PLOTLINE  

Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony. But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in the Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left...The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times. Something powerful, angry and all-consuming...

COMMENT

The author of BBC AUDIO's latest abridged release, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, Gary Russell has an unrivalled reputation amongst DOCTOR WHO fans. A just and a positive one.

Crafted by Russell, stamped through this release like text running through a seaside rock is the DNA that has defined (and continues to do so) the series across 45 years. Added to that, like finding "The God Particle" in the Large Hadron Collider, it is narrated by the - how many time have I said this. - legendary, Bernard Cribbins. Frankly, a winning combination.

The assuredness of Cribbins is as comforting now as it was hearing his dulcet tones narrating the underground overground tales of the furry eco-warriors of Wimbledon Common. A laconic style that is poetically iconic, and when - yes, it happens in all DOCTOR WHO stories - the action slows to a pedestrian jaunt, his charm continues to keep you hooked, as does his delineation of character. His Donna Noble interjections ("Oi!") is wonderfully faithful, whilst his Womble character Madame Cholet is transformed into Sylvia Noble and Wilf a distant relative of Great Uncle Bulgaria.

If Cribbins' appearance in DOCTOR WHO adventures was to be an integral part of the TV LICENCE fee then I would gladly pay twice.

BEAUTIFUL CHAOS is in its most simplest of terms is a re-working of the 1971 CLASSIC SERIES, THE CLAWS OF AXOS with a hint of Tom Baker/Sarah Jane Smith story - if I told you which one, the surprise would be diluted. It rattles along at such a pace that it becomes instantly addictive like a PRINGLE. Once you've started to listen your appetite for more becomes insatiable; "just one more chapter before going to bed. Well, maybe two more". You will be rewarded with a "side-one" climax that is as stunning to that of THE POISON SKY or even SERIES 4's THE STOLEN EARTH.

Gary Russell's ability to give listeners with sequential "punch-the-air" moments in his novels & audio dramas is, at times awe inspiring. In this novel, the concept that all BIG BROTHER presenters & contestants have been "automatically culled" (i.e. wilfully sacrificed) by the alien presence is edifying.

At its very heart, it is a human story that leaves the alien focus second-rate with everything resolved, wrapped-up and done-and-dusted all in the nick of time. All very Russell T Davies. And that's a compliment, by the way.

Whilst it does not break the creative glass-ceiling, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS is as fresh & entertaining as anything that the NEW SERIES televised stories have to offer.

Download DOCTOR WHO from BBC AUDIO and traverse the Time-Space vortex alongside the Doctor; the sound of your life.