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| What: | The Eyeless (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Hessel Hoekstra, Maassluis, Netherlands |
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| Date: | Sunday 19 February 2012 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
Great book! The lonely Doctor was very well detailed, and the setting, writing style, and even the cover created an ultimate setting for the story. The story was very good, and the Eyeless were scary!
| What: | Dying in the Sun (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 19 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
"Dying in the Sun" is an attempt to extrapolate "movie magic" to a Doctor Who setting. The basic idea is that the allure of the stars and the compelling nature of film can be enhanced. In this way, the novel's writer can fit in the cliches of Hollywood and blame them on the aliens. So, here is what we have. The Doctor, Ben, and Polly are in Los Angeles 1947 generally being tourists. The Doctor's friend who works in the business is murdered, and this murder turns out to be part of a plot by some liquid aliens who live inside people and on film. One of the characters names the aliens Selyoids (get it, the celluloids). Alright, I'll go with the idea. However, four problems block the execution of the novel. The first has to do with anachronisms. I live in Los Angeles, so I can say that Miller never quite made Los Angeles 1947 seem real. He throws about some place names, but appears to be unfamiliar with the geography and history. He gets American dialogue wrong, such as having a character say "Go on then" rather than "Go on" and similar slips into Britishisms. Yellow crime scene tape was not in use in 1947. The second problem is the story of Robert Chate, which seems beyond improbable. Granted, alien slime that alters film is improbable, but that is the science fiction angle. Where normality runs, it should stay within the probability lines. Chate's story, involving his escaping a police dragnet, killing a gangster, knocking unconscious a police officer watching his property, dragging the body of the fat gangster up three flights of stairs and then setting a building on fire all before the unconscious policeman awakes, just does not hold up. The third problem is the Selyoids themselves. Just what do they want? Why do they do what they do? Only the vaguest of explanations are given. The fourth is Miller's handling of the Doctor's character. He spends most of the novel going here and there trying to tell people that the sky is falling. Every time the Doctor says something like "We have to do something," that something is to talk to someone who doesn't believe him. One would think that eventually the Doctor might consider some other course of action. To summarize, lack of imagination killed this story.
..especially David Troughton playing The Visitor! Really excellent, these audios are really starting to grow on me.
I first read this book many years ago when I was much younger. I got the video and then the DVD and have to say I really do like this story.
I read it again at the weekend and once the action started I just couldn't put the book down
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 | The best DVD of series one. |
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| What: | Series 1 Volume 3: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Pieter Knotnerus, Ter Apel, Netherlands |
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| Date: | Monday 13 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The best DVD of series one.
| What: | Series 1 Volume 2: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Pieter Knotnerus, Ter Apel, Netherlands |
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| Date: | Monday 13 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Daleks are back.
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| good beginning for the new series |
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| What: | Series 1 Volume 1: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Pieter Knotnerus, Ter Apel, Netherlands |
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| Date: | Monday 13 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
good beginning for the new series
| What: | Touched By An Angel (BBC new series audiobooks) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Sunday 12 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I reviewed this in the BOOK section of this web site but have also listened to this CD and Clare Corbett does very very very well!!! Great to listen to if you have a few hours to kill, or need something to listen to while your working and doing the house work.
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| BLOODY WELL DONE MR MORRIS!!!!! |
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| What: | Touched by an Angel (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Sunday 12 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This book is absolutly fantastic. The Angels are the best thing to happen to Dr Who since they killed of Adric, But always wondered if they would work in book form. Now I have my answer and they were absolutly brilliant!!! The fact that I read this in 2 days says to me how good this book was as I'm not the fastest reader. And when Rebekah dies in his arms at the end of the book there was actually a tear in my eye and that never happens (I'm a 40 year old guy for god sake!!!!!)
Even the romance in this book was great - If you were sent back in time, who wouldn't have some things that they would want to change about there past, or try to save someone inportant to you that died, Or maybe (if they could) go back in the past and invest a few thousand dollars into something like Apple computers or invest money into a play like Phantom of the Opera when it first came out.
Well done Jonathan Morris this is very near the the best Dr Who book I have ever read.
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| Almost killed the series for me. |
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| What: | Demon Quest: Starfall (Nest Cottage audio dramas) |
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| By: | Philip Frey, Rochester, NY, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 February 2012 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Almost killed the series for me.
| What: | The Lost Stories: The Macros (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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| By: | Jeremy Matthews, Brisbane, Australia |
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| Date: | Sunday 29 January 2012 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Macros is a funny one; it's overall fairly enjoyable, but some bits of it are a bit lifeless, and had they had more energy to them, this story truly could have been something excellent. The sections of this story set onboard the USS Eldridge are great. They're atmospheric, well-characterised, and just genuinely interesting scenes which draw the listener (ie, me) in with consummate ease. However, the other half of the story takes place on the planet Capron, and while these portions of the story have some good moments (Peri posing as a singer is laugh-out-loud stuff) the overwhelming impression I get from those bits was that Capron is a dull, one-dimensional world, which I was gonna forget about the moment Episode 2 finished. And yet... it feels like it should be so much better. Osloo should be a brilliantly pathetic villain, a woman who has her horizons expanded exponentially, and as a result just decides to conquer the universe. But as written, the character is a not-very-interesting matriach, with a line in pompous put-downs. Linda Marlowe does some good work, but she can't overcome the shortcomings of the script. With a few more drafts, to truly convince me with regards to Osloo's development, and to add more life to Capron's other inhabitants, I would happily rant about this one all day. And yet, it doesn't quite get there.
