Early narrated audio releases

[Anthony Williams]

Season Four had some of the earliest BBC soundtrack releases, narrated by people who weren't even in these stories. In this range, we had:

The Power of the Daleks (1993, Tom Baker)
The Macra Terror (1992, Colin Baker)
The Evil of the Daleks (1992, Tom Baker)

What are your memories of these? Did you find that the narration by actors who weren't in the stories worked?

[Andrew Curnow]

From memory, the narration for The Macra Terror was fine, in that it was in the third person - but the one for Power was written as if it was the Doctor speaking and was absolutely abysmal. I seem to recall it settled down a bit later on, but certainly the whole opening TARDIS sequence post-change was appalling, with the narration almost actively trying to destroy any drama that the original episode had!!

[Si Hunt]

"Jamie tossed restlessly" still brings comfort to some of us today.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I really like Tom's narration at the start of Power of The Daleks!

[SiHart]

I just remember having to turn down the volume every time Tom spoke on Evil and then ramp it back up every time we switched back to the episode, because the quality was so delightfully shitty.

[Ssarl]

I'm so happy that they finally got Annekke to narrate The Macra Terror. Many scenes make sense for the first time.

I had Evil of the Daleks as a kid, and I listened to it many times. The narration was third person and non-insane but it was incredibly sparse - for example, the lengthy action sequence with Jamie and Kemel in Episode 4 had no narration whatsoever. The story just suddenly becomes a music suite! Then there'd be loads of narration over some minor detail like Victoria's handkercheif. It was really strange to upgrade to the CD version - half the scenes I'd memorised and the other half I was understanding for the first time! The crap audio quality did not help, nor did the fact that the actual story is an unfocused patchwork as it is!

[Anthony Williams]

Again, I feel that I perhaps have a feeling of nostalgia about the Tom version of Evil. Technically, it probably shouldn't be any good whatsoever. As Steve says, the quality is definitely more than a little sketchy - particularly with volume levels. I'm sure that the later release was much better done.

However, I first heard this when I was about 7, much like the Tom-narrated version of Shada. And I love this for exactly the same reasons - I love Tom's narration, and I love the story. Tom's narration was a particular joy for me. When Whitney and I are watching recons, she finds it difficult to read the scrolling subtitles, so I read them to her - and I really struggle to not use Tom's inflections when reading them.

I've got the CD version (for completion's sake), but I don't think I've ever listened to it - we used the recon when we watched it on our Who-athon. I'm not sure whether I'll ever listen to it. Yet, I would dearly love to be able to hear the Tom version again.

As for the other two, I once borrowed them from my junior school's audio-visual club, but I have very little recollection of them, sadly.

[Si Hunt]

I'm not picturing Ant and Whitney watching the Evil recon, and Ant reading it out in his Tom voice

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

I'm not picturing Ant and Whitney watching the Evil recon, and Ant reading it out in his Tom voice

It wasn't just Evil! It's something that I ended up doing for almost every recon! It just seems right!

[Junkyard]

I've not heard 'Power' so I can't comment on it. Colin Baker on 'Macra' works fine for me though maybe I should give the Anneke version a listen. I've not heard Tom Baker's version of 'Evil' as I've got the Frazer Hines version. Personaly, I prefer audios to recons.

[Anthony Williams]

I found a copy of the Tom-narrated Evil! Yes I did!

Now to destroy childhood memories...