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Doctor Who: Dead Air

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About this listen

 ‘Hello, I’m the Doctor. And, if you can hear this, then one of us is going to die.’ At the bottom of the sea, in the wreck of a floating radio station, a lost recording has been discovered. After careful restoration, it is played for the first time – to reveal something incredible. It is the voice of the Doctor, broadcasting from Radio Bravo in 1966. He has travelled to Earth in search of the Hush – a terrible weapon that kills, silences and devours anything that makes noise – and has tracked it to a boat crewed by a team of pirate DJs. With the help of feisty Liverpudlian Layla and some groovy pop music, he must trap the Hush and destroy it – before it can escape and destroy the world... Written specially for audio by James Goss and read by David Tennant, Dead Air features the Doctor as played by David Tennant in the acclaimed hit series from BBC Television. It was crowned 'Best Audiobook of the Year 2010' in a public vote hosted by The Audiobook Store.©2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd; (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
 Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Survival

Critic reviews

Loaded with tension and scares
there are some great lines and Tennant's voice work is a delight
Dead Air is a real delight – innovative, inspired and quite easily the pick of the tenth Doctor audio exclusives. (E. G. Wolverson)
All stars
Most relevant
Concept/World
I liked the way the story was introduced as if it had been found in an archive, and there was a good sense of being in the 1960s without that being laboured.

Story
The story develops well and has some genuinely creepy “hide behind the sofa” moments which is hard to achieve on audio alone. It was a clever idea to have the alien threat being “The Hush” because that does work well on audio. This is not “The Silence” from the Matt Smith series, it’s another kind of critter entirely.

Characters
Dr Who is brilliant as always. The other characters were well drawn by author James Foss, as in describing one of the crew as, “DJ Jasper wasn’t just wearing a cardigan, he looked like he sold them.” I cared what happened to them. I loved the way David Tennant characterised Layla (apologies if I have got the spelling wrong).

Presentation
The sound quality is excellent. The story is read by David Tennant. As much as I do like Matt Smith, I miss David Tennant’s Dr Who and hearing him read a story was like finding an episode I’d missed. You can hear the manic grin in his voice, brilliant!

Overall
The story is just over an hour long, which is a perfect time to listen while doing the ironing, gardening etc. Or just listen to it as a bedtime story and get an even creepier effect when you’re listening in the dark! I have listened to this audiobook three times since I bought it last November and if I lost my copy I would definitely buy another one, so it gets my top rating of *****.

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Starships and Aliens Review

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Dsvid Tennant reads brilliantiy and can as always in in any of his narrations awith voices seamlesslyh. Good story and excellent narration.

Brilliant

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A great story very well read. Loved it. Great to hear David Tennant as the doctor again. A claustrophobic mystery with a twist as well!

A good old-fashioned modern ghost story

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Enjoyed the play, thought setting it on a pirate radio station was great. Claustrophobic and educational for the younger listeners. DT was great, and I like it ran like “found” footage.
Only thing was the end was a bit abrupt and I think the story could have been longer.

DT as brilliant as ever

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Would you consider the audio edition of Doctor Who: Dead Air to be better than the print version?

In a way I suppose as David Tennant is a fantastic narrator and the sound effects were great

What about David Tennant’s performance did you like?

His range of accents, his energy that he gives to the story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Can't say. Spoilers.

Any additional comments?

This audio book is brilliant, it's chilling, it's exciting I've listened to it so many times and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it.

Brilliant

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