The Nemonite Invasion

"A mass of baby Nemonites twisting and thriving."

Writer: David Roden

Format: Audio

Released: February 2009

Series: NSA Audio 03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis 

When the sky rips open somewhere over Dover, two objects hurtle out of the Vortex and crash-land in the sea. One is the TARDIS, out of control and free falling – but the other, a mysterious crystalline sphere, is far more sinister.

The Doctor and Donna are rescued and taken to a secret command centre in the Dover cliffs. It's May 1940, and Vice-Admiral Ramsay is about to finalise one of the most daring plans of the Second World War: Operation Dynamo.

But something else has got inside the War Tunnels, a parasitic Nemonite from the crashed sphere. Its aim is to possess all humans and spawn millions of young. The Doctor and Donna must fight for their lives in order to save both Operation Dynamo and the world at large.

Verdict  

The Nemonite Invasion was a very decent New Series Adventure audio! I’m a big fan of expanding the wider Doctor Who universe in any way possible and getting a little addition to the Series 4 era of the Tenth Doctor and Donna here is delightful. Whilst it’s sadly not a full cast drama, we do have Catherine Tate as the performer and she provided a really entertaining reading! She’s incredibly talented and it’s going to be so exciting to see her return later this year as part of the sixtieth anniversary festivities, but for now this was a nice reminder of how good Donna is and can be. She’s the main character as you might expect given Tate is the narrator because it’s always her scenes that feel the most authentic. Her impression of the Tenth Doctor was slightly lacking but I think Tate just decided from the off that she wouldn’t try and impersonation of David Tennant. That’s an approach I have no problem with as I’m sure if she wasn’t confident in it, then why bother trying? The dialogue was good though and felt authentically Tenth Doctor which I liked. The writing was definitely good in that aspect. I thought the story perhaps went too long which sadly probably lost a rating point on my final verdict, it did become a slight slog with a feel of dragging by the end, but that also isn’t helped by the fact it’s a reading and not a dramatisation. The setting of 1940 was excellent and I really liked that we had the Doctor and Donna involved with Dunkirk. That’s a legendary bit of history so having that under threat was terrific. It was exciting because the effects that would have on the outcome of World War Two if it didn’t happen could not have been positive for anyone other than the Nazis! Ramsay was crucial in seeing that it would happen so the moment he mentions that he isn’t going ahead with Operation Dynamo because of the risk to ordinary civilian life was fantastic. I do think he was convinced to take action a little easily though. It wasn’t exactly the most convincing speech by the Doctor! The banter that came between the Doctor and Donna because of the latter’s lack of historical knowledge was hilarious and I liked that she didn’t even want to know some of the names. She knew they were in a uniform and that was all she needed to know. I’m not sure it feels right that Donna would get involved with anyone romantically, but that seemed to be the case with Fossbrook! He was a good character and the flirting that came with him was fun. Donna was always in control though as you might expect. She enjoyed flaunting her boisterous personality amongst the ranks of the Royal Navy. The Nemonite threat was pretty good although I do feel with the format and reading style it was slightly difficult to fully get across how dangerous it could be. The image on the artwork doesn’t strike me with fear either, but for the 1940s it was good and the mingling of alien meaning foreigner was fun to explore. The Doctor proved he was an alien and the shipmates’ reactions to the likes of the TARDIS and the Doctor’s age was good stuff. The emotion that came at the conclusion with Fossbrook’s sacrifice and involvement in defeating the Nemonite was good and I absolutely loved that the Doctor made sure Donna knew just how much she meant to him. The splurge of superlatives for her was a wonderful moment and just what she needed in that emotional and rough moment. Overall, a good story!

Rating: 7/10