Big Finish Rescore - The Doctor Has Read River's Diary | 'Archipelago' 

Yea I think 9 is the only one besides War maybe who would find the whole thing about them ludicrous enough to sneak a peak at the Diary.

Or, a reasonable man who hates toxicity. The number 1 thing in a relationship is honesty.

Yes he is a fragile guy and river healed him i love them for thatc🥰

@@kyrauniversal no he loved their relationship in the end dearly and was so sad he was going to lose it lol

@@gkcn9688 It's not just the blood on his hands. #THEMISSUS was a title given to one specific person. Someone who always saved him. The housewife that IS the house. The TARDIS.

@@kyrauniversal river is the one who marries tje doctor and she is tje cjild of the tardis . They are a big family and they accepts it that way. Cheer ip it's a ship

I'm going to add to my headcanon that it was 9's encounters with River and the events of this story in particular that stuck with him in his subconscious and shaped him into the Doctor we saw on screen.

​@@doctorwhorescored3151for me it goes: Encounter with River -> Exhausted Supplies -> Rose

he admires what river and he will have in the end 9 and river even grew old together. so that is why he became normal again . So river 's really speacial to bring him to life again

​@@gkcn9688WHAT!? Does no one know how trusting relationships have to be to work out?

@@kyrauniversal appearently doctor and river do and they did .

Out of curiosity, are you saying this in the sense that you think that's a voice actor or that Christopher sounds more like himself from the show?

@@mr.valeyard8810 more like himself I know he’s older but sometimes in the audio he sounds lighter with his voice like he’s doing the doctor slightly different

yeah he sounds brilliant here. alex, not so much. idk what it is but she doesn’t quite sound right here

@@lydiarodgers Just age, Alex is 61 years old after all.

@@lydiarodgersit’s more to do with the fact that in the story both The Doctor and River are caught in a temporal….something (I don’t understand the story myself) they’re both decaying physically, River’s decaying faster than The Doctor hence why her character sounds off! It’s by design! That’s how good her acting is!

THANK YOU! Even the TARDIS is probably terrified of her.

​@kyrauniversal yeah, and i would even argue, even the master wouldn't dare bring up doctor and river's relationship for the old times sake if they ever find out about the full details, well atleast missy wouldn't

@@junny186River has met many versions of The Master on audio including the War Master who looked her up and knows about her “killing” him on Lake Silencio! However in any encounter with The Doctor on audio he never mentions River to The Doctor as far as I’m aware! The Master always seems to avoid spoilers like that!

@matthewhegarty2873 intentional or not, he is surprisingly good at keeping himself out from doctor's marriage life

@@junny186 indeed he is! That’s always surprised me! He doesn’t mind going after his or her companions though! I guess River is a tougher egg to crack

Is he done entirely? Or is this just the end of this current series? Like where the War Doctor Begins ended, but the War Doctor Continues started after

@@JFSebastian-j3mEccleston said that this isn’t quite goodbye, more of an ‘au revoir.’ So he’ll be back one day.

@@EditedAF987 I'm so glad he came back. I'm hoping the next one he does is him and Billie Piper. Or even show him VERY early on after his regeneration. It's a shame about all the Barrowman stuff because those three back together would be great.

@@JFSebastian-j3m considering that next year will be the 20th anniversary of series 1, and that Eccleston said at a recent convention that he’s open to the idea of a reunion, I’m hoping the next boxset will feature Rose.

@@EditedAF987 if Jackie turns up too, even better lol. I'd also think it would be cool if Nine is the Doctor who meets The Spy Master when he's undercover. Maybe that's in the latter's box set?

Exactly. He's most likely to appreciate the 6th incarnation, because at least he's honest.

11 was basically a pushover let River walk all over him at times honestly 9 is right it’s not a marriage

@@kyrauniversal Yes, oddly enough 9 and 6 would be the most alike and would be unstoppable together, yet their individual dress choices would be a negative for the other LOL

@@OzBaxter Until 6 simply says, "Well, where did the TARDIS place the wardrobe for you? Mine was next to the console room."

It’s not the first time. ‘The Lady in the Lake’ touched on it a little where River bemoans the fact that the Doctor is the only close relationship in her life, even though he’s not a reliable presence since she never knows how well he’ll know her when they meet. And it’s this fact that spurns her on to try and track down her clones from Demon’s run in the hopes of finding some kind of family.

