Audio Review: Judgement of the Judoon by Colin Brake

[wshaffer]

Judgement of the Judoon by Colin Brake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book sees the Doctor teaming up with teenage sleuth Nikki Jupiter, and a Judoon commander, as they unravel a complex web of crime centered around the Elvis the King spaceport on New Memphis. So, yes, I gather this is a bit of a stealth Doctor Who/Veronica Mars crossover. (Reminding me yet again that I really ought to bump Veronica Mars up my Netflix queue.)

The detective story plot is colorful and engaging, but what really stands out in this book is the transformation of the Judoon from the Whoniverse's most one-joke alien into individuals with distinct personalities. Well, one of them gets a distinct personality, Rok Ma, the Judoon commander, turns out to be loyal, funny, and surprisingly clever underneath his rather bureaucratic Judoon exterior. Alas, maybe because these novels are targeted at children, Colin Brake does lay on the "don't judge people (or aliens) by their exterior appearances" moral a bit more explicitly than really seems necessary, but it doesn't ultimately spoil the book.

Nick Briggs's voice talents really shine in this one - he even manages to give individual Judoon slightly distinct vocal performances, so that when Rok Ma speaks to his subordinates, you never get confused about who is talking.

I find it interesting that I seem to be enjoying the later solo 10th Doctor novels more than I enjoyed the earlier ones with Rose, Martha, and Donna. I don't know if this is just a case of authors getting more confident with the constraints of the novel range (something that seems to happen with every range of Who novels as they go on), or whether the writers actually do better when they can create a one-off companion tailor made for their specific plot rather than relying on one of the existing ones. I suppose I'll have to see how I feel when I get to the 11th Doctor novels and we're back to a television companion again.

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Comments

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

You must see Veronica Mars! It is so very La Jolla High! (Although that may be a reason not to recommend it. *grin*)

I'll see if I can give this one a try; I hadn't read the solo Doctor novels because I liked the companions so much. But I think what you say about the pre-scripted characters may be true. (The authors especially seem to have trouble writing Martha...)

[nimbusxl.livejournal.com]

Well from the audio POV I didn't find too much trouble with the Martha character, especially the novels read by Freema Agyeman.
I have to say in the Doctor solo novels that I found the pseudo companions more interesting then the Doctor himself. They were well fleshed out and you did end up caring and liking them.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I thought Martha was well-handled in The Pirate Loop and Wooden Heart, fairly well-handled in The Last Dodo (sometimes in the first-person narration she sounded a bit more naive and childlike than I'd really have expected). I don't really remember much about her portrayal in the other novels, except that I think there was something in Sting of the Zygons that vaguely bugged me. Can't remember what it was now, so it couldn't have been too bad.

[nimbusxl.livejournal.com]

The main problem I had was Reggie Yates. He wasn't well suited to read a story set in the Lake district in Georgian England of the 1910s with his heavy London accent, which is why I think even Freema might have been poorly suited for it, I'd rather some supporting actor from the Human Nature 2 parter read it as it would have been more real sounding.

[nimbusxl.livejournal.com]

This was a fun story indeed. Great atmosphere laid out by Nick Briggs and pretty decent writin from Brake, which is great because the last story I heard from him, which was the abridged version of the Ten/Rose novel 'Price of Paradise' was one of my least favourites, it would have been by least favourite but for 'The Art of Destruction' comin out in the same batch. I reckon though my dislike for 'Price..' comes mainly from Shaun Dingwall's awful characterisations.
In general I liked most of the unabridged solo Doctor novels, but some seemed to drag on and may have done with a bit of snipping to keep listener interest. The Taking of Chelsea 426 was one of them and perhaps Autonomy, but the two that were read by Nick Briggs, this one and the sublime 'Prisoner of The Daleks' by Trevor Baxendale were gripping for every minute.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I enjoyed Autonomy a lot overall, but I did feel that bits of it dragged on audio. I haven't tracked down Prisoner of the Daleks yet, but I'm really looking forward to hearing it.