The Eye of the Jungle

"We are designing warriors."

Writer: Darren Jones

Format: Audio

Released: July 2011

Series: NSA 13

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

The Amazon Rainforest, 1827. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in the jungle near a hurriedly abandoned campsite, where they are surrounded by hungry black caiman – huge lizards. Only the arrival of a man with a rifle sees off the giant beasts. Oliver Blazington has come to the forest to bag big game, and his companion Garrett is a naturalist, collecting exotic creatures for London Zoo. But the Doctor soon discovers that another very different hunter is stalking the Amazon. Animals and people have been disappearing without trace, and local villagers speak darkly of "the Eye of the Jungle". Amy senses that the all-seeing Eye is watching them – but she and Rory are powerless to intervene when it sets its sights on the Doctor...

Verdict

The Eye of the Jungle was an excellent New Series Adventures audio! I really enjoyed this listen from the get go which I was delighted by as these kind of stories, particularly the format, can sometimes be a bit of a struggle. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit trepidatious about doing a two-part story of this nature, but I needn't have been because it was quite brilliant! I was a very big fan. I think David Troughton's narration had a lot to do with that because he was a fantastic narrator. Even though his take on Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor wasn't overly great, I think that was because of the nature of who the actor is and he had that familiar Troughton twang that made a lot of the Doctor moments seem like they were featuring the Second Doctor instead! That was quite fun. I did enjoy his impersonations of both Amy and Rory though. He delivered them in a very decent way which helped. I was a big fan of the 19th century Amazon Rainforest setting as it's not a traditional kind of location for a Doctor Who adventure and this is where audio can come in and reap the benefits. The natural threat of the caiman was good and I liked how it being so real and natural made them all the more difficult to combat. Blazington arrived to save them with his gun in an entertaining pre-titles sequence. Finding out that the story was specifically set in 1827 was very good and the idea of this being where some of the animals gathered as a collection for the opening of London Zoo the next year was brilliant. I liked how it showed that the British were not all good whilst encompassing something historical. Garrett was a good character alongside Blazington and I liked how they worked together. The threat in the audio being extended by the revelation that people had been going missing was intriguing and set things up very nicely for what was to come, mostly in part two. Marta was a lovely little character and I really liked her relationship with Amy. The addition of the TARDIS going missing only added to the danger in the story which was really good. The cliff-hanger in the middle of the adventure was a very good one with the Doctor being shot and I enjoyed the resolution being that it was just a teleport beam. There was definitely a different feeling in part two and it felt more energetic which was a good shift. The story developed naturally and we got to learn of the war between the Nadurni and Prokarian which was terrific. I really enjoyed that and how it served as the focus for the story. The Nadurni were searching for specimens to manipulate their genes and create warriors for the war effort. That was intriguing and I liked how that was the true purpose of the connection with gathering a collection of species. It almost shifted into an alien zoo which was pretty neat. They, in similar vain to the Krillitanes, had gone a bit too far with their splicing on themselves though and needed others now. Of course, they were eventually led to discovering the Doctor's DNA and they were simply awestruck. I loved their marvelling at what the Doctor's DNA contained, particularly when it came to the cellular regenerative capabilities. One moment that had me laughing was with Amy and Rory and how they joked "we haven't had one of those today" when referring to their last minute gamble. That was an excellent inclusion. The concept of Blazington becoming the ultimate warrior was very good, but the Doctor was able to see that this would not be the case. He was able to utilise the Eye of the Jungle that had been threaded throughout much of the second part and was the source of the disappearances by relaying it and basically send the alien zoo back home and un-splice them, reverting back to normality and into their original singular species. It was pretty good going as far as the Doctor was concerned there! The full circle of the prized jaguars going missing and the Doctor having some involvement there was also a really nice way to finish. It worked very well. Overall, a fantastic audio! 

Rating: 9/10