It has been announced that Alex Kingston and Arthur Darvill will be reprising their roles as River Song and Rory Williams for a new Doctor Who audio adventure, to be released in January 2027.
The Death and Life of River Song: River and Rory, a boxset of full-cast audio drama, will be made up of four adventures. These will be Bog Man written by Lizzie Hopley, Life Lessons written by Karissa Hamilton-Bannis, A Most Dangerous Game written by Robert Valentine, and The Tashpa Stone written by Shai Hussain and John Dorney.
The stories will be set between season 6 finale The Wedding of River Song and season 7 premiere Asylum of the Daleks, and will see River finding that her parents have separated and Rory is living with a friend in Birmingham.
As they attempt some father-daughter bonding, they also find they must get away from vicious enemies who are pursuing River.
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The synopsis for the adventures reads: “Just as Rory Williams is trying to get his life in order… his daughter crashes back into it! And River always brings trouble… From the busy city to the peace of Leadworth, someone is on her trail. And before long, River gives Rory a taste of her own lifestyle as they take a leap into time and space…”
This will be the first time that Alex Kingston and Arthur Darvill have starred together as River and Rory since 2012’s The Angels Take Manhattan, the last on-screen episode to feature Rory.
Producer David Richardson said in a statement: “I make no secret of the fact that I believe the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory and River are one of the greatest teams ever to have graced Doctor Who. It’s a thrill to be able to take a deep dive back into that era, reuniting Alex and Arthur for new stories with their much-loved characters.
“We’ve been trying to make this happen for some time – storylining began back in 2020! – but the stars have aligned and River and Rory was recorded over four joyful days in May.”
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Earlier this year, Darvill told Radio Times’ Doctor Who Insiders that he would “jump at the chance to return” to Doctor Who on screen alongside Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, “if the scripts were right”.
“It was funny, when we left, we all were like, ‘Nope, never going back. It was too good. We don’t want to ruin it,'” he said. “But now we’ve gone off and done our own things…
“Reminiscing is dangerous at times, but you look back and go, well, it was really formative and the most fun I’ve had on almost anything. I think it would be silly to rule it out. But it’s not in our hands. If the opportunity came up, yeah, of course, I think we’d all jump at the chance.”
The Death and Life of River Song: River and Rory is available to pre-order now.
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