Doctor Who Audio Round-up: March 2011

The release of the 11th Doctor story The Hounds of Artemis by the Guardian mid-month may be the start of something very different for the range – a story available with different narrators in different formats.

Karen Gillan was advertised initially as reading this alongside Matt Smith (and is apparently still doing so in the commercial release) but for this advance copy, Clare Corbett does a very good “Amy Pond” for the sections relating the Doctor’s companion’s journal.

It’s a shame this story has come out so close to Martin Day’s Jade Pyramid, as both feature inanimate guardians that come to life, but James Goss’s tale is slightly more clichéd. Enjoyable for its mix of Smith as Doctor and as narrator, alongside Amy’s perspective.

VERDICT: 7/10

The main Big Finish release, The Feast of Axos, sees the return of the vampiric power-draining Axos in a new story featuring the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn and Thomas Brewster.

Mike Maddox’s script incorporates the time loop seen at the end of The Claws of Axos as a central element. With its strong assertion that time can be rewritten, it does make the listener wonder about the fate of Evelyn mid-story more than one might normally, having heard her final appearance in A Death in the Family a few months ago.

VERDICT: 7/10

The Companion Chronicle, The Perpetual Bond, introduces Tom Allen as new companion Oliver Harper, sneaking new stories for the First Doctor and Stephen Taylor in-between The Dalek Masterplan and The Massacre.

Purves’s impression of Hartnell improves with each rendition, and Simon Guerrier has captured the voices of the TARDIS crew admirably well, telling a story that fits well within the era. The start of a trilogy of adventures, this whets the appetite, and is a strong piece.

VERDICT: 8/10

Lucie Miller, the Eighth Doctor’s on again/off again companion, is the narrator of the majority of the story named after her. It almost, but not quite, tries to deliver more than audio is capable of – there’s a good TV movie length story being told here in 50 minutes, with great swathes summed up in one sentence.

A larger scale version of the Hartnell story The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it’s a character piece told on a huge backdrop that brings the Eighth Doctor stories full circle. A good first part but much depends on the resolution.

VERDICT: 7/10

Short Trips Volume 2 sees the same eight readers as the first volume telling tales connected to their Doctor.

Standout tales this time include Niall Boyce’s 1963, a First Doctor story, and Simon Guerrier’s Letting Go for the Eighth Doctor and Charley. It’s also intriguing to hear Katy Manning recount a Liz Shaw Third Doctor tale, while David Troughton does an eerie impersonation of his father in the Second Doctor story.

VERDICT: 7/10