January 22, 2026
The actor and recent star of Strictly Come Dancing shares all in the latest episode of The Whoniverse Show…
One of the Doctor Who fandom’s most beloved recurring characters is the Doctor’s on-again, off-again, timey-wimey love interest River Song. Played by Alex Kingston, River has reappeared in the Doctor’s lives several times – but almost never in the right order!
While River’s last appearance in Doctor Who was 2015’s The Husbands of River Song, the time-travelling archaeologist’s adventures have continued through her own series of audio dramas, plus two novels penned by Alex Kingston herself. But just how easy is it for the star to keep track of her character's journey?
Appearing as a special guest in the latest episode of The Whoniverse Show, Alex speaks to Christel Dee and Tia Kofi about her stint on Strictly, her upcoming novel Stormcage, and putting her trust in former showrunner and creator of River Song, Steven Moffat…
“The brain of Steven Moffat is something that you don’t even try to go into and understand,” jokes Alex in reference to River’s convoluted timeline. “So the way that I kept track was by not even bothering to keep track; just going in and trusting that Steven knew what it was he was doing.”
“The only way to stay sane was just to give into the storyline, and trust that it would make sense in the end.”
While Alex herself doesn’t dwell too hard on the timeline, she does pay credit to many of the River fans who have their own methods of keeping track.
“The thing I find extraordinary is a lot of fans watch it back-to-front, and it still makes sense then – [Moffat] is a genius like that”.
As to the possibility of River’s return to the TV series? Alex has spent plenty of her time on Big Finish’s The Diary of River Song contemplating all the possibilities for a future reunion with the Doctor…
“Of course I’m thinking ‘There’s still plenty of time for her to come back’ – how long’s a day on Darillium?” referencing River’s ‘Happy Ever After’ moment of a final night with the Twelfth Doctor (a night that lasted twenty-four years!).
“River could just be inside a computer; she could be a virus, go anywhere, hack into any computer anywhere in the universe, regenerate herself, 3D print herself? It’s endless – so just putting it out there!”
Watch the full interview in the latest episode of The Whoniverse Show.
