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 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?

Ghostly Terror and Vampire Horror reviews!

You can blame us being away at the Dundee Comics Day for this and a few other reviews not appearing during the Halloween weekend. Let’s just pretend that we did it anyway, eh?

So, these two short story audiobooks released by AudioGo are themed around the subjects, as you can see, of ghosts and vampires.

First up the ghost collection, Ghostly Terror.

This is the shorter of the two collections, featuring three stories.

it opens with ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’ by M.R. James, read by Andrew Sachs. I had not heard or read this one before, but it is a very good story, as you would expect from an author like James. He constructs a great sense of creeping dread, which is aided considerably by the sound design and Sachs’s reading.

The final story is one I was more familiar with - W. F. Harvey’s 'The Beast With Five Fingers', which if you have never read or heard before is well worth your time.

But best of the lot is the middle story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and read by Laurel Lefkow.

To my shame I had never heard of either the story or author previous to this. The story is a masterpiece and a perfect example of portraying paranoia and mental breakdown. Truly unsettling.

The second collection is called Vampire Horror.

It begins with a story that is not only very good, but very important. It is The Vampyre by John Polidori. This is a long story, so make sure you’re on a long journey when you start listening (I’m assuming here that you also listen in the car!).

It is very good because it has an interesting structure and a creepy atmosphere. It is important because it bears some resemblance to a later, more well known book about pursuing a vampire across Europe, only this was written 78 years before that one.

My favourite story in the collection was the next one: Wailing Well by M.R. James. This is in turn a pitch black comedy and genuine horror by way of a pretty brutal morality tale.

The collection is rounded of with two more tales: the sinister ‘For The Blood is the Life’ by Marion Crawford and another M. R. James effort, ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’, which is as far from the other James story in this set as is possible to be. It’s dark and disturbing and, like the James story on the Ghosts collection, it feels like something a young Clive Barker would have written.

So – you’re a horror fan? Buy these.

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 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 pt3

Next up in our review of the latest box set from AudioGo is The Power of the Daleks.

First impressions are very important. 

Moreso if youre an actor taking over the lead role in a major television series from a well loved incumbent.

Here, half a century later, we are well used to the notion of the Doctor regenerating, but it is hard to imagine what viewers back then must have thought when they saw Hartnell change into Patrick Troughton at the end of The Tenth Planet.

In this respect, Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, playing companions Ben and Polly play and excellent role here as the voice of the viewer. Their cries of, “Who are you?” and “He’s not the Doctor!” are all to obviously echoes of what people would have been saying at home at the time.

But the Doctor he is, and for my money, possible the best, until Matt Smith came along at any rate.

Troughton is never anything less than magnificent. His performance is a whirlwind of manic energy interspersed with bouts of knowing and even sinister lucidity.

It was also a canny idea by the producers to start the second Doctor’s life with a Dalek story, thus giving the disorientated viewer something familiar to hang onto among all the newness.

And what of this story? The first thing that struck me about it was the similarities to the recent WWII set Dalek tale Victory of the Daleks. As with that story, this has Daleks that are apparently subservient to humans, and has the Doctor being the only one who can see them for what they are. This leads to some powerful interchanges between characters, with the Daleks in particular coming out a lot better then they normally do. The repeated Dalek line, “I am your servant” grows with menace and even sarcasm as it is used and used again.

Things build to an inevitable and exciting climax and the viewer/listener is left with no doubt that Troughton is the Doctor and that things will never be the same again.

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…

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 The Chase audiobook review

The Chase is a strange one. It’s one of those Who tales that has flashes of complete genius interspersed with some utter nonsense. But then, it is a Terry Nation story!

And before you throw your hands up in protest, hear me out.

Nation was not very good at plotting. The Chase is a case in point. There is no real sense of urgency in here. The Daleks have their own time machine are chasing the Doctor through the universe! It is literally a race against time and should be a lot more exciting that it is.

The problem is the episodic nature of the narrative. Each episode or so is a self-contained mini-adventure. The Doctor and the TARDIS crew land, have a quick adventure and leave just before the Daleks get there.

