Last Night (home video)

Last Night was the fourth of five Night and the Doctor shorts produced exclusively for the Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series DVD and Bluray box sets. It is the second of a two-part story which began with "First Night". It was written by showrunner Steven Moffat.

Synopsis

With three River Songs wandering around the TARDIS, the Doctor needs two of him to sort matters.

The 908 year old Eleventh Doctor lays a seemingly unconscious River Song on the floor of the TARDIS, panicking because he assumes she has been shot in the gunfight he heard outside moments before (First Night). But she is only holding her breath with her eyes closed, pretending to have been injured to get the Doctor to worry over her, and once he realises this she gets up and begins to flirt with and tease him.

When he demands to know who was shooting at her, she explains that, having been in the Storm Cage prison facility for five years already, she'd escaped (as she regularly did) and had insulted a Sontaran war party by asking them if they were out on a Hen's Night, only for them to chase her halfway across the galaxy to a spot she knew the Doctor would eventually show up at. As he chastises her for this, she notices the gold dress he’d chosen for her for their first visit to Caldoran Beta five years ago, hanging near the console, and becoming suspicious that he has someone else on the TARDIS she demands to know who, not realising that for him this is in fact the night of that first visit, that the 'other woman' is actually her younger self. She storms off up the TARDIS stairs to find the woman who would dare to wear that dress.

Only seconds after that version of River has left the control room, a younger, earlier River appears in another corridor, returning from the TARDIS cloak-room where she has been looking through the other dresses to choose one for their date. She asks the Doctor who he is talking to, and he assures her there is no one else there, so she turns and goes back down to the cloak-room none the wiser.

Hearing this exchange, the older River returns to the control room, demanding to know who the Doctor is speaking to. He then tells her he isn't speaking to anyone, and she resumes her hunt for her usurper, leaving him alone a second time.

Matters are further complicated when a third, even older incarnation of River enters the TARDIS, actually wearing the gold dress. She's pleased to see him, and playfully calls him a 'sentimental idiot' just as the second River had only moments before. This version of River was expecting to meet the Doctor here, but on seeing an identical gold dress hung by the console she is confused and asks him why he has bought another, not realising it's the very same dress she herself is wearing. Anxious that the three Rivers now in the TARDIS should not come face to face, the Doctor asks her to step outside again and check the light on the top of the TARDIS is working. Frowning, she does so.

Mere seconds after this third River has stepped out, the youngest River reappears, certain that she heard voices. The Doctor lies and tells her he was talking to himself, and she bustles off again. The second, jealous River then returns to the control room, likewise convinced that she heard the Doctor talking to someone. Frustrated, knowing he has to get her out of the way, the Doctor brusquely activates her Vortex Manipulator and sends her back to prison, despite her protests. And not a moment too soon, as the third River re-enters the TARDIS saying that the light on the roof is fine. But she is followed in by a second, older incarnation of the Doctor (wearing a new tuxedo), who tells her she's stepped into the wrong TARDIS, that his own is 'parked' around the corner. This incarnation of River is amused at the prospect of having two versions of her husband, but as 'her' Doctor ushers her out she calls back to explain to the younger Doctor that she and her Doctor are off to see the Singing Towers of Darillium, something he's been promising to do for a long time. She exits, and the two Doctors share a brief, sad moment, each knowing that the trip to the Singing Towers is the last they will ever see of her before she dies in the Library (this having happened when the Tenth Doctor first met River in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).

As the older Doctor exits the youngest River returns to the control room (still not having chosen a dress), just in time to catch a glimpse of the two Doctors together. She is amused by this, just as her older self had been moments before, but he will not tell her what has just transpired between them, because of 'spoilers'. He begins to escort her to the door to go on their date but she protests that she hasn't changed, to which he responds by smiling and telling her that she never will. Moving past him toward the door, River jokes that he will be the death of her, not realising that that is exactly what is weighing so heavily on his mind.

Cast

Crew

Writer - Steven Moffat
Director -Richard Senior (uncredited)

References

TARDIS

Multiple versions of one person can coexist within the same TARDIS. While it can be claimed that this is contradicted by The Girl Who Waited, it should be noted that none of the River Songs that appear in this episode exist as a result of a paradox and are all from the "correct" timeline.

Story notes

This is the second of a two-part story than began with First Night.
The title makes reference to the fact that the future version of the Eleventh Doctor is the one that takes River on her final "night out" to the Singing Towers of Darillium before the events of Silence in the Library.
This story is set entirely within the Doctor's TARDIS.

Myths and rumours

To be added

Filming locations

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Production errors

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Continuity

River asks the Doctor, "How many hands do you have?" The answer was, at one point, three. DW: The Christmas Invasion, DW: Utopia, DW: The Stolen Earth, DW: Journey's End)
River was being chased by Sontarans.
The Doctor asks River to see if the TARDIS bulb needs changing. Amy Pond previously raised the question of whether or not the bulb needs to be changed shortly after arriving on the TARDIS. (DW: Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Episode 1)
The TARDIS is mistaken by the third River Song as belonging to "her" Doctor when it technically belongs to another. Previously, Susan Foreman and the First Doctor had mistaken the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS for theirs. (DW: The Five Doctors)
River's mind races with the possibility of two Doctors in the same place. Jack Harkness previous had a similar line of thought when in the presence of the Tenth Doctor, the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor, and the Doctor Donna. (DW: Journey's End)
The two Doctors mention River's death. Later, River remarks that the Doctor will be the death of her. (DW: Silence in the Library)
First chronological instance of River using the word "Spoilers."
At no point are any of the three Rivers aware of each other.

Timeline

For the present Eleventh Doctor

This story takes place after DW: First Night.
This story takes place before DW: Prequel (The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe).

For River no. 1

This story takes place immediately after DW: First Night.

For River no. 2

This story takes place at least five years after her first version's appearance in DW: First Night and immediately after her second version's appearance in DW: First Night.

For the future Eleventh Doctor

This story takes place before his trip to the Singing Towers. It is likely that it takes place sometime after the final scene of The Wedding of River Song.

For River no. 3

This story takes place after her final scene in DW: The Wedding of River Song.
This story takes place before DW: Silence in the Library.

Home video releases

To be added

External links

To be added