Nicholas Briggs - an outstanding talent

The stories in this audiobook are incredible.

1) Martha
The story of Martha gives us so much more depth and insight into her struggle as she travels the earth. Freema Agyeman’s performance is outstanding as always. She doesn’t the Doctor’s voice a bit too excitably perhaps, but she’s still good. Brilliant story overall.
Performance 5/5
Story 5/5

2) Slitheen
The Slitheen story was really interesting and exciting at the beginning but it dragged sooooo long and quite unnecessarily. I lost interest and focus and was just waiting for the story to finish. Listening while playing games to pass the time. Debbie Chazen did a good job of the narration, though, and the historical parts of the story were good.
Performance 4/5
Story 3.5/5

3) Judoon
I liked this story. Was predictable at times but was still a nice story. Excellent performance by Nicholas Briggs, who really never disappoints. Such immersion in each character. I became really interested in the Judoon for more than just their being space police. So that’s something. And the characters were interesting and well portrayed.
Performance 5/5
Story 4.8/5

4) Daleks
This is the best audiobook story I’ve ever listened to. Wow... my mind was blown by the fantastic writing, the depth of imagery and description, the character development, the anxiety of what dangers are in store for the Doctor and his new friends. All in all, the story was truly fantastic. Nicholas Briggs was something else entirely. I love the man’s performance. My sister heard a snippet in passing and genuinely thought it was David Tennant... that’s how well he does the Tenth Doctor. He’s got a beautiful talent with voices and accents. Performs to such immaculate perfection that you are lost in the characters and forget that everything is narrated by the one man. Nicholas Briggs wins this one for me. Amazing.
Performance: 10/5 (lol)
Story 5/5

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3 people found this helpful

Some great stories

Starts off really strongly loved the first one but some stories definitely not as good as others but well worth a listen.

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Exciting as always!

What I really enjoy about this collection are the lengthy stories that have been included. The other novels in previous collections have been relatively short in comparison and it has been a really enjoyable experience to be immersed entirely into a lengthy story. I love these collections as they are completely worth the credit or money that you pay for them, there is so much to offer here, excitement, escapism, adventure to name but a few! I found one of the voices used for a selection of characters in one story in parts to be a little hard to understand but aside from that I absolutely loved the performances from all. (I do listen over car speakers while commuting so that may part of the issue there)

I do love these collections and hope there are more to come, for other Doctors too!

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4 people found this helpful

Actually more of a 4.5 stars.

All of the stories are pretty good and they’re all well read.

The Story of Martha follows her walking the Earth after escaping the Master in the TV episode ‘The Sound of the Drums’. It has several breaks in it where Martha tells a story to another character. The first story is The Weeping by David Roden, the second is Breathing Space by Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis, the third story is The Frozen Wastes by Robert Shearman, and the fourth is Star-Crossed by Simon Jowett. I would have preferred to have the stories in the main narrative but understand why they weren’t. I think I’m going to bookmark the points in The Story of Martha where she tells the stories and move to the story she’s telling, and back again. The Story of Martha ends at the beginning of ‘Last of the Time Lords’.

Judgement of the Judoon, the Slitheen excursion, and the prisoner of the Daleks are all stand alone stories about the Doctor whilst he’s travelling alone.


The Story of Martha
Written by Dan Abnett
Read by Freema Agyeman

This is the story of when Martha walked the earth for a year

It’s a good story but dragged in parts, it’s a bit un-memorable. Freema is okay as ever - in parts you feel her passion then others she seems a little flat.

SPOILERS:

The story begins at the end. Martha is being taken back to the UK after walking the earth, spreading the stories of the Doctor.

The story then takes you back to the moment she landed on Earth after using Jacks vortex manipulater to escape the Master on board the Valiant and follows her journey across the world.

She begins by meeting a young girl in London, then follows on to a market in France. The rebellion help her move along through country after country, until she’s captured in Japan. She tells two stories during her imprisonment, then has to escape.

