Carnival of Angels (audio story)

Carnival of Angels was the fourth and final story of the audio anthology The Diary of River Song: Series Seven. It was written by Roy Gill and featured Alex Kingston as River Song.

Publisher's summary
New York. 1930s. Melody Malone is new in town and her detective agency is called on to solve an impossible murder.

River's investigations lead her to a curious carnival ride, offering trips to either Heaven or Hell. But with Angels in waiting, Heaven may not be the best choice...

Plot
Operating a detective agency in 1939 New York City with Luke as her secretary, River agrees to take on the case of Marty Stone, who saw himself being murdered by a group of people in an alley and was told by him to remember that it would be a "one-way trip". He hands River a coin that his other-self gave him, one side of which says "Heaven" whilst the other says "Hell", and she tells Luke that she suspects that the Weeping Angels are involved and responsible for the inexplicable temporal instability in the city.

Luke goes to investigate the coin and is pointed towards the carnival, where he meets Tab Kowalski and Dean Cray. Quirke has him tortured for information when she finds out about him enquiring about the tokens and, when he briefly takes on the form of a Therian, she invites him to join her freakshow. He refuses and she lets him go, having Dean kill Kowalski with his electrical hands.

River takes Marty to Coney Island and joins him in doing everything that he would usually do. Upon learning of a ride to Heaven or Hell which one can access using tokens hidden in their change, River gets change for a dollar and finds one, but Marty is scared when they are told that the way to Heaven is a one-way trip and runs away into a mirror maze. River gives chase, but he is sent back in time by a Weeping Angel when he looks away from it to dispose of the token. He is attacked by a group of people and attempts to warn his past self with his dying words.

Luke joins River in the maze and inadvertently stops the Angel by making it look at its reflection. She reasons that the Angel is likely one of a minor order given that it only sent Marty so far back in time, meaning that one of the Major Arcana is somewhere in the carnival. They find Dean, who explains that he killed his parents with his power as a child and was taken in by Quirke, and goes with them to the Heaven and Hell ride where people are fed to a huge Angel inside a tower. They run into Quirke and learn that she has an arrangement with the Angel, known as the Host, to be taken back in time to return to her lost planet.

River is put on the ride and assumed to have been sent back in time when her carriage returns empty, but in actuality she discreetly replaced the token with a psychic pound coin and returns through the gift shop. Quirke has Dean drain the electricity so that the Host can walk amongst the visitors in the dark and prey upon them, making River realise that he is a Coulombcopian and that his parents would no doubt have survived his powers. Knowing that Quirke lied to him, Dean stops and they go looking for the Host, which goes to the beach and kills Quirke for her failure. It is frozen in place when River has Dean release the electricity onto the sand, turning the sand into fulgurite.

With the Host's defeat being temporary, River considers it to be her responsibility and intends on remaining in New York City to find out how to defeat it and the other Angels. She sends Luke and Dean to her shuttle, suggesting that they find the Coulombcopian fleet, and Luke asks her to look for him after she has dealt with things in New York. The tide starts to come in and the Host will soon be submerged in water.

Cast

 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Luke Sullieman - Timothy Blore
 * Miss Quirke - Issy Van Randwyck
 * Dean Cray - Daniel Easton
 * Marty Stone - Clive Hayward
 * Tab Kowalski - Glen McCready

Uncredited

 * Fairground workers - Glen McCready (BFX: The Diary of River Song: Series Seven)

Worldbuilding

 * River accesses the Starfire Database.
 * Marty is a musician.
 * Marty is in a relationship with Betty.
 * Luke did not study Christmas.
 * The Wire-worms of Maxwell V believe that life is circular.
 * River says that Dean is handsome in a "Farley Granger sort of way". Granger starred in Strangers on a Train, a classic film that ends with a chase on a merry-go-round.
 * River uses her sonic pen torch.
 * River has a psychic pound coin.
 * Dean is a Coulombcopian.

Continuity

 * Luke used to be River's student. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct)
 * Time disturbances in New York City are causing trouble with River's vortex manipulator. The Eleventh Doctor would later have the same problem with his TARDIS. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * Luke is still somewhat Therian. (AUDIO: Animal Instinct)
 * River uses her sonic pen torch, which Luke is familiar with. (AUDIO: Carnival of Angels)
 * Miss Quirke tells River that the Angels know her. (TV: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone)