10 Times Doctor Who Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted

5. The Doctor And River On Darillium

Doctor Who The Husbands of River Song
BBC Studios

River Song's debut in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead brought with it more questions than answers. Who exactly was she? How did she know the Doctor so well? And would we ever see the character again?

Back then, there were no guarantees that River would return (even Alex Kingston thought it was a one-and-done) which would've been a massive shame considering all the backstory hints that were just begging to be expanded upon, not to mention how well she clicked with the Doctor.

One of those backstory hints was so important that River used her last living moments to tell the Doctor about it, describing a previous encounter where the Doctor - who knew her death was imminent - took her to see the Singing Towers of Darillium, where they spent their final night together:

"All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried."

This instantly became an offscreen adventure that fans were desperate to see, and in 2015, Steven Moffat - the king of the long-term payoff - delivered the goods.

Christmas special The Husbands of River Song depicted their Darillium getaway in stunning detail, rewarding those fans who'd spent the last seven years wondering if they'd ever get to see it brought to life. Jim the Fish next, please.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!