The Runaway Train

The story wasn’t the most compelling Doctor Who tale, but I found this amusing and kept getting that Back to the Future III vibe (complete with train running out of tracks and plummeting to gorge floor). The Doctor and Amy arrive in, what I can only assume is Texas, during the Civil War in order to steal a terraforming pod from the Cei, an alien race who lost their planet and want to claim Earth as their new home. Problem is, oxygen to the Cei is a bit like breathing under water to us humans. They need to terraform the planet before they can take up residence. It’s up to The Doctor, Amy and their three recruits to destroy the device.

Matt’s reading and enthusiasm is as infectious as watching him on-screen, and his American accents aren’t half bad. Definitely better than what one hears of so-called “Southerners” on True Blood *wink*. And his Scottish “Amy” voice is adorable in its attempt but sadly fell flat. I really wish they had gotten both Matt and Karen to do the audio book together but I applaud him in his rapid switching between voices though and ability to keep it all together.

So overall, plot not that great but the delivery was amazing. Definitely something for die-hard Doctor Who fans–not so much for passive viewers (unless you just want to spend an hour listening to Matt’s lush voice).

http://www.read-all-over.net/memes/short-fiction-friday/short-fiction-friday-doc... ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1431689.html

This was a free giveaway Doctor Who CD from the Daily Telegraph, apparently to be released more formally in a few months as one of the planned series of Eleventh Doctor original audio books. It's set in the Wild West, which is less original a concept than it was before The Peacemaker (Tenth Doctor book and audio from 2008) and Freakshow (Companion Chronicle audio as told by Mark Strickson as Turlough from ealier this year), and of course was used in Old Who as early as 1966. Matt Smith is good at delivering both the background narrative and his own Doctor's voice; elsewhere he is decent at characterisation but distinctly less good at either Amy's Scottish or the other characters' American accents. Also the story itself is rather poorly paced for audiobook, which can sometimes be an unforgiving medium. So on the whole this one is worth looking out for free rather than buying. ( )