The Big Picture
- Doctor Who's River Song returns in 2024 in an audio drama by Big Finish Productions.
- Alex Kingston reprises her role and the series is named The Death and Life of River Song.
- Fans can pre-order Last Words , where River settles into her afterlife and gets a new body.
Professor River Song returns from the dead in 2024. That's according to a press release from Big Finish Productions. An audio drama has been announced featuring the time traveling archaeologist from the Doctor Who franchise after her supposed canonical death in 'Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.' Alex Kingston is set to reprise her role as River Song for the audio, as she's already done numerous times. The brand-new series is called The Death and Life of River Song.
When speaking on the "Women of Sci-Fi" panel hosted by Collider's Maggie Lovitt, Kingston was recently quoted at MegaCon in Orlando, FL expressing her interest in returning to Doctor Who. She says, "it was such a wonderful journey and the journey may still continue." Journey continued indeed, at least in audio format. According to Big Finish Productions, the first box set in the series is called Last Words, written by Robert Valentine. It begins with River Song settling into her afterlife in the Library's datacore, and then suddenly finds herself on Earth in a new body. "We are now so far advanced in the history of Earth that she is able to be brought out as data and put into a cloned body. So very, very clever," Kingston tells Big Finish.
We're All Just Stories in the End
CloseFans first met Professor River Song in the Doctor Who Season Four two-parter 'Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.' Seeing her death at the end of the second episode set off a catalyst of events causing her to meet The Doctor out of order. Kingston last appeared on-screen as River Song in the 2015 Christmas special 'The Husbands of River Song' alongside Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor.
The beloved character of River Song has endured across multiple media formats. Kingston only appeared in 15 episodes on screen of the longstanding sci-fi show, first alongside David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, then mainly Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor (who her character marries), and finally Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. She later reprised her role as River Song in the Big Finish audio series The Diary of River Song, which ran from 2015 to 2023. She has also appeared in numerous other Big Finish audio dramas outside that series, appearing alongside Doctors she both did and did not meet on screen.
For years, fans assumed Song's story was a closed loop, one that criss-crosses a bit (and one The Doctor even needs a flow chart to explain). While Big Finish Productions' audio dramas sit in a bit of a liminal space in Doctor Who canon, could this new lease on River Song's life mean a possible on-screen return? During the panel at MegaCon, Kingston says we may not have seen the last of River Song. Is this what she meant? Or could there be more to come? Could she be popping in on Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor?
The Death and Life of River Song: Last Words is now available for pre-order. The audio drama will be released in August 2024.
Doctor Who
The show follows the adventures of a Time Lord “The Doctor” who is able to regenerate, and the Doctor’s human friends. The Doctor and companion’s journey through time and space in the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box – saving the universe with a combination of wit, bravery, and kindness.
ncG1vNJzZmibn6G5qrDEq2Wcp51ksbCv06ipZq%2BYpHqztdWeqWarn6O0bq7IoGSfoZ6ewKl5wK6boqddmb%2BiucBo