10 Best Doctor Who Minisodes That You Need To See

First Night and Last Night are two of the five shorts that form Night And The Doctor - a series of mini sides included with the DVD release of Series 6. They explore The Doctor and River’s first and (supposedly) last dates, with the two nights colliding unexpectedly.

In First Night, The Doctor visits River on her first night in Stormcage Prison, offering to take her on a date to see the starriest night in the universe. It’s here that he explains to her what her blue diary is for, before suggesting she is more than capable of escaping Stormcage whenever she wishes - something she would go on to do many, many times. He gives her a new dress and whisks her away in the TARDIS.

Moments after landing, a future version of River comes barging in, pursued by a hail of gunfire, whilst past River is rifling through the wardrobe. Future River collapses in the Doctor’s arms and the credits roll, leaving the Doctor to navigate this potential minefield.

In part two: Last Night, it is revealed that River is faking her injuries in hope of receiving CPR. She gets up, noticing the Stormcage River’s dress hanging on a handrail and assuming he is taking another woman on a date, and storms off to find the supposed hussy. At this point a third River arrives through the TARDIS doors, insisting the Doctor is late. Flustered, The Doctor asks her to check the bulb on top of the TARDIS, before quickly sending River number two back to prison via her vortex manipulator.

As River number three re-enters, she is followed by an older version of the Doctor, who tells her that this is the wrong TARDIS. River, after getting over the fact that there are two Doctors, cheerfully mentions that the Doctor is taking her to the Singing Towers of Darillium - which we know to be the last place the Doctor took River before her death in the library.

For a time, this was fully intended as River’s final adventure with The Doctor, though this was explained away as having been cancelled by the Doctor when we later received a full episode focused around Darilluum - The Husbands of River Song. Despite this, the impact of this moment is not softened, as the two Doctors share a knowing, sad look in acknowledgement that River will soon go to her death.

This minisode is a lot of fun, going some way to giving the impression that Eleven and River had a lot of off-screen adventures, something that sometimes is difficult to buy in the main show - it also plugs some gaps in River’s timeline that probably didn’t need their own full episode, such as her arrival at Stormcage and first date with the Doctor. It’s a hoot to see Eleven presented with a domestic scenario like this, as he tries to prevent his missus and his girlfriend from meeting each other - though, in typical Doctor Who fashion, they are of course the same person (and them meeting probably involves the destruction of half the universe, or something...)

In summary, the more of Smith and Kingston we get, the better.