Doctor Who Plague of the Cybermen audiobook review

This audiobook is nicely times, being that the Cybermen have recently been redesigned and returned in the television series in a story written by superstar author Neil Gamian.
It beings with what, in retrospect, is a rather obvious idea for a cybermen story. We have The Doctor landing in a village in 19th century Germany, thus playing up the (as I say, obvious in retrospect) Frankenstein elements of the story. This even has a mysterious castle and all that…
The story is quiet slow in the first act, as all the pieces arebrought into play, but once it gets going it gets going – there is action and chase scenes aplenty. And conversely, after the slow first act, the final act feels a little rushed.
There are some great touches – I liked the Doctor’s ‘temporary companion’  here – a local teacher. It’s kind of a shame that we’ll not see her again, it would be nice to have a series of these novels running alongside the television show… but that’s wishful thinking. And also the cyberwolves were very cool. Or at least, the ones I saw in my head were.


But, and this is a big but… yet again we get a story that revolves around a crashed spaceship! Seriously, is there no joined up editing across this range? How many times are we going to see this trope used? It certainly helped to detract from what is otherwise a fun and exciting book.


It’s also worth noting that this audio version is read  brilliantly by the great David Warner – no stranger to the Whoverse.


Apart from the crashed spaceship – this makes for some splendid entertainment.

Plague of the Cybermen is released by AudioGo.

The Hobbit BBC Radio drama review

This radio version of the Hobbit was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1968, and has been released on CD now by AudioGo, no doubt to make the most of the first part of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy.
And while listening to this production, it is hard not to have the movie looming large over everything. I was, in fact, determined not to mention the movie in this review, but that has proved to be impossible, so I’ll get all my thoughts on that out of the way.
As I’m sure you all know, the first movie covers only the first few chapters of the book, and it is amazing to compare the treatment of, say, the visit to Goblin Town here to the one in the movie. What was an epic action set piece on screen amounts to nothing more than a few lines here.
And then we’ve got Radaghast only being mentioned in passing and the animals talking, there are considerable differences. And listening to the rest of the story, I found myself both excited and curious as to what they’ll be doing in the next two movies.
But does this adaption work in its own right?
It certainly does. It is quite a light hearted adaption, with Bilbo in particular being wonderfully cast and played. With Gandalf, who is ssociated with Sir Ian McKellen so strongly, it was difficult to get used to another voice speaking his lines, but Heron Carvic is a fine actor and, well, he did it first, after all!
Some of the sound design was a bit too much for me – the effects added to the voices of the animals were at times too extreme, and some of their dialogue was hard to decipher. The music suffers a bit from this too, but it may be the case that the music was simply not to my taste. The final disc in this set is an isolated score, so you can make your own mind up about it. But I have to say, the version of the Misty Mountains song in the movie was much better and more atmospheric than the one here.
This all sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, but I am not. This is a very strong production, and is cleverly adapted and has universally great acting. It is thoroughly recommended to any fans of the book or the movie, and
is the ideal accompaniment to a long car journey!

Doctor Who The Sea Devils audiobook

Ah, the Sea Devils. Most people of a certain age remember that iconic scene of the titular monsters emerging from the sea. 
And the bit in the minefield.
And these scenes are, of course in here… but it is surprising just how little ‘sea devil’ the reader/listener gets for their money here. After a brief appearance at the beginning, the creatures disappear for the majority of the story, only popping up again towards the final act.
What we get for most of the story is a no less interesting tale of the Doctor visiting the recently captured Master on an island prison. Actually, I mentioned the classic scenes above, well there is another in the TV show (unless I have created a false memory!) where the Master is watching the Clangers on television, and is whistling back at them in an attempt to communicate. But unfortunately this wonderful scene does not feature in the book.
As for the book, it is pretty well written. There are long passages of obvious padding – like a lengthy explanation of how sonar works – that are there for no other reason than to lift the word count, and serve only to slow down the story.
That being said, I enjoyed listening to this. Pertwee’s Doctor was always good at pricking the pomposity of the establishment, which is something he gets to do a lot in this one. And this incarnation of the Master is delightfully scheming. Charming and cruel in turn, and sometimes at the same time.
The Sea Devils audiobook is released by AudioGo.

