Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

Now Is The New Dark Rose Tyler - The Dimension Cannon 2 Other Worlds 2.2 Rose arrives on an Earth thats less developed than what she’s used to. Luckily Clive has come with her. It seems to still be in the Dark Ages and they find themselves out after curfew… Melancholics, of which Clive is designated as such are to be separated, there are murders and an alternative Jackie is also present. Its a pretty standard affair, coming over as a cross between the Happiness Patrol and the Witchfinders. There’s the idea that the Doctor is there, though as we know its not going to be him,  the tease doesn’t really work for the listener. Things are not quite as they would seem to be and is perhaps, for me, the redeeming feature of this run of the mill story. There’s nothing new here, nothing thats stands out as original. The fact that I have little to say about it, places mid range. No Bad, Not great, entertaining yes, but thats about it.

Saltwater Rose Tyler - The Dimension Cannon 2 Other Worlds Rose visits a world where both Pete and Jackie Tyler are dead. Someone is taking the salt out of the sea causing accidents, those involving military vessels, and governments are blaming each other. I’ve not hard the first series, but this was on sale. Its not hard to get the gist, Rose traveling to alternative universes, trying to find the Doctor. Also to help is Clive best remember for being in the first new series episode Rose. Billie Piper is great as aways, though making the Doctor out to be almost divine is a little much for me. Though Rose did tend to put him on a pedestal. There is interest in that Pete and Jackie may have been killed due to them being activists, exposing the truth, coverups etc. The fact that this word may have technology that Rose could use to contact the Doctor seemed to be the only reason Rose was hanging about. She was confined to a polic box at one point, only in that dimension its red. This series...

Chromomancer. Purity Undreamed 2.3 With Patricia joining the TARDIS crew in the last episode, they take her to the future. It doesn’t last long however, Patricia seem a little overwhelmed by what she sees and they soon return to the present day. All isn’t well there either as a Chronomancer traitor with a stolen oubliette is being chase down. The two aliens plot strain wasn’t something I was that interested in. It was what was going on with Patricia and why she had a problem visiting the future. We find out that she thought things would be ‘better’ then. As in people like Hebe wouldn’t exist. Toby Hadoke has a couple of small roles in this. As with Nick Briggs, you get so used to them doing interviews and such it feel a bit odd when they’re acting.  Its an Ok story but its neither one thing or another, it does come across early ninth Doctor, with Hebe, Mel round their friends house having a chat - a bit kitchen sink drama. But its all a little to friendly for the sci/alien stuff to...

An Ideal World The Early Adventures 5.2 The Doctor, Steven and Vicki find themselves on a pleasant planet, not unlike Earth, but besides plants and insects there doesn’t seem to be any other life… except for the humans who’ve come to colonise. Its a nice gentle start, though the TARDIS team soon get into trouble, as the air is thin: its only due to the survey team that they could breathe. Steven get split up and is taken to the ship while the Doctor and Vicki struggle to survive.  Its a bit slow going, by the end of episode two I wondered if there was any real plot. There are hints but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. There is a bit of mystery and a twist that comes into play that lifts the story and ads intrigue. The characters of the human colonists are nicely rounded, theres conflict between the captain and the crew with the decisions she’s making. If you remember Colony in Space, its in a similar vein. Humans illeagaly going where they shouldn’t. With the Doctor ill to begi...

Themmous The War Doctor Begins Battlegrounds 3.2 The Thals have a ship, one that was made by the Doctor, and can pass through Dalek space undetected. After The Keeper of Light, this is a return to form. It starts with The Doctor disarming the ship much to the annoyance of the crew. The crew itself somewhat torn between loyalties. With one possibly being a traitor and working with the Daleks. Its been couple of days since I listened and though I enjoyed it its not that memorable. The ship has timelord tech which disguises it so the Daleks can’t see it. There’s nice conflict in that wether the Timelords are any better than the Daleks in the eyes of the Thals. A Dalek being tortured by other Daleks, and a bomb that bonds itself to the ship. So some nice ideas Louise Jameson has a couple of lines a a guard, with so many audios its hard not to recognise her. I had hoped that maybe she’d make a appearance as Leela. Reasonable and it what you’d expect for a War Doctor audio.

The Second Death The Twelfth Doctor Adventures The dying days of the Universe, its all been done, nothing left to invent and all is in decline. On the planet Kersarin a man called Ash travels, taking his show around the towns and villages to entertain, and pass on messages, until he gets involved with the Doctor… I didn’t get on with this the first listen. I think I was trying to squeeze it in, in the middle of a set I’d already started and had a lot going on at the time. So with a bit of distance its tome for a fair go. Its over 10 minutes the Doctor enters the story proper, before that its scene setting with Ash as he travels and meets an old friend. It is one of those where you’re quite enjoying the story and almost forget the Doctor is involved.  The old friend is actually his friends mother Breen, the friend and another have gone into the restricted zone to help those less fortunate. I think what three me the first time is that after meeting the Doctor, he meets him again only...

Reverse Engineering Purity Undreamed 2.2 Patricia McBride - a character from the previous episode returns here. In this she’s travelled o a clinic in Sweden, kind of a luxury spa, a place to roll back the years, quite literally in this case… Its an interesting start as Mel has been working there undercover for a couple of weeks. Not only that but she makes contact with Patricia before Patricia phones Hebe to ask them to help! Its a nice bit of time travel trickery that sets up the tome for the story. As mentioned the facility has the ability to ‘make people younger’, by use of a time machine. Not like the TARDIS, its a bit more in vein of the Red Dwarf episode where they could digitise time. Meaning there’s Neanderthals, as the rejuvenation of wealthy patients is just the tip of the iceberg in where their research is going. The build up to the cliffhanger is where the really interesting stuff starts, theres are some nice ideas leading to points where you feel quite in the moment. The c...

Adrift Star Cops: Conflict 5.4 Still reeling from the Death of Alice Okoro, The Star Cops have to carry on. A vessel finds its way back into the Moons orbit. Previously stolen, with three dead and one survivor, the ISPF investigate. Although Alice is gone she’s not entirely forgotten, the stolen craft was her investigation. Nathan and Paul board the ship. The survivor terrified of a creature, yet they cant find any evidence of any such monster. The fact that Nathan starts hearing Alices voice, makes you  wonder if the strain is taking its toll on him. The drifting ship is a classic sci/fi trope, though that’s probably the height of the sci/fi elements. Also it's not heavily dependant on continuity, so you can enjoy it on its own.  The new Moonbase commander does feature in this, though I was expecting more to be made of the relationship. Some conflict or something, but it all seems just fine and not really adding much to the proceedings. You do get the suspicion of what going ...

Timewyrm: Exodus                                                   Doctor and Ace arrived in the early 1950’s UK. It's not long since the war was won or was it? It maybe England but the Nazis are in control. So what happened and where is the Timewyrm? Its such a pity that this wasn’t the first book in the series, if it had been I probably would have continued with the series when they originally came out, instead of giving up a couple of chapters into Genesis.  A nazi occupied Britain story is a bit been there done that, two a penny these days, maybe not so much in the nineties though. The nice thing is that it doesn’t linger there, in fact there are 3 or 4 time periods they visit over the course of the novel.  This reflects the more adult nature of the new adventures in a much better way than the last book. Rather than the nudity/sexual tones, it manage...