Doctor Who: Vengeance of the Stones

This being the 50th anniversary year of the greatest television show in history (note: may be some bias there), AudioGo have put together this ambitious series, which features a story thread that runs through a series of adventures, one for each of the Doctors incarnations.
This, as you can see from the picture, is the Third Doctor story. The first concern the casual listener may have is in picking up one of these without hearing the previous stories in the series. Will it be accessible and make sense?  I have not heard the first two, so I am in a position to answer that question.

And the answer is that you do not need to have heard the previous stories to enjoy this one. I’m sure that if I go back to this having heard the rest of them, I could probably pick up clues here and there, but this is very much a stand-alone story, albeit with a scene towards the end that is obviously there to lead into the fourth Doctor adventure.
As for the story itself, it is one that would be hard for Hi-Ex! to ignore, being that it is set here! It concerns RAF pilots flying out of the base at Lossiemouth, and name checks a lot of familiar locations in and around Inverness. It’s always a treat to hear places you know mentioned in a story, and gives it a nice added ;Easter Egg’. It is a well told and well read story. There is also a nice treat for long time Who fans, as it serves as something of an origin story for a fan favourite character from the Pertwee UNIT days. If I had one complaint, it would be the same one I have mentioned in a lot of reviews for Who adventures. And that is that I don’t know how we move on this island for all the crashed spaceships that seem to be on it… But if you can see through that complaint, this is a very good story indeed.

PS, if you’re reading this– congratulations on having got this far! You may have noticed that reviews and posts here have been thin on the ground for a while, and for that I can only apologise! It is proving to be difficult to write and post here regularly as I’m just one guy, so if you as sensible and competent and would like to write reviews or posts for the blog, please drop me a line!

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.

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…

Doctor Who The Sentinels of the New Dawn review

For me, Liz Shaw was a criminally underused companion. She and the Doctor had a real sparky chemistry, and her not being intimidated by him and displaying an intellect close to his set her apart from most other companions.

So, it’s nice to see the character coming back in this latest Big Finish release. Caroline John plays the character as if she has never been away. That easy confidence and intellectual swagger is still there, and she’s clearly enjoying herself as she throws herself into not only her own part, but the voices of the other characters in the story.

The story is a good one too. It has a real authentic 'of that era' feel to it, and could easily be lifted from the early Pertwee shows with all it’s Avengers/Bond type adventures. We get pretty much all the tropes that the series displayed at the time: There’s the country house setting with a mysterious monster. There’s a car chase and a helicopter and a big action sequence at the end.

But as well as the action, there is some good character work going on too. I was struck in particular by some of Liz Shaw’s insights into the character of the Doctor, which were clever and show not only her understanding of the Doctor, but the writer’s.

There are hints laid in places that Liz’s story has not been fully told yet, and I for one would be delighted if this was so.

Doctor Who The BBC Radio Episodes pt2

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, and we’ll be reviewing the stories included in the collection individually.

Next up is The Ghosts of N-Space.

As with Paradise of Death, this adventure was originally broadcast on Radio 4. I remember this going out, and I’m sure that I listened to it at the time, but for the life of me I could not remember any of it as I listened again on this release.

The more cruel part of my may suggest that I have blocked it from my memory, because there was a lot in here that was ‘wrong’.

The balance of the story seems way off. There are comedy foreign accents and sterotypes alongside real life swear words and scenes of torture and murder, for example. There is also the return of the annoying sidekick they gave Sarah Jane in Paradise of Death, but in fairness, he is slightly less annoying here.

It also has a bizarre running gag with one of the characters who talks in a ‘funny’ Elvis Presley voice which sits uncomfortably alongside some real human tragedy in the narrative. And one of the characters behaves in a wildly inconsistent way when it is required by the plot.

Like I say- it’s unbalanced.

There is also the central idea of the plot- N-Space itself. I don’t want to go into it here, as I think to describe it too much would count as a spoiler, but I feel that the concept of N-Space and who the writer here deals with death and more specifically, life after death, flies in the face of one of the central tenants of the Who Universe. That being that there are no such thing as ghosts.

But it is not all complaints!

The cast are great- Sladen is good as always and Nic Courtney as the Brigadier is clearly enjoying himself. There is also the added delight of hearing Harry Towb doing a cod-Italian accent in his Larne brogue.

I’m also happy to report that, in this adventure, Pertwee is on terrific form. He sounds like he’s having the time of his life, and this was made all the more poignant when I read on the liner notes that this was his last performance as the Doctor- I’m glad he went out on a good one.

Doctor Who The BBC Radio Episodes pt1

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, and we’ll be reviewing the stories included in the collection individually.

We start with:

The Paradise of Death

Getting the dream team of Pertwee, Courtney and Sladen together must have seemed like a dream come true to Who fans in the dark old days of the 1980s.

And while the three leads work well- no not just well, they work brilliantly- together, this adventure is very much a mixed bag.

The storyline is, especially for a story of this length, a slight one. There is a lot of obvious padding going on with many scenes of characters chatting that do not forward the plot in any way. Practically speaking, and with my editors hat on, I would suggest that this would have been a much better story if they had dropped two episodes. "But they didn't", you may rightly answer, "so what do you know, eh?"

My other problem with this was, surprisingly, Jon Pertwee. For most of the story he sounded rather bored with the proceedings, which is all the more surprising when I read that this was his idea.

And while I’m here- the decision to give Sarah Jane a comedy sidekick is not a good one. The character of Jeremy Fitzoliver is just plain irritating and adds nothing to the proceedings.

There are good things about it though!

The plot itself is a good one, and pretty original too. It is anchored nicely in continuity early on in the first episode and also has a couple of delightful in jokes for the attentive fan/nerd. It is rooted in a strong sci-fi idea and also delivers a powerful message along with the adventuring.

And there is a lot of adventuring going on too. One of the great thing about the audios is that they can have widescreen action scenes that defy television budgets, and this story is no different.

The best thing about this though, and something that is almost with the price in itself, is the performance from Elizabeth Sladen. She is a hell of an actor, and the range she gets to show here impressive.