Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Alex Kingston, Peter Davison, Frances Barber, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Sophia Carr-Gomm, Ian Conningham, Jonathan Coote, Julia Hills, Joanna Horton, Teddy Kempner, Rosanna Miles, Leighton Pugh, Nina Toussaint-White, Issy Van Randwyck, Francesca Zoutewelle.
What a Time it was and a time we had, but ultimately if you are not prepared to concentrate on all that time can offer, then it is likely to take advantage of you and send your mind to a place where it is reeling, unsure of what just happened, floundering at the prospect of how to respond, and watching inertly as the flow of Time passes you by.
Time and money have a lot in common, spend it wisely and it will leave you fulfilled, squander it, be frivolous with its purpose, and it will bite down hard on you, leave you in a tangle that fractures over and over again until you reach a point of panic, despair, and misery. It is to both of these entities that the third series of adventures involving the Doctor’s wife, River Song has been found to have in abundance, but one that brings back a dangerous foe, the fifth incarnation of the Doctor, and unexpectedly, the finished results of an experiment that nearly brought the whole of creation to a bitter and damaging end.
It is arguably in the penultimate episode of the series, My Dinner With Andrew by John Dorney, that the whole piece lives and breathes its timing, its comic potential, the set up that wouldn’t be out of place in any film with a plot heist at its centre, and the re-introduction of the sinister Madame Kovarian from the television episodes which featured The Battle of Demon’s Run, and main antagonist from the 11th series to the Doctor Who mythos. It is a dream of an episode and brings out the absolute best in the three others that make up series three of the audio drama The Diary Of River Song.
With subtle and excellent performances by Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian, Nina Toussaint-White as Brooke 2 and Jonathan Coote as the Maitre D, and of course the delight in the voice of Alex Kingston in her continuous starring role, the episodes of The Lady in the Lake, A Requiem for The Doctor, My Dinner With Andrew and The Furies are ones that exemplify the art of listening, of the joy of truly immersing yourself into the narrative with absolute concentration.
For the pay-off of Time and money is that it come from being prepared, to hold it as a valuable resource, for you never know when you have found you have spent your last penny chasing but a single minute.
The Diary Of River Song remains a riveting experience.
Ian D. Hall