Review: Doctor Who: AudioGo: The Art of Death

Gallery owner and artist Penelope recalls her various encounters with the Eleventh Doctor and his friends as they fall through cracks in time…

An intriguing start to the year’s releases from AudioGo, with this unusual audio from James Goss, told by Raquel Cassidy as a character a long way from her performance as Cleaves in last year’s Ganger episodes. You’ll need to switch the volume up a bit to catch everything in this softly spoken story.

Although the listener will guess certain elements of the plot before they’re revealed (in particular the nature of the Paradox and the identity of some of the mysterious figures in the story), it’s not as predictable as it first appears. The Doctor feels more like an enabler than the catalyst for events, as he sometimes has been in recent times, although the final discussion between him and Penelope could work just as easily for his seventh incarnation as it does for the most recent.

Cassidy captures Matt Smith’s delivery while not trying to provide an impersonation of him – although she does a quite uncanny Amy Pond. She’s helped by Goss’s accurate rendition of the TARDIS crew (Rory’s scenes in particular will provoke a wry smile).

Verdict: With some pleasant surprises and a neat use of the audio medium, this is a strong entry to the 11th Doctor canon.  8/10

Paul Simpson

<<<< Check our review of the previous 11th Doctor release Blackout