Doctor Who: Plague Of The Cybermen (11th Doctor book) by Justin Richards (CD review).
A timely release, ‘Plague Of The Cybermen’ features the dulcet tones of David Warner who has cracked through the glass walls and into mainstream ‘Doctor Who’. He’s an old hand with plenty of Big Finish material under his belt and he’s even been an ‘Unbound Doctor’ in their range.
When the Doctor arrives on a dark and stormy night, he is apparently just travelling randomly. He’s alone and between companions and his mood probably reflects the weather. He’s on Earth, in a European village called Klimtenburg. The villagers are suffering from an inexplicable wasting disease and all are slowly dying. Worse even than that it appears, the graves are being robbed and the villagers are afraid that the plague warriors have returned.
Having requested a physician, Gustav the publican, Klaus, and Olga the schoolteacher are quite pleased to hear that the odd stranger in the pub is known as the Doctor. Luckily for them, despite not being a physician, he is a quick study and rapidly diagnoses the causes of the plague. But there’s more, of course, and the trail of the grave robbers leads to the castle on the hill with its owner, Lord Ernehardt, and his faithful Watchman.
With lots of characters and a suitably authoritative narrator ‘Plague Of The Cybermen’ is fun. It takes a lot of inspiration from many gothic novels and with the characters of the Doctor already established’ his tics and mannerisms are well expressed. Inevitably’ the Doctor takes on Olga as his temporary companion and manages to solve more than the health problems of the village. The Cybermen make appealing adversaries this time round with some novel add-ons if you happen to get bored with the vanilla metal-mickeys.
My only problem with this story is I could read it faster and the audio good as it is, can’t for me, replace the thrill of reading this with a torch under the covers when I was the right age for it. Hopefully, the kids are still doing this.
Sue Davies
May 2013
(pub: Audio Go/BBC. 6 CDs 360 minute story. Price: CD: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-4713-2986-9. Price: Download: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-47132-987-6)
cast: Nicholas Briggs and David Warner
check out website: www.audiogo.co.uk