Doctor Who: Night of the Vashta Nerada

Classic Doctors, New Monsters #2.01

by John Dorney, Tom Baker (Narrator)

Funworld was set to be the happiest planet in the galaxy. A planet of joy, of euphoria, of laughter and delight. Except construction was marred by reports of a predator and then, a few days before opening, all communication ceased.

Owner Georgia Donnelly is desperate to open the resort and has hired Amanda Steele's crew to find out what happened on the planet. They're the best. But even they might not be up to the task.

Joined by the Doctor and being picked off one by one, they slowly start to realise that something terrifying lurks in the shadows.

Genres: Doctor Who

Audio CD

First published July 27, 2017

About the author

John Dorney is a British writer and actor best known for stage roles including the National Theatre, the BBC Radio 4 sitcom My First Planet; and his scripts for the Big Finish Doctor Who range. His script 'Solitaire' was rated the most popular Doctor Who Companion Chronicle of 2010 on the Timescales website and was the runner up in Unreality Sci-fi net's poll for Story of the Year 2010-11.

As well as Doctor Who, he has written for Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel series and on radio co-wrote three series of BBC Radio 4's Recorded for Training Purposes. He won the BBC Show Me the Funny 'Sketch Factor' competition, was a finalist in the BBC 'Laughing Stock' competition, and has performed in Mark Watson's Edinburgh Comedy Award winning long shows as 'The Balladeer'. On stage, he has written plays for the Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead and Soho Theatres.

He trained at LAMDA.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

the opening of this story is somewhat tense when hunters corner a prey, who then steps out of the shadow and says "Hello I am the Doctor".
And it was accompanied by a long scarf, an unruly amount of curly hair and the grin of a madman. In this case a madman in a box as played by the 4th Doctor as voiced by Tom Baker.
A company has recreated a planet into one called funworld but forgot to look carefully in the shadows, were the living shadows live. The Vashta Nerada first popped up in a David Tennant episode where hé met River Song in a death world.
Now Tom Baker gets to meet them and we learn more about this deadly swarm or shadow.
He is flabbergasted at humanity their greed but also their shortsightness. He wants a solution where both sides in the conflict want violence and or revenge.

Tom Baker is magnificent vocally as always and it is easy to visualize in your mind the timelord he used to be. The baddies from the New series do make a decent impression on any listeners. Visually they were a terrifying foe well delivered.

Great stuff to be enjoyed.

[Xander Toner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular, but still worth a listen in my opinion. I don't want to call Tom Baker's incarnation of the Doctor comfortable, because he is so much more than that, but there is a nice reliability to having his voice in a story. Here, we see the Doctor with a group of people all with different aims and intentions, very much like in the televised Vashta Nerada story, which this does rely on a little bit too much for initial plot ideas, only with the setting changed from a planet-sized library to a planet-sized theme park. My favourite note is immediately after the climax, with the Doctor leaving in the TARDIS, the final line lamenting on how he "could have saved one" was gorgeously bittersweet, and played perfectly.

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Skeletons. So, so many skeletons."

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enemies and monsters from the new series with Doctors from the classic series? Sounds like a perfect combination.

Off to a good start. I have to admit that I’m often not always a fan of Tom Baker’s (Fourth) Doctor, he tended to talk down to his companions and allies just a bit too much (although his earlier years tended to be better than his latter ones; likely as he was probably getting burnt out); but this story works very well. Very much a “classic” Doctor adventure, with the darker (pardon the pun) twist of the shadowy Vashta Nerada threatening everyone. Very entertaining.

[Donavon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctor Who story invein of Alien movie. Loved it.

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK plot that is almost a rehash of Silence/Forest. 3.5/5