Alex Kingston’s time-travelling archaeologist launches herself into a new audio series, beginning with a prequel to ‘The Ark in Space’.
Updated 15/05/24: Cover art, cast and storyline details
With her creator returning to Doctor Who this weekend, Big Finish have revealed more about River Song’s upcoming audio exploits.
The first box set in her new series, The Death and Life of River Song is Last Words. The storyline sees River, after cheating death as a digital consciousness uploaded to the Library, brought back to life in a cloned body and sent to Earth in the future, not long before it’s set to be ravaged by solar flares.
The guest cast is headlined by Greg Wise (The Crown) who plays the ultra-rich tycoon Garrison Clay. He’s the man behind River’s temporary resurrection, and he has a mission for her. Additionally, there’s Jamie Parker (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) as the mysterious Sam Avner, who becomes her ally.
Here’s the synopsis for Last Words:
Wrenched from her digital afterlife in the Library, River Song finds herself on sixty-first century Earth, resurrected in a clone body. Billionaire tech mogul Garrison Clay has a mystery to solve, and he’s selected River as the person to solve it.
Armed with only her sonic screwdriver and a fake ID, River heads out into a world soon to be ravaged by solar flares… where danger stalks her at every turn.
The four episodes in the set are ‘Apokalypsis’, ‘Fate & Fatality’, ‘The Black Hours’ and ‘Book of the Dead’.
Fascinatingly, the story is a prequel to the Tom Baker classic ‘The Ark in Space’, with humanity preparing to flee the doomed Earth. We’ll meet familiar characters from that story too: Robert Whitelock guest stars as Lazar and Christine Kavanagh as Vira – characters originally played on television by Kenton Moore and Wendy Williams.
The cast also includes Jane Booker, Shogo Miyakita, Jamie Zubairi, Jacob Daniels, Andrew James Spooner, Glen McCready, Issy Van Randwyck and Nicholas Boulton.
Writer Rob Valentine said:
“Originally, I thought I was going to be writing the final ever River Song story. Quickly I realised that I wasn’t, but I thought it would be fun to write something that feels like it’s the last we’ll ever see of River, and actually give that problem to her. Her life is usually intertwined with the Doctor’s, so I thought, what is her life like after her great relationship is over?
“And, the brief was to do a prequel to The Ark in Space, which is a Doctor Who classic, at the same time. When I went back and rewatched it, I realised that I wouldn’t be allowed on this ship, I would have been one of the ones left behind. So I thought, let’s give River a mission that leads into The Ark in Space, but with sympathy for those people who aren’t on the Ark.”
The Death and Life of River Song: Last Words is now up for pre-order exclusively from Big Finish. It’s available either as a collector’s edition four-CD box set, or on digital download.
Original article (of 04/04/24) continues…
Big Finish announce ‘The Death and Life of River Song’
Alex Kingston’s time-travelling archaeologist launches herself into a new audio series this August.
When audio producers Big Finish called time on The Diary of River Song last year after 12 box sets, it came as a surprise. However, any fears that it signalled the end of her audio adventures were unfounded as River returns this August.
The brand-new series opens a fresh chapter for the enduringly popular character, one which promises to take us further down her complicated timeline than ever before…
The Death and Life of River Song
The first box set in this new series, Last Words, comes from writer Robert Valentine. It begins with River, after settling down to an afterlife in the Library’s computer core, finding herself waking up in Earth’s future, her consciousness having been temporarily transferred to a new body.
Alex Kingston says:
“We have gone post-Library! We’ve done another episode in the past where I was within the database, which I loved, and I thought that’s the only way you could go forward with River, given her situation. So, I was actually really surprised when this box set came my way, and that we are now so far advanced in the history of Earth that she is able to be brought out as data and put into a cloned body. So very, very clever!”
Producer David Richardson adds:
“When every single day during the recording, your leading actress says “This script is brilliant”, you know you’re onto a good thing. Even better, at the end of the last day, Alex popped the script in her bag and announced that she loved Last Words so much she was taking it home to keep and treasure.”
The Death and Life of River Song: Last Words is now up for pre-order exclusively from Big Finish. It’s available either as a collector’s edition four-CD box set, or on digital download.
It’s also available in a money-saving bundle with volumes 2 and 3 of the series, both due in 2025.
Star-Crossed
You don’t have to wait for August though, as Alex Kingston also stars in the next volume of The Ninth Doctor Adventures.
River Song will join Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor for three adventures. Together, the pair are set to visit a planet in thrall to a dating app, an intergalactic bank with a catastrophic glitch, and a raging maelstrom.
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Star-Crossed is out in May 2024 and available to pre order now.