River Song will meet the Yeti in her audio spin-off series next year!
By James Aggas
Next year, River Song will be facing the Yeti and the Great Intelligence, in the sixth series of her own spinoff, The Diary of River Song!
Earlier this month, we reported on how River Song will be crossing over into Fourth Doctor classic The Talons of Weng-Chiang next year. But that’s just one of the stories featured in the sixth series of her own spinoff, The Diary of River Song.
The second story announced for the upcoming box set will be The Web of Time, written by John Dorney. Set during the Second Doctor classic The Web of Fear, River will be encountering the Abominable Snowmen as she navigates the London Underground. While she’s on her mission to recover a painting, she also has to ensure that she doesn’t alter the course of history in the process!
This is another episode that I’m excited about. Like The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Web of Fear is an absolutely brilliant story. It’s wonderfully atmospheric, and the London Underground sets are fantastically done. In fact, the sets were so good that the BBC were accused of filming illegally on the real London Underground! Quite simply, it’s just a wonderfully made Doctor Who serial. (In case you haven’t seen it yet, you can check it on DVD and on BritBox.)
Even better is that, like The Talents of Greel, they’re bringing an actor back from the original story playing his original character. In this case, Ralph Watson is appearing as Captain Knight. Watson sounds very excited about the episode, particularly the new perspective it’ll bring to a classic story.
"It’s full of opportunities isn’t it? I can see an endless panorama of ways back and in and out… especially as it explores new territories, it’s not a revamp of something already done. Here there is a lot about people’s motives and actions, and River is closely examined… as well as me!"
The Web of Fear was a key story in setting up UNIT, and by the time of The Invasion, Lethbridge-Stewart had been promoted from Colonel to Brigadier. Could River risk changing that in The Web of Time?
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: BBC Press.)
The birth of UNIT?
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But along with The Web of Fear being a great story, it’s also a very important one, at least in terms of mythology. Because it’s also the story where the Doctor first met Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. Or, as he was later promoted to and more fondly known as, the Brigadier.
While it doesn’t look like the character is in the story, it can be seen as the key story that lead to the creation of UNIT. With Lethbridge-Stewart seeing monsters and aliens first hand, and realizing just how vulnerable Earth is to invasion, it’s not surprising that the very next season introduce the military organization that we all know and love.
While I don’t think the Brigadier will make an appearance, will this affect how River acts in this story? Would saving the day in this case be a bad idea, at least if she knows what will happen if Lethbridge-Stewart doesn’t encounter the Yeti or the Great Intelligence? We can’t wait to find out.
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Are you excited for River to meet the Yeti? How much of an impact do you think The Web of Fear will have on The Web of Time? Let us know in the comments below.