9. Nightshade

A lovely story. McCoy and Aldred feel so right in their characters yet different enough that this story really feels like a part of the new adventures novels, separate from the TV series. The music and sound design are top notch. Everyone else is totally believable in their roles. Carol Ann Ford has a delightful cameo and McCoy gets to try his hand at a familiar and famous speach. Glad I picked this one up!

This is a fantastic character piece that explores The Doctor and Ace at a point in their adventures when they are getting tired of running. I absolutely loved the parallels between each of their arcs as well as The Doctor's and "Professor Nightshade" (the writer/actor). As someone who has never read the novel I assume these were explored to a little more depth than the 2 hour audio could afford. The premise was interesting enough to carry it, though, even if it was a little shallow.

There is really not much plot to this one. I small village with an ancient sleeping alien threat. Its sort of a "bread and butter" adventure. That is all that's needed though as it allows Ace and the Doctor to have some space for character development. Both are asking the question "is it time to retire?" while the juxtaposition character, Professor Nightshade is dreaming of coming out of retirement. The story allows all three to find themselves and re-evaluate their dreams.

Sophie is in fine form, playing Ace as she was shortly after the original run, still young and growing up, asking questions about life, finding love and feeling the need to leave the nest.

Good drama, poor villain.

I have not read the novel, so I judge this purely as an audio adventure.

Having never read the novel, I thought this story was okay, but just okay. It had a solid sense of atmosphere and some solid, but not really all that memorable characters. It also focused on big decisions by the Doctor and Ace and those decisions often lacked emotional foundation. Unlike in Human Nature, we're given little reason to believe the Doctor is about to retire and as for Ace's romance, I just couldn't buy it.