Death's Deal

Destiny of the Doctor #10

Released: 3 October 2013

Listened: 11/3/22

Appropriately, the first audio with Donna in this project is from the “Destiny of the Doctor” series, and it’s narrated by Catherine Tate, with David Tennant not around. Which means that Tate has to play the Tenth Doctor, and while she doesn’t attempt his accent, she’s got his delivery and timing down cold, which you would expect of a comedic actress known for a wide range of roles. The Doctor and Donna follow a distress call to the planet Death’s Deal, the deadliest planet in the galaxy, because it’s covered with aggressive coral and slug-type creatures that eat almost anything that lands on the surface. There’s also a handful of bystanders, because the Doctor needs a bunch of people to try to save (and mostly fail), and Donna needs people to yell at for being insensitive. Of course, one of them is a sentient molusc-creature that Donna has trouble with at first, but then he saves her life later on. Author Darren Jones hasn’t written a lot for Big Finish, and what he has, has been almost entirely in the new-series eras. That said, he seems to have the new series style down pretty well, with good pacing and an air of mystery.