Doctor Who: The Lost Flame
by Cavan Scott & George Mann; audiobook read by Clare Higgins (BBC, 2017)
An exaggerated scenario with a deus ex machina finale. A concluding serial that ties in but tenuously with the rest of the series. Clare Higgins handles the reading with aplomb, but once again Cavan Scott and George Mann have failed to deliver.
Doctor Who: The Lost Magic
by Cavan Scott; audiobook read by Dan Starkey (BBC, 2017)
After two ho-hum instalments, Doctor Who’s “Lost” series attempts something more ambitious, revealing the creature behind the Time Lords’ mastery of the fourth dimension. Unfortunately, the length of story makes for a negligible denouement (and the two American companions continue to freeload).
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Wraith World
by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright; audiobook read by Elisabeth Sladen (AudioGO, 2010)
Elisabeth Sladen does her best, and the premise of ‘fiction writing reality’ is one young adults will enjoy, but it’s difficult to take seriously a worm-horde-wielding villain who considerately puts his attacks on hold whenever the protagonists want to talk things through.
Doctor Who: The Nu-Humans
by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright (BBC, 2012); audiobook read by Raquel Cassidy
Another book that captures the whimsical bow-tie flitting of the Eleventh Doctor but none of the underlying substance. Raquel Cassidy is perhaps an odd choice given the prominence of a heavy-voiced male nu-human. [Why the affectation? They’re not ‘nu’, dammit; they’re ‘new’.]
Doctor Who: The Lost Angel
by George Mann & Cavan Scott; audiobook read by Kerry Shale (BBC, 2017)
The Weeping Angels, like the Daleks before them, have faded from show-defining monsters into one-dimensional ho-hum tripe. The bits with the Doctor work well enough — as one would expect — but whenever he’s absent the writing, characters and scenario simply fail to engage.