Doctor Who 9x13: The Husbands of River Song

When a companion leaves, there is always a void in the Doctor's life which will only be filled a new companion joins him. With Clara gone, who better to bridge the transition than his wife, River Song? The story surrounding her identity was resolved in the Matt Smith era, but there was still that fannish compulsion to want to see her interact with the new Doctor. Apparently, even Russell T Davies was  gunning for this. Steven Moffat has finally capitulated and the episode produced from this fan wish is a really great one.

The Doctor and River are reunited on a snowy planet. River and her accomplice, Nardole, are trying to steal a rare diamond which is embedded in the head of King Hydroflax. The plan quickly goes awry, so the Doctor and River are forced to use Hydroflax' living, disembodied head to carry the diamond away. It is not long before Hydroflax' robotic body pursues them to the Tardis and from there to a Space Liner full of genocidal criminals. River is unable to sell the diamond, but a meteorite strike hits the Space Liner, they are able to prevent Hydroflax' followers from continuing his mission.

River spends most of the story unaware that the white haired man travelling with her is a future incarnation of the husband. The existence of the War Doctor pays another dividend to the show as she thinks that she knows all thirteen of the Doctor's lives. This gives the Doctor an opportunity to see what River is up to when he is not involved. It turns out that she has more than one husband on the go. It's nice to see the Doctor wander into an adventure of River Song. Seeing her act on her own makes her feel more like a real person. Alex Kingston is on fine form as River Song, unfettered by a complex back story. Certain lines of River's dialogue might come across as heartless on paper, but Alex Kingston is able to make  River still seem likable despite such lines.

River's husbands are certainly different. Greg Davies plays King Hydroflax with just the right amount of OTT. A straightforward angry dictator with no scruples. Calling him a pantomime villain might sound like a criticism, but it is just right for a Christmas special and fits the tone of the story. River's other husband, Raoul, is a good looking, and Philip Rhys is effective in the role, but fairly non-essential character he could have been cut from the story.

A more interesting villain is introduced aboard the Space Liner.  Flemming, the manager of the Space Liner serving genocidal maniacs, whose outwardly camp manner hide his cunning. He might have been more interesting for another story. His customers, the Shoal of Winter Harmony, are also pretty gruesome, with their heads that split open from the top.

The Doctor is on the backfoot for the most of the episode. Yet in spite of this, Peter Capaldi still has enough gravitas to make the Doctor seem like the centre of events. His facial expressions and line readings perfectly get across his exasperation at his wife. He is also hilarious when he has to pretend to be seeing the inside of the Tardis for the first time. The Doctor gains in stature when River discovers his true identity. The look he gives her is excellent.

Although most of the story is a comedy romp, it finally changes tone in the final moments when the Doctor and River arrive on darillium, the last meeting between the Doctor and River before her fateful journey to the Library. As a long term viewer it is worth it finally having this scene. So far the Peter Capaldi era of the show has had a lot of interest in mortality and here we get the Doctor and River trying to enjoy the time they have left. The final shot of an almost kiss was perfect. The nature of time travel means that River could have many more meetings with the Doctor, but this is as perfect an ending as any.

The Husbands of River Song was a pretty enjoyable episode. A funny episode with little touches of grimness along the way. Probably one of my favourite Christmas specials, behind The Snowmen, The Runaway Bride, and The Christmas Invasion but above The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. We do not know where Doctor Who will go from here. But for now, that final text of 'They Lived Happily ever After' is as good a place as any to put Doctor Who on hold.

9/10

Doctor Who 9x12: Hell Bent

Here, at last. Clara Oswald gets her proper departure from Doctor Who. Unsurprisingly, Face the Raven was not her final moment but more of a set up for this episode. It's not completely surprising, since it would hardly be in character for showrunner Steven Moffat to let a character just die. As with plastic Centurion Rory and ghostly River Song, his characters continue to hang on after they leave the mortal coil.

The last we saw of the Doctor he finally returned to Gallifrey. After two series of searching this felt like it should have been a more momentous occasion but since the Doctor was out for revenge on those that killed Clara and trapped him in the confession, there was little time for any sense of wonder. The Time Lords come across as the usual pompous bores while their soldiers are so casual as to seem banal. Rassilon, who was superbly played by Timothy Dalton in The End of Time is here played as a ranting lunatic. The Doctor brings down Rassilon and the High Council in so little time. In a way it feels like a dull prelude to the more interesting main plot, which is an out of control Doctor tying to save Clara. After bringing her back from the extraction chamber, the two go on one last run, with the Doctor hoping to hold back Clara's death. Peter Capaldi gets to show a raw Doctor, determined to do whatever. From shooting the Time Lord General to stealing a Tardis and flying to the end of the universe.

His troubles lead him into conflict with other immortals including Ohila and Ashildir. It is Ashildir, living at the end of the universe, who has a perspective on the true nature of the Hybrid. Despite all of the teases that it might be a half-human Doctor, or Ashildir, Steven Moffat found a third, more interesting option. The Hybrid is both the Doctor and Clara, egging each other on until they cause chaos. Such a symbiotic relationship is a nice callback to the nature of Osgood discussed in The Zygon Inversion. The only problem is that we never really see this idea put into action. Clara has spent most of this series on the sidelines, and here there's not enough time to show the damage they are causing to the universe. In The Wedding of River Song we got to see the physical fracturing of time as River failed to kill the Doctor. There's nothing like that here, and that's a pity.

The final scenes between the Doctor and Clara in the retro Tardis were good. While the Doctor is prepared to wipe Clara's memory, Clara brings up the less savoury side of this endeavour. Something that there wasn't much time for in Journey's End.

The scenes of the amnesiac Doctor meeting the knowing Clara in Nevada were decent enough. They formed the final goodbye. Ultimately Clara leaves the Doctor to go and travel with  Ashildir inside their old Tardis.

While the episode became a bit of  a muddle in the plotting area it was superb in how it was directed and presented. Rachel Talalay has now replaced Nick Hurran as Doctor Who's best contemporary director. She succeeds in making the Gallifrey scenes feel like a western. Composer Murray Gold is also on form with a brilliant soundtrack of western sounds and synthesizer stings.

Overall it's not a bad episode but not brilliant. It is pretty much the self-indulgent episodes of the show to date, but hopefully this is clearing the decks for something new and exciting. Right now we have the Doctor, in the Tardis, with a new sonic screwdriver that's even more suggestive looking than before. He can go anywhere right now. There's an exiled High Council that might get revenge, or a question of the Doctor's interest in Earth. It remains to be seen which direction Steven Moffat will take.

7/10