Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272263 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Format: Audiobook
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

"Feel the music in your soul!"
"Ibiza, 1997, and thousands of young people are acting like midless zombies.
"Which is to be expected. Ibiza, the island of dance music, sex, drugs and alcohol, is the ultimate hedonistic paradise.
"God has sent help from on high to save the sinners of Ibiza. He has sent His angels to save their souls.
"Which would be simple enough if these souls didn't include an alient time-traveller working in a bar, a woman who disappeared in 1987, a young man carrying a photograph of a girl he's never met and an Irish girl who doesn't even know who she is any more."

"The Rapture", by Joseph Lidster, is a unique and innovative audio play from Big Finish Productions that takes all the elements of a good Doctor Who story, and mixes them up with hypnotic trance music and an appearance from Tony Blackburn.
If we leave aside for the moment the distraction of the angels Gabriel and Jude and their plot to subject the revellers at their Ibiza club to the final judgement, The Rapture is really Ace's story. Ace, or Dorothy McShane as she is now calling herself, is recovering from the trauma of Kurz's death within the confines of the TARDIS in "Colditz", and wants a holiday. The Doctor brings her to Ibiza, where she falls in with a small group who invite her to join them at the hottest new nightclub, The Rapture. However, unbeknown to Ace, one of the group, Liam (David John) has a picture of her in his wallet.
As Ace discovers more about her past, and a brother she never knew she had, she goes on an emotional journey, whilst the Doctor takes a back seat in the proceedings. As such Sophie Aldred is required to inject real feeling into the character of Ace, and she rises to the challenge in a way that we haven't really heard since "The Curse of Fenric". Her acting only really feels forced when Ace is called upon to "let go" under the spell of Gabriel's music at the end of episode one - but that one glitch can be forgiven. As to McCoy, he is on good form this time.
My one criticism of "The Rapture" is that the Ace storyline is resolved somewhat prematurely so that episode four can be devoted to the resolution of the Gabriel / Jude storyline. I shan't go into details, for fear of spoilers, but it does at least draw an effective parallel with the Ace / Liam storyline. Performances are good throughout the play, including the use of a real Spaniard as Ibiza local Gustavo, and the trance music that forms the backdrop to the story is excellent.

not quite rapturous, but not bad
It's Ibiza, and the seventh doctor and ace are finding strange things in the clubs. This is not a highly regarded story by many, but it's a little better than it's general reputation with the fans might have you believe.

The doctor and companion team are well suited to the locale. Which other doctor would chase through a packed nightclub to find his companion when she's in distress? Typically good big finish production design really creates the atmosphere of the place superbly.

But the main problem with this is the aliens involved. They are an unknown quantity for the first episode and work superbly that way. But once revealed they are crashingly dull, and it would have worked better to keep them the way they were in part one.

We also have some additional back story for ace that isn't really necessary, as it fails to properly develop at the end.

So not a terrible story, but there are better out there

An unusual but worthwhile adventure
The Rapture is the latest in a series of generally excellent adventures from Big Finish, a company which has been recording full-cast audio dramas (as opposed to talking books) using the original actors who played the doctor + companions. These stories have been released at the rate of 1 per month since summer 1999, and at times have reached a standard that televised who never did.

The Rapture is a highly unusual tale, set in Ibiza, and scripted by a newcomer to the range. Its main selling point is the appearence of Tony Blackburn playing himself, although the music and general storyline set it apart from other adventures. The basic plot is that 2 angels have established themselves in a club in Ibiza, a club where the 7th Doc (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) have just arrived to relax...

The story attempts to split itself in two, covering the machinations of the 2 angels as well as a personal revelation for Ace. It manages to do this well, but as with a number of stories is more successfull in its opening parts (the Big Finish CD's are split in 4 parts like on telly, 2 parts per CD) due to the mystery surrounding the angels being a little formulaic when revealed. A nice touch is that the story has a little twist at the end once it looks like the adventure is over, and also contains good continuity links back to Ace's past.

All in all not a bad story at all - the location is more exotic than the norm which helps - and it all seems a bit more contempary than usual for Dr Who (not just because of the clubland setting). Recommended, but there are better Big Finish stories out there.