Thursday, December 31, 2015

The Husbands of River Song

Hello Sweetie

The Husbands of River Song was interesting in more how it ended up. We knew going into it that this was going to be a comedy romp and it delivered on that. It got so far that it became a bit silly at a few points, but that was okay given how dour Series Nine was. What was interesting was how the episode ended and how it seemed to be a bit of a swan song for Steven Moffat.

Plot Summary

The Doctor is taken by a servant who has confused him for a surgeon to a crashed space ship. Inside, River Song welcomes him, not recognizing him as the Doctor, and asks him to remove the head of the king she is married to. There is a valuable diamond lodged in his brain and it is going to kill him. River acts like she is wanting to save the king's life, but she just wants the diamond. The king gets wise to this and removes his head from his cyborg body, ordering it to kill River and the Doctor. They steal the head and run for the TARDIS. River has been looking for the Doctor but is only looking for his previous incarnations. The cyborg body takes the heads of her two accomplices and gets into the TARDIS. Before it can kill them, the TARDIS takes off and they land on a ship where River plans to sell the diamond. She makes the deal but the buyers intend to worship the head of the king they believe dead and will kill River and the Doctor on the orders of the king. Before they can, the cyborg body breaks in. It recognizes that the head of the king is beyond repair and destroys it, deciding to take a new head. It opts for the Doctor and that is when River realizes that he is the Doctor. Before the cyborg can take the Doctor's head, the ship is caught in a meteor storm and crashes on the planet Derilium. The Doctor and River are saved in the TARDIS, although River is briefly knocked out. The Doctor sets up things to see that a restaurant is built on the crash site in front of the singing towers. When River wakes up, he has reserved a table through the night. River senses what is coming, having dug ahead and found that the night on Derilium was to be their last. She is sad at that thought, but the Doctor reveals to her that night on Derilium lasts 24 years.

Analysis

I liked this one. It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable. After a dark couple of series, it was nice to see a light-hearted tone being taken. In fact, I think that is the best way to play River: either very serious as in Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead or the last few minutes of The Angels Take Manhattan or in a heavy comedic role such as with Richard Nixon in The Impossible Astronaut. I thought the Doctor's comedy routine, especially with the little asides to River's comments were particularly funny. The rompy run-around was also enjoyable in the episode taking itself too seriously.

If there was one part I didn't care for in the rompy bits, it was the fact that I thought River's nonrecognition of the Doctor went on a little too long. It was funny for a while but when the Doctor did his funny and over-the-top reaction to the inside of the TARDIS, that should have been the clue to River that he was taking the Mickey a bit. At the very least, she should have recognized that he had actually been in the TARDIS before. It also would have lessened the suspension of disbelief that he could pull levers on the TARDIS console and seem to know what he was doing (the button to seventh floor not withstanding.

But we must mention the end. After a big romp, things settle down and we are granted a quiet moment where we say a form of goodbye to River. Since we saw that she didn't realize that the Doctor had been granted a new regeneration cycle until the singing towers, it will effectively be impossible to insert newer Doctors with River. If any future events are shown with the 12th Doctor and River, it will have be confined to that night (24 years in duration). So this is more or less goodbye to River (again). To me, this also seemed a little like Steven Moffat hinting that his own time on the show is coming to an end. I could be reading into it but there has been speculation that he will leave when Peter Capaldi leaves, making a clean break just like RTD did for him. I don't know if that is true, but it gave an extra layer of melancholy that I appreciated after the earlier comedy.

So, this was a good one. Not the absolute best, but a good bit of a fluff with just a sting in the tail at the end to balance out the saccharine.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5

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