Doctor Who The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter audiobook

Following close on the heels of JP Colgan’s novel, we have The Wheel of Ice, but sci-fi hard-hitter Stephen Baxter.
This, I am delighted to say, features possibly my favourite TARDIS line-up: The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. And what’s more, this being a second Doctor story, it is read by the wonderful David Troughton, who, as I have said here before, does an uncanny impersonation of his father. Things are let down somewhat by him having to supply not one but two Scottish accents during the course of the story. It’s not that it’s hard to tell the difference between them, more that they are not… great! However, this is really just a minor criticism. 
The story itself is everything you would expect from a writer like Baxter. It contains some breathtakingly huge sci-fi concepts. The central idea is simultaneously incredibly ambitious and mind expanding in scope and concept and, well, same old same old. 
What I mean by this is this: I made a comment in the review of Dark Horizons about the central idea of the story being one that has been used, in my opinion, too many times in Who and in sci-fi in general. This book really does just take that same idea and dresses it in different clothes.
This is not to say, of course, that it is a bad book. Baxter is an amazingly good writer. As well as being able to communicate complex ideas and give the reader a true sense of the scale of the things he is describing, he also tells a rattling good adventure yarn. His characterisations of the main characters are spot on. I think there was a minor continuity error in there somewhere, but to tell the truth I didn’t write it down at the time and have forgotten now, so I suspect it wasn’t that important (well, I know it’s not important at all, but you know what I mean!).
So, in summary. This is Big Concept sci-fi of the like we don’t normally see in a Who story. I wasn’t convinced it would work if I was being honest, but it most certainly does. 
This is well worth your trouble.


The Wheel in Space is released by AudioGo.

Judge Dredd joins World Book Night

Rebellion Publishing is delighted to announce that one of 2000 AD’s titles has been chosen as the first ever graphic novel to be featured in World Book Night.

Judge Dredd: The Dark Judges is an all-time classic from the pages of the ongoing weekly British comic, and this pocket-size ‘B format’ reprint sees the ultimate lawman of the future encounter his deadliest foes - Judges from a dimension where even life itself is a crime!

It is the first time that a graphic novel has been featured in World Book Night, which aims to give away 500,000 books to promote and encourage reading. The BBC has returned as the charity’s media partner, with the book selection to feature on BBC1’s “The One Show” tonight (8 November), as well as tomorrow’s “Newsnight Review”.

Featuring some of the most iconic moments in the strip’s history, this volume includes the original Judge Death story, along with the sequels, Death Lives and The Dark Judges, and the Judge Anderson follow-up, Four Dark Judges.

“As one of the most iconic British brands in publishing we are absolutely delighted to be a part of World Book Night ,” said 2000 AD and Rebellion Publishing manager Ben Smith. “Not only is The Dark Judges a classic Judge Dredd story, but the role that comics can play in encouraging reading and boosting literacy is well known. I have no doubt that people who receive one of the free copies will discover a new world of amazing stories, and hopefully will develop an appetite for great British comics.”

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: Dark Horizons Novel and audiobook review

A Doctor Who story set in Scotland, written by a Scottish author? How could Hi-Ex! ignore this ? This was one book it really would have been remiss of us not to review.
And by some no doubt timey-wimey coincidence, a review copy of the audiobook version arrived round the same time as the novel, so I’ll be reviewing both of them here.
The story is set on the Isle of Lewis, as the Doctor arrives just in time (doesn’t he always?) to get involved in an adventure with the islanders, a boat load of Vikings and a third, mysterious alien force.
Author J.T. Colgan does a wonderful job in evoking the atmosphere of the island, with some brilliant descriptions that sometimes almost leave the reader shivering with the cold and damp she’s describing.
Colgan also presents us with a good cast of characters, all of which are well written. Her take on the Doctor in particular is very good, and she gives him some wonderful lines that are in turn funny or weighted with his many years of existence.
The plot is good, if not particularly original (I think the Earth must be positively littered with crashed alien spaceships by now!), but the aliens themselves are a nice idea.
But the book is not without its problems. There are a couple of occasions where mistakes seem to have slipped passed the editing process. At one point the Doctor appears to be speaking underwater, and on another runs into the water before deciding to roll up is trousers and do it again a couple of paragraphs later.
The contemporary characters also sometimes lapse into modern language and slang, which serves to pull the reader out of the story.
But the good parts are very good. The attitude of the Vikings towards the Doctor is just brilliant and was what I enjoyed most about the story. They see a mysterious stranger with a box in a strange colour they don’t have a word for (which is another lovely touch), who can do incredible things – what else could he be but a god? This to me, made sense they would think like this and was doubly enjoyable because the Doctor was so put out by it. He likes it when people admire the TARDIS, so receiving the opposite reaction makes for some great scenes.
The audio version is read by Neve McIntosh, who has appeared in the TV show a few times, most recently as Madam Vastra in A Good Man Goes to War. She does a very good job at bring the atmosphere in the book to life, help in no small part by her having a head start with the accents. It has all the excellent production values you would expect from and AudioGo release, and is definitely worth seeking out!

