Doctor Who review: Five Twenty-Nine is a bleak but brilliant story for River Song
By James Aggas
The Doctor’s wife faces a very personal apocalypse in Five Twenty-Nine, one of the best episodes from her own Doctor Who spin-off series The Diary of River Song.
On Monday, Big Finish released an episode of Doctor Who audio spin-off The Diary of River Song for free. The episode they picked is an interesting one. It doesn’t kick off a huge story – in fact, Five Twenty-Nine is the second episode from The Diary of River Song: Series 2. And, while it’s part of an arc, it’s a story that works rather well on its own. More than that – it might just be one of the best episodes of the series.
The story focuses on the Burrows family, who live a simple life that’s practically cut off from the rest of the world. They meet someone who’s seemingly arrived out of nowhere: Professor River Song. She’s looking for something out of the ordinary, but everything appears to be fine. Then the blackouts start…
We’ve seen River deal with the end of the world before. In fact, we’ve seen her face the end of the universe. But John Dorney’s story is a different kind of apocalypse. While episodes like The Big Bang and The Wedding of River Song feature plenty of strong emotion, they’re also rather fun stories, too.
Five Twenty-Nine is different. It’s not just about the end of the world, but also about how one family – an ordinary family – lives through it. Because this time, death really is inevitable. And while River tries her best to save everyone, there’s really nothing she can do. Not this time.
Five Twenty-Nine is the second episode of The Diary of River Song: Series 2. But while Six and Seven feature in other episodes, this time, River is on her own.
Photo credit: The Diary of River Song/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.
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The Burrows
The Burrows are extremely likable. John Dorney has written a family that is very down to Earth – which they’ve had to be, due to the sacrifices they’ve made for the life that they wanted. They’re happy with their lives, and that’s enough. Naturally, they come across as extremely sympathetic. Which makes what they go through all the more heartbreaking.
Robert Pugh and Ann Bell are great as Emmett and Lisa Burrows. They portray a very realistic depiction of a long-term marriage. They don’t wear their hearts on their sleeves, but it’s also clear that they’re not just together out of convenience. There’s a lot of affection, even if it’s beneath the surface, and it works thanks to the actors selling that natural chemistry.
Salome Haertel is also great as Rachel, the daughter of the family. She had a challenging character to play, as Rachel isn’t exactly like anyone else. But she handles the “uncanny valley” aspect of the character just right, and Haertel shares a couple of great scenes with her mother Alex Kingston.
A slow apocalypse
Focusing on an apocalypse from the perspective of a family is a simple idea. But it works extremely well. The fact that it’s a very slow and quiet apocalypse allows for these characters to face their mortality in a big way. There’s a heavy exploration of grief in this story, and it works extremely well on multiple levels.
Five Twenty-Nine isn’t exactly easy listening. It’s both depressing and heartbreaking. But it’s also an amazing slice of drama and a great example of what River’s own series is like at its very best.
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Have you listened to Five Twenty-Nine yet? What are your thoughts on it? Should River’s own series – or even Doctor Who itself – explore bleaker stories like this more often? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’re eager for more brand new stories featuring River, you’ll probably be excited to find out who she’s meeting again in November…