In a move that has Doctor Who fans everywhere going, “Wait...huh?”, BBC has announced that Alex Kingston will return as the time-traveling adventurer River Song for the Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Kingston's River Song is a former companion, romantic interest, and eventually wife to the Doctor, whose timeline runs countercurrent to the his (ie the first time he met her was the last time she'd ever see him). Her character debuted back in Season 4 and made her last appearance in Season 7, near the end of Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor.
While very little is known about how the character will return to the series, Kingston seems quite excited to be heading back into the fold.
To be honest, I did not know whether River would ever return to the show, but here she is, back with the Doctor for the Christmas special.Steven Moffat is on glittering form, giving us an episode filled with humour and surprise guest castings. I met Peter for the first time at Monday’s read through, we had a laugh, and I am now excited and ready to start filming with him and the Doctor Who team. Christmas in September? Why not!”
Showrunner and EP Steven Moffat was unsurprisingly vague about how we'll see the return of "the most complicated relationship in the universe". Said Moffat,
Another Christmas, another special for Doctor Who - and what could be more special than the return of Alex Kingston as Professor River Song. The last time the Doctor saw her she was a ghost. The first time he met her, she died. So how can he be seeing her again? As ever, with the most complicated relationship in the universe, it’s a matter of time ...
This will mark River's first encounter with the 12th Doctor -- at least from our point of view, we'll have to see how that plays out with her extra wibbly wobbly timeline. I was never crazy about River, but I am actually excited to see how she plays off of Peter Capaldi. He's a very different Doctor from Matt Smith's iteration, so it will be interesting to see how River responds to the latest incarnation of her husband.
What do you think? Excited to see River Song make a return? Bummed to see them re-treading old? Curious how the hell she's even back? Make your thoughts known in the comments below.
