Daniel Mansfield reviews the first in a new series for River Song: Last Words

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From the opening moments of Last Words, which kicks off the new Death and Life of River Song series, it’s clear this four-part epic will be a very special release indeed. There’s a sense of grandeur to proceedings elicited not only by Alex Kingston‘s narration, but the music and sound design from Howard Carter, a sense of grandeur which only increases as Robert Valentine‘s story unfolds and more and more layers are added to it.

A noir detective story, apocalyptic disaster movie, love story and Biblical epic all rolled into one, Last Words, like Tim Foley‘s Friend of the Family before it, proves that River Song thrives in these huge, expansive tales brimming with big ideas and well-drawn characters. Set on Earth in the days before it’s destroyed by solar flares, this release sees River plucked from her digital afterlife by billionaire Garrison Clay (Greg Wise), who puts her in a clone body and tasks her with finding a missing scientist.

At first glance, the premise might not seem particularly interesting— it’s essentially a four-hour prequel to the 1975 story The Ark in Space featuring River Song. However, the story quickly proves to be far more complex and engaging than that; Valentine weaves together political intrigue, a revenge plot, romance, and even a surprising side-step into Austen territory, creating a rich narrative tapestry of which the elements from The Ark in Space are just one part.

This means Last Words ends up feeling far more than just an expansion of The Ark in Space. It’s not a prequel for prequel’s sake; instead, Valentine cleverly uses familiar elements to enhance his own worldbuilding, tying iconic parts of the Whoniverse into the story to make it feel even more significant.

This is chiefly evident with the character of River herself. Valentine’s decision to juxtapose River’s death and resurrection with the tale of a world facing its final hours is inspired, ensuring that, like Friend of the Family, this isn’t just a story that features River Song; it’s a story that needs River Song in it – it simply wouldn’t work without her. It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into tying all of these elements together to make a cohesive, thematically-satisfying narrative, rather than this simply being a case of “River + afterlife + Ark in Space”. As a result, Last Words feels like an essential chapter in River’s story rather than just another lightweight adventure.

While there’s no doubt that the first two parts (or Books, as Valentine titles them) of this tale are stronger than the final two, the climax of the finale ends up being so epic and so emotional that you still come away having had a wonderful time.

By its final boxset, released last year, The Diary of River Song had become stale, throwing River together with random characters in one-and-done adventures that felt like they had no weight to them. Only Friend of the Family felt like a worthwhile purchase in recent years, with its sublime emotional arcs and puzzle-box narrative perfectly suited to River’s timey-wimey storyline. I’m so glad, then, that Big Finish has followed that set’s model for this new series, delivering this writer-led epic full of worldbuilding, compelling characters and an overall artistic vision and strong themes that other River Song sets have lacked. If Last Words is anything to go by, River has a very bright future at Big Finish indeed.

The Diary of River Song is dead… long live The Death and Life of River Song!

Last Words is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com