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 Sensorites audiobook

Target Book cover- this is the image used for the audiobook cover too

I was only familiar with this story as a title of a First Doctor adventure and from a few still images of the titular aliens, never having read the Target novelisation that this is a reading of.
It starts off quite normally, that is, in the usual Who way. Alien planet, blustering Doctor and all that, before everyone gets split up and goes off on their own adventure.
Overall though I found this story a confusing beast. It seemed to want to be too many things. There are too many story elements injected into the plot. I suspect this is a result of the original television version having to be a certain number of episodes long and them having to fill that screen time with story. So we have a number of plots featuring the TARDIS crew, the humans they meet and goings on among the Sensorites themselves.

The Sensorite plotline is the most interesting of them all, but it has a major plot hole in it that I really can’t get past. It hinges on the cliché about aliens that ‘they all look the same’, which is fine. But I find it had to believe that they all look the same to each other.

It also does something that annoys me in any fiction. The Sensorites constructs a clever analogy, like all good sci-fi does. But they then go ahead and ruin that analogy by having a character point out that ‘Hey! This is just like such-and-such back on Earth!’ Yes it is, we got that that already, thanks.
The book itself, written by Nigel Robinson, is well done, albeit with a few too many adverbs for my tastes. The character arc given to the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan is a strong one, and sets things up nicely for her future.
The audiobook is brilliantly narrated by William Russell, who of course played Ian in the original story, and he sounds like he is enjoying being back in the Whoiverse again.
All in all, I’d say this is a worthy addition to your collection. Maybe not a vital one like Earthshock, for example, but certainly worth a listen.

The Sensorites is available from AudioGo.

Doctor Who Shada audiobook review

Part of me is really surprised that there hasn’t been a bigger deal made abut this new book and audiobook release from AudioGo.
I mean, it’s not every day that you get some ‘new’ material from Douglas Adams, is it?
Of course, this is not ‘new’, what with him having been dead for a decade and all. And death does tend to put a bit of a kink in the ability to put out new material. Unless you’re Tupac or somebody like that, of course.

So, anyway – a brief history. A long time ago, Douglas Adams worked on Doctor Who, writing some classic adventures. He wrote one called Shada, which was put into production, but was left unfinished thanks to a strike at the BBC during the filming.
It was released some time ago on video, in its unfinished form and came with a copy of the script, but I remember buying this at the time and finding it a difficult watch… in fact I can’t even remember if I managed to watch it the whole way through.
So fast forward a few decades and here we have a brand new novel based on Adams’s scripts and written by Gareth Roberts. Again, this is another surprising thing – Roberts has now joined what can only be called an elite group of writers who have dabbled in the world(s) of Douglas Adams. But how does he do..?
I think that it is, on balance, unfair to compare him to Adams or judge him by the standards of that writer. Roberts is a very good author in his own right, and he has written a very good book here. Yes, there are sections and turns of phrase and wordplays in there that sound like pure Adams. The listener could oh-so easily assume that these bits are all from Adams, but there are some that make reference to people or events from after Adam’s death. Douglas was good, but not that good.
No, I think it is more than fair to give Roberts a lot of credit for turning the scripts into what is a pretty good novel.
That is not to say it is perfect. I think it is overlong in the epilogue, but understand why this is so – there are certain things that need to happen, in this story more than others, but I feel it could have been trimmed somewhat. It also lags in places throughout, but again, this is not necessarily the fault of the author. He was working off the scripts for a six part who story, and as any fan will tell you, the six part stories always dip in the middle.