There is also the classic Nation method of naming planets. The planet Aridius is a desert planet. Although it was originally a water planet and all the water went away and… well, the story does not really make much sense, but never mind. There is some great adventuring going on amongst my complaining!

The other classic if the planet Mechanus. I bet you can’t guess what sort of things inhabit this planet..?

One more moan… there are a couple of howlers that have made it through the edit to the finished book. For example, we are told within the space of ten minutes that the Doctor had changed his appearance many times before and also that he is on his first incarnation.

What is very good is the writing itself. John Peel has taken the stretched narrative of Nation’s original scripts and worked them into a pretty well written book. Maureen O'Brien, who played the companion Vicki in this story, is quite wonderful as a narrator. It is a brilliant stroke of genius from Audio Go to have an actor connected with the particular story in question narrate it, as it adds a nice level of authenticity to the proceedings.

Journey into Space Operation Luna review

I’m sure most of you have heard of Journey into Space, even if you have never actually heard it. This was certainly my own situation. I knew of the series, and was vaguely aware of the high regard it was held in, but that was about it.

So, when I put the first disc on to listen to it, I was expecting something very much of it’s time. I was prepared for something entertaining, but – to be frank – past its sell-by date.

What I was not prepared for however, was just how very good this is.

And what’s so good about it?

Well, while it is true there are some astounding anachronisms in there, like while they’re running low on oxygen in the ship they resolve to smoke just one cigarette each, these are vastly outweighed by the sheer breadth of ideas in here.

As I listened, without reading the liner notes, I assumed that this was recorded in the mid-sixties. It was incredible to discover that it had actually been originally broadcast in 1953! This was before Laika blasted into space and almost a decade before Yuri Gagarin made history. Too complicated to go into here- look it up on Wiki!

In light of this, the amount of detail that Charles Chilton gets right is nothing short of astounding. Even from our perspective fifty years of scientific discovery later, Chilton’s explanations of faster than light travel, time and space early man still hold up pretty well.

And yes, of course there are some things he gets wrong- like the surface of the moon for example- but these things do not matter.

This is because the story is so very strong. It starts with a few slow episodes, but things quickly pick up once we get to the moon and things start to go… strange. There is one standout sequence with the crew in their capsule on the moon when they hear something outside the ship, banging on the door. It is brilliantly written and performed, and managed to disturb me while driving on a summer day, so heaven knows how it must have terrified the listening audience at the time!

The story twists and turns in an expert fashion, with some delightful cliff hangers, well written and acted characters and well thought out and believable situations.

I really loved this. I did not expect to, buy as I got towards the end, and the final couple of discs, I found myself almost reluctant to listen to them because I didn’t want it to end.

But end it did, and an a nice note that promises more, which I hope AudioGo will release in time.

The set also contains a shot Radio 4 documentary featuring interviews with some of the surviving cast and crew.

A great package, and one well worth the time and effort of any serious sci-fi fan. Or indeed any non-serious one who likes to be entertained!

Doctor Who: Eye of the Jaguar review

This latest original Eleventh Doctor adventure from AudioGo is a bit more ambitious than the previous few releases in that it stretches itself over the course of a couple of hours, rather than the one hour/ one disc format we’ve had lately.

And for the most part, the story benefits from it. Where the previous stories were, thanks to their length, punchy and to the point, I feared that this one would perhaps wallow a bit in filling the time. And while it is true there are a few scenes that could do with being trimmed, it is on the whole, the length it should be.

So, what have we got here? It is ostensibly an historical adventure- set in the South American jungle in the early 1800s. The Doctor, Amy and Rory meet up with a group of explorers who are there to hunt and capture animals for the soon to open London Zoo.

Now, Rory is one of my favourite Who characters ever. He is a proper ‘voice’ for the viewer in a way that none of the previous new Who companions have been, and I am pleased to say that he is excellently written here- as are both the Doctor and Amy.

The story in itself is pretty good too, and the writer, Darren Jones, was obviously having a load of fun while writing it, something that is evident in the final act, as he really goes to town with some imaginative monsters. Oh, and the sly nod to the Exorcist also made me smile- I wonder if this is a first for Who (not me smiling, the reference…)?

