Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island

by Mike Tucker

read by Anthony Head

includes an Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Discussion

-Doctor Who, Series 2-

(London, BBC Radio, 2007)
MP3 Audiobook, 33.6 MB, 2.4 Hours, Fiction

ISBN: 9781846071751, US$14.95

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE

From the Cover: On a lonely stretch of Welsh coastline, a fisherman is killed by a hideous creature from beneath the waves. When The Doctor and Rose arrive, they discover a village where the children are plagued by nightmares, and the nights are ruled by monsters. The villagers suspect that ancient industrialist Nathanial Morton is to blame, but The Doctor has suspicions of his own. Who are the ancient figures that sleep in the old priory? What are the monsters that prowl the woods after sunset? What is the light that glows in the disused lighthouse on Black Island? As the children's nightmares get worse, The Doctor and Rose discover an alien plot to resurrect an ancient evil ...

My Review: I will be the first to admit that I am a Doctor Who nerd. Growing up, I remember encountering the “original” Doctor (who for the longest time was embodied by Tom Baker with his afro and scarf) in reruns on PBS every Sunday night. I marvelled at the bad production values (the cardboard sets and rubber costumes) but that was not what kept me coming back for more. No, what kept me coming back to Doctor Who were the stories. They were incredible. The adventures of a man who travelled through time and space in a little blue box were engrossing. Then, I lost touch with the Doctor and Gallifrey and the TARDIS, K-9, the Cybermen, Daleks and the rest—Sarah Jane—and I forgot about the good Doctor. Until, that is, a friend of our reintroduced my wife and I to the BBC’s rebooting of Doctor Who starring first Christopher Eccelston at the Ninth Doctor and then David Tennant at the Tenth Doctor.

It is David Tennant’s incarnation of the Time Lord from Gallifrey that will forever stand as the image of the Doctor for me, and so it was with great pleasure that I discovered the Doctor Who adventures continued not just on the telly and DVD, but also in print, and … more importantly … in audiobook form. It was a heady discovery that was tempered only by the fact that most of the Doctor Who audiobooks that are on the market (chronicling the adventures of Doctors Nine and Ten) are abridged (why anyone does this to perfectly good fiction, I’ll never understand) but there are a few that are unabridged, and I am here to tell you that they are completely worth your time and effort.

The Nightmare of Black Island was my first foray into the printed world of Doctor Who and it does not disappoint. (This is helped considerably by the fact that it is read by Anthony (Stewart) Head of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame (though he did cameo as the villain in the second season episode of Doctor Who titled “School Reunion”).) Mike Tucker (who aside from being a writer is a model work supervisor on the rebooted Doctor Who (he, apparently, created the new look of the Daleks)) does a wonderful job of capturing the voice and feel of Tennant’s Tenth Doctor as well as Billie Piper’s Rose. It is truly a treat to listen to The Nightmare of Black Island and Head does an excellent job in his reading. It is a difficult thing, I imagine, to step into a role so carefully crafted by someone else (Tennant’s Doctor) and try to embody everything that they have brought to that character. Head does this not by trying to mimic or do an impression of David Tennant, but rather by picking small things out of the text and the Doctor’s performance in the book and making them “feel” like Tennant’s Doctor. It is no easy task either, David Tennant is a fan favorite and his Tenth Doctor has surpassed Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor as the all-time fan favorite incarnation of the Time Lord, but Head rises to the task and fulfills every expectation I might have as a fan.

However, all of this would be for naught if there wasn’t a decent story in which the Doctor and Rose could move, but Tucker delivers one hell of a ride along the stormy Welsh coast as the Doctor and Rose try to make sense of what could not possibly be. Atmospheric does not even begin to describe what Tucker has managed to create in Nightmare. I got the sense that Nightmare was not only written by a gifted author, but also by a true fan of the show. Everything that Doctor Who embodies as a show is present in Nightmare: humor, fright, monsters, aliens, suspense, mystery, pathos … this is Doctor Who is at its best. I only wish that the BBC had produced this as one of the series’ episodes rather than relegating it to the print series, but we can’t always have our cake and eat it too.

Suffice it to say that anyway you cut it, The Nightmare of Black Island is excellent reading and listening, and even if you are not a Doctor Who fan, I think that what first drew me to Doctor Who more than anything else—the story—is enough to keep any Reader/Listener captivated and enthralled until the last page.