What 'WHO Are You Currently Listening to?

[Stuart Wallis]

Is it Sylverster who's wretched and old, or the play then?

[Rob McCow]

Great British Colin Baker Off is reading Mindwarp to me. He does a very good Sil.

[Stuart Wallis]

CC: The Forbidden Time.

[Si Hunt]

Having had "Signs & Wonders" spoiled for me on Facebook before listening to it, in the wake of "Mask of Tragedy" being so bad I've taken a Tom-Detour (a Tomtour, if you will) and am doing "Ghosts of Gralstead" by Phillip Hinchcliffe and Marc Platt. No doubt Phil jotted some notes on a beer mat and Platt wrote the rest. It's unexpectedly good - it really does feel like 1977 all over again! And by that, I don't mean I have been being sick and screaming a lot or even forcing myself up through someone's vagina (that was the year I was born) but it has a cosy, spooky feel and is very well played. I wonder if all Tom stories should be box sets and not crappy two episode stories written by Nick Briggs? Just an idea.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

(a Tomtour, if you will)

A bell rings and Bob Holness announces the word Tomtour - at which point Alan Coren and Sandi toksvig argue over the meaning of the word, and we argue over why we're watching this...

[Nyder]

"Breaking Bubbles and other stories"

4 short Sixie / Peri stories. Don't go looking for a story arc (like what I foolishly did) cos there isn't one! Best story by a mile was Nev Fountain's one. Really sensitively handled subject matter, and left me with a warm rosy glow. Aw there's lovely ️


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[Si Hunt]

"The Ghosts of Gralstead" turns out to be about an escaped alien refugee who has arrived in Victorian London and needs to suck the 'life force' out of the local populace in order to survive.

Nice original idea there Philip!

Si.

[SiHart]

Typical Hinchcliffe Who, ripping off someone else's story!

[Stuart Wallis]

What do you mean, "someone else's"?

[SiHart]

Robert Holmes's story

[Si Hunt]

In a surprise twist, the stranded alien, whose face is distorted via the ravages of the journey to Victorian London, needs to track down a relic from its own people which it brought with it and which is now lost somewhere in London. Meanwhile Leela encounters two locals who work in a mortuary and learns how to make tea.

Shocking!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Is the Doctor wearing his Sherlock Holmes getup?

Mindwarp is a grim, grim story, but Colin's reading is superb. His voices for Sil, Crozier, Matrona and Peri are an absolute hoot. Plus Philip Martin includes a line explaining that the Doctor's brain was scrambled rather than there being any tampering with the Matrix, so that clears that up.

[Junkyard]

"Breaking Bubbles and other stories"

4 short Sixie / Peri stories. Don't go looking for a story arc (like what I foolishly did) cos there isn't one! Best story by a mile was Nev Fountain's one. Really sensitively handled subject matter, and left me with a warm rosy glow. Aw there's lovely ️


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Breaking Bubbles is my wish list but I may bring it forward as you've enjoyed it.

Listening to 'The Magic Mousetrap' at the moment. Complicated plot set in a Swiss sanatorium in 1926. The Doctor has lost his memory, everyone is obsessed with games and only Ace and Hex appear to know what's going on.

[Si Hunt]

The Doctor does not wear his deerstalker in "Gralstead" but Leela (in dialogue and on the cover) wears her "Talons" costume.

There's a rather nice scene after Leela is killed (she comes back to life later) and the Doctor goes off to investigate. Tom plays it rather well as the Doctor mutters - "No, not an assistant. I've never lost an assistant. I've not lost anyone for a long time. Oh, it was such a nice hat!"

The line sounds flippant but Tom plays it really quite poignantly.

Si.

[Jon Masters]

Listened to Death in Blackpool on the way up to the Big Smoke - not too shoddy at all.

Got a bit bored with the next one though - kept dozing off (good job I was on the train !)

