10 Times the Doctor Visited America

The Doctor has been all over time and space. Though the Time Lord hasn’t traveled to the Revolutionary War or the signing of the Declaration of Independence (as far as we know), the Doctor has been to the United States a small number of times. So to celebrate the Fourth of July, let’s revisit some of the times the Doctor came stateside. 

The Chase

It was a brief visit while on the run from the Daleks, but the First Doctor and his companions briefly ended atop the Empire State Building. The TARDIS crew encountered Steven Taylor’s 20th Century American doppelgänger before flying off in the TARDIS again.

The Gunfighters

Every science fiction epic needs a cheesy western story apparently. I can’t exactly recommend this one as a good Doctor Who story (not just because it features Dodo) but it definitely covers plenty of western cliches. And all because the First Doctor had a toothache. 

TV Movie

Of course this story took place in San Francisco when Fox had a chance to produce the Eighth Doctor’s adventures. While the movie was obviously not picked up to be produced in America, it kept the franchise alive enough to be revived by the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. We’ll never know how the franchise would have been different if the movie had succeeded, but I would love to revisit the Doctor’s friends in California. 

Dalek

Bringing back the most iconic Doctor Who villain, the Ninth Doctor and Rose ended up in the near future (now in the past) in an underground vault near Salt Lake City. It showed a different side of Rose and the Dalek. Unfortunately, this story introduced us to the worst TARDIS companions since Dodo, the infamous Adam Mitchell. 

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

Despite this story featuring Spider-Man in New York City, it might be one of the cringiest and forgettable Dalek stories ever (except for maybe the Churchill one with the Dalek Power Rangers). Who’d have thought the Daleks would be involved in the construction of the Empire State Building? And just a few decades before the First Doctor would chance upon it. 

The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

We start out in Utah again before heading to the White House and the FBI. And a conspiracy involving the moon landing and the most forgettable aliens. It was the beginning of the mystery surrounding the Doctor’s supposed death. No other Doctor has visited the Oval Office and only the Eleventh Doctor could handle it with that amount of poise.

A Town Called Mercy

Unlike “The Gunfighters” this Western story was decently enjoyable. It wasn’t my favorite of the Eleventh Doctor stories by any means, but it was a fun adventure in Nevada towards the end of Amy and Rory’s time traveling in the TARDIS. And this story had an alien twist on the Western, unlike the First Doctor’s toothache. 

The Angels Take Manhattan

Back to New York City for Amy and Rory’s farewell. For fans of the Ponds, it was an emotional farewell. For fans of the Statue of Liberty, you’ll never see the monument the same way again. And if you’ve been to New York, you know there are enough statues peppered through the city to give you nightmares after meeting the Weeping Angels. It’s a shame we haven’t seen them in such a central role since Manhattan though. 

Rosa

Say what you will about the Thirteenth Doctor’s tenure, but this is one of my favorite historical stories of Doctor Who ever. Because of the mixed races in the TARDIS team, we got a great vantage point to the story of Rosa Parks. I don't care what anyone says about Jodie Whittaker’s time on Doctor Who, this story was beautifully and tragically written, especially when Graham had to take the last seat on the bus. 

Lux

In case anyone is a little behind on Doctor Who this year, I’ll try to avoid being too specific here. But bringing our first purely non-white TARDIS team to the American south was brilliant. Though the story was based in 1950s Miami, very little had to do with the racial attitudes. I felt like there was a sprinkling of awareness before getting a commentary on storytelling and the fourth wall. I definitely need to watch this season again. 

So while my family is still more likely to watch Captain America or Independence Day for the Fourth of July, I enjoy the fact that the Whovian in me has some options too. Maybe I’ll watch some Weeping Angels in Manhattan while my wife and older daughter are out watching fireworks this weekend. Or it’s a good time to revisit Rosa Parks. Or maybe I should just keep working through the Fourth Doctor so that TJ and I can podcast about more Doctor Who. However you spend your Independence Day, I’m grateful we’re able to celebrate at all. Happy Fourth of July!

LDS Geeks Podcast #40: Twenty Years of Modern Who

I'm not sure any other franchise could celebrate its 60th anniversary and then its 20th anniversary two years later. Doctor Who is special like that and it fits the franchise well. So TJ and I had stop to talk about the modern era of Doctor Who, since we're not done with the Fourth Doctor's tenure yet. Enjoy!

