Incursions: The Power of River Song Part 2

"If there's one thing I excel at, it's destroying things beautifully."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: April 2019

Series: UNIT 8.03

Featuring: Kate, Osgood, River Song

Synopsis

There's a dead body in the power station. River Song is the prime suspect. And Kate is most concerned by the identity of the victim.

Meanwhile, Sam and Jacqui chase Vikings, while Osgood finds herself out of time. As deadly predators focus their attention on Earth, it seems activating the power of River Song could spell the end of everything...

Verdict

The Power of River Song concluded in a strong way and a second part that I thought was definitely improved on the first. As a whole this made for a good two-part finale and it's lovely to have UNIT and River Song encounter each other here. It's a brilliant pair off and I think she'd fit right in with the organisation. It started well with Kate having a divergence that I didn't expect to be reminiscent of The Vanquishers and the Thirteenth Doctor, and having her talk to herself and try and reason with other versions of herself was a lot of fun. Kate was adamant though that she needed to stick to the rules and that meant she would have to die. Osgood's trepidation from the previous part's cliffhanger being saved by the real River Song was good, although I was far from surprised to get confirmation that the River we heard see Osgood from afar was the real article whilst the one that wanted to eat Osgood was far from it. Sam and Jacqui had a good and fun relationship and I thought it was amusing that the latter was annoyed that what she was experiencing was an unpublishable story. Who would believe they encountered dinosaurs and Vikings? River revealing the enemies of the story and the identity behind her fake self was the Battle Queen of the Wampeerix was decent and I liked that they copied the appearance of the dominant form of life on a planet to infiltrate. River liked being dominant which was a fun line. They were going to use the array to actually drain the natural resources and take power rather than provide it. The Wampeerix having taken River's vortex manipulator and gaining access to time travel was good and I liked their plan of destroying Earth time and time again across different time zones. Kate taking Josh into her own divergence was fun and I enjoyed the revelation that the ruptures causing natural disasters was the potential fallout of the paradox that ensued. The Wampeerix were in the '70s, present day and also in 2091 which seemed quite the time range! It allowed them access to a massive population boost too. River revealing that she had know the Brigadier was terrific and I really need to hear that meeting now! She had a strong relationship with Osgood here which was a delight to listen to, and their venture to the exosphere and to the array was really well done. I liked how it needed to channel the planet's energy to take the power. The Vikings being willing to work alongside Sam and Jacqui was terrific and I liked that they wanted to take on the dinosaur and get home. The resolution being to aim for the transformer relay of the array seemed a little easy, but Kate using Wampeerix tech to get Osgood and River out was brilliant, especially when Osgood calmly revealed she'd stepped too far and was falling 100km! That was exciting, so of course River jumped after her. Kate being prepared to die was very powerful and she knew the paradox would all stop if she met her end. River and Osgood were having none of that as they teleported at the death to give a drug to the Wampeerix and send them packing with them being in human form and avert Kate's death. It was a little bit easy given the complications of the story, but it tied up well to act as a strong finale! Overall, another brilliant UNIT boxset.

Rating: 8/10