[Nyder]

Currently listening to "Tom Baker at 80". He really does seem to be in a good place in his life right now - content with his lot and happy doing the work he does despite increasing frailty coming a-knocking at his door. Good on 'yer Tom


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[Rob McCow]

That Tom at 80 might be a good one to listen to.

The Trial continues, with Bonnie Langford taking over the narrating duties. Somebody on the Hyperion 3 will become a murderer! I'm looking forward to three discs of clues that make no sense and are never resolved; characters behaving without reason; and Janet's white bodyhugging outfit with pink trimmings.

[Si Hunt]

The cover of Ghosts of Gralstead disc 3, with the warped face time exile, Leela in Talong garb, and circular time key gizmo, sort of gives away the story to which it owes its "inspiration"

https://twitter.com/sihunt1234/statu...21750005587968

[Rob McCow]

Perhaps they had a dozen adventures just like this one in a row. Maybe the Doctor decided he's sort out all these wizened-faced villains.

I quite like the Trial season on TV, but listening to the audiobook versions has really shown just how awful Planet, Mindwarp and Vervoids are. They're so limp and directionless. There are a few good characters, but there are many more dull and unbelievable ones.

What's more, the whole Trial theme is utter, utter nonsense.
- The Doctor is accused of 'interfering' and 'conduct unbecoming a Time Lord'. All three of the stories shown prove that he is totally guilty on both counts. So why do they let him go at the end?
- How much of the Doctor's own future did he review to find the Vervoids story?!
- The Valeyard wants to take the Doctor's lives for himself. I'm sorry, but how does that even work?

I'd stick up for the writers of Season 24 every time because they're trying to make an effort. But Season 23 has got utterly naff scripts about nothing.

[Si Hunt]

Finally finished it! Bit of a slog but it wasn't a bad story, and I'd actually recommend it to fans of this genre. Marc Platt is quite a good adaptor and he added a lot of texture and colour to the story.

Think I'll do "Domain of the Voord" next!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

"Domain of the Voord" was really good! Great story, nice fleshing out of the Voord (and the revelation of what they are is quite interesting and inventive- don't tell me you don't want to know!) and very action packed. Well played by Russell and Ann-Ford as well!

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

I'm curious to know how these 'Early Stories' are being done, Si - is it a mix of full cast, with some narrated bits to cover the absence of Hartnell & Hill? Or do Russell & Ann-Ford do impersonations? (I'm assuming they haven't recast...?)

[Si Hunt]

All of the above!

In the latter Companion Chronicles, what happened was that Purves, Russell and Hines impersonations of their Doctors became so honed and recognisable that they started dropping more and more narration. So eventually you'd get a whole scene with Peter Purves talking away to himself as both Steven and the Doctor. I did wonder if these "Early Adventures" would take this and make the bold step of dropping the narration altogether...

They haven't quite gone that far... yet. There is certainly less narration, and William Russell certainly does play the Doctor. But the main difference is that there are four episodes and a full cast, and the narration has been slimmed down a lot. Barbara and the Doctor are written out for two of the episodes. So no actual re-casting yet.

However, I think this series might progress to dropping the narration altogether. Barbara and Ben have both been re-cast in future stories so I think that's the way it's going.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

There'd have to be a lot of people telling me that 'Domain of The Voord' is magnificent for me to want to hear it. I've had my fingers burned (Return of The Krotons, Return to The Web Planet) too many times by this sort of story!

Michael Jayston is reading The Ultimate Foe for me now. His version of the Master is wonderfully flat, dark and evil. But then so is his version of Mel. The writing is a little more straightforward than it was in Terror of The Vervoids, which is a relief. There's a lot of padding though.

Another thing that Pip n' Jane seem to do a lot of is to tell the story from two (or more) characters' viewpoints in one scene, so we get 'The Doctor thought...' soon followed by '... it seemed to the Valeyard that...'. I've been told that you shouldn't do that sort of thing.

[Stuart Wallis]

Mind you, in the case you mention, they are the same character.

An evil Mel, eh?