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May 4th, 2018 43 comments

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Big Finish The Diary of River Song Volume 5

Available to order from www.bigfinish.com

The Bekdel Test by Jonathan Morris

Animal Instinct by Roy Gill

The Lifeboat and the Deathboat by Eddie Robson

Concealed Weapon by Scott Handcock

Story details to follow soon

Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Alex Kingston (River Song), Geoffrey Beevers (The Master), Eric Roberts (The Master), Derek Jacobi (The Master), Michelle Gomez (Missy)

More cast details soon.

Producer David Richardson
Script Editors Matt Fitton, John Dorney
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

It’s River Song versus the Masters! Michelle Gomez returns as Missy and Eric Roberts reprises his portrayal of the Master after a 22 year hiatus in the fifth series of The Diary of River Song.

Over the course of four audio series made in arrangement with BBC Studios, River Song (played masterfully by Alex Kingston) has shone alongside several incarnations of the Doctor, including Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison and upcoming in August, Tom Baker. But all that is set to change…

In January 2019, River Song will face off against four regenerations of The Master, the mortal enemy of the Doctor, in the fifth series of adventures. And some old (and new) faces are returning…

Alongside Geoffrey Beevers (first playing the Master in Doctor Who TV episode The Keeper of Traken in 1981) and Derek Jacobi (who played the Master in 2008 episode Utopia and continues at Big Finish), Michelle Gomez returns as Missy, who we last saw in the latest Doctor Who series opposite Peter Capaldi.

Plus Eric Roberts, who first crossed paths with Paul McGann’s Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, returns to battle the Doctor’s wife.

Mark your diaries, four new adventures for River Song begin in January 2019…


Categorised under: Big Finish, CD, Featured, spin-offs

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43 comments

  • toptimelord

    May 15th, 2018 - 11:22am

    River Song and The Master’s! This sounds fantastic! But why could it not have been on telly!

    Reply
  • Tyler P

    May 10th, 2018 - 3:38pm

    I really like how, in the show, they say “we keep meeting, but in the wrong order” and you assume this is how 10 met River first, then 11, then 12 and River met them 11, 12, 10, but then the audio dramas re-interpret this as River meeting them going backwards down his entire timeline – 11, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4…

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 13th, 2018 - 4:50am

      11, 12, 8, 6, 7, 5, 4, 10

    • Anonymous

      May 13th, 2018 - 10:22am

      We don’t really know when she first meets Ten in her timeline, do we?

    • R1ch1e

      May 13th, 2018 - 12:36pm

      She dies after meeting 10 doesn’t she?

    • Anonymous

      May 13th, 2018 - 1:40pm

      They met multiple times.

    • Anonymous

      May 13th, 2018 - 1:49pm

      I’d say from their interactions in ‘The Time of Angels’ that although he doesn’t know River as well as he will in series 6, he’s met her multiple times before – Amy hasn’t met her so either in his first TARDIS trip in the Eleventh Hour, before he returns to collect her, or as the 10th Doctor. I’d also say that River expects the 10th Doctor to recognise her in Silence in the Library, suggesting that she’s had adventures with him before. She hasn’t met Donna so these adventures must take place for him during the specials year. I’d say that’s definitely something for Big Finish to mine when they can get Tennant in on a more regular basis.

    • whovian

      May 18th, 2018 - 8:47am

      When River meets Ten, she has heard of Donna, but has it been established in the audios when she actually does hear about her? I dont listen to the audios as i cant concentrate on media like that.

    • DoctorSong2016

      May 18th, 2018 - 9:23am

      The picnic at Asgard was originally supposed to be with Ten, but then a writer asked if they could do it with the Eleventh Doctor for that River Song prose anthology.

      I think she meets them in this order:

      Eleven
      Ten? (All we know is that from her point of view, she’s met him before she met Eight and has at least had one adventure with him prior to Silence in the Library)
      Five
      Six
      Seven
      Eight
      Twelve

  • Anonymous

    May 7th, 2018 - 12:36pm

    Why is the bbc logo so big now

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 12:36pm

      It’s actually bigger than the big finish logo

    • whofan36

      May 7th, 2018 - 2:51pm

      It really bothers me as it feels like the BBC are trying to take credit for the work Big Finish have done.

    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 3:52pm

      Big finish only exist due to to the BBC original programmes. Doctor who is BBC not big finish.

    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 6:29pm

      Yep bbc prog so why not a big bbc logo?

