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.

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.

The Sarah Jane Adventures Collection review

This box set of ten stand alone Sarah Jane Adventures adventures is, with the exception of the final two stories, narrated by the late Liz Sladen. And when listening, I couldn’t help but think that there may never come a time when the Who fan isn’t a little bit sad at hearing her voice.
As you would expect with a collection of this size, the stories vary somewhat in quality, but are, as a rule, always worth a listen.
There is a problem with the series as a whole though, that would not be apparent if listening to these, say, one a month or whatever their original release schedule was, but when listening to the back to back, this problem is easier to spot.
And it is this: far too many of these stories revolve around a plot that has one of the main characters either being hypnotised or taken over by some alien intelligence.
A lot of them are structured very similarly too, opening with an action scene then flashing back to show how the characters got there. This is not a bad way to build a story, but if used too often, it becomes weary.
As I said, the quality is generally very good. I won’t got into each of the tales individually, but my favourite was probably 'The White Wolf', which built a lovely atmosphere and had a genuinely intriguing plot.
Naturally, Sladen is superb at reading the tales and her enthusiasm and her love for the role, for the character of Sarah Jane Smith, comes through with every word.
The final two are narrated by Anjli Mohindra and Daniel Anthony, and they too make excellent work of the stories, and leave the listener with some hope that this series can perhaps find continued life here on CD and download with 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 Lost TV Episodes Vol 4 Review pt1

AudioGo have released another collection of ‘lost’ Doctor Who audios, and, as always, we shall review each of the stories separately.
This box set begins with The Macra Terror.

Folks may already be familiar with the Macra from their, if truth be told, largely pointless cameo in the David Tennant story Gridlock.
Here though, the Macra are a much more sinister monster, and I can’t help but think that they benefit from being left to the listeners imagination, rather than be seen in all their televisual SFX glory!
There are some problems with this story, foremost among them being the ill advised and embarrassing holiday camp singing.
But… when it is good this is among the very best Who tales ever. Like all great sci-fi, The Macra Terror is making a point. And I was amazed to read on the liner notes of the story that there is even a debate about what this story is saying about social control and individual freedom.
Surely when the Doctor says, “Don’t just be obedient, always make up your own mind,” the message of the tale should be beyond doubt?
As you can tell, I really loved this one – this story and others like it – is what makes Who the greatest television series ever (although The Wire has blurred that once clear line for me somewhat…)!

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest Pt1 Tsar Wars

For the majority of people in the world who have heard of Doctor Who, I would be prepared to bet that the first actor they think of connected with the role is Tom Baker.

I think it is fair to say that he inhabited the role in a way no actor before or since has done, so it was delightful when, a few years ago, he decided to embrace the role one again, and perform in both these audio adventures by AudioGo and a new series from Big Finish.

This particular story is the first in a new story arc written by Paul Magrs, who Who fans will be familiar with from his many contributions to Who Lore, not least the creation of the wonderful IrisWildthyme.

Fan’s of Robbie Morrison’s 2000AD series Nicholi Dante will no doubt see something familiar about the title of this story, as well as being equally familiar with the setting.

Here, the Doctor and his faithful housekeeper Mrs Wibbsey are swept from their peaceful cottage into a world of court intrigue in a far future modelled very much on late 19^th Century Russia.

The story unfolds cleverly, with a number of nods towards Imperial Russia, and there is some amusement to be had in seeing Baker having an absolute ball playing dual roles, one of which is a not-so-sly nod at one of the parts, apart from the Doctor, that he is most famous for.

As well as being a good self contained adventure, this also sets up an interesting story arc for the rest of the series and has an ending that insists the listener comes back from the next instalment.

Doctor Who Blackout review

It is interesting to compare and contrast Who adventures that are set roughly in the same historical time and place.

Blackout takes place in New York in the 1960s and while this is a good half a century later (an eye blink for a Timelord), I could not help but comparing it to the television adventure Daleks in Manhattan.

