Friend of the Family: The Bird from the Nest

"He couldn't be himself."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: January 2023

Series: Diary of River Song 11.03

Featuring: River

Synopsis

River Song decides to investigate a temporal anomaly after a Luna University expedition makes some odd discoveries in an old Earth house – pages of her own diary with an inscrutable riddle written across them.

However, her investigation goes badly wrong when she is transported back into the past of the house and gets trapped within its grounds.

The house is the home of the Mortimers and with a limited ability to travel back and forth in time across eighty years and multiple generations she finds herself witnessing key moments in their family history.

If she wants to escape, the words in her diary are not the only riddle she has to solve. But not everyone in the house will survive what's coming. And not everyone is on her side.

Verdict 

The Bird from the Nest was another very strong episode to continue my way through the Friend of the Family eleventh series of The Diary of River Song! This really did feel like it moved the story along nicely with quite a few answers regarding the situation River has found herself in. I think it was good to explain how she came to be able to call herself from her own personal future in the past (yes that is a fun little quirk that almost becomes a head scratcher if you think about it too much) and the use of the echo gun in order to get River into the past from Hugo was very good. It's always fun to play around with time and I usually enjoy adventures that do that, so the little twist of River calling from 1963 when she has only been able to visit 1962 was terrific. That meant she would have to play the long game and wait around for at least a few months and that wasn't something she was exactly willing to do. But knowing that she was conversing with her future self, she didn't have any other choice! I thought the focus on George Mortimer was really impressive and him being in the 1960s meant it was rather troubling for him given his sexual orientation. I liked how he was discussing that subtly with his wife as she was also talking about similar feelings that couldn't quite be resolved or answered. The way Harry and Vinay were helping River in 2014 by tracking the past through the diary was good and it was clear that he was talking about being gay but it was the 1960s and that meant he couldn't be open about it. It's scary to think there are people who were adults at that time and still around now in how close that attitude was to today. It's a horrifying thought! I thought the revelation regarding the cook and Hugo was extraordinary and really not something I saw coming. That was quite audacious to say the least when it comes to time, but it certainly explains why she could see Hugo the entire time! She was him! I didn't see that coming and I really ought to with how the foundations were laid. He could go incognito and could take any form. In hindsight it all seems so simple and obvious! But here we are. Hugo taking the form of the cook because him appearing out of nowhere in 1936 and causing her to have a heart attack is just incredible and in order to keep history on track he had to stick around for nearly a century in the guise of another! It's no wonder he grew to resent River Song, although that does feel a tad harsh as far as she's concerned. I thought the way River got to solve the riddle of the titular bird in the nest was impressive and her reaction and urgency when she heard how Thomas was dressed up as an ostrich was marvellous. He was being swarmed by wasps and he was allergic as well which was particularly worrying. Kudos must go to the wasp sound effect in the headphones when listening because crikey they're annoying! That bloody buzzing was relentless but I'm glad it served a purpose. She was though able to transport him to the future and use an epipen to save him which was clever! I thought that was a good way to solve that and Harry rewarded her with the key to the locked door that has been so mysterious and enigmatic across this series. He instructed River to go to 1936 to use it but there she was met with a threat from a troubled Henry who seemed to shoot at her believing she was having an affair with his Maddie! That is not the cliffhanger I was expecting but it was certainly a shocker to lead into the finale. I'm excited and very intrigued to hear how things finish from here. Overall, another great listen! 

Rating: 8/10