I Went to a Marvellous Party

"Invitations from dead men always lead to trouble."

Writer: Justin Richards 

Format: Audio

Released: December 2015

Series: The Diary of River Song 1.02

Featuring: River

Synopsis 

River Song always enjoys a good party, even when she's not entirely sure where or when the party is taking place. But the party she ends up at is one where not everything - or indeed everyone - is what it seems...

Being River, it doesn't take her too long to go exploring, and it doesn't take her too long to get into trouble. The sort of trouble that involves manipulating other civilisations, exploitation, and of course murder.

River is confident she can find the killer. But can she identify them before anyone else - or quite possibly everyone else - gets killed?

Verdict 

I Went to a Marvellous Party was another excellent audio adventure to continue along the first series of The Diary of River Song in great fashion! This really was brilliant from start to finish and to be honest I expected know less once I learned that Justin Richards was the writer. He's a favourite writer of mine and although the title was intriguing and didn't really offer much as to what would happen, I just knew it'd be good. Alex Kingston was once again tremendous and I liked how the dynamic of this adventure was incredibly different to what we got in the first story of the boxset. There was a good reference to The Boundless Sea and I liked how River was thrown into completely different surroundings to what we got last time out. I've been mightily impressed with the boxset thus far and it's proving to be quite the steal as I think it was £16 I paid so at £4 a story, I can't complain. Especially when they've been as good as this so far! After the invitation she received towards the end of the last story, River was quick to turn up at the party of which the location and time period was kept secret. They, whoever they were, didn't want River to know much about where she was headed. All she got was the image of her destination. A spaceship. Quite a big one at that. The interior setting of the story was very good and I loved how there was a murder mystery. It seems a long time since I've done a murder mystery story but it's a premise that I adore and it was told to us here wonderfully well. There were a few twists and turns but the atmosphere was the thing I think I was most impressed with as it was just perfect for a murder mystery story - especially one in space! I like how we got to hear the murder of Jenkins take place prior to the opening titles hitting. Speaking of which, I failed to mention the opening titles in my blog entry yesterday so I think I'll talk about it here. I'm not overly keen on the theme to be honest as I don't think it will become recognisable which is something I think is very important for a theme of a new spinoff series. I hope it grows on me but for now I don't see it happening. It just seems a little too aggressive and powerful for this series. But it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Back to the story and I thought Spritz was a wonderful character. She had a superb backstory and I loved how River was doing all she could to help her deal with her problems in hiding on the ship, showing the influence the Doctor has had on her. She was disguised extremely well as a robot servant and she was just desperate for help, which she got from River. Just like in the first story, we had nice subtle references to the Doctor from River but when she was in the room that the air was being drained off, she made use of the respiratory bypass system that the Time Lord inside her is responsible for. That was something I didn't expect and pleased me greatly. The return of Bertie was something I didn't anticipate I must admit but I liked it very much. I thought it was good to keep his way of survival from the tomb a secret. The concept of the Rulers of the Universe are pretty daunting but also exciting at the same due to the power they must hold. River wasn't impressed though and after disarming the questionable time bomb, putting a stop to the Rulers control over specific planets, as well as solving the murder mystery, it was quite the positive trip for River Song. Until her husband showed up and she didn't recognise him. Overall, another excellent story with a great lead into the next adventure! 

Rating: 9/10