Review by Cavan Gilbey
This meeting feels inevitable.
At some point we had to see Nine meet his wife, all the other Doctors have done it across the years and finally it is Eccleston’s turn to play alongside Kingston. There was a huge risk in doing this boxset, because Nine isn’t a Doctor with a romantic sensibility prior to Rose, at points in these audios being coded as a-romantic. Star-Crossed could have felt like forcing two characters together, just having them meet for the sake of finally getting round to having them all have met River. But it crucially isn’t. Star-Crossed is a boxset worth making, with a relationship well worth exploring and tinged with tragedy and melodrama. The three stories in here feel like they have been crafted with care to show how the Doctor isn’t always someone River can love, that they aren’t always the idealised image River has in her diary. Dorney, Hopley and Foley have gifted us with three unique stories that all paint a fascinating picture of this brief meeting of the old married couple.
The first story in the set is John Dorney’s Swipe Right. The Matchmaker service ensures that you find your special someone, with ‘till death do us part’ being right at the forefront of the service’s ethos. The Doctor seems to be one of the few who have noticed the deaths, and they are deadest on shutting down the service. However the only thing standing in his way; their wife.
Dating apps feel like a concept that the franchise would have tackled endlessly prior to this, but there is only a small handful of stories focused on the subject; my favourite being Thirst Trap from the Torchwood monthly range. So Dorney had a lot of freedom in how he could tackle this subject, and he decides to go with the classic robot misunderstanding it’s original purpose. A trope I like, mostly because of how inherently sinister it can be so when you pair it with the theme of romance and it trying to boil down love to algorithm; you get a story with a lot of potential.
But the main focus here is on that initial meeting of Nine and River, of Ecclestone and Kingston. I was really surprised with how emotionless they decide to make Nine here, playing in to that post Time War detachment that should have been more prevalent in the range’s other episodes. Nine is quite bitter about seeing human romance boiled down to a cynical computer program, angry at the perversion of freedom and identity which comes with that and Ecclestone plays that so well. His chemistry with Kingston, who is playing a River trying to hold back the sadness of her husband not knowing who she is perfectly, feels suitably awkward and tense with neither quite trusting each other.
The story’s greatest strength is its characterisation of the pair, Dorney clearly understands these two characters so well and wants to do something original with the pair of them. The actual narrative of the episode is engaging, often comedic with the way it portrays the failed relationships created by the Matchmaker. A brilliant opener for the set and it sets the bar high for the next two stories.
8/10
Next comes Lizzie Hopley’s Face of the Apocalypse. When River Song’s face starts appearing across history in places it really shouldn’t be, much to the shock of both River and the Doctor. But the conspiracy runs deeper than a case of simple identity fraud, because there’s a prisoner in a bank vault who may just contain the truth.
This one is the slight weak link in the set for me. I feel like it might repeat too much of the same ground as the previous story, which in theory could be excused since it serves as a direct sequel to Swipe Right, but having it come so soon after doesn’t help it because it ultimately makes the pace of the set feel stationary. As good as the River and Ninth Doctor relationship continues to be, the rest of the story doesn’t quite hold up around that central duo.
For a start the story isn’t quite sure what it quite wants to be. It begins of as a story with an investigatory tone, where the duo are trying to figure out what exactly has been spreading River’s image around time and had it stuck with this then I think the inclusion of the threat from the previous story makes more sense. Instead the narrative shifts to following this ancient couple, who are admittedly played with great affection by Paul Reynolds and Nadia Albina, but they don’t get the full time to be fleshed out enough for their relationship to evolve past bickering but genuinely in love.
I wanted to like Face of the Apocalypse more than I did because I have generally quite enjoy Hopley’s more recent scripts, but I think the nature of the story being a sequel holds it back and it not having a clear focus until the second half causes it to feel uneven in terms of character development and pacing.
6/10
The final story, Archipelago, comes to us from Tim Foley. River Song needs the Doctor for one last favour, and if he succeeds she promises to stay out of his way. All he has to do is escort her and Captain Grey across the temporal oceans of the planet Fortuna in search for Grey’s missing husband.
I’m going to be very coy about this one; all I’ll say is that this might be one of the best stories the Ninth Doctor has appeared in. In a range that has already given us stellar stories like Planet of the End, Monsters in Metropolis and Auld Lang Syne, it has to be said how good Archipelago is to make it stand out amongst those other episodes.
Structured as a three hander between Ecclestone, Kingston and Cooper as they voyage across this surreal landscape. Along the way we get these deep delves in to the Doctor’s slow realisation of his feelings towards River, River’s own stakes in the mission and the desperation of Captain Grey as he simply wants to return his husband home. Love acts a guide throughout the whole story and the way Foley plays with different reactions to romance is amazing, but I shan’t spoil the specifics.
I think people will want to buy this set for Archipelago, because it presents the most original interpretation on the Doctor/River romance to date.
10/10
Star-Crossed is a strong set, and one which serves as a fitting finale for the range as we know it. There could have been conceptual issues with using River here but the first story wipes that cynicism out straight away. Three story which add that extra layer of depth to a relationship which is so unique in the series. Easily one I’ll be coming back to when re-listening to the Ninth Doctor’s stint at Big Finish.
8/10
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Review: The Ninth Doctor Adventures – Travel In Hope
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