--Spencer 

Friday Creature Feature - Sontarans

"And if I'm ever in the need of advice from a psychotic potato dwarf, you'll certainly be the first to know."
--Eleventh Doctor ("The Snowmen")

With over sixty years of content and upgrades in special effects, much has changed about Doctor Who. What once was cardboard backgrounds (see "Keys of Marinus" where you can clearly tell Ian and Barbara are walking in place) is now CGI and cinematic quality. Even the villains have changed drastically (see Silurians and Cybermen). Besides the Daleks (who think they're perfect already), one of the few who hasn't changed much is the Sontarans.

What are Sontarans?

These walking potatoes are a clone race built solely for battle. They're prideful and would rather die honorable in battle than to surrender. Their planet, Sontar, is dense with strong gravitational pull, resulting in their stocky troll-like build. They breathe through a probic vent in the back of their neck (if you can call that a neck). That vent is their big weakness, as a quick whack to it can temporarily incapacitate the baked potato.

A recurring gag ever since their conception in the 1970s is their inability to perceive differences in gender; notable examples are when Sarah Jane meets them in "The Time Warrior" and when multiple versions of Clara interact with Strax in the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras. The Doctor brashly chalked this up to being a clone race and "Two genders is a bit further than he can count."

They're described as the finest soldiers of the galaxy, which makes sense since that's what they're bred to do. Their mortal enemy is Rutan Host, but they've been at war so long (50 000+ years) that no one even knows why they're fighting anymore. 

The Doctor and the Sontarans

On-screen the Doctor's first encounter with the Sontarans was when the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane ended up in the Middle Ages and thwarted the plans of Commander Lynx. The Doctor would later meet the Sontarans sporadically through the almost fifty years of television, encountering seven other incarnations of the Doctor, and Sarah Jane would even meet a lone Sontaran after her time in the TARDIS during The Sarah Jane Adventures.

One notable recurring Sontaran is fan-favorite Strax (TJ and I love him at least). Indebted to the Doctor and later companion of Vastra and Jenny, Strax assisted the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors on occasion. While I don't know if you could say Strax was a "good guy" he's probably the most civil Sontaran to have existed--though he did like to go to Scotland get in fights, while living in Victorian England. His temperamental and violent nature still shined through his butler facade frequently, which made for plenty of comical moments. Vastra, Jenny, the Doctor, and Clara tended to keep him in line, but how much can you really reform a Sontaran?

It's been a few regenerations since we last saw Strax, but I think it would be worth having him and his friends back again. It's only been a couple years since we last saw other Sontarans, but Strax and his grenades will always have a special place in my heart. As such, I'll leave you with another great Strax-related quote.

"I'm the clever one, you're the potato one."
--Eleventh Doctor ("The Snowmen")

LDS Geeks Podcast #16: Interview with a Dalek

Instead of continuing my adventures through Classic Doctor Who with TJ (because sometimes life gets obnoxiously busy), I had a chance meeting with someone who got to be an extra in the Moffat era of Doctor Who (pictures below with some of his appearances). He agreed to be my guest on the podcast, even though he's not a Latter-day Saint. I hope you enjoy my interview with Harry, who was once a Dalek. Please excuse/enjoy our tangents about parenting.

--Spencer

Friday Creature Feature - Clara's Snowmen

After doing my creature feature about Calvin’s snowmen, it only made sense to do a post about the snowmen from Doctor Who. However, as much as I enjoy Clara’s snowmen, this post will probably spend more time exploring the intelligence behind the snowmen, instead of the creatures themselves. But first to the snowmen:

The Snowmen

So once upon a time in Victorian England, a non-sentient snow-like alien substance fell to Earth and its telepathetic field latched onto a lonely (and possibly disturbed) boy. With the telepathic “snow” mirroring his thoughts over the ensuing fifty years, the alien substance started taking on a mind of its own. By the time the Eleventh Doctor and Clara took on this “intelligence” it’s able to create carnivorous snowmen just at a thought. End goal: the “snow” wanted to become the ultimate combination of human and ice (sounds like a Power Rangers villain, to be honest). This all culminated with an ice lady chasing after the Doctor and Clara. After Clara fell to her death (again), her family’s grief over her loss spilled into the telepathetic field, melting the snowmen and the Intelligence. 

