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beccaelizabethThree adventures with 10 and River, and an appearance from 5 and a couple lines from others.
I loved the first two episodes, and I liked the third one, I just spent much of the story ahead of the Doctor for reasons that were explained in character.
The basic premise is that, unlike the other Big Finish River Song adventures, this is the first time the Doctor can actually remember River, so they have to start building their relationship.
Expiry Dating is so much fun. River calls the Doctor in to go do a thing with a vault. But the Doctor is not anyone's errand boy and will go so very very much the long way around rather than actually go to the vault. So they keep on dancing around each other. And then the Doctor starts to remember how long this dance has been going on... which as per other Big Finish turns out to be all his lives. And he is *not amused*. He gets to tell River off for catfishing him.
(She says he might not have the right definition of catfishing.)
But this is River at her most manipulative and dodgy looking, in all the minutes and messages the Doctor gets, though the listener hears her be more honest and then decide it is still too early and start the letter again. It is fun hearing her sweep the Doctor off his feet over and over, but she also uses him, even if it is for things he ends up agreeing with many lifetimes later. So she needs told off, and this is the first time he'll remember that.
What she did to Five is unpleasant, even though it is hilarious to imagine Tegan having to give him a firm talk about how River just is not that into him. River's boundaries need work. And Ten gets to tell her so, which is a good beginning.
I like how it worked out in the end. The Doctor working so hard to figure River out and still she surprises him.
Precious Annihilation is a lot of running around and working together, beginning to see how that works, but the compare contrast on the married couple in the story gets uncomfortable. The Doctor knows how it ends for River now, she dies for him, so the story lining that up against a woman who got murdered by her husband to stop her leaving... uncomfy. Interesting. And then they find the digital copy of the murder victim and River gets to express an opinion on living like that, without knowing what the Doctor knows. It's a good chewy set of character moments woven in to running around looking for exploding gems. And there's another set of layers about pre emptive strikes, precautions, predictions, that I shall think more about later. Good stuff.
Ghosts was good but to me not the strongest of the set. I felt like the story didnt leave itself many places to go from the beginning, since we know that time can be rewritten but not by Big Finish so that closes one set of possible, and the Doctor is pretty emphatic about ghosts not being real so that closes another. So then I had thought of something the Doctor hadn't thought of, and had that spook story apprehension of waiting for the characters to catch up. Spoilers: They are the ghosts. Or holograms based on a memory scan. And we know why their originals did it, but it is River who points out to the Doctor that the copies wont just end, they'll die. As they do, at the end of the story. We get some comparisons with the other characters again, an older couple who don't want to live without each other, and we get resonance with River's fate. The Doctor wants to tell her, but the story doesn't quite give him time. Repeating motif, Doctor and River Song.
The third story made me think, these two together are the very beginnings of their relationship, but they cannot progress much because we know how Eleven was. There's things the Doctor wants to say but time says he cannot. There's things that River wants to say but time says she did not, yet, or rather that she already said them for the last time. It puts them in this weird space that makes a ghost story entirely resonant with their feelings. But neither of them can tell the other why, yet.
So they're strong stories, but I feel like they also mapped the edges of why it's very difficult to fit much story in this time. There's no more reset button to smooth or excuse things, now they have to deal with them, but we know they don't get very far yet.
Tricky, but well handled here.
I loved the first two episodes, and I liked the third one, I just spent much of the story ahead of the Doctor for reasons that were explained in character.
The basic premise is that, unlike the other Big Finish River Song adventures, this is the first time the Doctor can actually remember River, so they have to start building their relationship.
Expiry Dating is so much fun. River calls the Doctor in to go do a thing with a vault. But the Doctor is not anyone's errand boy and will go so very very much the long way around rather than actually go to the vault. So they keep on dancing around each other. And then the Doctor starts to remember how long this dance has been going on... which as per other Big Finish turns out to be all his lives. And he is *not amused*. He gets to tell River off for catfishing him.
(She says he might not have the right definition of catfishing.)
But this is River at her most manipulative and dodgy looking, in all the minutes and messages the Doctor gets, though the listener hears her be more honest and then decide it is still too early and start the letter again. It is fun hearing her sweep the Doctor off his feet over and over, but she also uses him, even if it is for things he ends up agreeing with many lifetimes later. So she needs told off, and this is the first time he'll remember that.
What she did to Five is unpleasant, even though it is hilarious to imagine Tegan having to give him a firm talk about how River just is not that into him. River's boundaries need work. And Ten gets to tell her so, which is a good beginning.
I like how it worked out in the end. The Doctor working so hard to figure River out and still she surprises him.
Precious Annihilation is a lot of running around and working together, beginning to see how that works, but the compare contrast on the married couple in the story gets uncomfortable. The Doctor knows how it ends for River now, she dies for him, so the story lining that up against a woman who got murdered by her husband to stop her leaving... uncomfy. Interesting. And then they find the digital copy of the murder victim and River gets to express an opinion on living like that, without knowing what the Doctor knows. It's a good chewy set of character moments woven in to running around looking for exploding gems. And there's another set of layers about pre emptive strikes, precautions, predictions, that I shall think more about later. Good stuff.
Ghosts was good but to me not the strongest of the set. I felt like the story didnt leave itself many places to go from the beginning, since we know that time can be rewritten but not by Big Finish so that closes one set of possible, and the Doctor is pretty emphatic about ghosts not being real so that closes another. So then I had thought of something the Doctor hadn't thought of, and had that spook story apprehension of waiting for the characters to catch up. Spoilers: They are the ghosts. Or holograms based on a memory scan. And we know why their originals did it, but it is River who points out to the Doctor that the copies wont just end, they'll die. As they do, at the end of the story. We get some comparisons with the other characters again, an older couple who don't want to live without each other, and we get resonance with River's fate. The Doctor wants to tell her, but the story doesn't quite give him time. Repeating motif, Doctor and River Song.
The third story made me think, these two together are the very beginnings of their relationship, but they cannot progress much because we know how Eleven was. There's things the Doctor wants to say but time says he cannot. There's things that River wants to say but time says she did not, yet, or rather that she already said them for the last time. It puts them in this weird space that makes a ghost story entirely resonant with their feelings. But neither of them can tell the other why, yet.
So they're strong stories, but I feel like they also mapped the edges of why it's very difficult to fit much story in this time. There's no more reset button to smooth or excuse things, now they have to deal with them, but we know they don't get very far yet.
Tricky, but well handled here.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-12 02:13 pm (UTC)Ahhh I love River. The thing with the letter sounds perfect.