From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt{at}aol.com
Subject: The Art of Destruction (BBC Audio): my review

THE ART OF DESTRUCTION

2 episodes. BBC Audio, Approx. 140 minutes. Written by: Stephen Cole.
Produced by: Kate Thomas. Read by: Don Warrington


THE PLOT

An alien signal brings the Doctor and Rose to Africa, about 100 years
into Rose's future. For the Earth, the 22nd century is a time of
famine, and corporate sponsorship has set up agricultural units in
Africa to help to feed the starving... principally, the starving in
places very far away from the continent where the food is actually
being grown.

Fynn is the director of an Agri-unit that is experimenting with fungus
grown inside a dormant volcano. The fungus is poisonous, but Fynn
believes it can be genetically modified into an ideal food source.
What he has no way of knowing is that the volcano is actually the site
of a spacecraft, the final vault for the art treasures of the extinct
Valnaxi. The Valnaxi were destroyed in a war with the Wurms, war-like
beings who exist only to destroy. When an alien art expert determines
that the volcano genuinely is the site of the Valnaxi treasures, the
Wurms come - and Africa becomes the final battleground of a centuries-
old conflict!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Has the technical knowledge to take Fynn's research and
use it to create a counter to the Valnaxi defenses - though it takes
Rose being claimed by their technology to make this into his top
priority. His aversion to outright violence is shown by his attempts
to reason with the Wurms, even when doing so jeopardizes his efforts
to save the humans and Rose.

Rose: Easily befriends Adiel and Basel, and shows genuine empathy at
their desire to find a way to benefit their own people, rather than
watch while Africa subsists on crumbs and handouts. She is forceful
enough to convince Basel to take her into the caves to find the
Doctor, and resourceful enough to help both of them survive once they
are there.


THOUGHTS

The Art of Destruction is read by Don Warrington, an actor with a long
string of television, theatre, and audio credits to prove his
credentials. Warrington's reading is very good to excellent roughly
85% of the time. The deep timbre of his voice helps to evoke the
African setting. He captures the various African guest characters
well, is even better at capturing the harsh but slimy voices of the
wurms, and is downright outstanding at bringing to life the self-
serving, vaguely cowardly art expert-for-hire, Faltato. A brief
interview at the end of Disc Two makes clear how much thought he put
into his voices for the Wurms and for Faltato, and it shows in the
final product.

Warrington's reading only fails in one area. Unfortunately, it's a
rather important one.

He just can't do the Doctor.

This is particularly true in scenes featuring both the Doctor and
Rose. He can Anglicize his voice and suggest some of Billie Piper's
accent for Rose. But he cannot make the switch from that to the Doctor
in the midst of conversational scenes. Disc One has many scenes
featuring both characters together. In these scenes, I often had no
idea which character was speaking at any given time.

He improves in the story's second half, which has the Doctor separated
from Rose for the most part. He still can't do much to suggest
Tennant, but he does manage to suggest some of the Doctor's energy.
This, combined with Warrington's skill with the alien voices, helps
the second disc to be far more enjoyable than the first. Even so,
there is little question in my mind that he was the wrong reader for a
Doctor Who audiobook.

Which is a pity, because The Art of a Destruction is rather a good
story. It has a spark of imagination that was missing from The Feast
of the Drowned. It starts out seeming like a fairly typical Doctor Who
story, with something nasty lurking in caves and corridors. Then
Faltato and the Wurms arrive, and everything goes insane.

Insane in a good way. This isn't The Stone Rose, taking a left turn
into a completely different story in its final Act. Exposition about
the Valnaxi/Wurm conflict is carefully layered into the early parts of
the story, so that when the Wurms arrive, it still is organically one
piece. But it's a piece in which giant alien worms (who are called
Wurms, no less) with cybernetic implants are splattering deadly mud at
gold-coated birds and insects, which continue to swoop in and attack
them. There's a cowardly, multi-legged, multi-eyed, multi-tongued(!)
art expert selling everyone out left and right, and everyone is
dismissing the Doctor and the humans as feeble "bipeds." Even with
Warrington's less than ideal reading, the story is just completely
nuts, and I found myself really enjoying it.

It's just a shame it couldn't have been read by somebody who could
capture the Doctor's voice. For all the alien insanity, a Doctor Who
story should never have the Doctor himself as its weakest element,
something which really does hurt the effectiveness of this as an
audiobook. If I was reviewing the print version, I'd probably give
this a "7." But with Warrington's poor Doctor, I really can't go
higher than...


Rating: 6/10.

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