But the Doctor rightly theorized the Intelligence didn’t stop there. It’s hard to say where things went next though…

Miss Kizlet and the Wi-Fi

In 21st Century England, the wi-fi started absorbing people’s minds. The person seemingly behind it, Miss Kizlet, said she was feeding those minds to her “client” who was later revealed to be the Great Intelligence. Again, the Great Intelligence was acting like a parasite, feeding off the mind of a child; when Kizlet’s mind was “reset” she was mentally a kid again, after facing the Eleventh Doctor. No idea what happened to the Great Intelligence at that point.

Whispermen on Trenzalore

The next time the Eleventh Doctor saw the Great Intelligence was “The Day of the Doctor” when lured to Trenzalore with Clara. After the Great Intelligence got into the Doctor’s time stream (possibly explaining the Second Doctor’s encounters with the Great Intelligence), Clara jumped in to resolve the interference. So yay? No sign of the Great Intelligence since the Eleventh Doctor era though.

The Abominable Snowmen in Tibet

Way back when, an expedition in Tibet led by Professor Travers hunted down a supposed yeti. Turns out, the Yeti was a robot controlled by the Great Intelligence. The Second Doctor, his companions, and Travers take the yeti and the Intelligence out of commission. And as the Doctor and the TARDIS team departed, Travers started hunting down a real yeti.

Webs in the London Underground

Decades after Travers explored Tibet, his souvenir Yeti robot got activated again and the Great Intelligence (somehow reawakened–not entirely clear on how this happened). By the time the Second Doctor and his friends arrived on the scene, the London Underground was covered in massive cobwebs. Eventually the Doctor was able to trick the Intelligence and stop its plans. Oh and we also got the introduction of a longstanding ally to the Doctor: Allistair Lethbridge-Stewart (before he was Brigadier).

Other than the obvious progression of Trenzalore happening after the snowmen and the London Underground happening after Tibet, these incidents with the Great Intelligence are very timey-wimey. Difficult to place their order. But there’s every chance the Intelligence could return again. Especially with the wibbly-wobbly nature of its stories. 

Unpopular Opinions: Doctor Who

With Flux finally on HBO Max, I’ve taken the opportunity to begin rewatching the Thirteenth Doctor’s run in preparation for the Centenary Special and her regeneration. Like with the other Doctors, I’ll be writing a post about Thirteen’s adventures. In the meantime, I’ve pulled together some of my potentially unpopular opinions regarding the Doctor Who franchise, classic and modern. For simplicity, I’m going to use female pronouns for the Doctor (unless I'm talking about a specific regeneration), in keeping with her current regeneration. 

I don’t want to know the Doctor’s name

Over the years she has been known as the Doctor, Dr. Who, and John Smith. However, we’ve yet to learn her name. During the Eleventh Doctor era, we were led to believe we’d learn the Doctor’s name, only to find his darkest secret was a regeneration he’d buried deep down. As enticing as the Doctor’s name is, I think it’s better left a mystery. If we learned anything with the Timeless Child arc, it’s that the Whovian fandom will not agree on anything. Better to leave it a mystery.

Timeless Child is just fine

Speaking of the Timeless Child, let’s get into that. I took a long time to watch the Timeless Child arc, as I waited until it was on HBO Max. By then I’d seen rumors and spoilers about the Timeless Child and who they were. Also saw so many complaints about the writing team breaking Who canon… let’s be clear guys… there’s nothing in the Timeless Child that breaks canon. The Doctor Who canon and mythos is constantly evolving. Easy example: Regeneration wasn’t even thought of until William Hartnell got sick and needed to leave the show. So to add infinite regenerations before Hartnell and infinite regenerations afterwards, not really a problem for me. That being said, I didn’t like how it was revealed. It was a lot of exposition and the Master talking, instead of giving us pieces bit by bit until the Doctor puts it all together, which feels more Doctor Who.

Amy is overrated and lasted too long

For a long while, it seemed like all Doctor Who fans would know was the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. So when she and Rory left, Clara was judged. In addition, these viewers who disregarded the previous Doctors (even the modern ones) created oodles of memes that made it seem like Matt Smith was the only Doctor. So while Amy Pond may be the favorite of many, she’s not my favorite. I didn’t like her throwing herself at the Doctor, while engaged and married to Rory. He deserved better. But you can read more about my opinions on Amy if you check out my Eleventh Doctor post.

