From the Heart of Europe

Bought a book on eBay. The seller sent me the wrong one. Now they refuse to send the right one unless I send the other one back first. (Though they say they will refund postage.) Advice?

The first of the non-printed series of Torchwood audio books, by Stephen Savile and read by Naoko "Tosh" Mori, set before the end of Series 1, so with a full five-member team. I am getting into these, I must say, having enjoyed The Sin Eaters earlier in the month: Naoko Mori has a quiet voice, but is intense when she needs to be, and also is good at doing the others' accents without sounding like she is taking the piss. The story is a decent variation from the Torchwood standard, with seventeenth-century alchemy and modern genetic research combining to make a respectably sfnal plot, with also plenty of good character moments (Jack and Gwen, ironically enough, getting fewest of these). Anyway, brightened up a few days' commute; I shall look out for more of these (esp as my reservoir of unheard Big Finish plays is running very dry).

We lucky subscribers to Doctor Who Monthly get to download this for free from Big Finish's website: a new Companion Chronicle, filling the gap I guess between the third and fourth seasons of the regular BF releases, starring Katy Manning as Jo Grant: The Mists of Time, by Jonathan Morris. It's quite a decent story - not up to Morris's impressive best, but exploits both the audio format, and Manning's ability to mimic both her own younger self and also Pertwee and the other characters, rather well.(And a second actor, Andrew Whipp, is an incidental future archaeologist whose importance to proceedings only gradually emerges.) The ending was signalled a little too far in advance for my taste, and I didn't quite buy the Awful Secret of the Time Lords, but I imagine Big Finish will get a few more subscriptions out of this one. (See also Morris's own notes on producing the play.)