Originally released : August 2023

Listened to: June 2025

Written by Robert Valentine

Starring Alex Kingston

Episodes:

Book 1 – Apokalypsis 
Book 2 – Fate & Fatality 
Book 3 – The Black Hours 
Book 4 – Book of the Dead

Context: so, back to the River Song adventures and now to the most current series, perhaps I was a little underwhelmed coming back to this series so soon after two River box sets on the trot. I wanted to get up to date on this series (as I have done with the Benny adventures), in particular as this summer a third boxset is due and I would like to listen as it comes out. I accept this is sounds like a bit of a negative mindset but it isn’t exactly that, more a bit fatigued/a little lost in other BF deep arcs to come back to River can take a while for me to switch attention….anyway, on we go.

THE REVIEW

What I thought: As I got going with this box set the strength of Alex K’s performance always draws me in without me realising it was happening. I struggled a little seeing the thread/placing these stories within a timeline (almost impossible to get my head around in terms of River, that is the nature of her character I guess) but I did get the context of the library and somewhat how River is back and in a body, albeit an unstable, clone of the original. Lots of interesting ideas here, the links to the Ark in Space becoming more obvious and then full blown Noah and the crew turn up, which is pretty awesome…I think the character of Sam is a great foil/companion for River and I really started to enjoy this boxset as we headed toward the ending. It provides some really interetsing context for the Ark in Space, and some wonderful scenes between River and the main characters, Sam in particular (definitely a Sam Spade esque dude).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 time pair bondings: it’s solid, a little underwhelmed perhaps in the first episode but gets more exciting as the episodes progress. I ended up enjoying this one a lot but I am not sure where this is going exactly, where is the ARC, the hook (this is probably me missing something obvious here)?

What I felt: interested, always good to spend time with River however I am not entiely sure where this is heading, if anywhere? Maybe I need to start seeing these River adventures as stand alones, no big arcs etc….might enjoy the next one more if i do that….(spoiler, this worked!)

What am I left thinking?

• Where are these post death River adventures going?
• Does River as a character have the legs to pretty much keep having adventures forevere? (not entirely convinced at this point although there have been some great stories), maybe she needs to get her own TARDIS?

Memorable bits

• Noah and Vira!
• Sam is a great Raymond Chandler-esque awesome character, and has a great arc character wise in these adventures