The Husbands of River Song

I think I’m going to need a bigger flowchart.

The Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

When a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a chase across the galaxy.

Review

The Husbands of River Song is definitely lighter in tone pallette cleanser following the dark conclusion to Series 9. It is a little difficult for a casual viewer to follow; I remember watching with my wife’s family, some of whom knew who River Song was but hadn’t watched the show for a while, whilst others had watched the show. Given that the Christmas Special is an opportunity to appeal to viewers who would not usually watch the show, it feels like an unorthodox move.

I’ll kill the lights, you kill the patient.

River Song

The first half of the story is an opportunity for Steven Moffat to show his sitcom writing roots, whilst the second is rather more tender and brings the story of River Song to its end, as billed in her very first appearance. Ultimately, the story manages to fuse those two elements together successfully. The first half allows the Doctor to take the backseat, with River Song taking the lead and allowing the audience to see what her life is like when the Doctor is not around. As it turns out, some of it involves stealing the TARDIS when the Doctor is not looking, which is an entertaining idea and has been expanded on by Big Finish. This allows one of the best moments in the story, where the Doctor has his own ‘bigger on the inside’ moment, which allows him to finally do that iconic moment in the right way. Having seen how disappointed he gets when someone doesn’t react appropriately, for instance, Rory, it feels like the ultimate fan moment for Moffat. Lest we forget, this was intended at one time to be Moffat’s final story as showrunner, so it feels as though he wanted to throw in anything that he had always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to.

The central plot line, which sees River trying to obtain and sell the Halassi Androvar diamond, is a romp, featuring robots, aliens and River not recognising this new incarnation of her husband works really well. When this was first announced, I did wonder whether this story would bring River’s story to its end, but there is no doubt once the crashing starship, Harmony and Redemption, happens to be crashing in the space around it. Moffat does even throw in a cheeky reference to a DVD extra, Last Night, in which an older Eleventh Doctor appears, taking an older River Song to the Singing Towers. It might feel like an unconventional direction for a Christmas special to take, but Moffat does seed it cleverly, for instance, with River’s diary running out of pages. A lesser writer may struggle to stitch the two elements together, but Moffat is good enough to make sure that they work and feel relatively seamless.

The more comedic tone is helped by the casting of Greg Davies and Matt Lucas as Hydroflax and Nardole respectively. Both, by their very nature, feature more heavily in the first half than the second, with Davies’ role mostly done by just over the halfway mark. I think that Greg Davies does do a good job with what he is given – he is very much in the role of the fearsome and loud ruler Hydroflax, which doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch if you’ve seen Davies in his other work like Taskmaster. The idea of the robot body having a mind of its own is a good one, and the fact that it seeks a more competent and knowledgeable replacement head does provide some peril going into the second half of the story. I was less sure about Matt Lucas’ casting, as I am not a fan of his comedy. Lucas does a good job, but there’s little about his character that really screams that we must see more of his character. When it was announced that he was returning for Series 10, I was not sure what he could add, but I will admit that I was wrong on that.

My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the air and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical reality has been changed forever. Sorry, I’ve always wanted to see that done properly.

The Twelfth Doctor

Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston are both exceptional in this story and certainly make this one of my personal favourite Christmas specials. Capaldi clearly revels in the opportunity to do some more explicit comedic scenes, such as the bigger on the inside scene, but he also delivers when it comes to the more heartfelt moments. The scene where River finally realises that the Doctor has been with her throughout this adventure is a perfect example of this; it is the perfect meeting of acting performances of both Kingston and Capaldi, Moffat’s writing and Douglas Mackinnon’s direction which never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Alex Kingston and River Song are strong enough to carry stories on their own, and River certainly shows that throughout this story. As she says in her grand speech to Flemming, she cannot just expect the Doctor to get her out of trouble every time, and proves that she is capable of acting in a similar capacity.

Verdict: The Husbands of River Song is a meeting of both a romp and heartfelt story, which allows both leads to shine. 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Alex Kingston (River Song), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Greg Davies (King Hydroflax), Philip Rhys (Ramon), Rowan Polonski (Flemming), Robert Curtis (Scratch), Anthony Cozens (Concierge), Chris Lew Kum Hoi (Alphonse), Nicolle Smartt (Receptionist), Liam Cook (King Hydroflax’s body) & Nonso Anozie (Voice of Hydroflax).

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Douglas Mackinnon

Producer: Nikki Wilson

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 25 December 2015

Behind the Scenes

• This Christmas special contains a number of firsts:
  • it is the first story in which both the Doctor and his companion are played by actors over the age of 50;
  • it is the first story in which she features that has Alex Kingston’s name in the opening credits;
  • it is the first episode not to feature Clara Oswald since The Angels Take Manhattan.
• This was meant to be the final story of Steven Moffat’s tenure as showrunner. However, Chris Chibnall was unable to take over at this point due to commitments to Series 3 of Broadchurch and Moffat stayed on to do Series 10.

Cast Notes

• Matt Lucas previously appeared in the Big Finish story The One Doctor, voicing the Cylinder and Jelloid.

Best Moment

It has to be the Doctor’s reaction to entering the TARDIS.

Best Quote

When you love the Doctor, it’s like loving the stars themselves. You don’t expect a sunset to admire you back. And if I happen to find myself in danger, let me tell you, the Doctor is not stupid enough, or sentimental enough, and he is certainly not in love enough to find himself standing in it with me! 

Hello, sweetie.

River Song and the Twelfth Doctor

Previous Twelfth Doctor review: Hell Bent

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