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. The Doctor soon finds that Ursus 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, 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: 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 acts 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 audio book commissioned, part of a release of three abridged audio books. To give this new 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 his English accent 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 creates distinct voices for each of the guest characters, as well. 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 liked Jacqueline Rayner's work, particularly her 6th Doctor audios for Big Finish. The first disc is really quite good.  The first half of the story strikes a nice balance of humor and history, runs at a brisk pace, and features 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, though. About two-thirds of the way in, Rayner gives the plot an unexpected turn. I'll grant that it's 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 it. 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 plays like a retread of an old X-Files plotline... one The X-Files actually did 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 being even half as strong a story as it starts out.


Rating: 6/10.


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