Madam Kovarian is the embodiment of everything that, for me, went sideways during the 11th Doctor’s run. The storyline dealing with the battle of Trenzalore, Amy’s pregnancy and the origin of River Song was vastly ambitious and never quite paid off. So much so in fact that I’d forgotten that we only ever saw Kovarian die in an alternate universe.

River Song, and her writers, did not forget.

This second collection of adventures with River sees a definitive and successful gear change take place. There’s one Doctor, the Fifth, and a clear narrative thru line. River wants revenge on Kovarian for everything she’s done. That revenge takes in 18th Century Vienna, the future of Death, the restaurant at the edge of your bank balance and other places.

The Lady in The Lake by Nev Fountain opens the set and is a strong contender for the best River audio drama so far. Cutting between audio logs from survivors of Demon’s Run and River arriving on Terminus Prime, a planet-sized ‘euthanasium’ it establishes a strong, skewed tone early and never lets it go. We enter the action in the middle, get context before the end and the story begins and ends in the same spot. It’s circular, elegant, bleak and hilarious. The central premise is magnificently horrible and Kingston is on top form. She also, in Kevin the ‘reaper’ – played with glorious northern aplomb by Ian Cunningham – gets her first true companion since Nardole. Kevin, chirpy, friendly, good at making people die, is a wonderful character and a highlight of the Song Diaries so far. Hopefully we’ll see him again soon, somehow.

A Requiem for the Doctor by Jac Rayner is a smaller, more complex affair. Newly arrived on the TARDIS, and struggling to deal with fellow companion Brooke, River and her friends are caught up in a series of mysterious deaths. Rayner tries three different things at once here: a Fifth Doctor story, a new companion and an arc plot story and they all land very well. Better still, the episode unfolds like a puzzle box, changing gear and tone multiple times. It’s arguably a model for how historical stories could be done, or subverted, in the future and again I hope we see more of this style and approach.

 

My Dinner With Andrew by John Dorney is a dead heat with The Lady In The Lake. Arriving at a massively expensive restaurant that exists outside space/time River finds herself dealing with the impossible, Kovarian, and the murder of the Doctor lifetimes before they meet. It’s an immensely playful, ambitious story that’s vastly ambitious and vastly successful. Charming, deeply eccentric and with one of my all time favourite narrative structures this is Doctor Who audio drama at its best.

 

The Furies by Matt Fitton rounds the set out. Face to face with Kovarian, River finds herself outnumbered and far from alone. The Furies are coming and River’s family are standing right in the way. This is the collapse point of this season’s arc and it does a lot of heavy lifting as a result. It creaks, a little, but the puzzle pieces all fit by the end of the episode and it ends on a surprising, even hopeful note.

Verdict: With excellent guest support, especially from Ian Cunningham as Kevin, Frances Barber as Kovarian and Francesca-Zoutewelle and Nina Toussaint-White as…more people than you might think, this is a vastly ambitious set that lands pretty much everything. It goes a long way towards redeeming an interminable plot, develops River even further and even gives the Fifth Doctor some new stuff to do. Weird, brilliant and gripping from start to finish. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart