Doctor Who The Nu-Humans review

Oh Doctor, when will you ever learn..? How many times will you fall for the same old thing? How many times will you need to land on an alien planet and find a dead body before you figure out not to examine it, just in case you’re accused of murder?
At least once more, it seems, because this is how this adventure begins, too. I sometimes think that the Doctor does this on purpose..!
So, here we have the Doctor, Amy and Rory landing on an earth like planet and getting involved in the goings on in a mining and terraforming colony. But a colony with a difference. Writers Cavan Scott and Mark Wright have managed to take that other cliché of sci-fi – terraforming – and find a neat new twist on it. And the twist serves to open up an interesting story direction, and one that I find myself exploring again and again: That of identity.
Don’t panic though! Yes, there are Themes. As well as one of identity, there’s a strong political message running through the proceedings, but there is also a lot of that other Doctor Who staple: running.
There is a lot of running. There are Big Flying Things and there is enough humour and plot turns to keep the listener hanging on until the end.
The characters are will written – The Doctor’s lines are authentically Doctor-ish and Amy is as annoying and Rory as likeable as they should be.
The story is narrated by Raquel Cassidy who does a good job. She injects the right amount of emotion and/or excitement into the narrative, and there is never an instance of the listener getting confused – which in a one-off story of this length (it’s over an hour long) is no mean feat, I think.
All in all, this is a worthy addition to the AudioGo range.

Doctor Who Darkstar Academy review

This audio adventure from AudioGo sees the Doctor and his companions Rory and Amy in the very familiar surrounds of an English boy’s boarding school sometime in the mid twentieth century. There are, what I hope are, deliberate nods to The Family of Blood with things like armed schoolboys roaming the grounds.
Of course, this being Doctor Who, things are not what they seem and everything is not as it first appears. There is a pretty good twist in this, so I won’t ruin it here, although I almost did a second or two ago when I was going to write how it reminded me of a particular movie.
The story plays out nicely, and there are some genuinely creep monsters in it. I often think when listening to these that they would be cool to see on television,  but on this occasion, I suspect that the monsters would be one that would provoke a bit of an outcry from being too scary. (Rant coming on) This outcry would only come from a small amount of people, probably with no children themselves and who don’t actually watch the show and who have forgotten what it was actually like to be a child and the thrill of the safe scare on shows such as Doctor Who… but I digress!
It’s a solid story, and the characters are well written, with the Doctor getting some brilliant Doctor-y lines. The story is read by Alexander Armstrong, who also does a fine job, but it’s hard not to imagine it being read by Mr Smith the computer at times!
Another solid release from AudioGo.

Doctor Who The Art of Death review

This is a great little story.
James Goss has written a cracking tale that really feels like it belongs in the Moffat era Who - being that it is based around a very clever, as the Doctor would have it, ‘timey whimey’ idea.
We have characters moving in different directions and at different speeds through time, with only Penelope, our narrator, remaining constant. This makes for some lovely scenes as she meets characters for the first time after they have already met her and vice-versa.
Now, I know that I have said previously, that these things benefit from being read by a Doctor, but on this occasion, I don’t think that is the case. This is very much Penelope’s story, so to have it read by Matt Smith would, I feel, have diluted her tale.
This would have been particularly true when we eventually got to the end and the secret of what was really happening was revealed. And like all good reveals, this was one that I should have seen coming.
Which brings us to Raquel Cassidy, the narrator. She is excellent here. As alluded to above, her acting is wonderful as she inhabits the main character and really makes the reader feel for her.
And as I am sure you have picked up from the rest of this review, Goss’s script is bang on. He has found the voices for the main characters with seeming ease. His Eleventh Doctor in particular is delightful. The listener can almost hear Smith’s old man/childlike enthusiasm in the lines.
This is a gem of a tale from AudioGo. You really should buy it.

Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By review

On the anniversary of the very first Doctor Who broadcast, it's only right that we have a Doctor Who review!

This, latest Who novel from the amazing writing machine that is Dan Abnett, and reviewed here in its audiobook form from AudioGo, is ostensibly a Christmas tale.

But it isn’t really. Yes, most of the story takes place in the cold and snow and the book and chapter titles are all taken from hymns and carols. Yes it begins with the Doctor attempting to take Rory and Amy home for Christmas. But apart from all that it’s not Christmassy (Christmas-esque?) at all.

What we do get, as you will already have figured out by the cover, is Ice Warriors.

Ice Warriors are great. They are not your normal Who villains in that they are not really ‘bad’ at all, in fact they have appeared as ‘good guys’ as well as ‘bad guys’ in the original series. This is something that Abnett makes good mileage out of too – there are some nice scenes with the Doctor and the Ice Warriors discussing the morality or ‘honour’ of their actions.

There are some nice moments as the Doctor refers back to his previous encounters with the Warriors, which impressed me as to Abnett’s knowledge of the show. No mention, though, of the recent Eighth Doctor encounters with the Ice Warriors in the Big Finish range..!

Abnett throws in some good surprises too. He builds well on the expectations the reader will have for an Ice Warriors story, even feeding these expectations in places, but he also provides a marvellous plot twist in the final act.

 As I have mentioned him again, we should talk about Dan Abnett for a moment. He is perhaps best known for writing countless novels set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as well as creating for 2000AD comic the series Kingdom and Sinister/Dexter.

Both of these series showcase brilliantly the very best things about Abnett’s writing: his ability to plot and his love for the (sometimes painful) pun and the sheer fun he has with his wordplay. There is a lot of that sort of thing in here, and most of it plays a clever part in the plot too.

It also struck me about halfway through listening to this that the production on the audiobook was wonderful. The use of sound effects and incidental music to enhance the mood was very clever. And then I realised that there were none of these things on there. No, any feeling of excitement felt by the listener can be placed squarely at the feet of both Abnett’s writing and the peerless reading by Micheal Maloney.

I tend to judge these audiobooks by the ‘Amy’ voice, and Maloney’s Scottish accent is pretty good, as is his Doctor. But it is Rory that he does best, at times sounding a dead ringer for Arthur Darvill. This is helped, naturally, by Abnett’s bang on writing of the characters.

This is great.

Doctor Who: The Hounds of Artemis review

This is another in the range of adventures from AudioGo featuring the eleventh Doctor.

This one sees the welcome return of Matt Smith, as he partly narrates this adventure. I say ‘partly’, as this story has a clever structure. It begins with the discovery of the diary of Amy Pond, which is being read by the daughter of one of the main characters from the story. This part is ably played by Clare Corbett, who throws herself into the various roles with great gusto. She does a very good reading of both the Doctor and Amy.

Because this tale flips back and forth between Amy’s first person point of view in the diary and Smith narrating, we are able to see various scenes from different angles.

As for Smith, he is- of course- brilliant. He inhabits the role of Doctor- possibly like no actor has since the days of Tom Baker.

And that is all very well, but means nothing if the story itself is not up to scratch.

Well, luckily it is. In fact, this is perhaps the best AudioGo Who I have heard so far. It has a well constructed narrative and the characters are great. It is easy to imagine both Smith and Gillan speaking the lines James Goss has given them here.

The story starts with a great scene that just screams New Who (Oh how I hate that expression!) and manages to drop the listener into the middle of the story perfectly. There is also a nice little nod in there to The Pyramids of Mars, which this story is very much a direct descendant of.

There is little or no hint of the more sinister side of Smith’s Doctor in this story- it is basically a good old fashioned adventure romp very much in the Indian Jones style, with the prerequisite scares and laughs along the way that you’d expect from such a tale.

Listen to this!

Doctor Who The Jade Pyramid review

Big Finish are not the only folks to release Doctor Who audio adventures. This one comes from Audio Go and has the distinction of being read by the Eleventh Doctor himself- Matt Smith.

Now, I’ve made no secret in the past of my opinion of Smith. I honestly think he’s the best Doctor yet.

I’m happy to report that he doesn’t let me down here. It’s fascinating to hear him read this tale, and to hear the subtle change in his voice between the narrator and The Doctor. That, my friends, is acting! Although in the interest of full disclosure, his Scottish accent when he’s reading Amy Pond is… not the best!

As for the story- it’s a pretty good one. We’ve got a brilliant setting- feudal Japan- and an interesting cast of characters in a well written and complex but not overly complicated plot. There are also some lovely character beats in it- the writer clearly understands the Doctor and the dialogue both he and Amy get sounds authentic. This may sound like an obvious thing, but you’d be surprised how hard it is for some writers to get it right.

The only problem is that the Big Secret behind what’s going on is a bit obvious and bordering on a sci-fi cliché. It could be argued, of course, that younger listeners- at which I suspect this is squarely aimed (which is good- it should keep them quiet on a long car journey!) won’t be aware of this, which is fair enough.

Like the Big Finish range, this also manages to convey a nice period atmosphere with use of sound effects and music, and it’s well worth an hour and a bit of your time.

Oh, and another thing... the sleeve notes credit the Doctor Who theme to Murray Gold. Arrangement by, maybe- but the Doctor Who theme was composed by, as we all know, Rob Grainer.