The Lost Angel

"We saw a living statue."

Writers: George Mann & Cavan Scott
Format: Audio
Released: January 2017
Series: NSA 26

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Alex, Brandon

Synopsis

All Alex Yow wants is to become a photojournalist and break her first story. All Brandon Yow wants is for his sister to keep out of trouble and come home. But that's not going to happen, because Alex has taken a picture of a statue. A statue that can move.

A statues that makes people disappear. A statue that is hunting them down.

In upstate New York, the Doctor is chasing weird energies that should not exist. Teaming up with Alex and Brandon, he discovers a powerful force enslaved to another's will. Who controls the lonely assassins that prowl the streets? What secrets are the residents of Rickman hiding? And will Alex and Brandon survive the night of the Weeping Angels?

Verdict

The Lost Angel was a fantastic audio adventure to kick off my listening of these connected adventures featuring the Twelfth Doctor! It has taken me far longer to start these than I would have anticipated as I had hoped to do everything for this Doctor during his initial run, but finances and situations just didn't allow me. And now I'm quite grateful that was the case as all of the stories were available for free through Cardiff Library on BorrowBox so that was a big win for me personally. I wasn't really aware who Kerry Shale was prior to some research for this audio adventure but I actually enjoyed his narration and telling of the story. His impression of the Twelfth Doctor wasn't amazing, but it was recognisable as being that of Peter Capaldi's incarnation so that was a big positive. I thought he played the other parts very well and he enjoyed the luxury of there being no other familiar characters. We would be introduced to some characters that will become familiar in this set of stories though in the form of Alex and Brandon Yow. Their relationship as brother and sister was very good and provided an interesting dynamic to what companions will be. I look forward to that being explored in the next adventure featuring the pair. They were also a humorous addition to Doctor Who chronology from a personal point of view as they share the names of myself and my best friend and even though the two of us are male and the companions are not, the idea of Brandon and Alex going on adventures with the Doctor is quite comical. I certainly would want more than just the one adventure though! The use of the Weeping Angels in a story of this format was handled excellently and I can't say that is surprising given who the writers were. George Mann is a particular favourite of mine and I thought the Weeping Angels were excellent, even if they were being used as assassins. The link with Old High Gallifreyan language and the stone from the same planet was very interesting and I look forward to the Doctor's investigations into how that came to be written during the sixteenth century. The idea of Time Lord magic was also very fascinating and its development almost arriving as a way to try and trap the Weeping Angels was brilliant. I really liked a lot of what was going on here. Jane was a good character in the story too and even though it was very predictable that she had been zapped by an Angel in the future and sent back in time, I liked how she reacted when the Doctor knew. Alex wanting to get her scoop as a photojournalist was great and I do hope she shares some companion traits with Sarah Jane as that could be quite terrific. Brandon seems less eager to travel with his sister which I find baffling, but he wouldn't let her go alone so the Doctor was joined by some new temporary companions. I was a little surprised with how accepting he was of this pairing, but the characterisation of this incarnation throughout was really quite superb. It definitely had the feel of the break between Series 9 and 10 which was certainly good. The ending was exciting and logical with the Doctor finding the man responsible for using the Angels and then trapping them in cement, pretty much destroying them. The use of the construction site for a new mall freeing them was good and it was nice to come full circle with it providing the basis for how they were defeated. Overall, a brilliant start to this little audio run!

Rating: 9/10