The Husbands of River Song – New Details

The latest issue of DWM (#494) features a preview of The Husbands of River Song and some new details are revealed. Here’s the highlights:

Synopsis:

It’s Christmas Day 5343, on the remote human colony of Mendorax Dellora, and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas carollers and comedy reindeer antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad, and hurled into a fast, frantic chase across the galaxy ~ pursued by River’s new husband, his Infinite Majesty King Hydroflax of the Final Cluster. Will any of them make it out alive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic supervillains, and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time…

Quote:

RIVER: “My diary. One should always have something sensational to read on a spaceship.”
THE DOCTOR: “Is it sad?”
RIVER: “Why would a diary be sad?”
THE DOCTOR: “I don’t know. But you look sad.”
RIVER: “It’s nearly full.”
THE DOCTOR: “So?”
RIVER: “The man who gave me this, he was the sort of man who’d know exactly how long a diary you were going to need.”
THE DOCTOR: “He sounds awful.”

Other:

• It’s a shameless comedy romp – Moffat reasons you couldn’t maintain the level of darkness of Series 9
• Moffat wanted the Doctor to cheer up after Hell Bent so he needed someone like River to remind him he can have a laugh
• It’s a “properly romantic episode” too. Moffat: “The Doctor sort of doesn’t fall in love with people, and sort of does all the time”
• River doesn’t know if the Doctor loves her back
• What’s River up to when the Doctor isn’t there? She’s not “precisely faithful”, says Moffat.
• Greg Davies’ King Hydroflax is River’s other husband and also the “big, bad, rather stupid” villain who “kids will laugh at, and hopefully adults too”
• It takes place immediately after The Angels Take Manhattan
• River doesn’t know it’s the Doctor for a lot of the episode, but when she realises she treats him in much the same way
• At one point River steals the TARDIS and heads off on her own adventure
• The Doctor has to act out his very own “bigger on the inside” TARDIS reaction
• River’s new Sonic device is “ridiculous, and brilliant”
• Although River’s story seems to end quite definitively, Moffat doesn’t think it’s possible to write her ‘last’ episode with several other episodes already serving that. He brought her back as instructed by Russell T Davies this time