Should we see River Song again in ‘Doctor Who’?

Unless you’ve really gone a bit over the top with your spoiler-avoidance, you’ll know that the most recent Doctor Who Christmas special featured the return of Professor River Song after an absence of more than two years.

Now that you’ve *hopefully* seen the episode there’s undoubtedly still some questions left to answer. Such as, most importantly, is that it for Doctor Who’s second best archaeologist?

With River’s story seemingly tied up with a nice big Christmassy ribbon, is there any scope for future appearances?

‘The Husbands of River Song’ saw the Doctor and River finally go on their long-awaited date at the Singing Towers restaurant on Darillium, as foretold back in 2008’s ‘Forest of the Dead’. He even gave her a shiny new sonic screwdriver to replace that tatty trowel of hers.

As anyone worth their salt knows this is effectively their last supper; the last time they meet before River heads off to the Library and dies saving the much younger Tenth Doctor, who doesn’t recognise her.

So is there room left for further adventures of Professor Song with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor? Of course. Cleverly, Steven Moffat has left some wiggle room for River in the episode. He’s quite fond of last minute wiggle room of late.

If you were paying attention, and I’m sure you were, you’ll have learnt that a night on Darillium is just a teensy bit longer than the measly 24 hours we put up with here on Earth. So, just how how long is a night on Darillium?

24 years. Yep, that’s more than enough time for River Song to nick the TARDIS when the Doctor goes to the bathrom, get up to some mischief and still be back in time for dessert. You can get a lot done in 24 years.

But now that we know there is space for River to return, should she? After all, she’s a popular character, has a strong fanbase and she’s portrayed by the frankly sublime Alex Kingston, who somehow looks not a day older than she did in 2008.

However, ‘The Husbands of River Song’ provides such a heartfelt ending to their story that I can’t help wondering whether future returns would risk diminishing that. Perhaps the possibility of them meeting again is better without actually showing these stories.

Leave it to our imagination. Let River Song live and flourish in our minds and in the work of fandom. With a fandom as large and diverse as Doctor Who’s that a hell of a lot of imagination. There can be endless stories for River.

At the end of the episode a caption tells us: ‘and they both lived happily ever after… and they both lived happily… happily.’ But the beauty of the Doctor and River’s relationship is they can never live out the rest of their lives together. As the Doctor says, he’s been putting off taking her to Darillium because, in his hearts, he knows it’s their last night.

Steven Moffat has crafted a wonderfully poignant story here and, in ‘The Husbands of River Song’, an ending that is both true to their relationship and absolutely sincere.

Yet, while this could be the last we see of River Song, it certainly isn’t the last we’ll hear her.

The day after ‘The Husbands of River Song’ aired on BBC One, River entered into the wonderful world of Big Finish with their new ‘Diary of River Song’ box set, joining the pantheon of other Doctor Who characters who now grace the ongoing audio adventures.