A brand new, original adventure for the 12th Doctor and Clara, as played on BBC TV by Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. Exclusive to audio, the story is the last of four to be published between August 2015 and February 2016. Duration: 1 hour 10 mins approx.
George Mann is an author and editor, primarily in genre fiction. He was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1978. A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later. He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time. He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.
Full disclosure this story features two of my least favorite people in the Who-franchise (Clara and 12th), and if I hadn’t been driving I would not have listened to Doctor Who: Twelfth Doctor Tales: Twelfth Doctor Audio Originals but changed to something else – anything else.
This story feels so rushed or even like a draft / outline to a longer story. It’s as if George Mann was told; “ok so this story needs to be the end of the Winter saga, so remember to explain the card”, and Mann was like “hmm, I had this big reveal planed, but now I just have to wright something”. And how do you make a bland, yet confusing premise Who-gold – add a random historic person – enter Joan of Arc for reasons of….. well no reasons. And what does she add to the story? Nothing. What actually is the story? Nothing. Which is the best way to sum-up this story; nothing. Just nothing. It is not even bad enough for me to get annoyed, its just…. Nah…
I'm kind of conflicted on this one. On the one hand, the Traakkan (no clue how to spell) are really cool and the plot is engaging- I've always really enjoyed stories that revolved around inter-dimensional or psychic entities and/or forces. On the other hand, I was not particularly fond of the way faith was depicted as ignorance or superstition.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Really enjoyed this audiobook as Jemma Redgrave narrates it brilliantly. However I felt the story was quite rushed and at the end of the story I felt it felt slightly unfinished but it was quite a good story nevertheless.
I thought this was a well done short story. I always enjoy when the Doctor travels back in time and we see him meet historical figures this time him and Clara met up with Joan of Arc. Overall a very enjoyable series of interconnected stories.
Probably my favourite of the Winter quarter, and a good ending to these interconnected stories.
The Doctor felt quite a bit more in character here (for his post-Last Christmas self) compared to the earlier instalments, and there were some really nice character moments both for the Doctor and Clara and for the Doctor in general.
Liked the reading, too - Jemma Redgrave did a fine job.