DOCTOR WHO Audio Review: 'Army of Death'

rating: 4

For the last few adventures, the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann), has been paired up with Gothic horror writer, Mary Shelly (Julia Cox). They first dealt with a strange automaton in Vienna, then moved on to an apparent witch. Now they€™re dealing with an army of undead. I begin to sense a theme. Our story begins with Mary and the Doctor arriving on Draxine, a human colony world. There they learn that the city state of Garrak was recently destroyed in a massive explosion, apparently triggered by the city€™s president who was part of a death cult. As a result, the other major city state, Stronghaven, has decided that the population of Garrak-born people inside its borders cannot be trusted. Meantime, a small group of soldiers is attacked by what appear to be walking skeletons. They try to stop them, but to no real avail, and soon they are overcome. The skeletons then begin to attack a government building, and are stopped, but it appears to be only temporary. Things are complicated further within the city, as the Stronghaven€™s current president (David Harewood), has come to power only recently following the assassination of his predecessor. Oh, and just to make things even more jolly, he€™s in love with a woman (Carolyn Pickles), who was born in Garrak, something they€™ve gone out of their way to keep secret. Outside in the wilderness, the Doctor and Mary come across a wanted woman, Nia (Eva Pope). Turns out there€™s evidence showing her shooting the president of Garrack, though as the Doctor points out, there was once evidence showing him as a deadly assassin (see what I did there? That€™s clever), assassinating a president, so that might not mean much. As the plot builds, the Doctor is captured (so, basically, a Tuesday for him), the president of Stronghaven is being blackmailed, Mary and Nia are heading toward radioactive ruins, and the dead are rising, ready to add to their numbers€ This was an interesting story. It would have been a hard one to put up onto screen in any sort of affordable way, and the audio format worked really well for it. I liked the overall plotline and the twists and turns that came out of the story were really unexpected and interesting. As usual, McGann is his normal wonderful self, proving again what a great thing it might have been had he gotten his own series of TV adventures. He does his usual excellent job, as do all the supporting actors. Cox continues to be an excellent Mary as well, except that her character still hasn€™t really gelled for me, and I€™ve started to wonder more and more if including an actual historical figure as a companion was a good idea. She€™s not bad by any means, but I still don€™t have any real handle on the character or what makes her tick. Admittedly, it€™s only been three (and a half), stories, but still. I was also very slightly disappointed by the fact that not more was done with an interesting characteristic of the planet they find themselves on. Apparently it€™s in perpetual twilight, though I don€™t recall hearing any explanation for why this is so. I would have liked to have learned more about that, and maybe had it feature into the plot somehow. Also I remain vaguely irritated that any time the Doctor hears about humanity trying to extend its lifespan or, even worse, become immortal, he gets bent out of shape about it. This is done on the TV show as well as in this particular audio adventure, so it is consistent, but it€™s somewhat rich coming from someone who is effectively immortal himself. Still, this is easily the best of the current McGann stories, and one that I really liked. It was able to help me control my appetite for new Who while waiting for the Tom Baker audios to drop. Which they have. So if you€™ll excuse me