ReaKtion Round-Up: What You Thought of The Husbands of River Song

David Power is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

“24 years on Darillium doesn’t sound too bad actually. Doctor Who will probably be back on telly by then.”

Well, we’re finally here, the last Reaktion Round-Up of 2015’s Doctor Who offerings. There was laughter (I hope), there were tears (mostly mine), and I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda surprised we made it this far. Anyway, it’s Christmas time, sort of, and it’s a time for the annual Who Christmas Special where whole families have gathered round their television sets to watch, mostly because their food comas have left them incapable of rolling away.

What story do you do when you know this’ll be the first Who episode some people see? How about the return of a character whose storyline is confusing even for those who’ve watched since her story started 7  years ago? This means your Christmas evening will be spent surrounded by befuddled family members. So no different to your average Christmas then. Anyway, The Husbands of River Song:

My proposal: The best Christmas special so far 24.62%  (97 votes) 

Festive Fun – a proper cracker! 46.45%  (183 votes) 

Enjoyable but forgettable 16.75%  (66 votes) 

Not sure it’ll handle post-Crimbo analysis 5.58%  (22 votes) 

I’m glad I was off my face 6.6%  (26 votes)

You all seemed to enjoy that quite a bit, as did I! But not initially. Firstly I didn’t know why they were bringing River back; she’s had two farewells already. Then the episode started and I felt it was quite rough around the edges. Those warrior monks were very cheap looking, and their battle cries made me feel like I was watching a bad ’80s Kung Fu movie. And not one that’s so bad it’s good. Murray Gold’s comedy music has returned after a double feature of composed emotion, and this time you can feel the word “wacky” dripping off of it, so much so that it’s actually quite distracting at times. I suddenly felt like I was back in Series 7, where pacing didn’t mean a thing and scenes flew by faster than I could comprehend. But then we got to the restaurant scene and things got infinitely better from there on in. But before that, there was many other things to enjoy.

Firstly, it’s always fun to see the Doctor bouncing of characters from a previous regeneration. And this time’s no different, with Alex Kingston and Peter Capaldi having wonderful chemistry together – they’re a joy to watch. Speaking of actors, it’s about bloody time Greg Davies had a role in the show, and you could tell how much fun he was having as the giant King Hydroflax. The idea of a cyborg’s body independently deciding that the human head was the interchangeable part of the being was a great idea, although I partially wish it was fleshed out in a different story and not a Christmas special.

Also, the Doctor performing his ideal reaction to entering the TARDIS for the first time was one of the best and funniest scenes in the shows history, hands down.

So, to the real meat of the episode. “When you love the Doctor, it’s like loving the stars themselves. You don’t expect a sunset to admire you back.” And suddenly the largest spotlight was shone onto River Song as a character. A new insight into someone who up until now had had a complex story, rather than a complex character. Line after line, we realise how tragic River’s life really is. “The man who gave me this was the sort of man who’d know exactly how long a diary you were going to need.”

And then, the ship starts to crash and we’re at Darillium! This is when it clicked with me why they brought River back. It was proving the Doctor had actually learned something at the end of Hell Bent. He had learned to let go. Out goes the clunky comedy, and in comes a surprising amount of sincere sentiment. It seems that Moffat’s tidying up before he hangs up his pen, with Clara’s ending, and now with him concluding River’s story in a nice bow. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself:

Ratings were still on the up and up this time. The overnights rose from 4.8m for Hell Bent to 5.77m for The Husbands of River Song. Overalls rose from 6.17 to 7.69m, which was the best by Series 9 standards, but it was the worst by Christmas special standards, being rated the lowest out of all the Christmas specials – even lower than The Feast of Steven. Fortunately, the Appreciation Index score stayed the same at 82 for both Hell Bent and Husbands.

So what did our jolly K-readers think of this years festive escapade?

 

And just like that it’s over! It all just disappears, doesn’t it? Gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror. But at least we’re all caught up on Who before this year’s series of- – What? Oh. Uhhh. Reaktion Round-Up Klass anyone?

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