The Furies

"I made you what you are."

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: January 2018
Series: The Diary of River Song 3.04

Featuring: River Song

Synopsis

Stories of the Furies abound across the cosmos: vengeful spirits hounding guilty souls to death. Madame Kovarian taught them to a child raised in fear, trained to kill, and placed inside a spacesuit.

Kovarian knows the universe's greatest threat, the Doctor must be eliminated. An assassin was created for that purpose.

But if Melody Pond has failed, Kovarian will simply have to try again...

Verdict

The Furies was a terrific conclusion to the third series of The Diary of River Song! It really has been a fantastic box set but I was a little surprised with how little River Song actually interacted with the Fifth Doctor, especially considering he featured in each story. But, that was absolutely fine and I don't think it's overly important because the overall story arc was really clever. This adventure really saw River Song go after Kovarian in a brilliant encounter and I think a story between these two without the Doctor actually featuring was a superb idea. They bounced off each other very well and they were hugely contrasting characters with a lot of similarities given their relationship. I thought it was brilliant that we heard River reflecting on some of her childhood toys, even though they weren't quite resemblant of traditional children's toys. Brooke returning home to greet her sisters was very intriguing and I found the disdain felt by some of her siblings hugely interesting. They didn't have names like Brooke because they hadn't been given their mission. Now they were questioning their very purpose as Brooke had succeeded in the ultimate mission by killing the Doctor. Kovarian's dreams were very good and I liked how she was still being haunted by the Doctor even after she thought he was dead. The likes of O, H-One and H-Two were fantastic characters and I liked how they all differed despite being experiments of the same DNA. The way River managed to gain the upper hand throughout the story was wonderful, given that she pretty much started things behind bars and on hugely bad terms with Brooke. That relationship soon changed drastically though and they soon got on good terms once the truth about Kovarian came out and the 'experiments' learned of their true nature. Seeing so clearly how they were trained assassins was very good but I also liked the difficulties of their inhibitors in being unable to kill Kovarian. They would hurt her through other means though. The Deterrent were pretty decent and their desire to serve the universe and maintain harmony was very good. They were after Kovarian but she was not having a surrender. The story of the Furies being a story told by Kovarian to the proto-Time Lords was excellent and I adored the revelation that they were actually placed their by River and her sisters using their Time Lord abilities, presumably in the form of contact. River's emotion in reminiscing how her childhood was stolen from her and her parents was really good and I liked how Amy and Rory were mentioned more than once. Kovarian going insane was good but I wish it occurred slightly more gradually. The Doctor's death couldn't be maintained and bringing that kind of destructive event into the universe, after it occurred in a place without time, was too much for causality to deal with. The Doctor's influence slowly dissipating was fantastic and I thought the way Brooke fixed things and saved the Doctor's life was superb, but slightly rushed. Andrew would befit the fate of the Doctor and I liked that Brooke told River she wouldn't be able to do it because of their relationship. It worked out very nicely. Overall, a really fitting conclusion to the series and I liked how the Doctor was still feeling the effects of the hallucinogenic lipstick and couldn't quite recall River's name when she briefly saw how he was in the TARDIS.

Rating: 8/10