And all this would be for nothing without a good narrator. Thankfully, we get David Troughton- fresh from his triumphant reading of The War Games.

And while, in his readings, Matt Smith goes for it with a ridiculous Scottish accent, Troughton goes the opposite direction and barely tries at all. When he does, it comes out more Somerset that Inverness, so maybe it’s as well he doesn’t try too hard.

But overall, this is a great piece of writing and is performed excellently by Troughton, and the sound design unobtrusive, but at the same time it manages to add another layer to the production.

 Great stuff, and just the thing to fill the gap while we all wait for the Doctor's return in the autumn. 

Doctor Who Ghost Light audiobook review

Ghost Light is (well for the ‘passionate’ Who fan) an interesting story.

It was the last ‘old Who’ story to be recorded, although not the final one to be broadcast. I was also struck while listening to this audiobook, just how similar it is to the new series.

What I mean is this: we seem to get a lot of folks complaining that there is an almost soap opera-ish element to the new series with its long story arcs and what have you. But these people seem to forget what was going on with the Seventh Doctor and Ace. There was a whole arc of stories dealing with the Doctor and his relationship with Ace, which more or less began with this adventure.

I suspect it was not supposed to culminate where it did (with the story 'Survival'), but the cancelling of the series soon after this made it this way. And yes, I know that it continued in the Virgin books range!

This is an adaptation of Marc Platt’s Target Books novelisation of his script, and as you may know, the book contains a lot more depth and breadth than the television version, including an interesting prologue section set in the 1980s…

In the novel and audiobook, Platt takes his time to explore the house at Gabriel Chase, and each character gets their place in the spotlight as the mystery around the house unfolds.

The atmosphere created by the writing, sound design and narration, which is by Ian Hogg, is second to none. My only complaint would be that, because this is very much the story of Ace, it may have been more suited to a female voice rather than a male one, but having said this- this is still a great audio, and I’m thoroughly enjoying this range of Audiogo Who adventures.

Doctor Who The Stones of Blood audio review

When I first saw this I thought- Wha-? Hold on! This is the third in the Key to Time stories! Where’s the second one?

Then I remembered that the second tale, The Pirate Planet, was written by a certain Mr D Adams, and thus is one of the stories that has never been adapted into a novel or  any other medium. Which is, of course, a crying shame, but not something we should concern ourselves with here.

Here we revisit the Stones of Blood, which is for my money, one of the nuttiest Who stories there is. Trans dimensional spaceships, blood drinking stones and druid magic… now, normally these things would not hang well together in a single story, but somehow David Fisher manages to throw all these disparate things at a wall and make them stick.

I have a soft spot of this story on screen- Baker has arguably never been better than he was during this period, and Mary Tamm oozes cool and class and they sparked off each other wonderfully.

But does this come across in the audio book, being that the narrator here, Susan Engel (who of course starred in the original TV production), is neither Baker or Tamm?

Well, for the most part it does, thanks to the standard of writing and the skill of the reader. There are a few times she sees to miss the beat in a line or pronounces words in an odd way, but nothing that detracts from the listeners enjoyment. And there is also the added bonus of having John Lesson cameo in the role of K-9.

Best of all? The monsters. How so, you say?

Well, as I’m sure you know, on screen the Ogri were… poor. It’s hard to make someone pushing a rock shaped object at an actor look threatening, but the description of them in the book is clever enough to actually make then seem like a credible threat.

So- Good stuff again for AudioGo- when’s the next one!?

Doctor Who: The Hounds of Artemis review

This is another in the range of adventures from AudioGo featuring the eleventh Doctor.

This one sees the welcome return of Matt Smith, as he partly narrates this adventure. I say ‘partly’, as this story has a clever structure. It begins with the discovery of the diary of Amy Pond, which is being read by the daughter of one of the main characters from the story. This part is ably played by Clare Corbett, who throws herself into the various roles with great gusto. She does a very good reading of both the Doctor and Amy.

Because this tale flips back and forth between Amy’s first person point of view in the diary and Smith narrating, we are able to see various scenes from different angles.

