Destiny of the Doctor is a new monthly series of audio plays- enhanced readings with the occasional supporting artist, in the format of Big Finish's Companion Chronicles. There will be one for each Doctor in turn.
Vengeance of the Stones features the Third Doctor and UNIT and is written by Andrew Smith, whom I suspect is the same guy who inspired me to write Who fanfic as a teenager. It's set up here in rural Moray, in the North East of Scotland. Aside from the flutter caused by mentions of Lossiemouth and of Fochabers ( a pretty village eleven miles away, home to Speyfest and the Baxter's Foods empire), however, this was a dull story that revealed the first meeting of Mike Yates and the Doctor. Although Richard Franklyn gives a spirited reading and despite echoes of Children of the Stones, the RAF fighter jets and alien aggressors felt more like a modern techno-thriler rather than the Glam Rock Quatermass of 1971/72. 2/5 Talmars
The Empty House is an AudioGo original for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. It's written by the prolific Simon Guerrier and is a predictable ghost story. Racquel Cassidy's voice has a cool yet intimate tone and she does a fairly good Inverness accent for Amy Pond. It's an atmospheric and inoffensive short story which passed a bus journey through Huntly and Keith. 2/5 Talmars.
Meanwhile, Black and White continues the Seventh Doctor arc begun in Big Finish's Protect and Survive. It continues a chess motif as the Doc gathers together pawns for his battle against the Elder Gods. Ace and Hex ( already sensing the Grim Reaper on his trail) team up with military operatives Sally Morgan and Lysandra Aristedes ( from previous audios). The story itself is a take on the Beowulf saga.
The Scandic thread of the story is quite melancholy and touching but it is derailed by the OTT performance of Stuart Milligan as the screamingly camp alien amphibian Garundel ( aka Grendel). This characterisation is extremely jarring and tiresome. The msimatched Tardis crew also echoes Moffat's approach in his season finales. 3/5 Talmars
Speaking of Moffat, it seems there's something of a backlash against his stewardship of TV Who. The Rings of Akhaten was only the second episode in this year's fiftieth anniversary series but it seems to have generated a negative response.
I watched it with my friend Alex Harvey and his partner; their kids have been avid fans since Eccleston's day. I was a bit baffled although I enjoyed the singing in the episode. It resembled Rose Tyler's first trip in the Tardis with a flavour of the Star Wars cantina. I would have preferred more of a focus on winsome new companion Clara, the centre of another "timey-wimey" mystery. However, the bait and switch storyline - is this week's monster a mummy? A vampire? A trio of Cenobites? A living sun? A psychic parasite? - seemed hurried and histrionic with its weepy monologue for Matt Smith.
On second viewing, I grasped that it's about a child's fear of performing in front of a crowd, which is an appropriate anxiety for a family audience. I wish the series would try to focus less on being "clever" and sentimental, however and more on being scary and exciting. Smith's eccentricity needs reigning in, too. He doesn't require mannered character "bits" unlike David Tennant; the boy's unusual enough, just playing it straight. 2/5 Talmars.
None of this carping will dissuade me from wacthing tonight, of course. I've been in love with Doctor Who since 1967. Fans of my vintage, like Rangers supporters and Tardis travellers, don't do walking away.
Next: again with the comics
All images are presumed copyright of their respective owners
Any more episodes like that one, Dougie, and viewers won't be walking away - they'll be running for the hills.
ReplyDelete