Night of the Whisper

Destiny of the Doctor #9

Released: 1 September 2013

Listened: 11/15/22

This is the Ninth Doctor’s entry in the “Destiny of the Doctor” 2013 anniversary story, meaning this is technically the Ninth Doctor’s first audio appearance. Unfortunately, he’s played by Nick Briggs, who hasn’t perfected his Ninth Doctor impression yet. Briggs plays both Rose and Jack as well, and while he doesn’t attempt Rose’s accent, he does get the cadence right. His “American” accent for Jack is simply terrible, sounding nothing like Barrowman. Making matters worse, the other actor in the story, John Schwab, is an actual American. The story, by Mark Wright and Cavan Scott, clocks in at well over an hour, making it the longest “Destiny” story. They also seemed to be taking advantage of the audio medium to do things that even the new series would struggle to pull off. The story is set in New Vegas, an entire planetoid of casinos and neon, and features a hoverbike chase, a wolf-man villain, and a vigilante who gets around by means of grapples. The Doctor is angrier and more physical than he’s been in previous stories, and the story as a whole has an unusually high level of violence. On the whole, the story feels kind of rough-draft compared to the other stories in this section. The Eleventh Doctor has a message inserted, as in all the “Destiny” stories, but it’s not even slightly subtle this time, using a giant video screen. It’s OK, but no more than that.