Stop shipping the Doctor

It started with the Eighth Doctor kissing Grace, but then in modern Doctor Who it got out of control. Rose and Martha fell in love with Ten, Amy tried to jump Eleven, and now we’ve got Thirteen and Yaz. Thankfully that’s not even half the modern companions, but it’s enough that it’s become a stereotype. Every once in a while was one thing, but it happened so often between Ten and Eleven that it’s almost expected in the modern era.

Five, Seven, and Eight are underrated

When you talk to someone about classic Doctor Who, they’ll likely think of William Hartnell or Tom Baker, the first Doctor and the longest Doctor respectively. But they aren’t my favorite classic Doctors. My favorite would be between Peter Davison, Sylverster McCoy, or (if you include him in the classic era) Paul McGann. “Earthshock,” “Arc of Infinity,” “The Happiness Patrol,” “Remembrance of the Daleks,” and the TV movie among my favorites. So if you’re checking out classic Who, don’t limit yourself to just the Fourth Doctor (as cool as he is) and give the others a shot too.

What are your unpopular opinions of the Doctor Who franchise? Any overrated companions and Doctors? An episode you love that no one else does? Drop it in the comments and wait for someone to argue. In the meantime, I’m going to continue my re-watch of the Thirteenth Doctor (next up, “The Tsuranga Conundrum”).

Sarah Jane Smith Binge List

This month would have marked the 76th birthday of Elizabeth Sladen, who played fan-favorite Sarah Jane Smith alongside seven different Doctors and got her own spin-off Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA) during the early years of Modern Who. In honor of her birthday, I wanted to highlight some of her best stories that I want to rewatch someday soon.

Third Doctor Era (Season 11)

The Time Warrior - Naturally you need to start with her first appearance. She snuck into UNIT and teamed up with the Third Doctor, almost by accident.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - This was my favorite of Sarah Jane’s early stories. To say the special effects are dated would be an understatement, but the story is solid

Planet of the Spiders - Sarah Jane’s first experience with the Doctor regenerating (also the first time “regeneration” was a canon term). It also gave us the only TV appearance of the Hermit.

Fourth Doctor Era (Seasons 12-14)

Robot - Can’t talk about Sarah Jane without addressing the beginning of the Fourth Doctor and the introduction of Harry Sullivan.

Genesis of the Daleks - One of Sarah Jane’s iconic stories, featuring Davros for the first time and the backstory of the Daleks.

The Android Invasion - In some ways, this one was freakier than Blink. But that’s just one Whovian's opinion.

The Hand of Fear - After her final adventure with the Fourth Doctor, it was sad to leave Sarah Jane behind, especially since she was left in the wrong place.

A Girl’s Best Friend - It was supposed to be a pilot for a spin-off series, but Sarah Jane wouldn’t get that spin-off until the modern era. But this Christmas special did get Sarah Jane her K-9, who would keep on reappearing.

Fifth Doctor Era (20th Anniversary)

The Five Doctors - Sarah Jane only had one appearance during Peter Davison’s run. She teamed up with the Third Doctor in the Death Zone, before returning to her home again. She would not be seen again in the Classic era.

Tenth Doctor Era (Series 2-4, SJA Series 1-3)

School Reunion - The Tenth Doctor, Rose, and Mickey teamed up with Sarah Jane and K-9. I would love more episodes like this, bringing Classic companions back for one-off stories.

SJA Series 1 - The first installment of the Sarah Jane Adventures introduced Luke, Maria, and Clyde. If you were to only watch a couple stories from this season I’d recommend  “Invasion of the Bane”, “Revenge of the Slitheen”, and “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?”

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End - Sarah Jane and Luke guest star in this epic Doctor Who crossover, along with the companions of the main series and the team from Torchwood. 

SJA Series 2 - This season said goodbye to Maria and hello to Rani. Some of the must-sees from this period include “The Last Sontaran”, “The Day of the Clown”, and “The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith” (which explains why she was raised by her aunt).

SJA Series 3 - This season took place during the year of Tenth Doctor specials. Without a companion, he showed up in the Sarah Jane Adventures. “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith” saw him team up with Sarah Jane and her friends.

The End of Time - Sarah Jane and Luke only briefly show up during the Tenth Doctor’s farewell tour, but this heartbreaking scene is still worth watching.

Eleventh Doctor Era (SJA Series 4-5)

SJA Series 4 - With Luke off for early admission at Oxford, Sarah Jane had a smaller team. But that didn’t stop her from facing off against her alien foes. Highlights for this season are “The Nightmare Man”, “The Empty Planet”, and of course “Death of the Doctor”, which featured the return of Jo Grant and the appearance of the Eleventh Doctor.

