An Unearthly Woman

"Outsiders sticking together, strength in numbers."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: August 2019

Series: Diary of River Song 6.01

Featuring: River, Susan, Ian, Barbara 

Synopsis

Coal Hill School has a new member of staff: an educated woman, who seems to specialise in every subject. Meanwhile, teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright have concerns over the behaviour of one of their pupils.

Susan Foreman is intrigued by Dr Song, but something else is stalking her in the darkness and fog of London, 1963...

Verdict

An Unearthly Woman was an excellent story to kick off the sixth series of The Diary of River Song! I can't quite believe that it's been three years since I listened to the fifth series but this was quite the opener. The idea of a prequel to An Unearthly Child is marvellous and actually having River Song employed as a supply teacher at Coal Hill School shortly after Susan started going there was just outstanding. Having River running around in the police kissogram of Amy's from The Eleventh Hour and A Christmas Carol was fantastic and it was so amusing to hear Barbara's reaction to Ian saying it suited her later in the episode. The contrast of River and the 1960s was magnificent! I liked how she was aiming to take over Totter's Lane and that familiar TARDIS hum was a glorious nugget of an effect to include. The dynamic of River being Susan's geography teacher was terrific and I liked how Susan was immediately questioning her on a 1970s slip of then tongue. Lloyd Walker was a strong character and it was nice to hear he was part of Miss Wright's form. River had some strong banter with Ian and the pair had a surprisingly great relationship that extended to the pub as the teachers gathered. Barbara questioning the oddity of a new student was fun and I liked the twist that it was actually in reference to Sheila rather than Susan as we knew from that very first episode. I was quite struck by the awkwardness of Susan playing at a playground and that was just such an alien environment for her, using physics for recreation when referring to a merry-go-round. Lloyd had clearly taken a liking to Susan which was nice and it was a sharp reminder of the 1963 setting that he was seen as an outsider for being black. It's frightening really to think of that being an attitude within living memory. Sheila encountering something alien in the form of the Nightstalker was good and I liked that River was tracking it. I know there kind of needed to be a threat, but I would much have preferred something less prominent and just explore River as a teacher at Coal Hill. It was fun for her to be Dr Song at school but then when with the police she was Miss Pond. The brief encounter between River and the First Doctor was truly wonderful and she recognised him immediately with a fun reaction of "oh no!" Susan knowing that River was not of this time too was brilliant and a fun example of her intelligence. The Nightstalker being exactly what it said on the tin and hunting after sunset was good and I quite liked the concept of it being an energy feeder. The irregularities of River's school references was amusing, but Mr Mitchell as the foster father to Sheila and Lloyd was not. He was a quite horrible man and I wasn't so disappointed to hear him ravaged by the Nightstalker after his treatment of the children. I loved River admiring Barbara's compassion for the children in her care and the mention of history being why she wanted to travel was a terrific foreshadowing of things to come. River needing to protect Ian and Barbara from seeing aliens before they stumbled into the TARDIS was fantastic and ought to have been mentioned earlier, but the threats continued as Sheila was the host of the Nightstalker with sunlight being poison but it could exit into the fog whilst she slept. The Nightstalker knowing of the Doctor and Susan and their vulnerability at this point in their chronology was fascinating! River using the vortex manipulator to kick it out of the dimension was a quick and swift fix, and it was nice to get that conclusion with River going to the TARDIS. Susan questioning how she knew of its name after claiming to have invented it was superb and it definitely had caught on! The little 'Doctor who?' line at the end with Susan pondering on her identity was excellent. Overall, a marvellous audio adventure! 

Rating: 9/10