The Power of River Song

UNIT #8.3 & 8.4

Released: 30 April 2019

Listened: 4/22/23

This was pretty much inevitable. River has worked with 1970s UNIT, so why not modern UNIT? Except in River fashion, she’s trying to keep her identity hidden, especially because Kate probably has records of who she is. Also in River fashion, she enjoys being enigmatic and irritating at the same time. Kate’s snark level is turned all the way up, which seems a bit unusual, although it’s mentioned several times that she hasn’t slept in days. Plus, early events of the story put her even more on edge. Somehow, River seems to have gotten herself put in charge of a microwave solar power transmission project, which is exactly the thing that would solve the UK’s power problems, if it actually works. But does it? By part 2, we’re deep into temporal shenanigans. Jacqui and Sam are running around in the marshland avoiding dinosaurs and Vikings; Osgood and River are off in the future dodging robots; and Josh is dealing with overlapping quantum-possibility Kates. It’s actually kind of difficult to follow, but I’m not sure that’s really important. We do get to see Kate doing a lot of sciencing, which is nice, but unusual for her. It’s even more unusual for her to keep reminding herself that she’s a genius; that’s more of a Doctor thing, really. Osgood, unfortunately, is out of her element, and lacks sciency things to do, which is annoying to her. And River’s being especially River, which isn’t the best thing for Osgood’s nerves. She ends up liking River anyway, though, because everybody does.