Starting with Doctor Who, Terror of the Sontarans is from September of 2015. Co-written by "Strax" actor Dan Starkey, it's a strange mix of comedic and horror elements which doesn't quite work. Set on a mining facility where Sontaran experiments have unleashed a voracious crystalline entity, this Seventh Doctor-and-Mel adventure soon outstays its welcome.(1/5)
Doctor Who Short Trips vol.4 is a short story collection. It's a bit dull aside from "Lost in the Wakefield Triangle", a fanciful story about aliens who have come for our rhubarb; and The Old Rogue in which a deposed alien dictator winds up in a London greasy spoon. The latter is read in an hilarious deadpan by Louise Jameson. (2/5)
UNIT: Extinction is a bland action- adventure over four discs. It's nice to hear Jemma and Ingrid Oliver from tv but this story of another Nestene invasion unfolds exactly as you might imagine. The dialogue is often unintentionally comic (" It matters not, human!"/ " Watch out for that tentacle, Kate!") and Warren Brown is terribly wooden ( I've heard some droll Glasgow panto stories about his acting that I shouldn't repeat). This is the kind of inoffensive, vanilla stuff many Who fans seem to love. (2/5)
Memory of Winter: Jemma Redgrave returns to read the final Capaldi-Who audiobook in this series. A time vortex monster influences Joan of Arc in 15th century France. It's read very well and the Doctor and Clara sound more authentic than in other installments but the Winter Family stories have all left me a bit cold. (2/5)
Nightshade is another adaptation of a Virgin New Adventure, published in 1992. Written by Mark Gatiss, it was a standalone amid story arcs and a pastiche of the Quatermass serials. I remember enjoying it at the time but the ending, which helped propel Ace out of the Tardis ( for a while), has been changed and it's all a bit disappointing. The horror feels diluted; it's never clear what the monsters actually are and it's hard to really care about any of the characters. (2.5 /5)
Survivors series one: I was in my final month of primary school in 1975 when the Survivors episode "Law and Order" was first broadcast. This grim morality play of rape and miscarriage of justice transfixed me. Survivors was, of course, Terry Nation's doomsday tale of a killer virus that decimated 70s Britain.
The series was re-imagined between 2008-10 with a more multicultural tone: Paterson Joseph played engineer Greg, Scottish yummy mummy Julie Graham played pragmatic Abby and manky tramp Tom Price morphed into glamorous and violent ex-con Max Beesely
On audio, the story of plague-ridden Britain is more intimate but we don't get much sense of the apocalypse - largely just characters coughing themselves to death,
Oddly ,70s series regulars Abby, Greg and Jenny get no introduction for new listeners but the story arc about James Gillison, a college lecturer turned Jim Jones- style leader is quite chilling. Louise Jameson is also the centre of a dark storyline about bereavement. (3/5)
Colin Baker is the Sixth Doctor in Spaceport Fear from February 2013. It's quite like Sylvester's Paradise Towers blended with Tom's Face of Evil but is engaging and likeable. With its pace and inventive language, it's J.G. Ballard as teatime comedy. (4/5)
The Peterloo Massacre by Paul Magrs is superior to his thin, whimsical Lady of Mercia. Set in 1819, it's a grim Fifth Doctor historical in the Hartnell style about a cavalry charge in Manchester during a public meeting. This real incident resulted in hundreds of injuries and ultimately led to the foundation of The Guardian newspaper, Hugely praised in other reviews, I did find it refreshing and concise, if a little portentous. (4/5)
Tenth Doctor Adventures vol.1 box set : warm, sad, funny and naughty, this set of three adventures reunites Catherine Tate and David Tennant- probably the most popular Doctor of Nu Who and possibly the most popular since Tom Baker. This is a definite success, beginning with modern- day alien invasion story Technophobia through Time Reaver by Jenny Colgan - a melancholy sci-fi story set in a Star Wars-like world- to my favourite, Death and The Queen, where Donna Noble goes Bridezilla in a Ruritanian magical realism adventure. A resounding 13/15.
The Avengers Comic Strip Adaptations vol.1 the stories are taken from Diana magazine between 1966-67. The tv series are repeated all the time now on Freeview and Diana Rigg's characterisation so iconic ( only Joanna Lumley's Purdey ever came close) so BF have a lot to live up to. But Julian Wadham and Olivia Poulet are extremely very well-cast as Steed and Mrs. Peel . The first story, Return to Castle De'Ath is a sequel to one of my favourite b/w episodes. The Miser is a complex plot about disasters orchestrated by a diminutive villain; The Golden Dresses features Blake's Seven's Jacqueline Pearce in an espionage story of mind control; and my favourite, the very funny Norse Code deals with a cult of phoney vikings.
The stories utilise the "We're needed" prologues of Season Five but also the incidental music glissando of Season Four. Like a glass of champagne, the fun and levity of this set are a delight. More soon! I'd even listen to daffy Tara King! (13/15)
Coming soon: DC Rebirth
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