Death's Deal

"It suddenly gulped and swallowed the TARDIS whole."

Writer: Darren Jones
Format: Audio
Released: October 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis

Responding to multiple maydays, the TARDIS lands on the planet of Death's Deal, but the distress calls are old, the final echoes of terrified lost souls. This is an exotic world of lethal creatures, nicknamed 'The Deadliest Planet in the Galaxy', and only the brave, foolhardy or greedy would ever dare to visit.

Finding themselves stranded among a motley bunch of space-tourists, the Doctor and Donna must lead a struggle for survival against the frenzied wildlife, as they slowly realise that other members of the group have very different agendas.

And soon the Doctor learns of an even bigger threat hiding on Death's Deal. Somewhere deep below the surface, is something that must never be unearthed.

Time is running out, and only an impossible survivor holds the key...

Verdict

Death's Deal was a decent little audio adventure and a good penultimate story in the Destiny of the Doctor series but that's not to say it didn't have room for improvement. It was definitely better than the last outing of Night of the Whisper, that's for sure, which actually seems like a long time ago now following a trip to Denmark for myself which saw my blogging activities cease. It's a busy time of the year now for me with yet another move on the cards and with my Masters beginning in just a fortnight, I do hope I'll be able to maintain a decent level of blogging. I've been worried in previous years but I've always been okay. I'm not sure what challenges moving in with my girlfriend will provide though! Anyway, onto the story and there were definitely no romantic relationships here as the Doctor and Donna took centre stage in this series. I thought Catherine Tate did a pretty good job as narrating but honestly, and I'm being very harsh here, I was hoping for better. She's such a good actress but she didn't seem to be bothering to try and impersonate David Tennant. It certainly wasn't on the standard of the likes of Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred's performances in this series! It was fantastic though to hear as Donna again and I thought it was good how the Doctor knew she would find the TARDIS when she fell and entrusted her to send him a signal. The idea of the TARDIS receiving numerous distress calls that were all outdated wasn't too dissimilar to the concept behind The Doctor's Wife but this was always going to struggle to reach that kind of level. I liked the futuristic setting and I thought Death's Deal was a good planet for events to unfold. It seems a little cliche to call a planet the deadliest in the galaxy, especially if it was included on an intergalactic tour, but this one was literally a living consumer and staying too long really would mean your death. I thought the cameo of the Eleventh Doctor was superb and I actually loved Catherine Tate's impression of Matt Smith! The writing was great and I liked how the Doctor approved of his previous self and showed that he wasn't much changed. Professor Erksine was a good character and I thought the moment that Lyric revealed she was actually his daughter was terrific. The slaughter crystals sounded horrific and the Tenth Doctor's reaction to them sold that fact. The way the Doctor prevented them from being mined was good but the highlight of the story for me was Donna hiding in Krux, quite literally. Overall, a decent story but some better narration and some more impact would have seen things even higher.

Rating: 7/10