Shadow of Death

"One touch and we age to death."

Writer: Simon Guerrier
Format: Audio
Released: February 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

Following an emergency landing, the TARDIS arrives on a remote world orbiting a peculiar star - a pulsar which exerts an enormous gravitational force, strong enough to warp time.

On further exploration the Doctor and his friends, Jamie and Zoe, discover a human outpost on the planet surface, inhabited by scientists who are there to study an ancient city. The city is apparently abandoned, but the scientists are at a loss to explain what happened to its sophisticated alien architects.

The Doctor discovers that something dark, silent and deadly is also present on the world - and it is slowly closing in on the human intruders...

Verdict

Shadow of Death was another great little audio as part of the Destiny of the Doctor series. This time it was the turn of the Second Doctor and I was delighted to see that Frazier Hines was the narrator. His companion of Jamie is terrific in his own right but his impression of Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor is absolutely phenomenal and anytime I've done a story that he narrates, it really does just feel like Troughton is performing the story. Hines really is that good and it was no different here. Judging from the CD cover (I hadn't read the synopsis), I was quite surprised to hear that Zoe was also featuring but I liked how it was set shortly after her arrival in The Wheel in Space which was neatly referenced. Jamie was toiling over his age as he had lost track of time since joining the TARDIS with The Highlanders also getting a nice mention and I found it quite humorous how he was nearly convinced that he was 1,000 years old. The TARDIS getting subjected to an outside force seems quite rare during this era of Doctor Who so that was refreshing and it was also quite strange to get a pre-titles scene for a Second Doctor adventure. Sophie's emergence into the story was good just when the Doctor claimed that they weren't in danger. The ancient city setting was really but what struck me as the highlight of this audio was the way it played with time. The Doctor's analogy of a plane with a puncture travelling through time instead of air was excellent and with time passing at different levels either side of the fissure, there was obvious danger. The shadow was intriguing and I liked how Jamie deducted early on that it was the reason for the lack of life on the planet despite their being no signs of how it would have been eradicated. These beings were later known as the Quiet Ones and the Doctor soon discovered that was actually an apt name for them which was good as the truth about them was revealed. I really enjoyed how he received a message from a future incarnation and one thing I love about regeneration is that the Doctor still recognises his handwriting despite his hands changing. The Doctor taking the risk by going on the other side of the puncture was testament to his character and once he finally resolved things, his revealing to Jamie and Zoe that things for him took a few years was quite a shock. They were stunned by this as it had only been minutes for them. Overall, a terrific little audio and this series really does seem to be something very good indeed.

Rating: 8/10