Seagullslost's Doctor Who (and others) audio reviews

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...

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...

Blood Of The Time Lords The Fourth Doctor Adventures 11.1 : Solo Discovering a book on the TARDIS and realising its too powerful, the Doctor takes it to a library on a moon of Gallifrey. Its not long before the trouble starts. I bought this by accident, a sale, I meant to get volume 2 but got this, so ended up with both sets. I’m not really a fan of the Fourth Doctor audios, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. Its set just after the Deadly Assassin, hence the solo traveling. Though Elanora (Emma Noakes) does take the companion role. I did quite enjoy the first couple of episodes. Some nice world building life on the moon, old friends of the Doctors. There’s a fire for which the Doctor is held responsible - leading to a nice cliffhanger. The usual fourth Doctor tropes - eg. being on trail. The library itself with endless shelves.  Its perhaps a bit of a spoiler but the Master is involved the shot lived James Dreyfus version. I do wish I paid more attention or did my research as I ma...

The Monsters Of Gokroth Doctor Who The Monthly Adventures 250 The Doctor is on the planet Gokroth and so is an old friend: Mags. There’s a small settlement, plagued by monsters and a mad scientist… I found it quite difficult to get int the first episode. The Doctor only appears briefly, a couple of time before coming back at the end and Mags - our other entry into the story, as with the Doctor, isn’t the main focus. Instead there’s a village with a curfew, something about a radio transmitter, some scientist woman and her helper in a castle, with none of it really coalescing. Episode two and three things do get going, but it does end up with various encounters with monsters - and on audio its not great storytelling, and it all become mediocre . Epsiode four taking a more interesting turn as we find out what the deal is, and the motorvations of Dr Maleeva, to this point theres a feel of the Island of DR Moreau/Frankenstien - which the Doctor mentions. The Doctor says he’s been there for ...

The Mindless Ones Purity Undreamed 2.1 Hebe visits an old friend, while the Doctor and Mel investigate some odd readings. I listened to Gallifrey War room 1, and wasn’t getting into it, so decide to go for something a bit more light hearted and less intense. Though the first set in this range, was average at best, its still entertaining. As you’d expect Hebe friend isn’t quite the one she used to know, once a goth girl; she’s now more traditional. The Doctor visits the Mindless facility and goes through an interesting procedure. There’s nothing here thats new or original, The Doctors been brainwashed to be happier and less curious - to betterise himself as he puts it. But, just as the story seem to get going its all ends, and is a bit of a none adventure. I did think that perhaps there was a bigger story to come and this was just the start but there’s no evidence to suggest that.  Hebe as a character is less defined, not quite as terse as she was. The most out standing part of the ...

Hooklight Part 2 The Fifth Doctor Adventures The story continues.. The TARDIS team have discovered Hooklight. Something that can stop time, it shouldn’t exist, and as a Timelord, the Doctor has to destroy it. Scattered through space and time, our hero’s fight on. Nyssa almost possessed by Hooklight, Adric thrown back in time, Can the Doctor find Tegan and get the crew back together? When I saw the reviews for part 2 I noticed that it hadn’t been rated quite as highly as part 1 and I’d have to agree. Thats not to say it isn’t good, it just doesn’t quite have the same grand scale as the first half, just a bit more mundane and routine. During the first episode you do wonder whats happened to Tegan, but then episode two is almost entirely devoted to her. Though I found it enjoyable, listenable, and it has consequences on her future, it does detract from the main plot. As mentioned in Hooklight 1 each of the TARDIS crew had a purpose, the were driven, now its less so. I feel the need to pra...

The First Days Of Phaidon Gallifrey War Room 1.4 The planet Phaidon - an early casualty of the Time War has suddenly returned, both the Timelords and Daleks are eager to get there. I seem to be in the minority on this as it did little for me. Though this set in general hasn’t done much for me, part three being the exception. Maybe its me, maybe its Time War stuff, maybe I’m just tired. The return of Narvin is a plus point, and mentions of Romana and Ace. It does help to have a good memory Warpwrights and Phaidon go back to the first Gallifrey audio, which I’ve not listened to since its release in 2004! As with a lot of US TV series, coming back to continue a year later its a stuggle to remember what was happening last time.  I’ll give it another go at some point and see if I enjoy it more, but for now, its average.