Dead Air // Doctor Who {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
Doctor Who is awesome! Go watch it!

Where I got the book
Greenwich Library. I’ve been browsing through the Sci Fi audiobook shelf -- which is unfortunately smaller than you’d expect, for such a huge audiobook selection -- and picking whatever seems interesting.

Expectations
A typical doctor who episode.

So how was it?

Aaaaand... it was a typical Doctor Who episode : The Doctor shows up someplace (a pirate radio boat) sometime (the 60’s) and something (a sentient noise monster) is trying to destroy Earth. He’s helped by a twenty-something woman (a bubbly radio DJ) who is sort-of-involved with a normal human guy (crush on another DJ), there’s a hint of angst about Gallifrey (the monster’s creators), and of course the usual noble sulking about his companions (he’s traveling alone).

If I sound like I didn’t like it, that’s not true -- it was a quick bite of sci fi fun, and the characters were good -- but it was definitely in the ranks of the mediocre when it comes to Doctor Who.

Recommendation
Doctor Who fans, sci fi fans. A quick 1-CD episode.

Feels
A little creepy, a little perfunctory. Not enough suspense.

Favorites
David Tennant was a pretty good narrator, with different voices/accents for each character. He didn’t make the female character sound like a drag queen (which is disturbingly common in the audiobooks I’ve listened to so far). In fact he gave her enough character that she actually felt like the kind of quirky, plucky young woman the doctor usually hangs out with.

Least favorites
This could have -- and should have -- gone a lot creepier. This is an audiobook about a noise monster who silences people. Come on. That’s another “are you my mummy?” just waiting to happen, but they didn’t use it very well. There was just some static every once in a while, and an ending cribbed from The Ring. The only thing that got even close to being creepy was the random skipping and glitching the CD did... because it was a scratched up library CD.

So what did I really think?

Click "read more"... massive spoilers ahead!

This had so much missed potential. Tell it from someone else’s perspective -- we know the doctor’s just fine -- and drop the bombshell on us at the end: our narrator was dead and trapped in the CD the whole time! Find some way to intentionally glitch the CD, or make it sound like it was glitched. Sic some nerds on the project, make it interesting. Treat it like a broadcast from the radio station, not some random CD at the bottom of the ocean.