SJA Series 5 - This season was cut short, due to Elizabeth Sladen’s passing. In “Sky” she adopted a little alien girl (named “Sky”) and “The Man Who Never Was” gave her a loving tribute at the end.

Sometime after this, Sarah Jane Smith reportedly died. We don’t know how she died, but some speculated she had been taken by the Doctor again. Her funeral was attended by many of the Doctor’s companions and her team. Her funeral was described in a webcast in 2020. A beautiful goodbye to a beautiful companion. We miss you, Sarah Jane. We miss you, Elizabeth Sladen.

6 Doctor Who Stories No Longer Set in the Future

Time travel stories can get kind of messy. Especially if they last long enough that the supposed future becomes history. Back to the Future showed us that we expected too much out of the future, as 2015 arrived with no flying cars, hoverboards, or TV sunglasses. Doctor Who, on the other hand, has been able to avoid seeming outdated (other than the special effects), as the future became the past. 

The Tenth Planet - First Doctor - 1986

As the First Doctor’s tenure drew to a close and the team at BBC figured out how to prolong Doctor Who past Hartnell, the TARDIS team ended up in Antarctica. This secret science base in the frozen South Pole encountered the Cybermen and fought them off. In doing so, the Doctor’s aged body died from exhaustion and he regenerated. 

Battlefield - Seventh Doctor - 1997

The Doctor and Ace traveled to the far future of the 1990s as they uncovered the truth (at least partially) of an Arthurian legend. In the process they learned that Merlin was potentially a future incarnation of the Doctor. Though the Brigadier was involved, the little skirmish in rural Britain was not enough to garner any great attention, leaving the event relatively unknown.

TV Movie - Eighth Doctor - 1999

A Y2K story like many movies of the time I’m sure. This movie came out in 1996, three years before its setting. Taking place in the near future, there wasn’t a lot of crazy tech for us to expect. So while the Eighth Doctor, Grace, and Lee were facing off against the Master and his stolen body, the rest of the world celebrated the new millennium. But we didn’t stick around in 2000 long enough for the Doctor to make an imprint (except on Grace’s lips).

Dalek - Ninth Doctor - 2012

On one of his early adventures with Rose, they went to the near future where they met a Dalek in an underground bunker in Utah. Like the TV movie, we didn’t go far enough into the future for any outrageous guesses at future technology, but we did see a large collection of alien tech. While this episode aired while I was still in high school, the episode took place while I was at BYU. To think, I was mere hours away from the Ninth Doctor and the TARDIS. If I'd known he was closeby… Well, I guess what’s done is done. No TARDIS for me.

Fear Her - Tenth Doctor - 2012

Rose and the Doctor got caught in another scuffle in the near future. An innocent lonely little girl empowered by a child-like lonely alien nearly defeated them. But a mother’s love saved what could have been a disaster, including the end of the Olympic Torch. The Doctor ended up delivering the Torch in the end… though it seems some butterfly effect happened somewhere before real-world 2012, as David Tennant never got to deliver the Torch in real life. Wibbly wobbly. Side note: The 2012 Torch also appeared in mini-episode “Good as Gold” featuring Eleven and Amy against a Weeping Angel.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Eleventh Doctor - 2020

As if we didn’t have enough going on with COVID and killer hornets last year (whatever happened to the hornets anyway?), we didn’t even get news coverage of the unruly ground in Wales. Thanks to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory (but also note Rory?) we didn’t have a Silurian incursion. Instead, the Doctor was able to manage to delay the conflict until mankind was ready to share. Good, because 2020 didn’t need anything crazier.

As always, I can’t wait to see what Doctor Who comes up with next. My goal is to catch up on the Thirteenth Doctor so I can bid her goodbye around the same time as the rest of you. And then next up: Russell T Davies and the Fourteenth Doctor.

River Song Binge List

I recently finished up the Tenth Doctor era of Doctor Who, which leads me straight into the Eleventh Doctor. He’s not my favorite (Ten is my favorite), but Eleven has some great stories too (after all he had Clara Oswald and the 50th Anniversary Special). One of the highlights of the Eleventh Doctor era has to be River Song. She’s feisty, she’s adventurous, and she’s mysterious. A few years back a roommate brought up the idea of watching River Song’s story chronologically. I still haven’t done it, but I still want to. This isn’t for new fans, but there’ll be some hardcore Whovians who want this.

