Doctor Who’s Alex Kingston Is Game To Reprise River Song On TV, But With One Catch

There was a time on Doctor Who when River Song was one of the series’ most important recurring characters. Alex Kingston debuted as the time-traveling archaeologist towards the end of David Tennant’s run as the Tenth Doctor, was present throughout Matt Smith’s tenure as the Eleventh Doctor, and even got to spend some time with Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. It’s now been over a decade since Kingston played River on TV, and while she’s game to reprise the role in that format, it does come with one catch.

It’s worth noting first that Kingston has continued to vocally play River across various Big Finish audio productions since December 2015, the same month that “The Husbands of River Song” aired. However, on the subject of a potential TV return, the actress started off by saying the following during her appearance on WhoCulture:

The defining element in The Doctor and River Song’s relationship is how they run into each other during different points on their personal timelines. The Tenth Doctor met River for the first time in “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead,” but from her perspective, they’d already known each other for many, many years. Although River’s body died at the end of the two-parter, The Doctor was able to download her into a supercomputer. The virtual River later returned in the Eleventh Doctor-fronted episode “The Name of The Doctor,” and that remains her last chronological appearance on her personal timeline.

I can see where Alex Kingston is coming from with wanting to reprise River post-“The Name of The Doctor.” It was one thing for her to play a younger River just a few years after “Silence of the Library and Forest of the Dead,” but would be more difficult to pull off nearly 20 years after she debuted on the small screen. Kingston further explained her rationale:

Let’s also not forget that in “The Husbands of River Song,” River was initially unaware of any incarnations of The Doctor after the Eleventh because she wasn’t aware he’s received a new cycle of regenerations. After spending that 24-year-long night on Darillium with the Twelfth Doctor, she doesn’t cross paths with the Time Lord until meeting the Tenth in “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead.” So while the Big Finish productions have gotten away with pre-Tenth versions of The Doctor meeting River by having their memories of her erased, the only way around a fully-alive River being able to meet post-Twelfth Doctors is having her own memory erased after the adventure.

It would be much easier to use the digital version of River to get around all that convolution, whether she’s still non-corporeal or, like Alex Kingston suggested, has downloaded her consciousness into an artificial body. And sure, if any of the actors who played River’s cohorts from “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead,” bring them along too. I just want to see River share some screen time with the next Doctor, whomever that may be, after we missed out on seeing her with Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa’s versions.

As far as Doctor Who as a whole goes, the series will deliver a new Christmas special at the end of the 2026 TV schedule. However, it’s unclear how long afterwards we’ll have to wait for the next season, as well as who the BBC will team up with on the show now that the Disney+ partnership has dissolved. It also remains to be seen when Doctor Who fans stateside will be able to stream the spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea with their Disney+ subscription.