Set on
an Earth colony three thousand years into the future on which, naturally, it’s
Christmas Day, a case of mistaken identity leads The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) to
the bed-side of robot King Hydroflax (Greg Davies), who, rather unfortunately
for him, has a priceless diamond lodged in his brain. Giving a whole new
meaning to the term gold-digger, the King’s wife, half archaeologist half
burglar, turns out to be none other than River Song (Alex Kingston). Believing
her real husband to be out of regeneration cycles, (reasonably enough given
that the last time she saw him, he had indeed run out) she fails to recognise the man behind
the new face for the majority of the episode. Cue hilarity and high-jinks.
Definitely
a much lighter episode of Who than
we’ve seen all series, 'The Husbands of River Song' is never going to be lauded
as one of the better episodes of this year, but there’s certainly a case for it
being one of the better Christmas specials. It gave Capaldi the chance to flex
his comedy muscles once again after the tragic loss of Clara (Jenna Coleman) at the end of
Series 9, sharing the screen with The Doctor’s most accomplished verbal sparring
partner. Steven Moffat’s dialogue, was positively fizzing, with a particular
highlight being the moment The Doctor got to have a turn at the whole ‘it’s
bigger on the inside’ gig.
Despite
never being the biggest fan of River Song, even I enjoyed seeing her in a
welcome return to form as a self-proclaimed ‘archaeologist from the future.’ Whether
this really is the last we’ll see of her remains to be seen, although given the
obvious on-screen chemistry between her and Capaldi, I’d be very surprised if
that really was her final bow.
The two
had decent support from Greg Davies and Matt Lucas, although it was a shame the
latter wasn’t given more to do, so well did he slot into the Whoniverse.
Visually, there was plenty to look at as we went from a festive human colony,
to a luxury cruise ship for war criminals, to the famed Singing Towers of
Darillium, meeting a host of new and intriguing life forms en route. The whole
diamond heist plot wasn’t particularly inspiring, but in the Christmas context
that hardly seemed to matter.
The
narrative kept things simple yet entertaining, exactly what you need when
you’re approximately seven eighths full of turkey and roast potatoes.
On the
whole, it doesn’t seem these days that Doctor
Who can go far wrong. Bring on Series 10, we say.
Jen
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