Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113515 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-10
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

caper
another audio story for paul mcgann as the eighth doctor who with sheridan smith as his companion feisty northern girl lucie miller. As usual with this range the story is complete in roughly forty five minutes and the remainder of the disc is filled out with interviews with the cast and crew and a trailer for the next story. these are worth listening to for some interesting insights into the recording process. the two regular lead actors didn't record their lines at the same time. but you wouldn't know it if you if you didn't hear it in the interviews here.

All the stories in the latest batch of these audios have stood on their own. this one does bring back a couple of villainous characters from the previous season and makes a few references to events at the end of that but you shouldn't have much trouble picking the story up if you've not heard any of the previous ones.

It involves the doctor and lucie travelling on the first electric railway, in 19th century stockholm. but the doctor has another reason for being there, which involves a faboulous jewel. and there's more to the jewel than meets the eye. with people out to steal it, it may be that the tardis crew will have to do the same....

What follows is a very entertaining caper story. the length of the story means it doesnt have to spend any time in setting the robbery up, like these things usually do, so everything proceeds at a superb pace. It's all good lighthearted fun and there are some great moments for the regular cast, that give them a good opportunity to stretch their vocal talents.

A good little story. nothing special, but great fun and well worth a listen

Enjoyable escapism
There were two aspects to this story that particularly worked for me:

1) The Headhunter / Karen re-appearance almost out of the blue and acting as a foil to the Doctor / Lucie

2) 19th century Sweden - I don't know why but the cast / sounds / acting really made me feel as though I was in Sweden (and yes I have been to Sweden, but no not in the nineteenth century).

I liked the idea of the Doctor needing to destroy works of art created by an alien which acts as a backdrop to this and I think that Doctor Who as a whole would benefit from the Doctor having some hobbies and acquiring new skills rather than just having lived a long time, knowing stuff and wandering essentially aimlessly and living in the moment. Not that I think a story arc should crowd out the story you understand!

Doesn't quite deliver
This may have been the first Eight/Lucie play I had listened to, and it would probably have made more sense in sequence: it features two returning villains, The Headhunter and Karen, who were completely new to me. It wasn't bad - some decent sf ideas, and Christopher Benjamin appearing out of (almost) nowhere as the mysterious artist whose works are being collected by the King of Sweden, and a hilariously hypnotised guard. Sheridan Smith is fine as Lucie (apparently she wasn't actually there for the recording but had to be patched in later), and there's some nice sparkly dialogue. However the biggest problem for me is that the concept of Tardelli's pocket universe is rather drastically underused - happens entirely off-stage, as indeed does Tardelli's ultimate fate, so it's a little disappointing as a drama.