As for Smith, he is- of course- brilliant. He inhabits the role of Doctor- possibly like no actor has since the days of Tom Baker.

And that is all very well, but means nothing if the story itself is not up to scratch.

Well, luckily it is. In fact, this is perhaps the best AudioGo Who I have heard so far. It has a well constructed narrative and the characters are great. It is easy to imagine both Smith and Gillan speaking the lines James Goss has given them here.

The story starts with a great scene that just screams New Who (Oh how I hate that expression!) and manages to drop the listener into the middle of the story perfectly. There is also a nice little nod in there to The Pyramids of Mars, which this story is very much a direct descendant of.

There is little or no hint of the more sinister side of Smith’s Doctor in this story- it is basically a good old fashioned adventure romp very much in the Indian Jones style, with the prerequisite scares and laughs along the way that you’d expect from such a tale.

Listen to this!

Doctor Who The BBC Radio Episodes pt4

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, here we review the final two discs in the set.

I should add that these reviews where written before the tragic death of Elizabeth Sladen, so reading it back now is a bit weird...

First up: Expedition Earth

This one is a bit of a curio- in fact both of the adventures on this disc are.

This first one is from the olden days when the BBC used to broadcast educational programs for schools during the day on television and radio rather than shows about houses and cooking. This particular one is a Who story featuring Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen. The story, what there is of it, is slight. It involves the Doctor and Sarah Jane flitting through time from the very birth of the solar system to when the Earth was fully formed and populated by animals. While doing this, they repeatedly encounter an alien intelligence who seems to do nothing other that hang around in space and shout about things.  

As I said, the story is largely irrelevant. It is really just a hook to hang descriptions of the various states of the Earth upon as Baker explains them to Sladen (and in turn to the listening child).

It’s not going to win any awards, but this was surprisingly fun- I suspect mainly because of the nostalgia element of listening to an schools broadcast for the first time in decades!

Whatever happened to..?

Carole Anne Ford doesn't actually play Susan in this, but y'know...

This was originally recorded as part of a series of radio plays focusing on different fictional characters and what they did after their story finished and broadcast on Radio 4.

It has an impressive cast, lead by Jane Asher in the role of Susan Foreman, and even features a lovely cameo from the mighty Claire Rainer. It is not without its problems though- mainly for the more… ‘dedicated’ Doctor Who fan. Some are pretty big howlers. Claiming the Doctor to be a travelling salesman, for example, which flies in the face of everything that had went before. There are factual errors- the play states that Ian and Barbara were left back seconds after they left with the Doctor, when in actual fact he left them back two years later.

Susan’s character largely contradicts everything we have seen since, but as this was well before the range of Virgin and BBC novels and Big Finish studios, this can be excused.

The comedy in the play is rather hit and miss too, but some of the jokes are absolute corkers. I also liked hearing what Ian and Barbara got up to when they returned. Barbara’s story in particular rings tragically true in that I suspect her reaction would be what most people’s would be.

Again, as with Expedition Earth, this is worth it for the curiosity factor.

Doctor Who The BBC Radio Episodes pt3

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 Slipback

While the series on the television was being ill served by the then powers-that-be at the BBC and forced into a year and a half long hiatus, the Sixth Doctor and Peri turned up on the radio in this adventure.

As with The Ghosts of N-Space, I can remember this one being on the radio, but didn’t catch any of it at the time.

What we have here are six short episodes, which isn’t a problem in itself, but the arrangement of the Who theme during this era was particularly bad, and having to listen to it so many times in such a short time did not do wonders for my ears!

But on to the adventure itself. It is a bit of a mixed bag, truth be told. There are some good ideas in there, but they never seem to gel together into one whole story. Some of the stranger plot ideas- like the captain who produces exotic diseases through his skin to threaten his crew- don’t actually make much sense.

The ending too, is one I’m not too sure about. Partly because it only seems to be there because it is a cool idea, and partly because it flatly contradicts something that happened in an earlier Who story. Sorry for that piece of continuity Nazism… sometimes I can’t help myself!

As always though, Baker is great. Even with the poorest of material on the screen, he gave it his absolute all, and the same is true here.

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.