This December will mark 10 years since Alex Kingston last played River Song on Doctor Who. I should clarify, though, that I’m talking about the TV show, which nowadays is streaming internationally with a Disney+ subscription. In the years since “The Husbands of River Song,” Kingston has reprised The Doctor’s wife numerous times in Doctor Who audio stories from Big Finish Productions. It’s through such projects that she’s come up with an idea for River and other companions of The Doctor to come together, and this would be great to see.
Kingston was in attendance for a companion-centric Doctor Who panel at MegaCon in Orlando, Florida that was moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt and also included actors Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Freeman Agyeman (Martha Jones), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) and Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan). The actress discussed her extensive experience on Big Finish Doctor Who productions, most notably through in the Diary of River Song series, and how the team she works with over there “like family now, actually.” Then she suggested the following:
I was just thinking it would be so great to, you know... do a sort of like a story with all of you, with the companions.
The panel’s audience was receptive to this idea, and I join them in wanting this to happen. These audio productions are great for Doctor Who fans craving content to enjoy beyond the TV show, whether they want for more adventures centered around the many incarnations of the adventuring Time Lord, or other spinoffs following characters or groups like UNIT, the Paternoster Gang, Jack Harkness and even The Master. But I especially like the idea of getting as many companions together for a Big Finish series where they team up to battle the forces of evil sans Doctor.
Alex Kingston’s suggestion comes a few weeks ahead of the next installment in her latest Big Finish Audio series, The Life and Death of River Song, being released. This series follows a post-“Forest of the Dead” River whose consciousness from The Library is downloaded into a clone body,. This is the version of the character I’d want to lead this companion-heavy adventure.
Because of her out of order, timey wimey relationship with The Doctor, this is the River furthest along in her personal timeline. Meaning, she has the most experience and deserves more time to shine, as we only ever reunited with her on TV once, in 2013’s “The Name of The Doctor.”
It’s hard to say if River will ever meet any of the post-Twelfth Doctor incarnations (though showrunner Russell T. Davies at least sounds amenable to her coming back), but it’d be great if this companion story could become a reality. The next installment of The Life and Death of River Song is already dong this on a small scale by bringing in Janet Fielding’s Tegan Jovanka and Sophie Aldred’s Ace, who were perviously paired together in 2022’s “The Power of The Doctor,” so let’s just expand the scope.
Also, with the exception of Jenna Coleman, all the other actors at the MegaCon have done Doctor Who audio productions. I imagine that they’d be game to work on a project like this if the story is creative enough. Maybe this could mark Coleman’s debut in the Big Finish space, as I’d certainly welcome seeing Clara Oswald again too.
As for Doctor Who the show, its next season doesn’t have a premiere date set on the 2025 TV schedule yet, but Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor will spend more time with Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday and meet new companion Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu.
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