I love that it's Nine specifically. He takes no bullshit.

i mean... Moffat did state at one point that the whole "River Song" storyline is heavily inspired by the novel "The time traveler's wife"(watch the tv series if u r like me and too lazy to read)

Are you one of the River Song haters, lol?

@@IanBresett-McCormick She has pros and cons.

​@@maxcardunMostly Cons. She's worse than a literal con artist that our Niner here met.

@@kyrauniversal 9 fell for in the end just as 9ther doctors plus to me she is the best caharacter ever

@@kyrauniversal I'd actually put more stock into River Song than The one who calls himself Jack Harkness.

We know that this takes place after The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone, as the Doctor reads River’s account of it back to her. I’ve placed it just before The Angels Take Manhattan, as River is worried in that story about showing her insecurities. Also, we know that she’s only just visited Manhattan in Series 12 of The Diary of River Song, leading into The Husbands of River Song.

River Song wasn’t his soulmate? That hurts to think about

That retcon is disgusting, go ask Tom baker about his relationship with Sarah Jane. RTD made the doctor a groomer, he was a sexual before that and certainly never displayed romantic feelings towards any of his companions

I disagree. I think Four displayed romantic feelings for Sarah Jane several times while they traveled together. Tom Baker was also in love with Elisabeth Sladen (despite her already being married), which clearly shows in their onscreen chemistry.

​@@ShiningFriendship87 "It was inconceivable during our time. We didn't think like that. I played him entirely asexual ... I never did handle the girls. Or if I did handle the girls, I always did it clumsily, because I reasoned that the Doctor wouldn't know about that" Tom Baker

“The thing is, of course, when you’re working with people, you get very close to them-in a very overheated way and you’re sharing the same things. And, of course, the first person I fell in love with was Elisabeth, you see. But, of course, Elisabeth was married and I also didn’t tell her. I didn’t mention it. I thought it better not to. But, I mean, Elisabeth laughed at my jokes. Elisabeth was sympathetic because I took over from Jon, who had been a prodigious success. I mean, he was a comic. And they were like, “What’s Tom Baker gonna do?” It was Elisabeth who swayed my anxiety and laughed at my jokes and we loved old movies together. And Elisabeth was my favorite girl.” - Tom Baker, Panopticon 1993 Oh, yes, this is-I’m goading you. Not really. I should have turned to the camera and said, “I love her, really!” - Tom Baker, Ark in Space commentary

Is this a portmanteau of kiss and nemesis? Because surely that should be nemekiss

​@@SonofSethoitaeoh sweet summer child

River has met most Doctors pre 10, they usually get their memories wiped after the encounter. She has also met 10 several times in Big Finish, post library for 10 and pre library for River, so the comment about 10 being the youngest she's seen him still makes sense as it could be referring to that specific incarnation.

Moffat rewrote the idea that 10 was the earliest Doctor she'd met in her SECOND appearance. She talks about having "photos of all of his faces" and how they "never show up in the right order" in the Time of Angels. The idea that Ten was "the youngest [she'd] ever seen him" lasted for a single story before Moffat decided it's more fun to include Classic Who. He never explained how that works, but Big Finish did.

Thank you. This was definitely one of the best Doctor Who stories of 2024.

Moffat agrees, Hurt only happened because Moffat couldn't quite convince Eccleston to return.

Eccleston or McGann both would've been better than Hurt. I hate the idea that the BBC or Moffat thought they needed to bring in a "name" and then settled for John Hurt. He's not an unknown, but he wasn't exactly making waves in British TV or film circa 2013. I get why they couldn't get 9 back, but I still don't understand why we couldn't have had 8 on screen again. He is wonderful in the much-maligned TV movie, and NuWho would benefit from digging deeper into its rich history beyond just retreading 10 again and again and again and again and again...

@@batman2021 They didn't bring in 8 because Moffat couldn't see 8 fighting in the Time War. And frankly, I agree with that assertion. So yeah, narratively speaking a new Doctor had to be created for the Time War era... plus this also explains why Eccleston seemed to be immediately post-regeneration in "Rose" since he does remark about his ears while looking in a mirror saying "It could have been worse."