    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 10:52pm

      Yeah but
      Really does it need to be that big
      I mean put it there
      But big finish need more credit it’s there stuff from a bbc show
      Art before the creator

    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 10:52pm

      Also the bbc logo is taller than the doctor who logo,

    • Anonymous

      May 7th, 2018 - 11:40pm

      I’d say it’s pretty clear from its position that it’s referring to the fact that Doctor Who is a BBC property, but I can see what you mean. I suspect the reason is that any other arrangement either makes the BBC logo illegibly small, or looks silly, whereas here the text “BBC Doctor Who” flows as one statement.

  • Harold Saxon

    May 5th, 2018 - 10:07pm

    I wonder where in Roberts master timeline this took place as one screen he only had a short timeline !

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 6th, 2018 - 11:13am

      Eh.

    • DoctorSong2016

      May 6th, 2018 - 1:54pm

      I guess it’s either during the events of the movie or they’re retconning him into having a longer existence.

    • Phillip

      May 6th, 2018 - 8:25pm

      He was in the 8th Doctors Tardis, no reason he couldn’t have darted off for a lifetime and then came back a split second later:)

    • Philip

      May 7th, 2018 - 3:26pm

      The 8th Drs TARDIS was stuck so the Master was going nowhere, probably scooped up by Rassilons triangle, or hitched a lift from a passing Vogan ship !

  • TORCHWOODFAN1

    May 5th, 2018 - 9:02pm

    Are the Shakri from the Power of Three in one of these stories, as the cover is littered with Cubes?

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 6th, 2018 - 2:10am

      Possibly,but they could be time Lord memory cubes

  • Phillip

    May 5th, 2018 - 3:23pm

    Day one.

    Reply
  • Harold Saxon

    May 5th, 2018 - 1:38pm

    Might have been too many if they had used 7 masters in this production !

    Reply
  • Harold Saxon

    May 5th, 2018 - 1:30pm

    Is the james Dreyfus master before delagado?

    Reply
    • Doctorfan

      May 5th, 2018 - 2:21pm

      yes the james dreyfus master is the very 1st incarnation

  • Harold Saxon

    May 5th, 2018 - 9:20am

    That’s fabulous ! Only 2 masters missing McQueen & Simm and you have all living masters on it ! This is gonna be a blast ! I don’t know a story where river song met any masters !

    Reply
    • whofan36

      May 5th, 2018 - 12:03pm

      You forgot James Dreyfus

  • Philip

    May 5th, 2018 - 8:29am

    Lets hope Eric Roberts has DREZZZED for the occasion !

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    May 4th, 2018 - 9:47pm

    So have and got Capaldi licence yet
    I just want them to get the whole era and have no boundaries

    Reply
    • VeryFactualDalek

      May 4th, 2018 - 10:24pm

      They got the Capaldi license ages ago they just don’t have any huge plans and Capaldi wants to take a break for a while

    • DoctorSong2016

      May 5th, 2018 - 9:15am

      Technically they’ve already got the licence for the Jodie era too, they’re just not allowed to use it until she’s gone, because I think how it works now is that there’s a Licence for stuff that’s no longer onscreen and then a licence for what is currently on screen, so they got use of Capaldi after Twice Upon a Time aired.

    • booboo

      May 5th, 2018 - 9:22am

      and of course its only of use if Peter Capaldi wants to do them if you want the actual actor in the part

    • Harold Saxon

      May 5th, 2018 - 1:28pm

      Wonder what will happen with simm or if he will return on screen again ? Or to big finish audio ?

  • Anonymous

    May 4th, 2018 - 9:46pm

    I honestly loved the two masters and WEAT and TDF
    Best parts where the masters interacting
    Will be buying for that again, nothing beat a multi master story
    Only where is McQueen,

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 5th, 2018 - 3:31am

      I imagine they are trying to encourage many tv-exclusive fans to buy this, adding in an external media-only version of incarnation may be even more confusing.

  • Doctorfan

    May 4th, 2018 - 6:01pm

    i hope one of the stories includes all 4 masters, missy better make comments on beevers master’s appearence and robert’s master’s creepy eyes

    Reply
  • Gordon

    May 4th, 2018 - 1:03pm

    It’s amazing they got Eric Roberts back. Hopefully they can get him to a rematch with Paul McGann at some point

    Reply
    • VeryFactualDalek

      May 9th, 2018 - 4:26am

      They have no plans currently but will see how this boxset does and if Eric wants to do more

  • Pip

    May 4th, 2018 - 11:09am

    River vs Missy… Would have liked to have seen that in screen, what a story that would be! Both of them loving the Doctor in their own unique way, one who tried to kill him but changed and one who is still struggling over whether to kill him or not.

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    May 4th, 2018 - 9:07am

    Big Finish are brilliant at producing stories like this this that, for all sorts of reasons, could never be done on T.V. This line up is a thing of dreams. On top of the amazing ideas, they are not half bad at producing amazing scripts either.

    Reply

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