The Talents of Greel

The Diary of River Song #6.4

Released: 27 August 2019

Listened: 2/22/22

This is another one from the River Song set where she jumped in right before, or during, some classic stories, in this case, the imminent “Talons of Weng-Chiang.” In this case, she pops up beforehand, and the Doctor doesn’t even figure, which is fine, because the Doctor has Jago and Litefoot to help in “Talons,” and River would just get in the way. That doesn’t mean she can’t tweak some things before the story starts, though. Specifically, she gets to meet up with Jago and perform at the Palace Theater, which allows her to push Greel’s plans back a bit. And along the way, explain some things about “Talons” that hadn’t been before, such as: Why is Greel’s lab beneath a theater? How did Greel get so messed up in the first place? What were Greel and Chang doing before coming to London? What happened to Chang’s monkey? Oh, did you not know that Chang had a monkey, who was more popular than Mr. Sin? That’s because he was invented for this story. Angus Wright does an awfully good job capturing the voice of Greel, returning to the role from “The Butcher of Brisbane,” and Nicholas Goh helps fix the racist casting from “Talons,” so that’s a good thing. Come for the references, but stick around for the River/Jago banter.