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Post by number13 on Feb 28, 2024 9:39:21 GMT
Invasion of the Dinosaurs audiobook by Malcolm Hulke, performed by Martin Jarvis
It's a great Third Doctor story and one of the very best UNIT stories, which makes an excellent audiobook; an involving mystery where very few people can really be trusted... For the most part Malcolm Hulke tells the story as he told it on screen, but there are extras such as 'Wee Jamie's ill-fated trip to London 'to see the Cup Final' which opens the story brilliantly, and the benefit of hearing the characters' internal voices gives us quite a lot more insight into their motivations.
The one who really puzzles me is Butler. We learn that he loathes Whittaker and being shut up in the secret base with him for months on end, but we never learn his motivation for joining 'Operation Golden Age'. Frankly, he seems a practical, down-to-Earth sort of person, not the type to worry about the Earth to such an obsessive extent that he'd be willing to erase everyone (else) and start again. For that matter, neither does General Finch. But who knows what thoughts lurked behind that authoritarian facade...
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Post by number13 on Mar 5, 2024 21:03:25 GMT
The Curse of Peladon audiobook by Brian Hayles, performed by David Troughton
One of the earliest novelisations and like most of those, one of the best. It's a great story anyway and Brian Hayles retells it perfectly. It's as full of intrigue and excitement in print (or audio) as it is on screen.
I especially enjoy the extra scenes before the fight in the Pit of Combat - Jo confronting Grun, and King Peladon speaking direct to 'the spirit of Aggedor' in the Temple and laying down the law that he is the ruler, not Aggedor and the Doctor must win for the good of Peladon.
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Post by number13 on Apr 21, 2024 21:12:21 GMT
Human Nature
Audiobook read by Lisa Bowerman, which means it was performed most excellently. I've never read/heard the story before so it was fascinating to see both how similar and how completely different it was from the Ten/Martha TV story. And ultimately it's Seven's alien nature once he's himself again that comes across most strongly, in contrast to the far more 'human' TV Tenth Doctor.
I preferred this original, partly because the family is more interesting, partly because I like the late-era Seventh Doctor and partly because Benny is brilliant.
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Post by number13 on Apr 27, 2024 11:17:55 GMT
Marco PoloAudiobook performed by Zienia Merton, a pleasure to listen to and with music and sound effects well-chosen.
In my younger days I loved overland travel - waking early in a new place with the sense of infinite possible roads stretching out ahead for thousands of miles - so unsurprisingly I love the sense of journey in John Lucarotti’s story, and taken at audiobook pace this long journey at the slow speed of foot and horse comes across very well indeed.
There are the usual 'historical' twists and turns, separation and reunions, their troubled relationship with Marco - a good man who knows he's doing them wrong by stealing the TARDIS - and the personal story of Ping-Cho told through her friendship with Susan. And as all roads lead to Peking, with the humour of the Doctor and Kublai's friendship making a fun and unexpected way to spend the last quarter of the book, so all the threads of the story weave neatly together into an ending that is more traditional and less rushed than in the TV original.
My only criticism is, it's too short. I believe that Target books had a standard length, rarely exceeded, which was fine for a four-parter but not for a seven-part epic of this scale. There are moments of real magic in the descriptive prose, but I’m sure John Lucarotti could have expanded the landscapes and details of the journey to double the length if space had been available.
Perhaps not many readers/listeners would have wanted that, but for me that’s the real delight of this book; a journey with the Doctor not through Space and Time, but at the slow speed of a cart, through an historical world which now seems as wondrous and remote as Traken.
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