Babblesphere

"The computer chips had turned the inhabitants into mindless drones."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Audio
Released: April 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II

Synopsis

The violent, volcanic world of Hephastos is home to a colony of composers, painters, authors and poets, all striving to create the greatest works of art the universe has ever seen. But in pursuit of their goal, artistic collaboration has been taken a stage too far...

When the Doctor and Romana arrive, they discover the colonists have neglected their well-being and their once beautiful habitat, which has now succumbed to decay, and they are enslaved to the Babble network which occupies their every waking moment. Every thought, however trivial or insignificant, is shared with everyone else and privacy is now a crime.

The colonists are being killed and the Doctor and Romana begin to suspect that a malevolent intelligence is at work. With time running out, the two time travellers race to discover the truth before they too are absorbed into the endless trivia of the Babblesphere...

Verdict

Babblesphere was yet another very good audio adventure in the Destiny of the Doctor series. Four stories in and the consistent standard has happily remained. I'm loving the range in style and setting of these stories but I think that was to be expected as each Doctor is so different and they definitely have their own eras. This time it was the turn of the Fourth Doctor and I was delighted to hear that Lalla Ward was performing the story. Romana's second incarnation is probably my all-time favourite companion so that was a real bonus. She performed it terrifically and also gave a decent impression of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor which was certainly beneficial to the story. The setting was an intriguing one and I thought the concept of the Babble was very good and probably, now listening in 2018, right at home with current society and I honestly wouldn't be too surprised to see something like it in society in the future. The population seems inundated with the useless musings of others so the Babble network seems like it would work well for humanity at its current state. I couldn't quite grasp how gossip had become so sought after - is it really worth it? The idea of privacy being illegal was quite horrifying and that's where the line had to be drawn for me. That gave the Doctor and Romana something to question and I thought their relationship was superb. It was brilliantly captured from the era which was just marvellous. The banter over them both having left their respective sonic screwdrivers in the TARDIS was magnificent. Aurelius was a good character and I did like his role in the story but, for the guest actor, I thought he was actually quite limited in appearance which was a little surprising. Not that he was really needed of course. The Prolocutor was another interesting element of the story and the way it served as the main enemy was really good. The method of the Doctor and Romana to overfeed its mind was excellent and I loved all the mentions of the likes of Zagreus, Rassilon and the Shakri to name a few. The Power of Three getting referenced in a Fourth Doctor story is the beauty of an audio story. There really are no limitations and that's why they work well. The pace of the story was good and I thought the general idea was great and neatly played out. The cameo appearance of the Eleventh Doctor was a highlight and I really did like the Fourth Doctor's reaction to his appearance, even if it was a little dissimilar to when he saw this future self in The Roots of Evil. Overall though, another great audio story!

Rating: 8/10