Doctor Who news: River will meet K9 in The Diary of River Song: Series 8!
By James Aggas
The eighth series of River Song’s own Doctor Who spin-off has been revealed, where she’ll be meeting one or two familiar faces – including K9!
It was only a matter of time before it was announced. After all, The Diary of River Song has been an extremely successful spin-off series for Big Finish Productions, and it’s easy to see why. While River meeting different Doctors, monsters, and even Masters has been fun, what really makes the series so special is how it explores River in fresh ways and gives her solid, enjoyable adventures. So, after seven successful box sets, it was inevitable that an eighth set would be announced.
No Doctors will feature in this series, but we will be hearing some very familiar voices. Many of which will be robotic, which is essentially the overall theme for Series 8: a box set focusing on adventures featuring River and robots.
Across the four episodes, River will be meeting the Mechanoids (which originally featured in First Doctor story The Chase); the iconic companion K9, as voiced by John Leeson, and even her android friend Rachel, who previously appeared in Series 2 episode 5:29. (Perhaps even more notably, Rachel is played by Alex Kingston’s real-life daughter Salome Haertel.)
Salome Haertel returns as the android Rachel, who previously appeared in 5:29 from Series 2.
Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions
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Anya returns
On top of that, there’s another familiar character returning, at least to regular Big Finish listeners. One that I’m particularly excited about: Jane Slavin as…well, who she is is a big spoiler for last year’s series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, so be warned.
You see, Series 8 of Tom Baker’s audio series was focused on a huge arc involving the powerful criminal organization called “the Syndicate”. But, perhaps more exciting than that was the Doctor’s new companion: WPC Ann Kelso, who helped him and K9 to track down each member of the Syndicate.
There was just one problem: “Ann Kelso” didn’t exist. Instead, she was just a deep cover for sleeper Space Security Service agent Anya Kingdom. While initially, she worked against the Doctor, she eventually helped him to stop the real villain of the story. Afterward, Anya wanted to continue traveling with him. But the Doctor couldn’t bear it: he liked Ann Kelso, and she was essentially dead.
Anya’s return is extremely exciting for two reasons. First, it felt like we barely knew her, and there’s a lot of room there to explore what happened to her after the Doctor left her. Second of all, Jane Slavin was fantastic as both Ann and Anya, and it’ll be a joy to hear her opposite Alex Kingston.
The Diary of River Song: Series 8 is available to pre-order on CD and download right now from Big Finish’s website. It will be released in Jan 2021.
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Have you listened to previous volumes of The Diary of River Song? What has been your favorite series so far? Are you excited about K9’s appearance this series? Let us know in the comments below.