Review: Doctor Who: AudioGo: Doctor Who Sound Effects

A selection of 30 effects from seasons 11 to 15 of the classic series rereleased as a Vintage Beeb CD.

Somewhere in the loft, I’ve still got a copy of the original LP of this that I bought second hand from Hammersmith Library when they declassified it in the early 1980s, probably because of its total lack of use by borrowers. And I have to admit, it’s stayed in its wrapper since then…

But that’s mainly because I’ve not been putting together my own Doctor Who stories on audio. And for those that have over the years, these have been a godsend. Listening to the 33 minutes of effects on here for the first time in 30 years, it’s quite a shock to realise how many of them have become familiar through the Big Finish audios – Gallifreyan stasers (whether at the Deadly Assassin pitch, or the lower Invasion of Time variant); Dalek guns; the TARDIS interior hum, both while in flight and stationary… and even some I suspect we’ll hear again during the inaugural Tom Baker season, such as “The Kraal Disorientation Chamber” from The Android Invasion.

The disc also recreates the wonderfully odd back cover of the LP, with its alternate titles for stories: the first track is from “Dr. Who and the Exillons” (sic), while the next is from Death to the Daleks (the same story); The Sontaran Experiment is referred to as “The Destructors”; “Dr. Who and the Zygons” became Terror of the Zygons; there’s a singular Pyramid on Mars in this version; Mandragora has a Curse not a Masque; Sarah’s last story featured “The Hand of Death” (which is actually more accurate); while best of all, “The Enemy Within” categorically was used for a story – not the Paul McGann TV movie, as some would like, but K9’s debut The Invisible Enemy.

Not an album you’ll be likely to sit and listen to intently, but one that will provoke nostalgic feelings for those Saturday teatimes 30 years ago…   6/10

Paul Simpson