Doctor Who review: The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles: Distant Voices
By James Aggas
When a tour guide starts hearing voices, it’s up to the Doctor to save not just her but the whole planet in Distant Voices, the third story from this month’s Doctor Who box set The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles.
We get another solid story from The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles with Distant Voices. Written by Lizbeth Myles, it’s an entertaining Doctor Who adventure through time that works for a few key reasons.
Myles wrote last year’s Short Trip The Astrea Conspiracy, Big Finish’s first ever audio story for the Twelfth Doctor. It was a rather entertaining listen, and Myles captured the voice of Capaldi’s Doctor well with her writing. Naturally, the same proves true with Distant Voices.
But while there’s plenty of focus on Capaldi’s Doctor, there’s even more focus on the character of Cameron. A tour guide who’s been hearing voices, the story is primarily seen through her eyes. It works really well, particularly since Emily Redpath is great in the role, voicing the character with a lot of sincerity but also clearly having fun with it, too.
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Strong focus
While his main job in The Doctor Chronicles is essentially narration, Jacob Dudman continually performs well as the Doctor. It’s even better when he’s performing opposite someone, especially someone as good as Emily Redpath. Lizbeth Myles gives both the Doctor and Cameron plenty to do in her story, and both actors perform brilliantly as a result.
The story suits the themes of the previous stories in this box set rather nicely. Without going into too much detail, the Doctor and Cameron find themselves not only jumping through history, but also straight into different wars, too. Considering how Twelve feels about soldiers, it’s interesting to hear him once again put into a situation he really doesn’t want to be in.
Distant Voices is another strong story by Lizbeth Myles. It doesn’t try to do too much at once, and instead keeps the story tightly focused. Yet at the same time, it’s a story that offers multiple time zones and multiple wars, too. But what really makes Distant Voices worth listening to are the performances and the dialogue. Both Jacob Dudman and Emily Redpath are great to listen to, and in the case of the latter, I hope Big Finish give her more roles after her strong first performance for the company.
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What Doctor Who stories do you enjoy that are spread across multiple time zones? Which one’s your favorite, and why is it City of Death? Let us know in the comments below.