The Power of River Song (audio story)
The Power of River Song was the third and final story in the audio anthology Incursions, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Warren Brown as Sam Bishop, Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee and Alex Kingston as River Song.
Publisher's summary
Part one
UNIT has been assigned to monitor the switch-on of a revolutionary new power system – they know from experience such things can be tricky.
Nearby, Osgood and Lieutenant Bishop investigate mysterious disappearances – and appearances of trans-temporal phenomena. Kate would like to ask the Director some questions, but she's proving strangely elusive...until there's a murder.
Part two
There's a dead body in the power station. River Song is the prime suspect. And Kate is most concerned by the identity of the victim.
Meanwhile, Sam and Jacqui chase Vikings, while Osgood finds herself out of time. As deadly predators focus their attention on Earth, it seems activating the power of River Song could spell the end of everything...
Plot
Part one
Whilst Kate and Josh observe the goings-on of Exousia Solutions' new power station, Sam investigates reported monster sightings with Jacqui and Osgood examines a Cro-Magnon who appears to have been killed recently. Mr Chant informs Kate and Josh of a murder and they find the corpse of the victim of an energy weapon, identical to Kate, and the director of Exousia, River Song, finally emerges from her office. Kate leaves the body there in order to frustrate River and Mr Chant.
On the moors, Sam and Jacqui encounter a baryonyx in the dark and decide to trap it. Sam calls Josh, who tells Kate about it; she reasons that the dinosaur, the missing people, the Cro-Magnon and her own body must be the result of time slippage. Vikings with flaming arrows appear and chase Sam and Jacqui before Leif, leader of the Clan of War Bears, knocks Sam out.
The Cro-Magnon body is moved to a cold storage facility in Grave's End where Osgood finds that they died of carbon dioxide poisoning. She measures chronon energy where the body was found and sees an apparition of River as the chronon level soars. Osgood is displaced in time and finds herself alone in the early 1970s where she meets River and Mr Chant, who have just eaten two people who also slipped through time.
At the launch of the new power system, River and Mr Chant transform into monsters and kill the employees. Kate and Osgood return to the power station where River admits to killing the staff and the chronon tracker identified her as Kate's killer. River points her gun at Kate and, talking about how annoying predestination is, she shoots at her.
Part two
to be completed
Cast
- Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
- Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
- River Song - Alex Kingston
- Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
- Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
- Lieutenant Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
- Mr Chant - Enzo Squillino Jnr
- Leif / Wampeerix - Leighton Pugh
References
- Kate struggles with the coffee machine.
- Colonel Shindi is covering for Kate in Geneva.
- Patrick Murray and Michael Reddings are missing.
- The Secretary of State for Energy will not let Kate leave Exousia.
- River has fond memories with Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, and remarks, "We'll always have Cromer."
- Kate has built a chronon frequency isolator.
- Jacqui assumes Leif is LARPing as a Viking, but quickly comes to realise his appearance is genuine, and not related to roleplaying at all.
- River claims to have directed the film Never Hunt the Moon, which was part of the New Exploitation cinema movement of the 2040s. She recorded over Nestene-controlled film canisters to make this movie.
- River and Osgood are both interested in nominative determinism, with regards to alien species names and their inclinations towards hostility.
Notes
- River's remark that she and the Brigadier will "always have Cromer" is a reference to the famous line in Casablanca: "We'll always have Paris." In the original context, this line carries the significance of a prior romance.
Continuity
- Jacqui correctly guesses this isn't UNIT's first encounter with dinosaurs. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
- River Song says that she is the actual River Song and that she is "the definite article, you might say", mimicking the Doctor on his regeneration into his fourth incarnation. (TV: Robot)
- Kate Stewart says she can't change history, '"not one line". The Doctor also said the same thing to Barbara Wright in his first incarnation. (TV: The Aztecs)
- River has met the Brigadier. (AUDIO: The Blood Woods, Rivers of Light)
External links
- Official The Power of River Song page at bigfinish.com
