Doctor Who: Pest Control, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio)

by Peter Anghelides

read by David Tennant

-Doctor Who, Series 4-

(London: BBC Radio, 2009)

MP3 Audiobook, 33.8 MB, 2.4 Hours, Fiction

ISBN: 9781602837614, US$24.95

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE

From the Cover: The Doctor and Donna face monstrous insects and a ruthless robot exterminator in this thriller, exclusive audio story. The TARDIS is lost in battle on a distant planet. When the Doctor sets off in pursuit, Donna is left behind, and finds herself accepting a commission in the Pioneer Corps. Something is transforming soldiers into monstrous beetles, and she could be the next victim. Featuring the Doctor and Donna, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit series from BBC Television, this story has been written especially for audio by Peter Anghelides, and is read by David Tennant, with additional music and sound effects.

My Review: Ah Doctor Who, what would I do if you hadn’t come back into my life?

Since discovering the audio editions of the Doctor’s adventures, I can’t get enough of them. After The Nightmare of Black Island, I made my next foray into the adventures of the Time Lord from Gallifrey one that was read by none other than the good Doctor himself: David Tennant. It was the right choice. Tennant’s performance is a delight to listen to. There is a kind of boyish glee that Tennant exudes when he takes on the role of the Doctor and this comes out in his reading of Anghelides’ story.

And speaking of the story, as I stated in my review of Black Island, it was the stories that kept me coming back to the original Doctor Who series on television, it was Tucker’s story in Black Island that drew me in, and I have to say that Anghelides’ story is up to scratch. It is a very suspenseful story, and I only figured out what was going on just before the revelation of what was going on. Anghelides does a very good job of only doling out as much information as the Listener needs to keep them coming back.

Another plus to this story is the fact that the Doctor’s Companion in this particular story is the indomitable and incomparable Donna Noble, who was my absolute favorite Companion of the Doctor’s in the series since its reboot. As with Tucker, Anghelides is an author who knows the ins and outs of the characters of the Doctor and Donna and is able to put those nuances that Tennant and Catherine Tate (who portrayed Donna) brought to their characters … the fact that Tennant actually reads this particular audiobook is just icing on the cake.

I loved every minute of this audiobook; it’s got a truly kick ass story with interstellar centaurs, a war, a megalomaniacal general, giant bugs and a robot well over a hundred-feet tall that stalks through the war-torn planet squishing most everything in its path. In other words, it is the quintessential Doctor Who story, and the best part is that it is short … not more than about 2 hours and 25 minutes long, which means that for me—riding the bus back and forth to school each day—it can be nearly finished in one day, and I bet that that might apply to a lot of the rest of you out there, put it on in your car or your iPod as you commute, and you will find yourself transported in time and space for those two hours, I promise.