Animal Instinct (audio story)

Animal Instinct was the second story of the audio anthology, The Diary of River Song: Series Five. It was written by Roy Gill and featured Alex Kingston as River Song and Geoffrey Beevers as the Decayed Master.

Publisher's summary
On a world where vicious beasts stalk ancient ruins, Professor Song teaches a student the finer points of archaeology.

But then she meets an incarnation of the Master who is desperate to survive.

And if they are going to escape this place alive, they all must work together.

Plot
River and Luke, a student who joined her as part of his practical exam, break into the tomb of a supposed Chasca Minorian sun god and attempt to take an Obsidian Mirror from the hands of the Master. The Master awakens, initially assuming that Luke is the Doctor because of his dress sense, and realises that his trap for the Doctor has failed thanks to the tomb being moved from Chasca Minor to Chasca Major some centuries ago. Believing herself responsible for any chaos that the Master might unleash, River makes Luke give the Master his clothes and knocks him out to provide security with a distraction whilst she and the Master escape.

Walking through the Feast Dance carnival, River agrees to take the Master to Chasca Minor in the Condor to recover his TARDIS. Captain Dav Christos does not believe that the Condor can make the journey, but the Master manipulates him and Adella Franz with promises of riches. They take off after Luke joins them and River confides in Luke that she has slipped a biotracer tag onto the Master so that she can track him with her vortex manipulator. A flare of gamma radiation causes them to crash and they find that the Master's relay system, which caused the flare, is keeping the moon in eternal daytime.

The group head to the Great Ziggurat of Chasca Minor and hide up a tree from a humanoid cat wearing glasses, but the Master knocks the injured Captain Christos down to be eaten, giving the others the opportunity to escape. The Master reveals that the humanoid cats, called Therians, are a mutated strain of the Chasca Majorians who were dumped on the moon and he created the relay to keep them from being feral as they are in the night. However, their glasses counteract this.

to be completed

Cast

 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
 * Luke Sullieman - Timothy Blore
 * Dav Christos / Therian Leader - Delroy Atkinson
 * Adella Franz / Therian - Emily Woodward

Continuity

 * River calls herself a psychopath. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * River is a fan of handcuffs. (TV: Forest of the Dead, Flesh and Stone)
 * The Master agrees that disguises are fun. (TV: Terror of the Autons, etc.)
 * River says that legends often end up being the Doctor. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * River reveals to the Master that she married the Doctor. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * The Master suggests that he should look into River's background. He will eventually do so by the time of his War incarnation. (AUDIO: Concealed Weapon)
 * The Master will later be stranded on another planet inhabited by human-feline hybrids, the Cheetah World. (TV: Survival)