From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt{at}aol.com
Subject: The Stone Rose: my review

THE STONE ROSE

2 episodes. Approx. 140 minutes. BBC Audio, 2 CDs. Written by:
Jacqueline Rayner. Produced by: Kate Thomas. Read by: David Tennant.


THE PLOT

The Doctor and Rose return to London for a short visit, and are
stunned when they see one of the exhibits in the British Museum. It's
a statue of the Roman Goddess Fortuna... and it looks exactly like
Rose!

Rose is excited at the knowledge that she will be a model for a Roman
statue, and the Doctor is all too willing to take her back to ancient
Rome to fulfill the demands of history. There, they encounter a
wealthy Roman citizen whose son vanished after the sculptor Ursus was
commissioned to make a statue of him. As the Doctor investigates, he
discovers that Ursus is no ordinary sculptor. He doesn't carve stones
into human likenesses. Instead, he transforms people into stone - and
Rose is his latest victim!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: He has become very attached to Rose by this point, to such
an extent that he is haggard and frantic in his attempts to save her.
It takes him a while to piece together the source of all the strange
events around him. Once he does realize what is happening, he is able
to place the background behind it instantly. He ultimately stands back
and lets Rose decide how to proceed, though I suspect he'd have
stepped in had Rose's decisions led in the wrong direction.

Rose: Perhaps not surprisingly in a story titled The Stone Rose, young
Miss Tyler gets quite a lot to do in this story. In fact, the story
very nearly splits structurally between the two characters. Rose is
removed from the action for much of the first disc, while the Doctor
is spotlighted acting alone to deal with the situation. For a decent
chunk of Disc Two, those roles are reversed. Once she gets past being
overwhelmed by her circumstances, Rose collects herself and thinks
through everything that has happened, searching for a way to put all
the disparate pieces together again.

Mickey: His inherent decency has led him to doing volunteer work with
kids at the museum. But it's not something he really wants people to
know - particularly the Doctor. When he discovers that Rose is the
statues, he is furious at the Doctor, crying out that he "should've
taken better care of her." And when the Doctor reveals that he can
restore Rose - but only in her current condition, chipped and missing
one arm - Mickey wonders how likely Rose is to agree that this is
"better than no Rose at all."


THOUGHTS

The Stone Rose was the first new series audiobook commissioned, part
of a release of three abridged audiobooks. To give this new audio
range a maximum push, all three of these initial releases were read by
David Tennant. Tennant proves to be a splendid reader. He uses his
natural, Scottish-accented speaking voice for the narration, but can
instantly turn to deliver his Doctor when the Doctor speaks. He also
does an excellent job of suggesting the other recurring characters,
capturing a certain sound for Rose's lines that suggests Billie
Piper's delivery, and a huskiness for Mickey's lines. He also creates
distinct voices for each of the guest characters. It is an excellent
reading, and I never had any trouble figuring out who was speaking at
a given time or picturing the characters.

The book itself is not quite as good as Tennant's reading, but it's
not bad. I've always rather liked Jacqueline Rayner's work,
particularly her 6th Doctor audios for Big Finish. This isn't up there
with her best, but the first disc is really quite good, with a nice
balance of humor and history, a brisk pace, and a genuinely exciting
action set piece with the Doctor evading deadly animals and Roman
guards inside the Colosseum.

The second disc isn't as good. About two-thirds of the way in, Rayner
gives the plot an unexpected turn. I'll grant that this twist is
unexpected. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work. There are some nice
visual elements, such as Rose being transported into a realm of
nothing, and having to navigate the nothing. But it lacks the texture
of the ancient Rome setting, and forms a somewhat uncomfortable fit
with the first two-thirds of the piece. Worse still, it takes the plot
out of Doctor Who territory, instead running through a story that not
only plays like a retread of an old X-Files episode... but The X-Files
actually did it better.

David Tennant's reading remains spirited throughout. The scenes in
ancient Rome are quite strong, and the story remains at least
moderately entertaining even after the plot takes a wrong turn. I'm
not going to slate The Stone Rose. It's just a shame that it doesn't
end up even half as strong a story as it starts out being.


Rating: 6/10.

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