The Doctor Does Not Seem Himself

"Doctor Who: Dead Air" is narrated in first person by the Tenth Doctor, which sounds like it should be fun. Unfortunately, this approach really means that during the prose-y descriptive bits the Doctor sounds less like his usual zippy self and more like a slightly dull narrator. Which is a shame, because, as anyone who has seen the show, or heard David Tennant narrating other audiobooks, knows, neither the Doctor nor Tennant are dull by a *long* shot. There are a few shiningly fun moments - the exchanges between the Doctor and Layla, and the distinctly individual voices for the other original characters are a real treat. There are also plenty of gasp-worthy encounters with the monster, and a neat-ish twist towards the end, when it turns out the Doctor knew quite a bit more than he'd been letting on.



But the thing that got this a 3 instead of a 4 was the actual ending - which made the Doctor's solution, and the Doctor himself, seem ludicrously slow. The monster even TELLS him what the fatal flaw in his plan is. It's a hugely obvious mistake, and the ingenius movie-going pop-culture nut that is the Tenth Doctor should have accounted for it, especially. But he dismisses it out of hand and carries on. My reaction: Who are you and what have you done with the real Doctor?



But if the writer had let the Doctor be himself, I guess he wouldn't have had an excuse for putting in the final, blandly ominous lines. Which would have been cool, if there weren't already so many other tales all over TV, film, and literature with similar endings.



If you're looking for a Tenth Doctor audiobook to try, you might be tempted to start with this one, because it is one of the more inexpensive options. However, it doesn't do the Whoverse canon, or the Doctor, much justice. You'll be better off starting with something like "The Stone Rose" or "Feast of the Drowned."

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