Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213580 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-09
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Dopplegangers
London, 1851.

Scene of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. Scene also of a plot to un-seat the government, de-throne the monarch and start a republic. If the Duke of Wellington himself is to be believed...

While the Doctor and Charley are drawn into the murky world of nineteenth-century politics, C'rizz struggles to maintain his dignity against growing odds. What begins as an attempt to prevent murder quickly becomes a desperate race to avert revolution. Separated from the TARDIS, the travellers are left to wonder if they'll get their own lives back or be forever entangled with the lives of others.

And who is Mrs Georgina Marlow? What need does she feel the Doctor can satisfy?

I am personally a big fan of Doctor Who set in Victorian England; some of the best stories have come from this juxtaposition (The Unquiet Dead, The Next Doctor, The peerless 'Talons of Weng-Chiang' to name but three). Other Lives is a light-hearted romp and is easy listening without any of the continuity and baggage that too often accompanies these audio plays. Having said that it is light-hearted, C'rizz certainly wouldn't agree as he is captured by the grotesquely Dickensian Jacob Crackles and turned into a freak show. Overall this is a thoroughly engaging and very strong Doctor Who story and I just hope that there are more like this in the bag.

what the dickens!
The eighth doctor and his companions visit london in the 1850's to see the great exhibition. Typically things go a little pear shaped, and the three are separated, lost in the city, and the tardis is gone.

How will they cope? The doctor meets a woman who thinks he is her long lost husband. C'rizz is captured by the nasty owner of a freak show. And charley falls in with the duke of wellington.

The story is very much in the style of charles dickens, a victorian drama showing what happens to the three of them next. An engaging piece of character with some well drawn protagonists this is an enjoyable listen. But it's very short on plot. And it's also a bit too long for it's own good.

This is a perfectly decent audio. But with a bit more drama and a bit less length, it could have been so much more

bites off more than it can chew
when I read the sinopsis of this show, I was extremely excited, however, I find myself extremely disappointed. Charlie has always wanted to see the great exhibition, so off they go, The Doctor, Charlie and Keris. soon, Keris is in a freek show, The doctor has been taken home by a woman who is convinced he is her husband, Charlie is making the best of things staying with the Duke of Wellington, [brilliantly performed by Ron Moody that's what the two star rating is for] and the Tardis has taken off by itself with 2 visiting french diplomats inside. The foundation of any story, and in particular a doctor who story is a problem or set of problems, these problems however, the writer seems to have been unable to solve in a convincing way, so opts for the cop out of having the problems almost miraculously solve themselves. To me, it seems like the writer got carried away creating problems over 3 eppisodes, and then panicked over how to solve them all in the last 25 minutes. The previous reviewer of this story has called it dickensean, and it does at times seem to be a vehicle for redisplaying stereotypical characters of the victorian era. In the big finish sinopsis, it says that the Duke of Wellington believes there is a revolutionary plot to overthrow the government, but no evidence of such a plot appears in the story, and while the Duke does mention his fear of "the mob and the guilotine" he seems to have no immediate fear of revolt, nor evidence for fearing one. I therefore think the information given on the cover of this product is misleading. I think the idea of Keris being put in a freek show is quite plausable given his apparent wild or strange appearance, but the whole business with the woman, her long lost husband and the miserly uncle really doesn't work, and is just one strand too many in this story. There are however some very nice performances in this, the villiness Jacob Crackles, the butler fazacally, and as I said the Duke, are all played to perfection, I think it is sad that these wonderful characters are let down by such a half baked plot.