Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Star-Crossed is an audio boxset that brings River Song in close quarters with the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, in a satisfying trilogy of clever stories by three very reliable writers for Big Finish Productions. Alex Kingston returns to the microphone as the mysterious and often mischievous Professor River Song, and as much in love with the Doctor as ever. Helen Goldwyn gets to return to the director’s chair for this one.
The first story is written by John Dorney and is entitled Swipe Right. As the title would suggest, it concerns a dating app that has gone very wrong. The guest cast is comprised of David Holt, Tom Neenan, Beth Chalmers, and Francesca Mills.
The Doctor and River Song are each separately investigating disappearances on the planet Crell. They discover a being known as the Matchmaker. The Doctor and River Song are already married, but not just yet from the Time Lord’s perspective. As expected, the fireworks are about to light up the stars.
Dorney once again delivers an interesting story that sort of reflects something that could be going on in today’s society. Of course, no one is being forced into online dating in the real world, but there are likely going to be some interesting problems with AI.
When the Doctor and River finally meet up, it’s about as amusing and volatile as hoped. Eccleston and Kingston hit all the right notes in their performance. The script has also plenty of Doctor Who‘s expected humor.
This first entry is a solid kickoff to the set.
Lizzy Hopley follows up quite ably with Face of the Apocalypse. Charlie Tighe, Paul Reynolds, and Nadia Albina join the audio antics with Eccleston and Kingston as the guest cast.
The plot here concerns River Song’s face is being used to bring about total destruction of space and time through a complex computer algorithm. The Doctor has to unravel the problem with the help of a legendary pair of star-crossed lovers. He and River Song meet a couple whose union could be even more fraught with discord than their own. In order to save the universe, the Doctor and River will have to engage in a bit of couples’ therapy.
This story took me a little more patience to feel fully engaged. It does get better, and my appreciation for Hopley’s contribution grew due to the continued chemistry between the two leads. There are some pretty good one-liners, especially when River Song needles the Doctor about her face being the key to the universe’s survival.
It is once again down to the talent and enthusiasm exhibited by Eccleston and Kingston when performing this episode.
Finally, the set concludes with Tim Foley’s Archipelago. John Banks and Trevor Cooper are the guest actors.
The Doctor and River Song aid a captain who is taking a dangerous voyage to find his lost partner. His ship is going through a field of massive time distortion, and the last of the Time Lords may be the last chance for this boat to make it through.
The Doctor and River finally find the adventure in which they will get to know each other deeper than River could ever hope. The Doctor also gets spoilers as to his future and understands more of the connection between himself and River.
This story is a little hard to picture in my own mind, but I loved the performances. River Song is playing a dangerous game with being in the Doctor’s past. There are some amazing callbacks to the television series.
The solution is neatly imagined, and the continuity of the series remains intact.
River Song is usually an exciting foil for the Doctor in any of his incarnations. Her encounter with the Ninth Doctor was better than I thought it would be.
It’s a great set overall. I think the last story is my favorite out of this collection. So, the Doctor travels on….and so does River Song.
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