As with that tale, this has the Doctor teaming up with a down on his luck black fellow as his ‘companion of the hour’ as it where, while his permanent companions are off doing their own thing.

But this is really where the similarities end. Were Daleks in Manhattan was a confused mishmash (albeit one with some very strong elements, but elements that were outweighed by illogic), this is an exercise in tight, economic storytelling.

It opens with a great pre-credits scene in which Stuart Milligan as narrator delivers a perfectly timed exchange. After that we’re into the usual Who fare of frantic chases and sinister aliens with questionable motives.

These motives, while plausible, do result in couple of minor problems I had with the story. One concerns a character and their place in what is happening – this is something that would be a massive spoiler, so I can’t go into it here. The other is the Message. Now, it is not in any way a bad Message, in fact it is one I agree with wholeheartedly. It’s just that it is delivered in a slightly heavy handed way that makes the listener think ‘Yes! I get it!

Apart from that, this is a great way to spend an hour and a bit. Milligan, who played Nixon in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ is a very good narrator, his Matt Smith in particular is excellent.

This is also a very visual story, and I can’t help wondering if it was first pitched as a television adventure, only to be knocked back because of the colossal effects budget it would require, before finding a home at AudoGo?

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.

Doctor Who The Doomsday Quatrain

As with last months Sixth Doctor release Recorded Time, this latest Seventh Doctor Who does that thing where they have the Doctor meet an historical figure so famous that you are amazed that nobody had thought about doing it before.

While last month the Sixth Doctor met Henry VIII, here we have him rubbing shoulders with the most famous seer who ever lived: Nostradamus.

Nostradamus has predicted the end of the world. The Doctor knows it can’t be true, because, as he informs us, he has already see it… but the thing is Nostradamus does seem, if things are to be believed, to be correct.

There is a lot to enjoy in this story. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns in the narrative – it went in a completely different direction than the one I was expecting on a number of occasions. It has a memorable cast of characters, and each is very well acted.

While most of the glory on the acting front will, no doubt, go to David Schofield in the role of Nostradamus, for my money Caroline Keiff was the strongest of the guest stars.

McCoy is his usual great self, and writers Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie give him some deliciously authentic Seventh Doctor lines, which McCoy delivers with obvious relish.

I as also delighted and slightly miffed that a continuity issue I had thought of based around an offhand mark from the Fourth Doctor is dealt with expertly. I doubt it is something the normal listener will even noticed, but it is a nice Easter egg for the die-hard Who nerds.

Once again, a winner from Big Finish. I can only hope we hear more from this writing team again soon!

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 3 review pt6

In the final part of our review of this rather magnificent box set from AudioGo, we will have a look at The Moonbase.

The box set is rounded off with this story, which sees the return of an old foe…

Well, not really an old foe. As this is only their second outing, the Cybermen are still a novelty act. But such was their popularity in there debut story, The Tenth Planet, another adventure was quickly commissioned.

As entertaining as this is -  Cybermen are my favourite Who villains and I’m always happy to see them back – this is more or less a retread of the same ground covered in the previous tale, with an isolated base on the moon substituting for an isolated base in the Antarctic.

Of course this is not to say that it is not without merit. The story is a good one, and there is a wonderful sense of menace and claustrophobia to he had.

One cannot help but imagine how powerful the scenes of Cybermen sneaking into the sickbay to spirit away bodies would have been when first seen. And this sort of horror does somewhat put paid to the claims that ‘modern’ Who is becoming too scary for children. It has always been too scary for children (at least from an adult point of view, children will tell you different).

As with the previous missing adventures collections, it goes without saying that this one is all but essential for the Who fan as well, and I for one cannot wait until Volume 4!

Doctor Who the Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt5

Part five of our review of this box set from AudioGo features The Underwater Menace.

This one is great.

However, I fear that it is great for all the wrong reasons!

As with The Highlanders, this one sees the main cast all in full flow. They are clearly having a great time and enjoying each others company, which lifts their performances to a wonderful level.