@@batman2021 8 would not have worked as it would've been massively out of character. 9 would not have worked either as it would make no sense from a continuity stand-point. ROSE transcript: (The Doctor sees his reflection in a mirror, and behaves as if he's just regenerated and is just seeing himself for the first time.) DOCTOR: Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears. Also, Eccleston said that when he read the script for the 50th anniversary, he felt that it was just him, Tennant & Smith riffing off the fact that they were The Doctor. He didn't feel the narrative was strong enough for his Doctor, mostly because when the 50th was being celebrated, he took a lot of abuse from the press. Because of that, he didn't want to come back & he thought John Hurt's War Doctor added to the canon in a way that Chris' Ninth Doctor would not. Also, he's not a fan of Multi-Doctor stories. Think about that. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rlZWOZqfx7c.htmlsi=Fu5fWUzIFF_aH-lr

It's one of the messier timelines that we'll probably never be able to put in order, for Big Finish anyway, she's met some classic Doctors more than once.

its timey wimey :) or maybe its evolved into The Good Place's Jeremy Bearimy ;)

He came back a few years ago for Big Finish! He's done 12 box sets and an episode for the 60th anniversary series 'Once and Future'. Lots of great stories to check out.

The past Doctors usually get their memory wiped after meeting her.

@@doctorwhorescored3151 dose river just because she says to 10 that she's never seen him that young before in the library? I know she could just be lieing but yh jw

@@Andrew-up3dr​​⁠​⁠either she’s referring to the 10th Doctor specifically, since she has a few offscreen adventures with him during the specials era. Or, she simply views the pre and post-Library Doctors as different entities, since she knows that every Doctor before 10 is ‘off limits.’ She even slips up in Forest of the Dead and refers to the future Doctor as “the real you,” before correcting herself. Almost as though 10-12 are the only Doctors that feel tangible to her.

I mean, she says in her first meeting with Ten that she's met 'all his faces' - and that's only reinforced when she meets Twelve and assumes he isn't the Doctor because she 'knows' all of his faces so well Big Finish just fills that in

​@@2Scribblethe 12th was the last regeneration she saw

There are some rather brilliant music suites from Big Finish, 'UNIT: Brave New World' and 'The Lone Centurion' are a couple of my favourites, a mix of epic and emotional. But yes it would be amazing to hear music that matches the level of Murray Gold occasionally, or even have the man himself lend a few new tracks for them.

Spoilers! But yes. Listen to the full story to find out how. It's beautiful and tragic.

Haven’t listened to this boxset but I would assume a mind wipe takes place. That’s what usually happens in these box sets where doctors before 10 interact with river. One I remember is when river spiked 7’s tea when they were chatting.

They already met up in another audio a few years ago. It was a story called ‘R&J,’ from The Lives of Captain Jack: Vol 3.

We don't use the C word in Doctor Who, 'tis not a thing.

It's funny you say that because The Time Traveller's Wife is Steven Moffat's favourite story, and he even made an adaptation of it for HBO in 2022. River feels derivative _because she is_

​@@WhiteythereaperYou fail to understand what I mean. I look at it all from the TARDIS' perspective. Claiming to be a child of the TARDIS while at the same time marrying The Doctor. The console number is stored under The Missus for a reason. Who'd want to be in a polyamourous relationship with a psychopath who, upon first learning of you, shoots you down, refuses to apologize, and repeatedly ends up killing the one you love? The TARDIS would despise River Song because, like myself, it's just terrifying and tragic to see a soul like hers trapped in a genetically altered "Lala Land" of emotions. Not only that, but those "Emergency Breaks". The Moment: You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope wherever it goes. The War Doctor: Yes... yes, I like to think it does. The Moment: To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone. However lost. *The TARDIS sound begins* Even you.

The story is called ‘Archipelago,’ and it’s from the box set ‘Star-Crossed.’

Imo this is the closest Chris has sounded to his performance on screen in his entire Big Finish run.

Because Doctors 1-9 don’t have the same relationship with her as 10-12. It’s not like in Silence in the Library, where River immediately began talking about how her and the Doctor have a future together. She goes into these meetings knowing that these Doctors aren’t supposed to know her, so she generally keeps things low-key. For the most part, these Doctors just know her as a random time traveler who they happen to be teaming up with. The only exceptions were her meetings with the 4th Doctor - which happened in an alternate timeline where he had known her his entire life - and the 6th Doctor - who fell in love with River almost immediately (“a clear gaze, a firm mouth, a face beaming with a vast intelligence.” Of course he’d be smitten).