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.

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.

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 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 The Lost TV Episodes Vol4 review Pt3

The previous story, The Faceless Ones, ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and this story, The Evil of the Daleks, picks it up nicely. It is unusal to see a second story revisiting some of the locations of the previous one in this way, and makes for interesting listening.

We have some nice, but basic, detective work from the Doctor as he and Jamie track down their missing TARDIS, and with it uncover a deeper, more sinister, plot. I think you can guess who’s behind it by the title of the story…
While this is a highly entertaining adventure, I am curious (but not curious enough to look at the moment) as to what continuity nerds think of it. There is a lot in this story that flies in the face of the Dalek-lore that has went before in and come after, and I’m sure there are fans out there who don’t like that at all. Me? It doesn’t really bother me! Still, it’s interesting to see some of the ideas put forward here echoed and used to a great deal less effect in modern Who tales like Daleks of Manhattan.

What we get is the Second Doctor at the height of his powers; he is at his sarcastic and manipulative best here and poor Jamie is on the receiving end of a lot of it, but his inherent nobility and honesty are a joy to behold.
I would have dearly loved to see these shows ‘in the flesh’ as it where, because Hines and Troughton are just so good here…
Loved this.

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.

Do you have any Doctor Who Treasures in your attic?

Calling all Doctor Who fans with lost treasures squirrelled away.  AudioGO has launched their second ever Doctor Who at the BBC Appeal and are keen to hear from anyone who has off-air recordings of Doctor Who-related items from BBC TV and radio programmes, particularly those recorded in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. These could include interviews with the cast and crew of Doctor Who, features on the making of the series, discussions about Doctor Who, or even comedy sketches.
 
Any useable contributions will be gathered together in a new volume of Doctor Who at the BBC to be published as a CD or download in 2013. The original appeal in 2005 led to several rare finds, some of which appeared on Doctor Who at the BBC Volume2 (there have been six so far, all currently available to download). Commissioning Editor Michael Stevens said, ‘It was amazing to discover the gems people sent us last time we ran this appeal. We’re hoping for an equally exciting response this time, aspeoplemay still have excerpts which are no longer in the BBC archive and haven't previously come to light.’
 
If you have something which you think might be of interest, please drop an email to info@audiogo.co.uk, with the subject header'Doctor Who at the BBC Appeal'. All you would have to do is send AudioGO either a copy or your original on loan.
 

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 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 The Twin Dilemma audiobook review

You will all (well, all the Who nerds reading this at least) know that this is the first broadcast story that starred Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor.
Now, as I have said here before many times, there were a lot of things wrong with Who during Baker’s run, but he was not numbered among them.
One of the major problems, in fact let’s be honest, the major problem, was the standard of storylines. It was as if nobody was trying sometimes. Or if they were trying, they were trying to produce the poorest piece of work they possibly could.
And to give them credit, they started as they meant to go on with The Twin Dilemma!
Now, here is a confession of sorts. I don’t think I have seen this story since it was originally broadcast, but I still have a lasting impression of how poor it seemed to be.

It was either this or a picture of The Doctor strangling Peri

I was also puzzled when listening to this audiobook, because it was quite unlike the story I remembered watching on television all those decades ago. And then, upon reading the liner notes, I discovered that the author of the book, Who script editor Eric Saward, had rewritten the original story extensively for this adaptation.
However, while the book is, in places, very good, it also falls flat a number of times. Saward seems to have a love for ludicrous similes. “With the vitality of a lecherous stallion” is one that sticks in the mind (well, it would!).
There are also lots of examples of poorly turned phrases that should not have made it passed the editing stage. “Moribund carcass” for example.
Having said that though, there are flashes of wit and cleverness. Saward is clearly going for a Douglas Adams vibe in this book, with his frequent digressions as he pauses the story to explain some piece of background information, usually with an impressive degree of imagination and skill.
The book is read by Colin Baker, who attacks the often purple prose with great gusto.
Yes, I know I bang on about it all the time, but Baker really is a very fine actor, and arguably he is worth the money for this audiobook alone.

The Twin Dilemma is released by AudioGo.

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.

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

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: 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: 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.