SHADA!

[Si Hunt]

Have we actually got a dedicated thread for this giant audiobook release? If not, I think it deserves one!

So I've had it, and it's had me. What a marathon. But was it any good?



Overall, it's a good effort. The story of Shada has certainly been fleshed out as far as it possibly could be. There is a pleasant, if not wholly deep, relationship spun out between Claire and Chris, we find out how Salyavin took the book, what happened when he got to Shada, what he did when he went back, what he had for breakfast that morning and what he got up to in the toilet breaks in between. It's all the detail you could ever want!

The book feels quite slow in places, especially when read, with characters talking back and forwards very slowly and in no hurry to finish conversations. The worst part of the adaption are the unneccesary additions: it's quite inventive that Salyavin goes BACK to Gallifrey after tricking his guards and leaving Shada, but trying to work out a way of how exactly he wiped the minds of the entire planet (by putting his mind into his TARDIS and hovering above it) is something perhaps nobody ever thought to wonder in the first place. There are also a whole host of minor unwanted additions- the rude note he leaves on his cell door (resulting in the Doctor swearing when he reads it out), the way he swaps the Book for a copy of the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy when he puts it back in the Panopticon Archives and the lengthy scene on Drornid near the end. Better is the way the Doctor defeats Skagra by forcing him to touch the book and see the future.

I also did not like the fact that Salyavin is said to have not been a criminal at all; the TV version suggests his crimes may have been exagerated but to me, the whole point was that even Time Lord criminal mavericks get old and turn into sweet old men. Roberts' retcons it so that Salyavin is actually a completely innocent man who the Time Lords frame because they are scared of his mind powers, which sort of loses the point of the "nice old man" retort so often referred to.

Overall, it's a welcome expanding of the story, but it goes a little too far in expanding bits. Several jokes are also repeated too often: the Book wittering on about being dead and the Professor being called "a nice old man" seem to happen every five seconds.

The reading is good, and Lalla does well with all the different voices, although her Tom is too deep and slow. If she'd tried harder, the audio book might have been 2 discs shorter.

Also given the extraordinary history of "Shada", some sort of explanation or history of its being might have been nice, especially as it's touted as "The Lost Douglas Adams Doctor Who story" with no information within about what this means.

Definately worth having, and not wholly unannoying.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Slightly dodgy Tom aside I actually really liked Lalla's reading. I especially enjoyed her rendition of the simpering voice of the Ship, in which she seems to be very much impersonating Hannah Gordon from the Big Finish version but with even more humour.

Overall I really enjoyed this which I think is evidenced by the fact I managed to get through all 10 discs in less than three days but I do agree that the repetition of the line "he was such a nice old man" does get rather irritating after the 100th time, bearing in mind most of the readers/listeners will be familiar with the reveal of who Chronotis used to be so they don't really need to have it spelt out quite so obviously in advance.