The Gods of Winter

"It's the worst day of my life... and I need your help."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: 20th August 2015

Series: NSA 22

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

On a remote human colony planet, under the cover of a protective dome, young Diana Winter summons the TARDIS. Brought to her side by the power of a mysterious calling card, the Doctor and Clara are given one of their unlikeliest assignments yet. Yet it is one that will have far-reaching consequences...

Many years later, on the homeworld of the alien Golhearn, the time travellers once again meet Diana - but this time the stakes are much higher. The Golhearn's savage madness is threatening to destroy their own civilisation, and Diana has a personal reason to call for the Doctor once again. Is he willing to assist, or must Clara go it alone? Can anyone discover the cause of the monstrous insanity that threatens them all?

Verdict

The Gods of Winter was a very good audio adventure and a great way to kick off the Twelfth Doctor's run in the audio format! It's about time we had some new original audios with the current incarnation of our favourite Time Lord and I must say I am quite disappointed that we didn't get any during the last series. But not to worry, that wrong has been corrected thankfully and we've now been given a foursome of stories that are all interconnected, an idea which I really like. Released every two months, these audios will mean that they'll be fresh and the memory of the previous adventure will still be close in the mind. However, my strategy was to originally purchase the CDs but with no luck finding this in WH Smith or Waterstones, to my surprise, I ended up paying half price through iTunes which was pretty nice. I consider this blog as my collection so not having a physical copy doesn't bother me and it also meant that I could listen to the story almost immediately after paying which was very nice. I'm not entirely sure why, but this story didn't seem to have a feel of Series 9 going about it. Now I'm not sure if that's because it was released a month prior to it airing, but I do think that as this sort of served as a prelude into the new series, it should have felt somewhere close to it. The Twelfth Doctor, though wonderfully characterised, certainly seemed like what we saw during Series 8. I'd like to think of this as being set somewhere close after Last Christmas but quite a long way before The Magician's Apprentice. The Doctor still had his sonic screwdriver and he was quite opposed to doing people personal favours. The story is undoubtedly set after the eighth series due to the reference to Dark Water/Death in Heaven when Clara was reminiscing about Danny. Will we ever be ridded of those references? He's dead. We've had our remembering period in Clara's dream in the Christmas special so can we just be ridded of it please. Anyway, back to the story at hand. I thought Clare Higgins read the adventure very well indeed though at times I could have mistaken her for Missy! She sounded a lot like Michelle Gomez at times which was good actually as the Scottish tendencies of Peter Capaldi were coming through when she was reading the dialogue of the Doctor. She also managed to capture the essence of Jenna Coleman for Clara as well which I would argue is quite difficult in an audio adventure. Credit must also go to James Goss for allowing the superb characterisation to take place. Diana Winter was a very good character and I loved the horror from the Doctor when he found out about the mysterious calling card that could summon the Doctor whenever she liked. The fact the Doctor knew nothing about these calling cards was very intriguing to me. I do hope that the acquisition of the calling cards for the Winter family is explained as the series of stories goes on. The fact Diana summoned the Doctor from all of space and time because her car was missing was wonderful. Terrifically typical of an eight year old girl! As you could imagine, the Doctor wasn't too pleased. But after some soft persuasion from Clara, he reluctantly accepted to assist in the task of helping Diana find her cat. No saving planets or stopping people from dying, he was here to find a cat because it was the worst day in the life of a young girl. It was all change as the story went on though as we saw Diana forty years in the future and on the Golhearn homeworld. That alien race was very intriguing though I'm not sure they were entirely utilised. The Eye of God was quite humorous and I loved the Doctor's reaction to the concept of a god. Of course there's no such thing. The Doctor getting warmed to Diana once he'd met the future version was nice to see. Overall, a decent plot with quite a good resolution. A great beginning to what looks to be a brilliant set of adventures! Fantastic reading and superb characterisation. 

Rating: 8/10