Black and White (Doctor Who) [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

This is the story that (almost) explains what has been happening to the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex for years. It explains the origin of the black TARDIS and turns the white TARDIS blue. We also cross over into the Forge / alternate companions of Lysandra and Sally Morgan.

Following the excellent Protect and Survive and leading to the remarkable Gods and Monsters this is another good piece by Matt Fitton (also wrote for Counter Measures and has a Companion Chronicle coming up).

This should be on the must listen list for any Doctor Who audio fan

Latest Doctor Who audio story. This one is the second in the latest trilogy of them to feature the Seventh Doctor, along with his companions Ace and Hex.

It follows directly on from the ending of the first in the trilogy Protect and Survive (Doctor Who).

Those who haven't heard that story should stop reading right now and go to the reviews of that. Because this trilogy is pulling together years worth of long running plot strands, so if you haven't heard protect and survive [plus a fair few of the Seventh Doctor stories that came before it] you will not have a hope of getting into this one.

But if you have heard those, read on.

This story runs for four episodes. Spread over two cd's.

And, as mentioned, continues the story on from the cliffhanger ending to protect and survive. Which does get a brief reprise.

It's not an easy story to review without spoilers.

The first two episodes involve the Doctor's companions trying to find him. They have some great character moments and form some interesting dynamics. Although Ace spends a lot of the story being rather jealous, which does get annoying. The scenes Hex has in these early parts though are great.

More answers as to the mysteries of the bigger storyline that's being presented here are slowly revealed - and they will make you see some earlier stories in a whole new light.

Then the hunt for the Doctor takes the companions back to Europe of long ago. On the track of Beowulf. Every story and legend have an origin. And the TARDIS crew are about to discover the surprising truth about this one.

But will they also find the Doctor?

Once in europe doing the above, this does turn into a more conventional story for a while. And with groups of characters separated and the narrative constantly jumping between them, it does demand a lot of concentration. But this plot strand is ultimately pretty good and does manage to be very moving as well. There's an interesting villain who does have one great line that should make you laugh out loud.

Once all that is resolved the bigger story moves up to another level. As more answers appear and there's a terrific cliffhanger.

But do keep listening, because there is a scene after the credits of part four. Which is even better.

As with protect and survive this gets around Sylvester Mccoy's restricted availability very well. The middle of the story isn't quite as compelling as the beginning. But it does manage to be a decent tale in it's own right and to develop the bigger story of this trilogy very nicely.

A trailer for the final part Gods and Monsters (Doctor Who) is on disc two on the track after the end of part four.

There's fourteen minutes [approx] of music from the story on the final track of disc one.

And twelve minutes [approx] of interviews with cast and crew on the final track of disc two.