A complete journey through the audio adventures to date of the Eighth Doctor (and a few sidesteps with Charlotte Pollard)…
This sort of shared experience writing has become popular in recent times, partly because it’s a very easy thing to blog about – not easy in terms of trying to find something new to say, necessarily, but in terms of the concept being easily understood by the potential readership. Mad Norwegian Press have done something similar with the Shearman/Hadoke Running Through Corridors; or the Shearman solo X-Files book.
With the best of these, you get a sense that you’re eavesdropping on a private conversation, with all the little asides and tangents that such things have, but suitably edited so that while some points may seem disconnected from the main topic, there’s actually a method to the writers’ madness. On the whole, Brooks and Mellish achieve that: there’s occasionally the odd reference to contemporary events that perhaps is slightly unnecessary (opinions on The Inbetweeeners Movie and its relationship to Kevin & Perry Go Large, for example), but events in the wider Doctor Who world, as Matt Smith’s second season gets going, and stalwarts from the classic era pass away, do affect the listener.
You won’t agree with all of their opinions – although I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who was singularly unimpressed with Tamsin in the early stories of the final Eighth Doctor/Lucie season – and I’d strongly advise listening to the stories before you read their commentaries (spoilers abound). For a second volume – perhaps of Colin’s other stories, building on the entries on the Pollard pieces herein – a proofreader would also be advisable (weary/wary being a classic example of the reader being sent mentally in the wrong direction).
Verdict: An entertaining journey through “the forgotten Doctor”. 7/10
Paul Simpson
By Will Brooks and Nick Mellish.
Pageturner Publishing
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