Yahoo News Alex Kingston avoided River Song-style performance in new Big Finish series
Doctor Who favourite Alex Kingston has taken extra care to ensure that her latest Big Finish role isn't like her beloved River Song character, no matter how tempting it may be.
Kingston, who plays the leading role in Big Finish's new series Transference, spoke exclusively to Digital Spy about her troubled new character Sam Ross, as well as the unique challenges she faces as a voice actor.
Sam Ross is a psychotherapist dedicated to helping others, but when a perfect storm of personal grief and a difficult client with a dark secret arises, Sam finds herself in the most terrible danger.
In other words, the only similarity between Sam and River Song is Alex Kingston herself.
Opening up about her approach to the drama's character, Alex explained that she was "very aware" of creating a distance between her separate Big Finish roles.
"Certainly with the Doctor Who/sci-fi world – a little bit like the television show as well – everything is slightly larger than life and, for the purposes of a listening audience, everything is a little bit heightened in terms of performance," she said.
"I was very aware of that and very keen to make sure that I didn't start to get that 'River Song'... the slightly heightened performance of that character into this."
Related: Doctor Who's Alex Kingston admits she was originally "conflicted" about Jodie Whittaker casting
Promising plenty of twists and turns, Alex also hinted that Transference will keep listeners guessing till the very end.
"At the very start of the story, [Sam] is suffering the tragedy of her dear sister having just died," Alex explained of her character.
"She's in a state of mourning and she's exhausted, she hasn't slept, but she's also still working and seeing her clients and so she's, in a sense, she's not functioning in her normal capacity and that then contributes to the story…
"It's very well-written," she added. "Because you don't know who's telling the truth, who's not, who's the fantasist even... So, it's got a lot of red herrings!"
Fortunately, Transference's over-arching mystery won't be left unsolved. "In terms of this story, it definitely has a beginning, a middle, and an end," Alex said, before adding that there is still "potential" for a second gripping chapter.
"For sure there's more [to tell]." she added.
Transference, starring Alex Kingston and Warren Brown, is out now and is available to buy from BigFinish.com.
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