Listening

Up here in my palatial mansion I've been listening to some more of Paul McGann's Dr. Who. The new stuff is premiering on BBC7 rather than going to CD, and is thus broadcast in 45 minutes rather than the old series style serials.

The first one Blood of the Daleks starts with a strange woman appearing in the Tardis, which is a bit unfortunate as that's exactly how this year's Christmas Special began. However it differs shortly after that as it turns out the northern-accent woman is Lucie Miller, a girl from Blackpool (shock horror - not London, or Manchester - the default setting for 'the north' in England). They then take a trip to a planet that isn't Earth for some dalek related schennanigans and get involved in a war between Daleks and a character I call Mini-Davros. In two parts it's an excellent listen - much punchier than some of the bloated dramas (cough, Minuet in Hell). Very good stuff.

I'm looking forward to this week's one already - imaginatively titled "The Horror of Glam Rock", a play on an old Tom Baker episode, the second one, currently on Listen Again, sounds really, really Douglas Adamsy:-

The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way. But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?