend in 2014 before being mistaken for Maddie Mortimer's maid in 1936. River later travels to and is accepted by the Mortimer family without issues in 1988. River must figure out this riddle and why she's stuck traveling certain dates in time while trying to figure out why the Mortimer family is so broken and who exactly is the cook in this family who never ages.
As I noted earlier in my brief summary of this review, this audio drama does deal with gay people. And there are a lot of gay people. I'd say this audio drama is, on the surface, something that plays with period drama and haunted house tropes. But beneath the surface is a mediation on gay and transgender people. It's a piece that states that gay and transgender people have always existed and it shows society's attitudes towards gay and transgender people during different pieces of time.
Probably my biggest grievance is the character of Tommy/Thomas Mortimer. Tommy appears during three time periods. His earliest chronological appearances depict him as a child but as an oddly mute one. (The character also appears in a non-speaking role at a later period in time, but he's clearly an adult when he reappears and doesn't have to speak.) I really wish there was some voice actor for young Thomas; unless there's something seriously wrong with a child, most children aren't oddly quiet in the company of adults. Then again, maybe I was flashing back to the last season of Burn Notice, which had a similar issue. But where this audio drama didn't write lines for a young Tommy, Burn Notice cast a child to play an orphan...and then didn't give the child lines at all. Sigh is all I can add to this paragraph.
Otherwise, for an audio drama that starts off feeling like a haunted house story or something out of Sapphire & Steel, it ends as a story of hope and is a feel good story for gay and transgender people.
Unlike other DORS entries (four separate stories or four stories that form one story arc), this audio drama is one story over four parts. River goes to a house on Earth to explore an anomaly at a house. Obviously things aren't what they seem.
At this point in her life River is still a student at Luna University, trying to eventually become a faculty member. She travels to a house belonging to the Mortimer family. Inside the house she finds pieces torn from her diary with things written on them resembling riddles. This unnerves River as she feels the pages in her diary are mostly dedicated to tracking her meetings with the Doctor, not sending herself a riddle. Scanning the diary pages traps River into a period of time later revealed to be mostly 78 years. River can only travel between certain years as well (1936, 1962, 1988, 2014). She meets Harry Mortimer and his boyfriend in 2014 before being mistaken for Maddie Mortimer's maid in 1936. River later travels to and is accepted by the Mortimer family without issues in 1988. River must figure out this riddle and why she's stuck traveling certain dates in time while trying to figure out why the Mortimer family is so broken and who exactly is the cook in this family who never ages.
As I noted earlier in my brief summary of this review, this audio drama does deal with gay people. And there are a lot of gay people. I'd say this audio drama is, on the surface, something that plays with period drama and haunted house tropes. But beneath the surface is a mediation on gay and transgender people. It's a piece that states that gay and transgender people have always existed and it shows society's attitudes towards gay and transgender people during different pieces of time.
Probably my biggest grievance is the character of Tommy/Thomas Mortimer. Tommy appears during three time periods. His earliest chronological appearances depict him as a child but as an oddly mute one. (The character also appears in a non-speaking role at a later period in time, but he's clearly an adult when he reappears and doesn't have to speak.) I really wish there was some voice actor for young Thomas; unless there's something seriously wrong with a child, most children aren't oddly quiet in the company of adults. Then again, maybe I was flashing back to the last season of Burn Notice, which had a similar issue. But where this audio drama didn't write lines for a young Tommy, Burn Notice cast a child to play an orphan...and then didn't give the child lines at all. Sigh is all I can add to this paragraph.
Otherwise, for an audio drama that starts off feeling like a haunted house story or something out of Sapphire & Steel, it ends as a story of hope and is a feel good story for gay and transgender people.