She discovers an alien race who will destroy the world in their attempt to escape back to their planet. She will have to find a way to stop them and to move on to America.

The end/beginning leads into the TV episode The Last of the time lords.

The Weeping
Written by David Roden
Read by Freema Agyeman

This is the first story that Martha shares on her journey.

It’s quite a short story. Well written by David and well read by Freema. It did feel a bit rushed but was good.

SPOILERS:

Martha tells the story of when her and the Doctor receive a message telling them to stay away from a planet. Naturally that means they have to go there.

The planet of Agelaos is powered by the wormhole above it. When they land, the Doctor and Martha go exploring. After a little time they’re attacked by strange, mutant creatures. A man named Waechter rescues them, then leads them back to the lighthouse.

Whilst there they discover a little more about the planet, and choose to help Waechter.


Breathing Space
Written by Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis
Read by Freema Agyeman

This is the story Martha tells in the French camp during her years walk.

Again the story feels short, but it’s an interesting idea. Well written and well read.

SPOILERS:

The Doctor and Martha arrive in a space station above Earth, 2088, to find the planet being saved by ‘The Benefactors’. They have set big, whale like creatures off in the atmosphere to consume the escalating gas pollution and reduce global warming.

Great, but the Doctor knows better. They are a conquering race who will take over Earth. Now he has to find a way to convince Professor Morris to stop trusting them and save the world...


The Frozen Wastes
Written by Robert Shearman
Read by Freema Agyeman


This is the first story Martha tells whilst in the Prisoner camp in Japan.

It feels really short, like big bits are missing. It’s still a good story and Freema is good with the narration.

SPOILERS:

Dreams. We all dream. We dream about our future, our past, our present.

Pierres dreams are full of white. Different shades of white. His baker parents long for their don to have a normal life but he chooses to become an adventurer. He will be the first human to reach the North Pole and he’ll be travelling not by boat and husky , but by balloon!

Star-Crossed
Written by Simon Jowett
Read by Freema Agyeman

This is the second story Martha tells whilst in the Prisoner camp in Japan.

A very good story, though it seems very short it keeps you gripped and you don’t fell like you’ve missed anything. Well read again by Freema.

SPOILERS:

The Doctor and Martha land onboard a ship. Walking down the corridor they hear shouts and a man passes them by. The Doctor steps into the middle of the corridor between preventing the men catching up to their quarry but is hit across the back of the head by the one he was trying to protect.

That man now has Martha and during the confusion caused by the Doctor, he gets away with her. When she wakes up she finds not all is as it seems, and soon her and the Doctor have to work from the opposing sides to stop the colonists and the ‘artificials’ from killing everyone onboard the ship.


Judgement of the Judoon
Written by Colin Brake
Read by Nicholas Briggs

This is a story for after Martha leaves and before Donna comes. It’s split into chapters and seems really strange after not having chapters stated in the other books. This book lasts from chapter 7-26.

The story is brilliant, really enjoyable and well written. The narration is really very good but was hard to swap to Nicholas from Freema at the beginning. You really do get the feeling Nicholas did a lot of work to replicate the Doctors voice.

SPOILERS:

The Judoon are searching for ‘the invisible assassin’. The story begins on the space freighter Tintin. The Judoon conduct a search, scaring the people onboard as they ripped out everything in they’re search.

When they leave, they detach their boarding tunnels from the Tintin and leave open holes into space. The captain rushes to close them and the pilot manages to send a distress call before passing out.

When she wakes she sees a tall man with messy hair - the Doctor. They speak briefly and he apologises to her before continuing to New Memphis for a chat with the Judoon.

The Doctor arrives in terminal 13 of the Elvis the king space port. The new terminal has had many problems since opening and they’re about to get worse. From a man dying, the Tardis being taken, to the Judoon landing to search the terminal.

Soon the Doctor begins his investigation with the help of Commander Rok Ma of the Judoon. But will they be able to get to the bottom of the mystery’s surrounding the terminal and will they find the invisible assassin?

