Doctor Who: Enemy Aliens

The eighth story in the series is read by India Fisher, who played companion Charlie in the regular audio plays. While Charlie was made TV-canonical not long after the release of this story, thanks to a brief mention in Night of the Doctor, this does mean that she'll be unfamiliar to those who only know the show from television (or the novels). However, since legal reasons prevent the use of characters unique to the TV movie appearing in new stories, something like this was unavoidable.

Set in 1934, the story sees the Doctor and Charlie trying to locate an alien menace on the basis of an incomplete warning that something is wrong. In fact, the aliens, while present in the background from early on, don't play much of a role in the story until towards the end, with the focus instead being on the repercussions of the Doctor's attempt to find them. Indeed, the homage to The Thirty-Nine Steps is clear.

On the plus side, it's good to see that, by this point in the series, the plot arc elements are being shaken up a bit, and also seem to be becoming more integrated with the individual stories. Other than the ending, Charlie is presented well, which is important, as she is the viewpoint character throughout, and Barnes includes some elements that explain her background to those unfamiliar with her. As an experienced audio actor, Fisher is also a particularly effective reader, which helps.

On the other hand, though, the plot does stretch credulity a bit, and the Doctor's resolution at the end makes no sense at all, probably because Barnes doesn't know what the word “terahertz” means. In fact, the story ends without a proper resolution, and the final scene leaves our two heroes looking decidedly callous, something that's not really desirable in Doctor Who. For this reason alone, I'm inclined to knock it down to 3 stars instead of 4.