Things are not so strong on the supporting actor’s front though. I don’t want to single anyone in particular, but some folks seem to believe they’re on stage at a Christmas panto!

(By the way, Anneke Wills, in a great interview in on the bonus disc that comes with this box set is not at all coy about naming names!)

As for the plot… well, it is utterly ludicrous! Zaroff is a spectacular villan in the James Bond mould. But the scheme he has embarked upon here is one so fantastic and over the top it makes the machinations of Goldfinger and Hugo Drax seem positively pedestrian!

And of course I know that criticising the more fantastic elements of the plot is easy to do. But these things do not present themselves as a problem if they are sold well by both the writing and the acting, it’s just that this is not quite the case in this instance!

I mentioned the disc of extras earlier. As it is stored in the box with this story, I’ll mention it here.

As well as the long and very entertaining interview with Wills, these is also an equally interesting and informative documentary about incidental music throughout the history of Doctor Who. No! Wait, honestly, it is very interesting! Trust me, it is more than worth a listen.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes vol3 review pt4

Next up in this epic multi-part review of the latest box set from AudioGo is The Highlanders.

Well, of course this one was always going to appeal to us here ay HiEx!

This is only Troughton’s second time out at the Dcotor and in some ways he is still finding his feet in the role as the writers cast about for ideas, trying out this and that and, it seems, writing some aspects of the story to go with some of Troughton’s own talents.

I suspect, although I have no solid knowledge of the fact, that this is how we have the bizarre vision (or rather, audio) of the Doctor disguised as an old lady. Luckily, these scenes are great, with Troughton throwing himself into the who thing with obvious enthusiasm. And this enthusiasm seems to have spread throughout the rest of the cast.

Everyone seems to be having a ball here.

Of course, this is a notable story because it sees the introduction of a character who would go on to be one of the Doctor’s most popular companions: Jamie McCrimmon.

And of course there is the additional fun of having knowledge of the places where they are visiting. The Culloden battlefield site is just outside Inverness, for example. And the old jail is not far from Eden Court theatre, which of course hosts HiEx each year!

Ahem… sorry, that turned into a bit of a plug for HiEx!

But apart from that, this is a solid historical piece and an enjoyable romp to boot.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt2

Audio Go have just released a third box set of Lost TV Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Doctor Who where the video has been lost but the audio remains. There are a few stories included in the set, so rather than post one big review, I'll be breaking it down and review each individually.


Next up is The Tenth Planet.

I know I say this about a lot of these AudioGo ‘classic’ Who releases, but this one really is important.

Why, you may ask?

And if you are asking that, then immediately deduct twenty nerd points.

Because The Tenth Planet is notable for two things.

The first is that it introduced the world to what are, for my money, the best Doctor Who villains ever: the Cybermen. The second is, of course, is that this was William Hartnell’s final Who adventure.

I suppose the big question is: is this a suitably notable tale for him to go out on?

For the most part, yes it is.

The setting, an Antarctic base, owes much to Hughes’s The Thing from Another World, but plotwise they could not be more different.

There are many stills of this adventure out there, and as far as I know there is at least one episode still in existence, because I’m pretty sure I have seen it, or at least some of it.

The Cybermen are a brilliant creation, and Kit Peddler does not get enough credit for what he unleashed on the world. Most people have, I am sure, heard of Terry Nation, but what of the writer who created a creature equal to the Daleks? Maybe we should start a campaign…

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. The story is pretty tense, but there are one or two moments in there that have always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. 

Chief among them is the moment when companion Ben attacks one of the Cybermen. 

What the Cybermen should have done then was simply kill him - this would be the most logical course of action, but instead they order one of their number to take him into another room and watch him! Yes, I know this is because he is a cast regular, but it is something that should and could have been addressed in the writing. Still, too late now, eh?

Like Peter Purvis did with great skill in the previous set, Anneke Wills, who played Polly in this story, provides the linking narration.

As for Hartnell, there are mixed feeling listening back to this. He is clearly a man who is tired. This comes across loud and clear in his performance, but whether he is tired with the series or through ill health, I do not know (although I’m sure some of you do).

