Doctor Who: Shield of the Jötunn

Big Finish: Monthly Range #206

by Ian Edginton, Colin Baker (Narrator)

2029 AD. In the desert of Arizona, billionaire philanthropist Dr Hugo Macht is trying to save the world from climate change. But his great project to "scrub the sky clean" with nanoatomic machines grinds to an unexpected halt when his diggers break into something unexpected: a Viking burial barrow containing eight corpses, a mysterious shield, an even more mysterious inscription... and a yet more mysterious traveller in time and space, known only as the Doctor.

And that's not even the strangest part of Dr Macht's day. Soon, it'll begin to snow. Soon, the Doctor and his girl Friday, Mrs Constance Clarke, will come face-to-face with an ancient horror in the blizzard. A Frost Giant, in need of a new body. In need of flesh...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published November 1, 2015

About the author

Edginton sees part of the key to his success coming from good relationships with artists, especially D'Israeli and Steve Yeowell as well as Steve Pugh and Mike Collins. He is best known for his steampunk/alternative history work (often with the artist D'Israeli) and is the co-creator of Scarlet Traces, a sequel to their adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. With 2000 AD we has written Leviathan, Stickleback and, with art by Steve Yeowell, The Red Seas as well as one-off serials such as American Gothic (2005).

His stories often have a torturous gestation. Scarlet Traces was an idea he had when first reading The War of the Worlds, its first few instalments appeared on Cool Beans website, before being serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Also The Red Seas was initially going to be drawn by Phil Winslade and be the final release by Epic but Winslade was still tied up with Goddess and when ideas for replacement artists were rejected Epic was finally wound up - the series only re-emerging when Edginton was pitching ideas to Matt Smith at the start of his 2000 AD career.

With D'Israeli he has created a number of new series including Stickleback, a tale of a strange villain in an alternative Victorian London, and Gothic, which he describes as "Mary Shelley's Doc Savage". With Simon Davis he recently worked on a survival horror series, Stone Island, and he has also produced a comic version of the computer game Hellgate: London with Steve Pugh.

He is currently working on a dinosaurs and cowboys story called Sixgun Logic. Also as part of Top Cow's Pilot Season he has written an Angelus one-shot.

http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edgi...

Reviews

[Mike Rempel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colin Baker
Great story

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor arrives in near-future Arizona just as a project to combat climate change starts to go terribly wrong. In some respects, it's a formulaic base-under-siege story, with our heroes trapped in a blizzard as monsters attack and then eventually up the stakes. However, it's very well done and there are some twists on the usual progress of the story, with some characters that initially appear to be villains eventually turning out to be more sympathetic than we expect. In fact, misunderstanding people's motives could be said to be one of the themes of the story.

There are a couple of quibbles. For one, and this may just be me, I can't help but notice that nobody pronounces 'Jötunn' correctly... There's also the fact that we're told early on that what eventually turns out to be a large part of the solution won't work for what seem like perfectly sound reasons, but that seems to have been conveniently forgotten by the end of the story. Okay, so the Doctor got it wrong, but that could have been more directly acknowledged.

But these are fairly minor issues (especially the first one) and don't really detract from what's a fun story with a decent monster and links to Norse legend. Constance once again proves herself an effective companion, with her background giving her a unique perspective on things; Edginton, in his only writing credit for BF, seems to have quite a good handle on her character, although Miranda Raison's performance may also have a lot to do with it.

There's nothing particularly innovative in the story, but there's nothing too much to dislike about it, either. It's fast-moving, with a plot that (in context) arguably makes more sense than usual, and a good way to spend a couple of hours. A solid, but basic, story that manages to capture some of the core appeal of the show without stretching any boundaries.

[Richard Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard but fun outing for Sixie and Mrs Clarke

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do appreciate quieter moments like when The Doctor and Constance talk about the word "nice."

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor fights an alien presence that is made of snow and wants to destroy the earth.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special in this Nanotechnology meets Norse Mythology meets Alien Race thriller.

[Christopher Hatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly by the numbers "base under siege" story.

Enjoyable enough as a story. I am liking Six and Constance however and am looking forward to their next set of stories together.

[Saturnberry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't. I couldn't' get past the guilt-trip. :(