As this is a review of the audiobook version, we better give mention to the production. First off, it is read by none other than Lalla Ward who, you will know, played the Time Lady Romana during this stretch of the series, and her voice lends a great deal of weight, as does that of John Lesson, who reprises his role as the voice of K-9 here.
Ward is a fine actor, and she attacks this book with great gusto. Her accents and voices are great, with her Fourth Doctor being particularly fun. There is some superb sound design and incidental music throughout, which help add to the feel of the package.
If I had one complaint it would be that I was disappointed that there were no ‘extras’ on the discs. I would have thought that a release of this importance, and it is important, both to Who fans and Sci-Fi fans in general, should have been marked in some way. I was hoping for some interviews at the end with the author and/or those connect with this project, but it was not to be. But that, of course, is a minor thing to be quibbling about and something that most people would not be bothered about.
If you’re a Who fan, or a fan of Adams, you’ll be needing this.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 4 review Pt2

Well, we've been away from the blog for a while as we were coming up to and then recovering from the Hi-Ex! weekend, but it's time to get this show on the road again!

We continue our review of the latest Lost TV Episodes collection from AudioGo.
Next up is The Faceless Ones.

This story is a bit of an odd one, or at least it feels like it. It feels very dated in some ways, being that it is set in Gatwick Airport in 1966, which was of course contemporary with the show bring broadcast.
The story itself is a bit of a mix, it feels in places like something that could almost have been in the Avengers (The Steed and Mrs Peel version that is), but then the sci-fi elements give it a Twilight Zone vibe. Between these two elements there is a nice story with a great sense of dread and paranoia, which I suspect would have been even more so at the time because it was using such a well-known location, and was feeding into the whole political atmosphere of the time in doing so.
The whole thing might be an episode too long, but on the whole it moves along well, helped by the always great Troughton and Hines (Michael Craze and Anneke Wills who play Ben and Polly are strangely absent for most of the story, and I suspect it is not unconnected with them leaving at the end of the adventure), as well as guest star (although she wasn't a 'star' at the time) Pauline Collins. Her character is a lot of fun and makes a wonderful foil for Jamie – it’s a pity she didn’t stay on as a companion.

The best thing about this one for me though, was the difference in attitude to airport security. Back then, before we had been trained to be frightened of everything, there seemed to be a more lax attitude to things. The Doctor’s reporting of a dead body in a hanger was met only with a sarcastic, ‘You better call the police then,’ rather than the immediate arrest and detention at Her Majesties pleasure for a few years he would receive today.
And I loved the moment when one character was enquiring about a missing passenger and they were told, ‘We’re dealing with thousands of passengers every week, we can’t keep track of every one.’
Changed times indeed.

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.

Elisabeth Sladen the Autobiography audiobook review

It is difficult to review this Audiogo audiobook as ‘just’ a book.
From the beginning, with the genuinely moving forward written and read by David Tennant, to the after word, written by Liz’s husband and daughter Brian and Sadie Miller, which is nothing short of heart breaking, this is a book that is nigh on impossible to listen to without constantly thinking about Liz and her sudden death.
Another former Who assistant,Caroline John, has the unenviable task of reading the book, although to be totally fair, she does so brilliantly.
But what of the book itself?
Obviously, the bulk of the book is taken up with memories of her time on Who, and this makes for some interesting listening.
Sladen paints a vivid picture of the BBC in the early 70s, and while things sometime slide close to the ‘luvvie’, with many people being ‘wonderful’, she is pleasingly direct when talking about those who were less than wonderful.
This is one of a few things in the book that I found surprising. I suppose the image of Sarah Jane and her all round niceness as a character. And it’s not just directors, Liz is honest about Third Doctor Jon Pertwee. While she clearly loved him dearly, she is honest enough to recognise him for his faults, but still making him come across as a thoroughly nice man.
Outside Who, there are some equally interesting tales told. Her stories of her early life and family are fascinating, and I wish that she had spent more time on them. Likewise, stories of early theatre jobs and her fledgling acting career are great.
The final section of the book, dealing with her ‘renaissance’ as an actor as she came out of retirement for School Reunion and then The Sarah Jane Adventures, seems disappointingly slight after the detail of the Who years. I’d liked to have heard more about the Sarah Jane tales and perhaps the Big Finish adventures and the like.
Still, apart from these minor quibbles, I can say that this is a very good memoir, and one that any Who fan will want on their shelf.
Still can’t believe she’s gone though…

Journey Into Space: The World in Peril review

We reviewed the first series of Journey into Space here, and very good it was too.

