Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks

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Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks

Narrated by Lalla Ward

Published by AudioGo

Odd releases, these TV soundtracks with linking narration. With a story like Destiny widely available on DVD, you wonder who wants to own the soundtrack only with linking narration? Visually impaired fans of the Doctor perhaps, but that would seem a limited market to warrant the steady stream of releases.

This tale from 1979 was the first of season 17, and saw Lalla Ward step into a newly regenerated Romana’s shoes opposite the Fourth Doctor. It also marked Terry Nation’s final Dalek teleplay, after alleged extensive rewrites were imposed by script editor Douglas Adams.

As such, this audio carries some historical value, and the voice of Tom Baker as the Doctor will never tire, while Lalla Ward’s narration presents some interesting counterpoints with her youthful performance of 33 years ago. But sadly the sound quality has not been remastered, and the volume of dialogue is often variable between scenes, and occasionally within a scene.

Whether by Nation’s or Adams’ hand, this runaround on Skaro is not one of the best, and as such will probably only appeal to completists who already have the VHS, DVD and Target novelisation of the tale. File under curio.

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