Doctor Who: The Minds Of Magnox: Time Lord Victorious by Darren Jones (CD/download review).

The Tenth Doctor and Brian the Ood assassin have come to Magnox. The Doctor has some questions and Brian wants to be less bored. On Magnox, the people like to decorate their body externalities and information is a currency. When the two travellers split up, each one will find much more than he expected to. Remember this is the Tenth Doctor who thinks he is right about everything. Much of what happens in this tale is morally dubious and sees him continually making arrogant assumptions and decisions.

Brian who is definitely way past the morally dubious and into the area of seriously disturbed is entirely suitable for him at this stage because he’s on a path to destruction. We already know that their separate adventures are bound to clash with each other big time. It just feels like Ten is looking to be reassured it’s ok to carry on with god-like behaviour. Sometimes Brian looks like an innocent child in comparison.

This audio is set at the mid-point of ‘All Flesh Is Grass’. You don’t need to have read the book to listen to this but it does again form part of the whole ‘Time Lord Victorious’ multi-media series. It is a little bit frustrating that there are snippets available in other media that I don’t have access to but I can see the point if a lot of fans want to engage with this.

This is a one hour audio book. It’s not a drama but it is an enhanced one man show by Jacob Dudman. He is able to produce a very good Tenth Doctor, making the story that much more immersive. Dudman has a pleasing mature voice that belies his youth. It set me off thinking about how clever actors are who can listen to another voice and reproduce speech patterns from it. Some audio books can be quite dull whatever the content when the narrator is not fully engaged.

Sometimes there is real irritation where the sentence intonation is wrong but time considerations mean it hasn’t been re-recorded forever left to infuriate the listener. The story does have an interesting coda and makes the whole ‘Time Lord Victorious’ a little less bleak.

It will be interesting to see what comes next.

Sue Davies

February 2021

(pub: BBC Books Audio, 2021. 1 CD, limited edition vinyl and download. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-52912-948-9)

performed by Jacob Dudman

check out websites: https://www.penguin.co.uk/brands/puffin.html and www.doctorwho.tv/time-lord-victorious