The Diary of River Song: Series 4

Another four-part story in which River does her best to avoid meeting the Doctor and, as one might expect, ultimately fails. So, yes, despite Tom Baker being on the cover, he's only in the last bit. Due partly to a weak villain with a difficult-to-understand vocal effect, this isn't quite as good as the first three volumes in the series, but it improves as it goes along.

• Time in a Bottle – To my mind, the first episode feels rather too much like what it is – an introduction to what follows, rather than something worthwhile in its own right. The pre-credits teaser brings in the main monsters for the arc, in a scene that's repeated later on in the story. As a scene, it's a good illustration of River's general attitude, refusing to be cowed by the monster, but the latter comes across as very cliched. Which, in fairness, is a deliberate point, but does nothing to make them stand out. From there we're off to a planet trapped in a time bubble from which a distress signal has been calling for River. There's a rather lengthy diversion with an alien colony on the planet, and the time bubble itself provides an unusual plot device, but ultimately there isn't too much to it. 3 stars.

• Kings of Infinite Space – Despite featuring the same villain/monster, the second episode is much stronger. Here, River and her cyborg companion are pursued across multiple planets by the villain, with each trip taking a physical toll on them that steadily mounts as the story progresses. There are a lot of different settings, each with their own guest characters and threats. Along the way, the story pokes fun at the “single biome” trope of Star Wars where, if the first part of a planet you see is a swamp, it follows that this must be a “swamp planet” that consists of nothing else. The method that the villain uses to track River also provides for an amusing side-plot, as well as harking back to a certain story from the 4th Doctor's era on TV. A good story with a sense of perpetual threat in the style of, say, The Chase. 4 stars.

• Whodunnit – A rather odd one this, as Melody Malone finds herself in an isolated house where there has recently been a couple of improbably contrived murders. She is accompanied by Franz Kafka and several obviously fictional detectives (from Peter Wimsey to Velma from Scooby Doo...) so it's clear from early on that there is more to the situation than meets the eye. So we get something that's a mixture of Kafka's works (his three most famous ones all feature in the plot) and Agatha Christie, with an SF twist. The themes of surrealism and alienation are more significant than the supposed central mystery, and become more so as the story progresses and the setting becomes stranger. As a result, it's quite hard to follow at times, but definitely intriguing. 4 stars.

• Someone I Once Knew – The final story is the one that most listeners will likely have been waiting for, as River, having met Doctors Eight through Five in the previous volumes, finally encounters the Fourth. Inevitably, there's something timey-wimey going on, since we know the Doctor won't remember meeting her later on, and, in this case, it's all do with the alien villains playing with time paradoxes. The Doctor gets to do things that were quite typical of his time on the show, and there's some fun banter with River, but, despite the action elements, at its core, this is a story about love. Indeed, as the narration states at the beginning, this is a love story, if not quite the one you might expect, and the villains manage to be more interesting than they were in the earlier episodes, producing something quite a lot stronger. 4.5 stars.