Doctor Who: Dead Air, An Exclusive Audio Adventure (Audio)

by James Goss
read by David Tennant
-Doctor Who, Series 4-
(London: BBC Audio, 2010)
MP3 Audiobook, 33.2 MB, 1.2 Hours, Fiction
ISBN: 9781408426807, US$24.95

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE

From the Cover: “Hello, I’m the Doctor. And, if you can hear this, then one of us is going to die.” At the bottom of the sea, in the wreck of a floating radio station, a lost recording has been discovered. After careful restoration, it is played for the first time—to reveal something incredible. It is the voice of the Doctor, broadcasting from Radio Bravo in 1966. He has travelled to Earth in search of the Hush—a terrible weapon that kills, silences and devours anything that makes noise—and has tracked it to a boat crewed by a team of pirate DJs. With the help of feisty Liverpudlian Layla and some groovy pop music, he must trap the Hush and destroy it—before it can escape and destroy the world...

My Review: Ahhh, Doctor Who. While I have enjoyed Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, he cannot hold a candle to the manic and boyish Tenth Doctor of David Tennant. Luckily Tennant’s Tenth Doctor lives on in the BBC’s audiobook editions of the wider Doctor Who universe.

So, I chose this particular DW audiobook for a couple of reasons, chief among which are (1) it is read by David Tennant, and that is always a plus (I have the tiniest of man-crushes on Tennant) and (2) I am fascinated by the whole British pirate radio-BBC radio tiff in the 1960s and the prospect of having the Doctor mucking about on a pirate radio station was just too good to pass up. I am always impressed by the quality of these audiobooks … the writers of the Doctor Who print and audio universe do such an excellent job of not just making the historical contexts come to life, but they do such a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the characters and Goss has done just that in Dead Air. This audiobook is just fantastic and Tennant’s vocal chops not just telling the story but acting it out at every turn is absolutely delightful. Also, I have to say that Goss has created a great companion for the Doctor in Layla and his villain in the Hush is quite terrifying (and the truth behind the origins of the Hush is truly chilling).

Really, I have nothing but good things to say about Dead Air, it really is a lot of fun and I cannot recommend it, or any of the other Doctor Who audiobooks highly enough.