Darkstar Academy

"Why do your prefects carry guns?"

Writer: Mark Morris

Format: Audio

Released: March 2012

Series: NSA 12

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

When the TARDIS is buffeted by "time slippage", the Doctor experiences a terrible vision of the end of everything. Tracking the source of the disruption, he takes Rory and Amy to what appears to be an English public school in the 1950s. But as the friends are about to discover, there are some very unusual things about Darkstar Academy. For a start the prefects carry guns, and then there is the strange forcefield that surrounds the perimeter. Not to mention the foot-long, crab-like creatures with spiny, armoured bodies... 

When the Doctor learns the truth about the Academy, he also discovers that the whole place is in terrible danger. But with a swarm of carnivorous creatures on the loose, what can he, Amy and Rory do to help prevent a terrible disaster?

Verdict

Darkstar Academy was a very good little audio to continue making my way through the original Eleventh Doctor audio adventures, albeit on a somewhat sporadic basis. I thought this was a solid tale and Alexander Armstrong did a great job as a narrator. He's an interesting choice but he is of course known in the Doctor Who universe as the voice of Mr Smith and also after appearing in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, which is most likely where the connection came for him to voice this tale. I enjoyed some of the throwbacks to the Fourth Doctor era in this story with it beginning by Rory and the Doctor playing chess. I enjoyed that a lot, but from there we were thrust straight into action as the Doctor collapsed and was seemingly engulfed by static which was quite unique. My instant thought was Daleks, but that would be unlikely given the format and range, and it actually turned out to be temporal disruption that the TARDIS had soaked up and very nicely placed in the Doctor's head which was quite amusing. I liked the threat of the Doctor being given a vision of the future, especially one that showed the end of everything as that's quite a big threat to live up to. Honestly, I don't think it really delivered on that scale but what we got was still good. The TARDIS arrived near the source of the disruption in a stable and the cricket reference that came with the Doctor was terrific. It appeared they'd arrived in 1950 which seemed a good setting at a public school, except the prefects had guns which was a little different to say the least! Canyon was a decent character as the headmaster and the initial encounter he had with the Doctor and co was very good with the psychic paper coming to the rescue showing the trio as inspectors. Amy encountering the forcefield was interesting and I think a little more could actually have been made of that. The Doctor though soon deduced that they were far from 1950 and were in fact in the 28th century as he recognised the vehicle repair in the cargo bay. It was all a bit strange. Rory had a good showing and I liked how he saved Milton from the school bullies, along with Amy's reaction to her man doing that. The sudden howls that engulfed the school was brilliant and the insects emerged in intriguing style, although I wasn't sure if they were entirely needed. The Doctor's constant passing out as a result of the time disruption was great and seemed perfectly suited to Matt Smith's incarnation. I can imagine him revelling in pulling this story off if it were televised. The Doctor describing how there was a bomb made out of time in the cargo was exciting as that was an excellent concept. The revelation that the prefects were actually security droids wasn't too surprising but was a good development and I liked how everyone ended up heading for the Pit. The school was actually a replica as the Darkstar Academy and was actually a satellite. Those within were the sons and heirs of the rich, something Amy looked on at with distain until she found that there was something similar and bigger for the daughters. The Doctor obtaining a spider creature was good in the specimen box and I liked how the objective of the conclusion was laid out as the priority was to disable the time machine before time collapsed. The action packed sequences that followed were very good. Amy and Milton had a good relationship together and I loved how the former guided the latter when it came to him encountering the TARDIS for the first time. Milton's father being revealed as a culprit and a man with a lot of enemies was interesting, but the bigger story was finding that an older Milton from the future was the cause of the time machine that the TARDIS had now landed within. The description of the rudimentary console was brilliant and I loved the concept of Milton building a time machine on the memories he had of the TARDIS. The Doctor very much didn't enjoy his motive of revenge on those who bullied him which was great and this Milton was clearly impacted by the time distortion. The Mexican standoff at the end was really good and I loved how the older Milton couldn't risk wiping out his younger self. That was really clever. Overall, a great little story!

Rating: 8/10