1. A Good Man Goes to War (Series 6, Episode 7)
Gotta start with her story as a baby. She also appears as an adult here, but I’m going to ignore that for a moment. But as Kovarian’s people have Amy and Baby Melody, the Doctor and Rory end up pulling together a rescue team.

2. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (Series 6, Episodes 1-2)
Again we’ve got River Song from different ages. Right now I’m going to focus on kid Melody. So while adult River is helping the Doctor with all his shenanigans, young Melody is trapped in her spacesuit until she eventually regenerates at the end of Episode 2.

3. Let’s Kill Hitler (Series 6, Episode 8)
After Melody’s regeneration, she ends up in the 21st Century where she grows up alongside her parents. So through the Amy/Rory flashbacks here, we see Mels grow up. Eventually, when she ends up in the TARDIS with the Ponds and the Doctor, they head to WWII and fight Hitler. And then during the gunshots, Mels regenerates into River Song.

4. Closing Time (Series 6, Episode 12)
This episode focuses mostly on the Doctor and Craig and Stormaggedon fighting the Cybermen. However, at the end we get River Song studying in the 52nd Century before Madam Kovarian takes her to kill the Doctor.

5. The Wedding of River Song (Series 6, Episode 13)
Not missing a beat after “Closing Time”, we lead into Lake Silencio, but from a different River Song perspective in the spacesuit. She breaks the fixed point in time to save the Doctor and (long story short) she ends up marrying him in the broken timeline.

6. A Good Man Goes to War (Series 6, Episode 7)
We’ve come first circle. After their wedding and the Doctor’s “death”, River Song is in prison and the Doctor takes her out for dates. After one of them, she sees her father Rory trying to recruit her for a rescue mission to get Amy and Baby Melody (not knowing who she really is). As such she refuses to join the mission, but later shows up to reveal her identity to Amy and Rory.

7. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (Series 6, Episodes 1-2)
Returning to this two-part episode, we’re following adult River now back to Lake Silencio (from another perspective) and then back to 1969 to chase down a mystery. The TARDIS team learns about a little girl in a spacesuit and a new monster they call the Silence. Everything works out in the end, even if it involves killing the Silence. For now.

8. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (Series 5, Episodes 12-13)
Somewhere along the lines, River Song heads back to 102 AD and pretends to be Cleopatra. She leads the Doctor and Amy to Stonehenge and the Pandorica. She ends up getting trapped in the TARDIS while reality slowly falls apart, until the Doctor rescues her and restarts the universe.

9. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (Series 5, Episodes 4-5)
The Doctor and his new-ish companion Amy Pond team up with River Song against the Weeping Angels. He doesn’t know who she is at this point, but she knows. So they beat the Weeping Angels and all is well (for now) but “spoilers”.

10. The Wedding of River Song (Series 6, Episode 13)
Just at the end of this episode, River Song appears claiming to have come straight from the Weeping Angels adventure. It’s a short scene but River reveals that the Doctor isn’t actually dead. Spoilers again.

11. The Angels Take Manhattan (Series 7, Episode 5)
The Doctor, the Ponds, and River get caught up in a back and forth time travel story between 2012 and the 1930s. It’s a sad episode for the Doctor, as he and River say goodbye to her parents (although there’s nothing to say she didn’t go visit them later, I suppose)

12. The Husbands of River Song (Christmas Special 2015)
For the first time, River doesn’t recognize the Doctor. She and the Twelfth Doctor end up in the middle of a con in a 54th Century Christmas. The episode ends with his final date with her (gifting her a sonic screwdriver) before she goes off to the Library, where he first met her.

13. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (Series 4, Episodes 8-9)
River shows up at the Library and meets the Tenth Doctor and Donna. In the fight against the Vashta Narada, I think she slowly realizes that it’s her end. By the end of the story, she knows she needs to sacrifice herself so the Doctor can live on and meet her properly.

14. The Name of the Doctor (Series 7, Episode 13)
After her death and upload into the Library, she gets called on by Madame Vastra and a phantom of her gets roped into a visit to Trenzalore where she coaches Clara along the way. And finally at the end, at least as far as we know, she says goodbye to the Doctor and gets closure.

Which was your favorite River Song adventure? If they were to show her again, how would you like it to happen? I know she’s met other Doctors in the audio stories. Can anyone recommend one of those for me?