Book Review: Doctor Who Audiobooks
I listened to four Doctor Who audiobooks, so I figured that I would review them all at once.
Doctor Who: The Stone Rose by Jac Rayner
Doctor Who: Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole
Doctor Who: Pest Control by Peter Anghelides
Doctor Who: The Forever Trap by Dan Abnett
So my daughter and I decided to listen to some Doctor Who audiobooks (mostly in the car to pass the time on long errands). Three of the ones we have completed so far have been read by David Tennant, who is fantastic. The man switches accents like it's no big deal at all. He does the regular narration in his everyday voice (which is a Scottish accent), then seamlessly switches to his Doctor voice, then switches to fair impressions of Rose, Mickey, Jackie, and Donna. In addition to the accents he uses for the additional characters! It was amazing. The fourth audiobook was read by Catherine Tate (aka Donna) and she is pretty great too. She actually does a decent Doctor impression and, to be honest, Donna is my favorite companion so I loved listening to a Donna episode read by Donna.
The Stone Rose is the best of the bunch, I think. Then again, I have an affinity for ancient Rome and Greece and their mythology so that is probably clouding my judgement. Mickey finds a statue in the British Museum that looks just like Rose, so the Doctor and Rose visit ancient Rome so she can make sure the statue exists. But the person creating the statues seems to be creating them with a Midas-like touch which leaves Rose as a statue. So the Doctor has to rescue her and figure out how a little girl from the future may be responsible for the whole debacle. The characterizations were right on and it felt like a real episode of the series. Definitely keeping this one on my iPod.
Feast of the Drowned was okay, but both my daughter and I got a little bored. After a ship goes down in the Thames, the loved ones of those on board start seeing visions of them where the drowned person begs them to help them "before the feast." Turns out aliens are using human bodies to hatch their eggs and they're using their current victims to get more victims. Creepy! But again, we sort of just lost interest in it, unlike some of the other books. This was a Doctor/Rose story, but we had to suffer through Mickey being there the whole time too.
Pest Control was good. I listened to that one on my own and it was very much like an episode. The Doctor and Donna land on a planet where humans are trying to exterminate a centaur-like race in order to have the planet for themselves. But soon they realize that another pest is using the war as a cover to expand their numbers. What is it with using human bodies to hatch aliens? In this case, it's more a transformation than a hatching, but the point still stands. In any case, very enjoyable but a little icky in some spots.
The Forever Trap was very good. A holographic version of a spam email advertising a new condominium community appears on the TARDIS and Donna accidentally touches it. The Doctor and Donna are whisked away, TARDIS and all, to the Ediface: a seemingly endless building with no one in charge. The scam doesn't appear to care who it takes in, so violent races of aliens are trying to conquer the building and mortal enemies end up living on the same floor. And there doesn't appear to be a way out (the Doctor and Donna run into a group of people who had been wandering the stairwell for two years!). Turns out there is someone running the place, but they like it the way it is. Again, very much like an episode and very entertaining.
I think The Stone Rose and The Forever Trap are the ones that my daughter and I would have most liked to see as real episodes. (Hear that, Steven Moffat?) We've got a few others that we are going through, but it is slow going. These were nice because most were about two hours (as opposed to other audiobooks that can go more than 12 hours) so they took a while but not so long that they were overwhelming.
Doctor Who: The Stone Rose by Jac Rayner
Doctor Who: Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole
Doctor Who: Pest Control by Peter Anghelides
Doctor Who: The Forever Trap by Dan Abnett
So my daughter and I decided to listen to some Doctor Who audiobooks (mostly in the car to pass the time on long errands). Three of the ones we have completed so far have been read by David Tennant, who is fantastic. The man switches accents like it's no big deal at all. He does the regular narration in his everyday voice (which is a Scottish accent), then seamlessly switches to his Doctor voice, then switches to fair impressions of Rose, Mickey, Jackie, and Donna. In addition to the accents he uses for the additional characters! It was amazing. The fourth audiobook was read by Catherine Tate (aka Donna) and she is pretty great too. She actually does a decent Doctor impression and, to be honest, Donna is my favorite companion so I loved listening to a Donna episode read by Donna.
The Stone Rose is the best of the bunch, I think. Then again, I have an affinity for ancient Rome and Greece and their mythology so that is probably clouding my judgement. Mickey finds a statue in the British Museum that looks just like Rose, so the Doctor and Rose visit ancient Rome so she can make sure the statue exists. But the person creating the statues seems to be creating them with a Midas-like touch which leaves Rose as a statue. So the Doctor has to rescue her and figure out how a little girl from the future may be responsible for the whole debacle. The characterizations were right on and it felt like a real episode of the series. Definitely keeping this one on my iPod.
Feast of the Drowned was okay, but both my daughter and I got a little bored. After a ship goes down in the Thames, the loved ones of those on board start seeing visions of them where the drowned person begs them to help them "before the feast." Turns out aliens are using human bodies to hatch their eggs and they're using their current victims to get more victims. Creepy! But again, we sort of just lost interest in it, unlike some of the other books. This was a Doctor/Rose story, but we had to suffer through Mickey being there the whole time too.
Pest Control was good. I listened to that one on my own and it was very much like an episode. The Doctor and Donna land on a planet where humans are trying to exterminate a centaur-like race in order to have the planet for themselves. But soon they realize that another pest is using the war as a cover to expand their numbers. What is it with using human bodies to hatch aliens? In this case, it's more a transformation than a hatching, but the point still stands. In any case, very enjoyable but a little icky in some spots.
The Forever Trap was very good. A holographic version of a spam email advertising a new condominium community appears on the TARDIS and Donna accidentally touches it. The Doctor and Donna are whisked away, TARDIS and all, to the Ediface: a seemingly endless building with no one in charge. The scam doesn't appear to care who it takes in, so violent races of aliens are trying to conquer the building and mortal enemies end up living on the same floor. And there doesn't appear to be a way out (the Doctor and Donna run into a group of people who had been wandering the stairwell for two years!). Turns out there is someone running the place, but they like it the way it is. Again, very much like an episode and very entertaining.
I think The Stone Rose and The Forever Trap are the ones that my daughter and I would have most liked to see as real episodes. (Hear that, Steven Moffat?) We've got a few others that we are going through, but it is slow going. These were nice because most were about two hours (as opposed to other audiobooks that can go more than 12 hours) so they took a while but not so long that they were overwhelming.