Either way, it makes his final moments all the more powerful and poignant, and in turn sets us up nicely for the next story in this set…

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 3 review pt1

Audio Go have just released a third boxed set of Lost Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Who where the video has been lost, but the audio track still remains. There are a few stories included in it, so rather than post one big review, as with the previous collection, I’ll be breaking it down and reviewing each story individually.

We will begin with The Smugglers.

One of the things I don’t like about modern Who (and in that I include stories from the late ‘70s onwards) is there treatment of the historical stories.

I like the fact that, in these older tales, the Doctor and his companions would turn up in an historical setting and have an adventure there. There would be no crashed spaceships or mysterious alien visitors to deal with, just a contemporary problem to be solved.

And this is one such story. Here the Doctor, along with new companions Ben and Polly, land in Cornwall in the seventeenth century and quickly become involved in an adventure that sees them encountering pirates and buried treasure in creepy old church yards.

Hartnell is brilliant in this one. There are other episodes when you can sense that his heart is not in it, or that he is too ill to muster the energy to make the effort, but he seems to be enjoying himself in this one. Perhaps it was the fact that they got to do some proper location work that lifted him a bit..?

Companions Ben and Polly, played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (who also provides the splendid narration), are a strong addition to the cast, and both are entertaining as they go through the familiar not-quite-believing-they have-travelled-in-time thing at the beginning.

Good as the cast are, and as exciting a premise as this is, the story is not quite up to scratch and does dip in places.

However it ends on a strong note, with the TARDIS heading off on a new adventure, and one that I can only imagine was supremely shocking to the poor unsuspecting public at the time…

Doctor Who Recorded Time and Other Stories review

According to the interview with the director of this Big Finish audio, it has been almost a year since The Demons of Red Lodge. Doesn’t seem like it! In fact, if I was a lesser man, I would do a Who related joke like ‘time flies’ or something, so be thankful that I’m better than that.

As with the aforementioned Demons of Red Lodge, this is a collection of four short stories, each in a slightly different genre and has a different Doctor and companion- this time we have the Sixth Doctor and Peri.

The first, Recorded Time, is an historical Who. I’m always surprised when I find an historical story like this, because I find it incredible that Who has not visited this time already. You’d have thought that Henry VIII would have been an obvious one to have been done before, but not so.

This is a good story with a good cast. It revolves around a clever plot idea and does not outstay its welcome. My only complaint is the same one I have with all ‘modern’ Who historicals: I would like to see an historical adventure every now and then it is just an historical, with no sci-fi elements thrown in.

Next up is Paradoxicde. As the name suggests, this one has a lot of fun with the idea of time travel and paradoxes, something which is strangely rare in Who. There is also a really nice full-blown sci-fi feel to this story, and we get to see the darker, more ruthless side of the Sixth Doctor, something that Baker does very well.

These two were good, but they have saved the best for last and second last.

A Most Excellent Match should, in theory be really stupid. It should be a mess of cliché and lazy jokes, being that it pastiches 19^th century literature by way of a dangerously tired sci-fi plot device.

But it is so well written and so well performed that it easily rises above any danger of being rubbish. Baker and Bryant seem to be having an absolute ball in this one, and if I had to pick one of these shorts that I would like to see expanded into a full length adventure, it would be this one.

The collection ends with Question Marks. Again, this one starts with cliché: the cast, the Doctor and Peri included, begin the story suffering from amnesia. As one would expect, intrigue ensues as suspicions and paranoia grows.  

What wasn’t expected, by me at least, was the gut punch of a twist at the end.

All in all, this is a great collection, better, I think, that Red Lodge, and that’s saying something.

Doctor Who The Companion Chronicles - The Rocket Men

This, the latest in the Big Finish Companion Chronicles, is a strange beast.

I could not help but thinking while I was listening to it that it really shouldn’t work.

