Doctor Who Earthshock audiobook review

Earthshock is a notable story for a number of reasons. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it is the favourite story of some fans for one particular reason. And to you people I would say: you are very cruel.
So, this audiobook of the Target novel by Ian Marter is read by the then Doctor, Peter Davidson.
This definitely adds something to the proceedings. Some of the previous audiobooks have been read by other actors who appeared in that particular story, and these have worked fine. But there’s something about having the Doctor himself reading it that lends an extra air to the proceedings.
Davidson is, naturally, very good. He has one of those warm voices that is perfect for the audiobook market. And of course he understands the emotional impact of certain events therein and conveys them with great skill. Also worth mentioning is that the cyberman voices are provided by Nicholas Briggs.

As mentioned, the book itself is written by the late, much missed former Harry Sullivan, Ian Marter.
After leaving the series as an actor, Marter managed to carve a nice corner of Who for himself by writing some of these adaptations, and even wrote a spin-off Harry Sullivan solo novel that was not half bad at all.
As a writer, Marter is very good, although he does commit a couple of, what are to me, cardinal sins. He uses too many adjectives in describing conversation (“He said, angrily”) and also does the really annoying thing of describing in detail what people are wearing. I don’t care what they have on – I care what they are doing.
On the plus side though, he improves greatly on the original television script, which was written by Eric Saward. Marter gives some more depth to the goings on, particularly with his descriptions of smells, and even has a go at patching up and explaining one of the major plot holes in the story to some success.
He also goes as far as to tweak the ending slightly, adding even more pathos to the scene. But I know that some of you will still laugh anyway…

Earthshock is released by AudioGo

Doctor Who: Rat Trap review

And so, all too soon, we come to the end of the trilogy of stores featuring the Fifth Doctor and his dream team of companions.

This adventures sees them land up in… I was about to type ‘contemporary’ England, but it is actually the early 1980s, which, I fear, tells you all you need to know about  just how terribly old I am..!

This is in many ways a thoroughly old fashioned story, with the companions getting separated early and lots of running up and down corridors. There are also some creepy monsters that, in my minds eye at least, would not be out of place around the ‘Awakening’ and ‘Frontios’ era of Who. (Although I have just read on the Big Finish site that it is set between Enlightenment and The King's Demons)

The only real problem I had with this otherwise exciting tale was the at times heavy handed way the message was hammered home. The story is quite clearly a strong anti-vivisection statement, and as such it did not really need the characters to be told “Ah! But that’s what you do to animals”, as happens more than once.

The big monster though, is a wonderful creation straight out of folklore, and one that has been well used before in comics and novels , which is, of course, a Good Thing.

As I have said before, I have really enjoyed this short series of tales, they have all had a really authentic feel to them, and I shall repeat myself again in saying that the cast are clearly having way too much fun for something that they are being paid for.

The ending here is not quite final, so I hope that we see more from this cast again sooner rather than later. Yes, I know they all have other things to do, but I want my audio adventures, dammit!

Doctor Who Kiss of Death review

One of the great things about the Big Finish audio range is that they can delve into aspects of the series that were merely glimpsed at when they were on screen. And there is no better example of this than the adventure in question: Kiss of Death.

Here we get to peer into the back-story of companion Turlough and see more of what was hinted at in Planet of Fire.

After the Black Guardian trilogy, Turlough was, in my opinion, somewhat underused as a companion, so it is good to see him given this chance to step up into the limelight, and actor Mark Strickson certainly makes the most of it. He is called on here to flex his acting muscles in a way he never was on television as we get to meet his long lost childhood sweetheart and become embroiled in some shady dealing with intergalactic criminals.

But that’s not to say that the rest of the crew don’t have a lot to do. Nyssa, the Doctor and Tegan all have plenty to be getting on with. It was nice too, to see the Doctor do something we don’t normally see him do, but somehow assume (much like James Bond) he can do- that is: pilot a spaceship.

I’ve really been enjoying this arc of stories with the ‘dream team’, as I called them in the review of Heroes of Sontar, and the only downside of it is that there is only one more to go in this particular run.

Doctor Who Heroes of Sontar review

I was genuinely excited when I first saw the title of this new Big Finish release.

I like it when they use monsters from the old series, and the Sontarans are one of my favourites.

It started well too, with a wonderful budget breaking opening scene that would have crippled the BBC. SFX budgets on audio are great! However, some alarm bells were set ringing in my head as the scene went on… these were Sontarans, but not as I knew them…

And as things progressed through the first episode, I found myself at the beginnings of sadness almost- at an opportunity missed. The creators didn’t seem to be taking this seriously! They were playing it for laughs!

I should add, that I am not averse to comedy in Who, but as a rule I find the occasional one liner more palatable and easier to digest that a full on comedy script.

But I thought I would soldier on (see what I did there?) and listen to the rest of it anyway. And then I laughed out loud a couple of times… my icy demeanour began to crack and I saw what Big Finish were doing with this.

As I said, I don’t as a rule like comedy scripts, because they more than often end up falling back on cheap gags that ridicule the monsters (Daleks can’t go up stairs? Really? No one has ever thought of that before- that’s hilarious!), but that was not the case here.

As for the cast, the was wonderful to hear the ‘old team’ back together again. The Fifth Doctor with Nyssa, Turlough and Tegan produced some great stories, and the actors spark off each other here as if they had never been apart. Everyone is clearly having a great time, and each gets there one particular moment in to shine, with these moments helping to illuminate the cleverness of the title, which is turn tongue-in-cheek, ironic and poignant.

That, and I’ve been singing the Sontaran national anthem to myself for the past couple of days after listening to this…