Doctor Who audio adventures

[Madeleine]

Did anyone else listen to the freebies that came with Radio Times last year? I thought The Stone Rose was original and witty, but I found Feast of the Drowned a bit meh.

If you heard the audiobooks, have you also read the book? I'm wondering if the abridgement of Stone Rose took all the best bits and left the filler, or if there's anything I've missed.

[ShadowMaat]

Haven't heard the audios for either of those. Feast did get a bit draggy, but while I liked Stone Rose I also felt the author was trying to flaunt her credentials a bit with all the historical stuff.

Speaking of the recent audios, though, I got a copy of Art of Destruction and barely made it through the teaser section. Ye gods, I don't know who does the narration (just checked, it's someone called Don Warrington) but MAN does he SUCK! Has the guy ever read anything out loud before? He has no narrative sense AT ALL. There's little to know inflection between the "voices", he tends to read in a monotone and there's no variation at all between the end of the dialogue and the he says/she says type stuff. It's painful to listen to. I may have to break down and just buy the book because I don't think I can stand listening to Mr. Monotone. It actually reminded me of those times in grammar school when the teacher would go around in a circle and make us all ready something out loud. That bad.

I'm fairly annoyed, too, because it's Volcano Day, dammit. Well, possibly. There's definitely a volcano involved...

EDIT: Oh, looks like Don was the President of Great Britain. There's probably a good joke in there somewhere...

[Madeleine]

Wasn't Don Warrington the PM in the alternate universe in the cyberman two-parter?

[ShadowMaat]

Wasn't Don Warrington the PM in the alternate universe in the cyberman two-parter?

President of Great Britain, technically. And yeah, I looked it up after I posted. But apparently there's a difference between acting a part and reading something out loud because while he's fine as an actor he's rubbish as a narrator.

Maybe I'm the only one having an issue with him, I dunno, but I feel like I can't follow the story. The thing is, getting hold of the books here is kinda tricky. I ordered some of them two months ago from Amazon and still haven't received them. *sigh* I'll probably have to try ebay instead.

I'm also pissed because I did manage to get all the Torchwood books... only to find out that John Barrowman reads one of them. *grumble* Would have liked that even better.

[Grayvorn]

I love the audios, especialy the first two 8th Doctor seasons.

The Unbound ones are pure gold too. The ending to 'Full Fathom Five' sent a chill down my spine, and one of Tennant's lines in 'Sympathy for the Devil' is priceless:

Tennant (referring to a Chinese official): "Och, tell him to p*** off!"

[Spaceminx]

President of Great Britain, technically. And yeah, I looked it up after I posted. But apparently there's a difference between acting a part and reading something out loud because while he's fine as an actor he's rubbish as a narrator.

Yeah, audio acting is a whole different skill to TV or Stage acting. You don't have the benefit of facial expressions or body language - everything has to be conveyed through the voice. I'm beginning to think that audio acting takes a certain amount of controlled over-acting if that makes sense.

[Reefgirl]

One of the best Audio adventures I've heard for a long time is Pier Pressure, nice and creepy and a good cast, Colin Baker, Maggie Stables as the wonderful Evelyn, Roy Hudd as Max Miller and Chris Simmonds aka Mickey Webb from The Bill

[ShadowMaat]

I'm giving the Art of Destruction audiobook another shot and Don Warrington's reading isn't bothering me at all this time. Huh. Maybe he just caught me on a bad day before.

[gopher65]

Yeah, audio acting is a whole different skill to TV or Stage acting. You don't have the benefit of facial expressions or body language - everything has to be conveyed through the voice. I'm beginning to think that audio acting takes a certain amount of controlled over-acting if that makes sense.

I was just reading something about this from an voice actor. He said that the directors ask for outrageous overacting, and that by the end they are screaming lines into the mic and frothing at the mouth Captain Kirk style as they do. And the actors all think they are crazy the first few times they do it, but when they see the final product they understand the reasoning behind those decisions.

[ShadowMaat]

I've been listening to a lot of Seventh Doctor adventures lately and I'm really liking him, particularly the way he rolls his r's. There's something very familiar about him, though- he reminds me a bit of Ten. Something about the verbal mannerisms, I guess. I don't suppose Seven happens to be one of DT's favorite Doctors, eh? Probably all just coincidence and my own mind filling in the blanks, but it makes it easier for me to connect the Doctors into one entity, so I guess that's a good thing.

Anyone have any recommendations among the Big Finish audios? I've been trying to collect all the Hex adventures (I'm a sucker for that accent), but I'd like to familiarize myself with some of the other Doctors, too.