This one's received a lot of praise, and I don't entirely understand why. While it has some good ideas, and is nicely paced, it's characters are almost entirely shallow ciphers, who really needed to be developed more deeply to truly engage me in the story. The Captain, for example, is too simplistically 'evil' for me to truly sympathise with him when his (actually quite convincing) backstory is revealed. That said, the whole atmosphere of the story, switching between the factory ship and the belly of the Ghaleen, is truly great, and makes this one an enjoyable, if a touch simplistic, listen.
Barbara Clegg, despite only delivering one story for 'Doctor Who', is one of my favourite writers, as that story was the excellent 'Enlightenment'. So to have another of her stories made was a great treat for me, and it was everything I hoped for. While its plot isn't that complex, the whole story is extremely dark and ghoulish, with some of the images it conjures it up possibly being too extreme for audiences nowadays, let alone the 80s. This story isn't about complex plotting, but about atmosphere, and it has that in bucketloads. Kit Marlowe makes for a great historical character, and his turn to the 'darkness' of Velez is astonishingly well-portrayed. And the Omnim are suitably grizly monsters, which work all the better for not appearing too much. This is my favourite of the first series of Lost Stories, and deserves to be heard by everyone. Now. I mean it. Get up, and go buy a copy now. :P
| What: | The Lost Stories: Paradise 5 (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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| By: | Jeremy Matthews, Brisbane, Australia |
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| Date: | Sunday 29 January 2012 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This Lost Story isn't quite as it would have appeared, as part of the 'Trial of a Time Lord', but that's perhaps to the story's advantage, as it is able to develop on it's own merits, rather than being piggy-backed onto the Trial. It's perfectly paced, and has beautiful atmosphere, which allows the listener to just settle back and enjoy the imagery that the story conjures up. However, it's also got some great moral dilemmas in it; the truth about the Cherubs is horrible, and forces even my beloved morbid Sixth Doctor to get a bit squeamish and upset. The gay couple who serve as the story's villains are also deliciously pompous characters, particularly Gabriel, who is perfectly pitched as a character.
It's interesting to note that this even would have fitted in with the Trial's overall criticism of capitalism, following on very well from 'Mindwarp' in that respect. I really wish that it had been made, as it would have made a far better story than 'Terror of the Vervoids', and also would have made a great introduction story for Mel. My only complaint about this story is the disgusting music, which is utterly tuneless and evil. Despite what fans tend to think, Doctor Who's incidental music in the 80s was often quite subtle and beautiful ('Enlightenment', 'The Two Doctors', 'The Keeper of Traken') so I don't know why the composer bashed out this horrific racket. Other than that, though, this is a really good story. Go out there and get it now!
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| A Good Story in the Wrong Medium |
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I'm a fan of Bidmead, both as a script editor and a writer. He writes weird, sprawling narratives, which take in lots of different ideas, but somehow come out as something coherent. And, had it been made, 'The Hollows of Time' would have been no different. There's lots of great ideas in here; the use of the Tractators is ingenious, I LOVE the sequences of the car in space, and even little things, like the 'turtle', are marvellous. And yet, by transferring the story to audio, and robbing it of it's original villain, the story loses something, and becomes a random sequence of images, which don't really add up. The score is magnificent, and I love all the acting, but the adaptation of the script robs it of something. It's one of the few times that the production by Big Finish has failed slightly. So I'm giving it a good grade, but that's more for the ambition of the original story than the final realisation here.
| What: | The Lost Stories: Leviathan (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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| By: | Jeremy Matthews, Brisbane, Australia |
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| Date: | Sunday 29 January 2012 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The Lost Stories desperately needed a corker fairly early in it's run, and this story kept me engaged enough to look forward to the rest of these stories. It's reputation has perhaps been over-inflated by fans since release, but it would be unfair to deny that this is all round, a good story. The plot twists and turns, constantly surprising the listener, and the characterisation is surprisingly complex, considering the massive number of characters within this story. If I'm honest, I thought that it lacked some depth, and revolved a bit too much around it's plot twists, but this is still a clever, fun story which is a constant delight to listen to.
Anyone who thinks this is an accurate representation of 'Who' in the 80s can sod off; it was never this moronic or offensive. Philip Martin's best talent as a writer is for coming up with gruesome and horrific settings for his stories ('Vengeance on Varos' and 'Mindwarp' both have almost no plot, but are carried fantastically by their grim, horrific settings) and with Magnus being presented as a stereotypical 'planet of women', Martin is left with a fairly dull plot, and some horribly sexist bits towards the end, where the men of a neighbouring planet essentially walk in and take over from the women of Magnus. As always, the production is excellent, but, barring some really funny scenes featuring Sil, this is not a good story. Avoid.
Once you get over the thrill of hearing an unmade story, this loses it's overall appeal somewhat. There's lots of amusing scenes, and I love the use of the Toymaker in the story, but the second episode in particular has almost no plot, consisting mostly of long scenes featuring the main characters sitting in a prison cell. However, it's very well-made, and is still a perfectly fun, enjoyable story with a few points to make on the nature of immortality. Good fun.
| What: | Spare Parts (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Patrick Alexander, Bellevue, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 25 January 2012 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Not bad.
I was really looking forward to this. Michael Moorcock writing a proper Dr Who novel. It's strarts off really well. A group of colonists on a future world wanting to be posh Brits but not quite getting it right. Lots of nice cricket references and almost Douglas Adam' s style but after a good start the story goes nowhere and meanders into total whimsy with no idea what to do. A good start but a real disappointment in the end.
