Doctor Who review: The Eighth of March – Emancipation (River Song and Leela)

Two Doctor Who legends meet each other for the first time, as River Song meets former Fourth Doctor companion Leela in Emancipation, the opening story of The Eighth of March box set.

Usually, when I write these reviews for Big Finish’s box set releases, I like to review them in one go. (Recent examples include Missy, The Diary of River Song: Series 5 and Torchwood: God Among Us 2.)

But The Eighth of March box set is noticeably different by comparison. Particularly since it’s not really one series, but stories based on four different ones: The Diary of River Song, Doctor Who (but without the Doctor), The Paternoster Gang and UNIT. So in this particular instance, it makes more sense to look at the episodes one at a time and judge them on their own merits, rather than as a whole.

Emancipation, the opening story in this box set by Lisa McMullin, has River trying to prevent a kidnapping at a Galactic Heritage convention. However, to do it, she decides to pose as a Time Lord to gain access. And because it’s not just any Time Lord that she’s decided to pose as, Leela is sent from Gallifrey to investigate.

Which of course leads to River and Leela meeting each other. It’s quite an interesting encounter, too. Leela’s not sure what to make of River. She knows that she has her secrets and even outright lies at times, but Leela judges her to be a good person, or at least have good intentions. However, just because you have good intentions doesn’t mean it will result in a positive outcome…

Alex Kingston and Louise Jameson work extremely well together in Emancipation, the first episode of The Eighth of March.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

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Consequences

This is essentially a key theme of Emancipation. There are a few actions that River and Leela make in this story that leave completely undesired consequences, either from not knowing enough about the situation or simply because they couldn’t predict where their actions would lead them.

This is a particularly satisfying theme. Not only because it shows how flawed River and Leela are, and therefore are very human characters. But how they deal with those consequences and how they face them is also fascinating to listen to, and really highlights just how different these two women are.

Overall, Emancipation is an interesting script that packs in a lot, and I think will really benefit from one or two re-listens to take everything in. It also gives us a great and unique pairing with River and Leela, who are a lot of fun to listen to together. Emancipation gets The Eighth of March to a strong start.

Are you a fan of either River or Leela? Which characters in the Doctor Who universe would you like to hear meet each other? Let us know in the comments below.