Suspicious Minds

"I explained to Elvis that his life would soon be over."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner
Format: Short Story
Released: February 2016
Printed in: The Legends of River Song 02

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, River Song

Synopsis

"Hello, sweetie!"

Melody Pond, Melody Malone, River Song... She has had many names. Whoever she really is, this archaeologist and time traveller has had more adventures (and got into more trouble) than most people in the universe.

And she's written a lot of it down. Well, when you're married to a Time Lord (or possibly not), you have to keep track of what you did and when. Especially as it may not actually have happened to both of you yet.

These are just a few of River Song's exploits, extracted from her journals. Sometimes, she is with the Doctor. Sometimes she's on her own. But wherever and whenever she may be, she is never far from danger and excitement.

This is just a tiny portion of her impossible life. But it will reveal more than you've ever known about the legend that is River Song.

Verdict

Suspicious Minds was an excellent continuation of The Legends of River Song! This really was quite spectacular from start to finish and a great story from one of my favoured writers in Jacqueline Rayner. Any story that links Terror of the Autons and Rose with an Auton disguised as Elvis hiding out in Madame Tussauds is going to be barmy and right up my alley, and that is precisely what occurred with this adventure. It was quite magnificent. River's arrival in the 1970s was terrific as she was hoping to get in on the events of The Three Doctors and see the fallout of three incarnations of her husband being together. I thought that was tremendous and it immediately had my attention. Her disappointment that it had all taken place in an anti-universe and the first incarnation was barely around was great too. It really was a brilliant starting point. Her developing a relationship with Elvis the Auton was quite something but I've come to expect the unexpected with River. It was just ludicrous but why wouldn't River get funky with an Auton? She's pretty mad herself. The way she revealed herself to the Doctor was fantastic and the humour that came with her impersonating Elizabeth I at the wax museum was brilliant. The Doctor wasn't overly sure about having his current wife pretending to be his previous wife! I liked that a lot. I was very impressed with the characterisation of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor throughout and I think it is so important to capture his personality, especially when River Song is around. Their relationship is so unique but it was presented very well here and made for wonderful reading. The Doctor foreshadowing the events of Rose and warning Elvis of the impending return of the Nestene Consciousness was superb. I was surprised that he didn't take the Doctor's offer of salvation up and instead he was going to face the challenge alone and self-destruct before the arrival. That was courageous, but before he left the world he had come to love he wanted to see the most beautiful place on it. To him, that was the meadows that everybody was talking about and so the Doctor found just the meadows. It was an insect salvation which was initially a strange twist in mood for the story which I didn't expect with it only being forty pages long. I was sceptical but I needn't have been because we were provided with further brilliance. The Doctor questioning Melissa's every word in her speech was wonderful and she quickly grew to dislike the dung beetle investigators. The revelation regarding the 206 fertiliser was incredibly grim and I was shocked to find out that she was using those who didn't see things her way as fertiliser. Death was creating life in a vicious cycle. The sequence where River struggled to hold on was fantastic and I loved how it was her lack of caring that the Doctor was gone that brought her back around to normality. Even the Doctor was struggling. Elvis being the one to tackle the hornets and restart the forcefield worked brilliantly, especially as it would be him staying behind the forcefield and continuing the good work that would aid human life that meant the Nestene wouldn't regain control over him. His lack of comprehension as to why Melissa was killing other when she was trying to help life was also excellent. River didn't try and explain the greater good, but he was doing very good indeed. Overall, a terrific short story!

Rating: 9/10