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 Resurrection of Mars review

And so, everything that has been bubbling under in the previous adventures in this series comes to a head here.

If George Bernard Shaw hadn’t chrono-stolen the title, this could have been called The Doctor’s Dilemma, because the heart of this tale, and indeed  the heart of this series so far, has been the terrible burden that the Doctor has taken on himself.

Not only the burden- to decide who lives and who dies- but also the affect that the impossible decisions he makes have on both those around him and the universe at large.

As the Ninth Doctor said, his life is about ‘Standing up and making a decision because nobody else will.’

In The Resurrection of Mars, we get to see just where doing this leads the Doctor, as we are shown the possible consequences to an innocent planet if the Doctor succeeds in stopping the Ice Warriors in their scheme to create a new Mars.

Oh yeah- the Ice Warriors… this is the second half of the adventure begun in Deimos, which itself ended in a tremendous cliff-hanger.

I don’t want you reading this review and thinking it’s nothing but angst and introversion. These things are present, but they are interspersed with some rollicking action sequences, witting dialogue and genuinely exciting and unexpected twists and turns- one of which, towards the end of episode one actually had me shouting at the mp3 player. 

Alone. 

In the car.

This is a very well realised culmination (or at least apparent culmination) of plot threads the writers have woven through this season to date. It ends on a note that manages to be both hopeful and slightly dark at the same time, and leaves the listener hungry for the next episode- so, job done, I say!

Dammit! I’ve done it again… one of these Big Finish audios will get a bad review in the end…

Doctor Who Deimos Review

I have to make a confession before continuing with this review. When Big Finish started their series of original Who adventures starring Paul McGann, I followed them for the first season or so and then, for various reasons, tuned out- apart from the occasional dip of the toes back into them, so it was interesting to return for this to see how things were progressing.
I’m glad to report that they are progressing quite well!
When I read the title of this adventure, the know-it-all nerd in me got excited, as it could only mean one Who villain, and that same know-it-all nerd was delighted to be proved correct.
The Seeds of Death is one of my all time favourite Who adventures, so I was delighted to see the return of the Ice Warriors in this story.
It sees the Doctor and his companion, Tamsin, arrive just in time (as they always seem to do) to see the Ice Warriors unleash a nefarious plan to regain control of their home planet of Mars.
First things first- the acting. It is terrific throughout, and it’s wonderful to see names like David Warner in there. There are also a well realised pair of tourists, who are caught up in it all, and they could only be improved if they were played by Terry Scott and June Whitfield (which is not to say that the actors do not make a sterling job of things!).
The other that struck me was the pacing, particularly of the first episode. There is a hell of a lot of plot crammed in there. We’ve got double crossing and action and two or three cliff-hangers in there, and there’s even time to do some running down corridors!
But… Only two episodes!?
In my day, there were four episodes in an adventure- but I see that this one leads directly on into the next in the series… it’s almost like Big Finish planned it that way or something!
Overall, this is great stuff, I really don’t know why all the Who fans out there don’t listen to these, as they provide an ideal fix until he’s back on the TV again, but it was over far too quickly. I want the next one!