Having already flirted, fought and fandangled with both the tenth and eleventh Doctors, River Song is about to return to the TARDIS time travel mix to make her first appearance alongside the twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi. The BBC, along with lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, confirmed that she’d be returning to the show in the Doctor Who Series 9 Christmas Special, so get set for fur and Time Lord nasal follicles to fly.
While the announcement has divided fans of the sci-fi series, there’s a big question on the lips of all of them about how the character will be brought back for the Christmas special. Having been written out as dying saving the Doctor in the final episode of Series 7, The Name Of The Doctor, there aren’t too many options for her return, so either it’s a different timeline for the wife of the Time Lord, a continuation of her echo or her death wasn’t quite as indefatigable as we might have thought.
The character, played by Alex Kingston, will undoubtedly be a big feature of the special episode’s storyline and based on previous Christmas outings, the weather outside is more than likely going to be frightful. The BBC has given a little teaser about the setup for the plot, but as ever it doesn’t really give too much away.
The scene is set for a very white Christmas Day in the future with the TARDIS parked up in a snow-quilted village. It’s festooned with ice, looking as though it’s been there a while and in and among all of the frost and winter wonderland slumber a big adventure awaits. Enter time-travelling River Song, AKA Melody Pond, Amy and Rory’s daughter, and she’s about to meet her husband in his latest incarnation for the very first time.
Filming got underway last week (4th September 2015) at Cardiff’s Roath Lock studios with Peter Capaldi was on hand to help her out with the lines, hopefully throwing in a few expletives from his former life for good measure and comic effect. While there have already been a fair few names announced as guest stars for the 9th series of the show (including Maisie Williams, Rufus Hound and Jemma Redgrave), but they’re keeping pretty shtum about the rest of the cast for the Christmas special. However, it has been described as both a surprise guest cast and a witty line-up, so we’re expecting something tongue-in-cheek for the wintry festivities.
The episode, which will air on Friday the 25th December 2015 – AKA Present Day, Chocolate Morning and/or Computer Games In Your Pants Eve – has been written by Steven Moffat, so if it all goes wrong, we know who to blame. Executive producer is Brian Minchin, producer is Nikki Wilson and the director is Douglas Mackinnon, who’s no stranger to Doctor Who, so we should be in for something special and not just because it’s as Christmas special either. The question is whether or not it will be enough to top last year’s outing, which featured Nick Frost as Chris Cringle.
