The Sins of Winter

"I'm afraid I can't hold back death."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: 3rd December 2015

Series: NSA 24

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

The TARDIS is summoned to a cathedral in space by Shadrak Winter, the High Cardinal of the Cult of the Prime Self. Soon to be relieved of his post by way of assassination, Shadrak has used his family's calling card to bring the Doctor to his aid. His followers have fled the Sinful, highly contagious slug-like creatures. Shadrak himself has been infected and they now threaten the Doctor and Clara. 

As the Sinful spread through the cathedral, the Doctor and Clara are on the run for their lives and their souls. Who is behind the plot to assassinate Cardinal Winter, and why isn't the Doctor feeling himself?

Verdict 

The Sins of Winter was a very good and entertaining audio adventure that continued the interlinked quartet of Twelfth Doctor and Clara audios along very nicely! Following on from my back to back listening of The Gods of Winter and The House of Winter, I thought I'd better put some of my Christmas money to good use and purchase a few Doctor Who items, some of which should be blogged pretty soon. The last blog entry of Engines of War was one example of that as it arrived on Friday, with this very audio, and was completed shortly thereafter. It was a fantastic read and with myself being a little busy today, I limited myself to just the solitary 70 minute audio rather than a Main Range 2 hour plus audio that I had hoped to fit in today. It didn't matter though and instead I returned myself to the excellent pairing of the Twelfth Doctor and Clara. As baffling as it might sound, it actually seems a while since I did a story with this pairing which considering the amount of stories I've done with the pair over the last year seems quite silly! The pair are magnificent together though and the relationship from Series 9 was captured in this audio extremely well by James Goss. The good humoured enjoying of each other's company was prevalent and I loved some of the dialogue. It really was fit for a novel and I guess you could lay claim to this being an oral novel. I prefer to think of it as almost like a BBC Books Companion Chronicle but instead of a companion telling the story from their perspective, it's from a member of the Winter family. That's something I really like and it followed well in the footsteps of the first two audios. Despite the audios being linked by the Winter family, I really like the difference in time of the generations of each Winter family member. The stories don't really get referenced between each other and despite the arc connection, each story certainly has its own feel. I could imagine this incarnation of the Doctor getting rather tiresome of the Winter calling card. He did seem quite frustrated in the first two audios but that wasn't the case this time around and to me that a saw a shift in the audios as I think I mentioned in my blog entries that the first two had a Series 8 feel but this time around it definitely felt like it was placed in Series 9. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but whatever way I liked it. I thought Robin Soans did a pretty decent job at reading the story overall. I really wasn't struck on his portrayal of Clara but thankfully the dialogue from Goss more than made up for that in getting the feel for her characterisation. However, I thought he was absolutely magnificent in portraying Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor! He had all the traits, mannerisms and even the accent all associated with this incarnation of the Doctor. It was joy to listen to. Clara making reference to her English teaching was very good and I loved her likeness to getting out of trouble by using excuses and the like which she had picked up from her pupils! Some teacher she was then. I found the confessions of the Doctor very intriguing considering the depth the Doctor and his confessions went into during Series 9 with his confession dial, namely in The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar and Heaven Sent/Hell Bent. The humorous remark to the Sixth Doctor's coat offending people was superb and probably my favourite piece of dialogue from the three Winter audios yet. It was magic. The Doctor referring to the Daleks, and probably Genesis of the Daleks, as a confession was excellent. I also liked his reference to The Day of the Doctor and trying to destroy his own planet. The other references in the story were good too with Clara mentioning events of Dark Water/Death in Heaven and The Time of the Doctor. I particularly liked the description of the latter story. The Cult of the Prime Self was a decent backstory and I thought Shadrak was a pretty decent character and member of the Winter family. The religion factor was intriguing and I liked the Doctor's humour in his founding religion only being the fourth most popular. The climax and revelation surrounding Shadrak was a tad predictable but I still liked the revelation a lot. Overall, a very good audio adventure! 

Rating: 8/10