There was a series two between then and this one, in which the intrepid crew of the Discovery visited Mars and had some hi-jinx there.

We join them as they head back to Earth, but of course it is not long before they are plunged headfirst into yet another adventure.

The first thing you’ll notice about this tale is the length. There are twenty half hour long episodes of the story, as well as a few extras that I’ll come to in due course.

So, twenty episodes. That’s just about ten hours of story. In a story of this length, you have to expect some flab, and there is – but not as much as you would think. A good recent series to compare this to is the Torchwood story Miracle Day, which was spread too thin over the same length of time as Journey into Space.

But where Torchwood filled this vacuum with pointless capture and escape scenes and overlong cuts, Charles Chilton does it by having his characters have a conversation, so while they may not be advancing the plot, it is at least interesting.

There are also some clever scenes that could only work on radio. We spend a couple of episodes in the pitch darkness, for example. And it is a mark of just how good the storytelling is that I was listening to this and wondering how the actors could get about in the dark so well, forgetting that is was all pretend!

The main plot presents a slight hiccup for those of us who have not listened to series two, as it does refer back to a lot of things that happen there. While is not totally essential to have heard the previous series, as Chilton does well to fill in any gaps, I did feel a bit left out at times.

I also had a niggling problem with this and the previous series, and it took until episode seventeen here until the penny dropped as to what it was. My problem is Jet Morgan.

Yes, he is the hero of the hour, but he really rubs me up the wrong way. Most of this is, I suspect, because I’m looking at it through the wrong end of fifty years of history in which the class system has moved on somewhat (although looking at our current government you’d be forgiven in thinking it hadn’t) and his behaviour, particularly towards the ever loyal Lemmy, should be seen as a product of the time. The other reason is that he seems to do hardly anything but bark orders at the rest of the crew… anyway: discuss!

As is the way in most sci-fi, the plot concerns (as the title of the adventure may tell you) the Earth being under terrible threat. But it is the nature of this threat, or more specifically, the delivery method of it, that provided me with the most entertainment.

I’ll not say much more about it, but to me it reads like Chilton giving a delightfully cheeky two-fingers to the opposition.

The final two discs contain a more recent (1981) adventure that acts as an epilogue to the main story. It jars if listened to immediately after the main event though, because it features all new actors in the main roles and it takes a while to get their voices fixed in that part (although one of them is the legendary Ed Bishop, so all is good). While this is a good story, and one with an interesting scientific grounding, it doesn’t ‘feel’ as much like a Journey into Space story as the one before. Part of this is, I think, the fact that this one was written in a post Star Trek, post Doctor Who world, and it feels like the narrative has been informed by they storytelling in those shows.

There is also a radio documentary about the series. Or at least should be! Further investigation has shown I have a duff, early copy, of the set with this missing, but AudioGo will replace any of these faulty sets, so fear not if you have one too!

I will say though, that if it’s anything like the interview section on the first series, it will be well worth the effort.

As I said in the previous review: there is usually a very good reason something is considered a classic.

Essential listening.

Ghostly Terror and Vampire Horror reviews!

You can blame us being away at the Dundee Comics Day for this and a few other reviews not appearing during the Halloween weekend. Let’s just pretend that we did it anyway, eh?

So, these two short story audiobooks released by AudioGo are themed around the subjects, as you can see, of ghosts and vampires.

First up the ghost collection, Ghostly Terror.

This is the shorter of the two collections, featuring three stories.

it opens with ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’ by M.R. James, read by Andrew Sachs. I had not heard or read this one before, but it is a very good story, as you would expect from an author like James. He constructs a great sense of creeping dread, which is aided considerably by the sound design and Sachs’s reading.

The final story is one I was more familiar with - W. F. Harvey’s 'The Beast With Five Fingers', which if you have never read or heard before is well worth your time.

But best of the lot is the middle story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and read by Laurel Lefkow.

To my shame I had never heard of either the story or author previous to this. The story is a masterpiece and a perfect example of portraying paranoia and mental breakdown. Truly unsettling.

