Andy’s Blog

Next up is Patrick Chapman’s Fear of the Daleks, read by Wendy Padbury as Zoe Herriott, a role she played oppsite Patrick Troughton’s Doctor in the 1960’s. I had high hopes for this CD, but also certain reservations. I remember reading something once that stuck with me, that the Troughton Era was the most difficult to capture in print. As such, I was unsure how this iconic era in Doctor Who’s history would translate into audio.

Unfortunately I found this attempt a little disappointing. The story is oddly simplistic at times, and yet unecessarily complicated at times. As with Frostfire the writer has attempted to provide a context for the character to be telling the story - in this case Zoe relaying her story to a counselor as though it were a dream or repressed memory. Sadly, this doesn’t work particularly effectively. The presence of the Daleks feels almost as though they are an accessory to the story, added as an afterthought. On the whole, this play suffers as a result of a fairly thin plot, and both content and style fall a little wide of the Troughton mark.