A Brave New World

"You're using too much oxygen."

Writer: Tracy Ann Baines

Format: Audio

Released: January 2021

Series: Diary of River Song 8.02

Featuring: River Song 

Synopsis 

Rache has made a choice and joins a new society at the start of its journey. But she has not bargained for the worst instincts of humanity. 

After leaving her ward behind, can River make it back in time to save her?

Verdict 

A Brave New World was a great story to continue my way through the eighth series of The Diary of River Song! This was a vast improvement on the Slight Glimpses of Tomorrow opener, but I did like the continuity with that episode in having the colonist ship named as the Armis 20 and a neat reference to the star map. River and Rachel were thought of as stowaways and proclaiming that they’d be disposed of was a fine way to lead into the opening credits as well as introducing Bryson. Captain Linos spared their blushes and River didn’t waste any time in pouncing on her opportunity and rather humorously put Bryson in the cell instead! That was River at her best. I was intrigued that Rachel was welcomed on the ship due to the fact she was synthetic, but it did seem a little quick for her to feel a sense of responsibility and wanting to stay on the colony ship. She had a connection with Armis of course and this was her legacy but it did catch me a little off guard. Aaron talking of a shift lasting a lifetime on the colony ship was dark but showed the sacrifice needed to preserve the future of the race. Some were needed to perform manual tasks! Linos clearly had something in the works for Rachel as her tone immediately sensed an opportunity with her. River having left Rachel behind meant she could catch up with the Doctor in some fun short bursts of scenes. The Doctor was turning the TARDIS swimming pool into a sauna where she’d join him and I also liked how she’d had enough of war and made reference to the name Doctor being a touchy subject in a first encounter with the War Doctor! She also met the Ninth Doctor for dinner which was fun whilst doing battle with some robots alongside the Eleventh Doctor shortly after! Linos and Bryson thinking less of Aaron was a little bit of a shame and the confirmation of the voyage having no route back set into motion their plan for Rachel. She was put to work on the ship rather literally as she was plugged in whilst they went into stasis in a selfish bid to save their own lives. Rachel eventually remembering River and who she was thanks to a water reference was a nice touch. The cameo appearance of the Tenth Doctor voiced by David Tennant himself was a wonderful surprise! He and River were chasing a demon and we got a cheeky comment about fezzes but then she received the distress call from Rachel and had to leave him to it! A wonderful scene. I was glad River kept to her word. The revelation that Rachel had been a slave for 497 years was rather shocking and it was nice that Aaron had wanted to protect her. The fact she still put the colonists firsts was admirable and the threat of electric eels was actually a lot better than it sounded. River waking up Bryson and Linos to threaten them with being shot was excellent and I liked that she went ahead to the planet alongside Rachel and Aaron. The latter repairing the eye of the former was nice and their relationship was wonderful to hear throughout. The eels killing Bryson was a little surprising and I really enjoyed the concept behind them in technically always being dead. They were bacteria with an electrical charge which was a fun concept and they were the result of Aaron’s experiment going unchecked for nearly half a millennium! They’d mutated over the years and this wouldn’t have happened if Linos had kept him around to check on the progress. The moment where the computer didn’t comply with the instructions of Linos was superb and it was clear she had lost right there. It didn’t recognise Aaron’s supposed mutiny and the action packed conclusion that came with Rachel being disrupted by the electromagnetic field was great. The moments shared on the new colonised planet with Aaron proclaiming his love for Rachel were lovely and she was just super nice in not wanting Linos punished. Overall, a great listen!

Rating: 8/10