The second collection is called Vampire Horror.

It begins with a story that is not only very good, but very important. It is The Vampyre by John Polidori. This is a long story, so make sure you’re on a long journey when you start listening (I’m assuming here that you also listen in the car!).

It is very good because it has an interesting structure and a creepy atmosphere. It is important because it bears some resemblance to a later, more well known book about pursuing a vampire across Europe, only this was written 78 years before that one.

My favourite story in the collection was the next one: Wailing Well by M.R. James. This is in turn a pitch black comedy and genuine horror by way of a pretty brutal morality tale.

The collection is rounded of with two more tales: the sinister ‘For The Blood is the Life’ by Marion Crawford and another M. R. James effort, ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’, which is as far from the other James story in this set as is possible to be. It’s dark and disturbing and, like the James story on the Ghosts collection, it feels like something a young Clive Barker would have written.

So – you’re a horror fan? Buy these.

Torchwood The Lost Files review

This is a collection of three original Torchwood adventures that were broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

As this is Torchwood, the stories vary widely in quality, but when they are good, they are absolutely brilliant.
As these stories are set before the events in the Children of Earth storyline, they feature (and this is a massive spoiler for those of you who have not watched that particular series) Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones.

First up is The Devil and Miss Carew, which is a pretty good tale, and it is always good to have my favourite Torchwood character, Rhys, played as always by Kai Owen, take centre stage in a tale.

Next comes Submission, and apart from a wonderfully punny title, it also provides a unique location – a deep sea submersible (you see what they did there?). As befits the location, this story is high on claustrophobia and as befits Torchwood, it is also fairly low on internal logic. Still this is a solid tale.

The last story in the set, The House of the Dead, is far and away the best of the bunch. I had by this time, resigned myself to this being a pretty by the numbers affair, and the fact that the wonderful Eve Myles takes very much of a backseat in this one did not bode well for my enjoyment.
But then writer James Goss provides an astonishing rug pull just when the listener least expects it, and this story goes from pretty good to essential.

This latest release from AudioGo may be a bit of a mixed bag, but I’d go as far as to say that it’s worth it for the final story in the set alone.

H2G2 Complete Radio series review

I should really start this review with a confession. One that will appal and shock you to the core.

I was, before listening to these, rather unfamiliar with Adams’ work Yes, I know, I know!

I had read the first novel and watched the TV show all those decades ago and had enjoyed both, but for one reason or another I had never got around to exploring the rest of the series. Upon listening to these I could not help but wonder just what the hell I was thinking.

That Douglas Adams: he was a bit good at writing, wasn’t he?

Yes, you all already know this, but let me continue anyway. Who knows, there may be other strange folks like me out there who haven’t listened to this yet.

The writing. The breadth and depth of the ideas that Adams throws out are simply breathtaking. He’ll sometimes throw out an offhand idea that another writer (me included) would have based an entire book around.

The plotting is clever and intricate. The characters are outstanding. We all love Marvin, right?

I’m not going to break each series down into their own review, but will give an overview of the entire box set. Oh, and the box from this AudioGo release itself is a gorgeous artefact in itself too.

The first series is brilliant, and I think that the second, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, is even better.

The third, ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ was, on first listen, not as satisfying as the previous two. But on a subsequent listen it is actually much better as Adams pulls into play seemingly offhand and throwaway jokes from the earlier volumes and turning them into major plot points.

The final two, ‘So Long and Thanks for all the Fish’ and ‘Mostly Harmless’ are the weakest of the volumes. That is not to say that they are bad. They are far from that. They merely suffer from the fact that what has come before really is some of the funniest and most clever writing ever committed to the English language.

My main problem with the final two stories is that by this time it was obviously a ‘big’ thing to be on the show, so there are a distracting number of celebrity cameos in there that serve to distract from the cleverness of the writing.

The set is rounded off with a disc containing a couple of radio documentaries about the series. The best of the two shows is the second, hosted by the brilliant Barry Cryer which looks at the character of Arthur Dent and uses clips from the other show ion the disc, which is a bit strange if you listen to them back to back.

However, it is churlish to complain. This really is an honest to goodness essential purchase for anyone who has any love for comedy, sci-fi or literature.