The story is set somewhere in the second series, with companions Barbara, Vicky and Ian, who is the narrator. In fact, I was somewhat surprised to hear William Russell doing this. I had assumed that he had long since retired from the acting game, but he does a sterling job here, and you can sense him warming to the story as it goes along.

Anyway - why it should not work. As I said, it is set within the second series, but the location here is so very far beyond anything the BBC budget could have grasped for.

Here, the Doctor and the TARDIS crew visit a holiday resort that is situated on a series of hovering platforms within the mantle of a gas giant planet, and while they are there the resort is attacked by an army of rocket pack wearing space pirates.

But even though it is well outside what would have been achievable on the TV series, this, amazingly, feels like something from those early days of Who. The atmosphere is palpably Hartnell era, which is helped in no small way by Russell’s narration.

And the tale itself, while being a good one, plays second fiddle to the clever structure, as the story flits backwards and forwards along its timeline, and in doing so provides the listener with a rather nice twist that, in retrospect, I should really think of as cheating, but in reality cannot help but admire the writer’s cheek at using it!

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.

Doctor Who Robophobia review

Sequels are sometimes a tricky thing, depending on what you are writing a sequel to. If it is something that wasn’t particularly brilliant or remembered with a lot of affection – I would suggest that The Claws of Axos may fall into this category – then it may be a bit easier than picking something that is well loved and may even considered to be a Classic.

I wonder what the reaction was when James Cameron went into a meeting and said he wanted to do a sequel to Alien? To me, trying to do a sequel to The Robots of Death is almost the same sort of thing.

And just like Cameron, Nicholas Briggs, the writer of this story, manages to pull it off by doing something totally different while at the same time riffing on and being respectful to what has gone before.

It is one of these nods to the past that provides the story with its strongest scenes. In episode three, the listener is left in no doubt as to what is going on because of the knowledge they have carried over from The Robots of Death.

The cast are, as is usual, wonderful. McCoy is at his mysterious best as the Seventh Doctor as he does his I-know-what’s-going-on-but-I’m-not-telling-or-maybe-I-don’t-know-but-I’m-pretending-I-do thing.

Nicola Walker is beyond good in her supporting role- she does some amazingly subtle things with her voice acting here, managing to convey complex emotions with the slightest inflection. In this Ace-less adventure, she makes a more than worthy replacement, and I for one would not be averse to seeing her return- that’s not a spoiler, merely my opinion!

Great stuff as usual from Big Finish. Actually, writing this review has got me in the mood to listen to this one again…

Doctor Who Tales from the Vault review

Like are good ideas, the one behind this story is a simple one.

It is similar to the comic strip series in the Judge Dredd Megazine called Tales from the Black Museum in that it is spinning stories out from the grisly (or not so grisly) leftovers from certain crimes.

This being Who, the crimes in question are naturally of a fantastic nature. Each is well written and well told.

Talking of which, the cast list… to say it is (from the perspective of a Who fan) impressive, is a gigantic understatement. There are four short stories, each of them is narrated by a different companion. So we have Peter Purvis doing one, Wendy Padbury on another and Katy Manning on a third and the amazing Mary Tamm on another. Which is all a bit awesome, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So, when I tell you that this is not all, and that the story that frames these shorts, and features two soldiers in the UNIT vault looking at the items, stars Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso from the Paul McGann TV movie, then I’m pretty sure your fan radar machine or whatever it is you have, will blow a bit of a fuse.

Of course, all this fan service would be nothing if the script was not up to scratch. Well, maybe it would. The actors assembled here are good enough that I suspect they could lift mediocre material enough to make it listenable. But this tale was written by Jonathan Morris, and he knows a thing or two about writing.

It is a very strong piece. I don’t mind admitting that I was wrong in predicting the ending, too. I had thought myself very clever to have worked it out from the first few moments of the audio, but was way off the mark.

To say any more would be too much. Just go listen to it.

And the best thing about this?

Well, they only tell the stories of a few of the items in the museum here, and it’s chock full of artefacts. Surely it can’t be long before Big Finish takes us on another trip into the UNIT archives..?