On the way they meet Nicky Jupiter from the Jupiter detective agency and soon find they’re on the hunt for the same blue alien. But will they be able to get to him before he sells everything?


The Slitheen Excursion
Written by Simon Guerrier
Read by Debbie Chazen

This book is about the Doctor whilst he’s between assistants again. It’s split into chapters and runs from chapter 28-52.

It’s okay. It’s quite an un-memorable story for me, I’m not sure why, maybe I’m Doctored out? Well written though, and read as well as ever by Debbie.

If anything I would have liked it to have been condensed, I didn’t feel there was really any need to separate it into so many chapters (or any chapters at all) as it threw me out of the story. I admit I didn’t like June too much to begin with, she was just there, like she needed to be there just because, but by the end I liked her and wished she’d travelled with the Doctor as his new assistant.

SPOILERS:

June happens to spot the Doctor in Athens. He’s preventing some aliens from blowing up the acropolis. She’s whisked away, travelling back in time so June can see history in the making. As ever the Doctor runs into trouble and lands a little earlier than expected.

When they crash land, the Doctor is unconscious and lions surround him and June. They’re saved by warrior women who take them to their home and to meet their father.

When the Doctor wakes, it’s to be told about the masters... and he doesn’t like what he hears.

Soon they discover that the Slitheens are the masters and they are taking people in exchange for stopping the earthquakes.

Prisoner of the Daleks
Written by Trevor Baxendale
Read by Nicholas Briggs

This book runs from chapter 53-77. Both Martha and Donna are mentioned as the Doctor misses their advice and company.

The story is quite good, probably could do with being a bit shorter and without the last 3-4 mins. Overall all it was well read and interesting, it was only the pace that let it down a bit for me - or maybe I need a break from the Doctor as I’m listening to the books and watching season two now 😅

SPOILERS:

The Doctors boundless curiosity is about to get him in trouble again. He lands in an abandoned fuelling station on the planet Hurala. After finding the main computer core he’s trapped in the room with a corpse.

The Wayfarer, commanded by Bowman, lands five days later hoping to refuel. Scrum, one of the bounty hunters, recognises the sound of morse code. The Doctor, still stuck, is tapping SOS from the control room.

After rescuing the Doctor, he and Stella convince the others they need to know why this happened. They search the computer and find an override has been placed in the system to trap anyone in the station. They soon find out who’s behind it.

Attacked by the Daleks they run, barely making it back to the Wayfarer. Once onboard they’re attacked again by a Dalek, loosing one of their number before the Doctor stops it.

The ship travels to Auros to bury their crew mate on their home planet. But Auros has been abandoned. Ships are taking the refugees away as the planet burns.

The Doctor and Bowman realise that the refugee fleet is heading for an ambush and try to warn them, only to witness the ships being blown to pieces.

Devastated at this second, brutal loss, the Wayfarer crew torture the Dalek ‘for information’. Sickened, the Doctor refuses to stay in the room after pleading with the bounty hunters, begging them not to torture the creature. Once they leave the cargo hold, abandoning the Dalek as dead, the Doctor goes in for a chat. As the Dalek mutters and rambles he reveals far to much to the Doctor.

After realising the Daleks are after the Arkheon Threshold, a schism in time and space which they’ll open and use to change the course of all history, they all head to Arkheon.

Captured there, with no way to escape and the Dalek Inquisitor General coming to interrogate him, how will the Doctor escape, save the Wayfarer crew, save the prisoners, and get back to the Tardis on Hurula?

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1 person found this helpful

Great collection, and readers. Some mapping issues

Picked this up for The Story of Martha.
To confirm, this story is *not* unabridged.

Oddly mapped too (like it was originally mapped for CD, I suppose) - could have been re-mapped for digital and be in the same order as the book, but never mind.
It was fun following the chapters in the book and jumping back and forth (but nigh on impossible if you don't have the book to hand)

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