Journey into Space Operation Luna review

I’m sure most of you have heard of Journey into Space, even if you have never actually heard it. This was certainly my own situation. I knew of the series, and was vaguely aware of the high regard it was held in, but that was about it.

So, when I put the first disc on to listen to it, I was expecting something very much of it’s time. I was prepared for something entertaining, but – to be frank – past its sell-by date.

What I was not prepared for however, was just how very good this is.

And what’s so good about it?

Well, while it is true there are some astounding anachronisms in there, like while they’re running low on oxygen in the ship they resolve to smoke just one cigarette each, these are vastly outweighed by the sheer breadth of ideas in here.

As I listened, without reading the liner notes, I assumed that this was recorded in the mid-sixties. It was incredible to discover that it had actually been originally broadcast in 1953! This was before Laika blasted into space and almost a decade before Yuri Gagarin made history. Too complicated to go into here- look it up on Wiki!

In light of this, the amount of detail that Charles Chilton gets right is nothing short of astounding. Even from our perspective fifty years of scientific discovery later, Chilton’s explanations of faster than light travel, time and space early man still hold up pretty well.

And yes, of course there are some things he gets wrong- like the surface of the moon for example- but these things do not matter.

This is because the story is so very strong. It starts with a few slow episodes, but things quickly pick up once we get to the moon and things start to go… strange. There is one standout sequence with the crew in their capsule on the moon when they hear something outside the ship, banging on the door. It is brilliantly written and performed, and managed to disturb me while driving on a summer day, so heaven knows how it must have terrified the listening audience at the time!

The story twists and turns in an expert fashion, with some delightful cliff hangers, well written and acted characters and well thought out and believable situations.

I really loved this. I did not expect to, buy as I got towards the end, and the final couple of discs, I found myself almost reluctant to listen to them because I didn’t want it to end.

But end it did, and an a nice note that promises more, which I hope AudioGo will release in time.

The set also contains a shot Radio 4 documentary featuring interviews with some of the surviving cast and crew.

A great package, and one well worth the time and effort of any serious sci-fi fan. Or indeed any non-serious one who likes to be entertained!

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 BBC Radio Episodes pt4

Over the years, the BBC have produced a number of their own Doctor Who audio adventures.Audio Go have just released them in a box set, here we review the final two discs in the set.

I should add that these reviews where written before the tragic death of Elizabeth Sladen, so reading it back now is a bit weird...

First up: Expedition Earth

This one is a bit of a curio- in fact both of the adventures on this disc are.

This first one is from the olden days when the BBC used to broadcast educational programs for schools during the day on television and radio rather than shows about houses and cooking. This particular one is a Who story featuring Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen. The story, what there is of it, is slight. It involves the Doctor and Sarah Jane flitting through time from the very birth of the solar system to when the Earth was fully formed and populated by animals. While doing this, they repeatedly encounter an alien intelligence who seems to do nothing other that hang around in space and shout about things.  

As I said, the story is largely irrelevant. It is really just a hook to hang descriptions of the various states of the Earth upon as Baker explains them to Sladen (and in turn to the listening child).

It’s not going to win any awards, but this was surprisingly fun- I suspect mainly because of the nostalgia element of listening to an schools broadcast for the first time in decades!

Whatever happened to..?

Carole Anne Ford doesn't actually play Susan in this, but y'know...

This was originally recorded as part of a series of radio plays focusing on different fictional characters and what they did after their story finished and broadcast on Radio 4.

It has an impressive cast, lead by Jane Asher in the role of Susan Foreman, and even features a lovely cameo from the mighty Claire Rainer. It is not without its problems though- mainly for the more… ‘dedicated’ Doctor Who fan. Some are pretty big howlers. Claiming the Doctor to be a travelling salesman, for example, which flies in the face of everything that had went before. There are factual errors- the play states that Ian and Barbara were left back seconds after they left with the Doctor, when in actual fact he left them back two years later.

Susan’s character largely contradicts everything we have seen since, but as this was well before the range of Virgin and BBC novels and Big Finish studios, this can be excused.

The comedy in the play is rather hit and miss too, but some of the jokes are absolute corkers. I also liked hearing what Ian and Barbara got up to when they returned. Barbara’s story in particular rings tragically true in that I suspect her reaction would be what most people’s would be.

Again, as with Expedition Earth, this is worth it for the curiosity factor.