PLOTLINE

The Amazon rainforest, 1827. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in the jungle near a hurriedly abandoned campsite, where they are surrounded by hungry black caiman - huge lizards. Only the arrival of a man with a rifle sees off the giant beasts. Oliver Blazington has come to the forest to bag big game, and his companion Garrett is a naturalist, collecting exotic creatures for London Zoo. But the Doctor soon discovers that another very different hunter is stalking the Amazon. Animals and people have been disappearing without trace, and local villagers speak darkly of 'The Eye of the Jungle'. Amy senses that the all-seeing Eye is watching them - but she and Rory are powerless to intervene when it sets its sights on the Doctor...

Read by David Troughton, and written by Darren Jones.

COMMENT

The sign of an outstanding audio release is the unnerving feeling that time has incredulously vanished or contracted as you listen, and with Darren Jones’ first NEW SERIES tie-in audio, DOCTOR WHO – THE EYE OF THE JUNGLE is one such release. The 90-minute two-disc David Troughton narrated story seems to have been condensed to a heart-racing thirty minutes.

Blink and you’ll miss it.

Driven by the endearing tones of David Troughton (following his excellent reading of DOCTOR WHO – THE WAR GAMES – read the review here), Jones’ unceremoniously drops the listener in the middle of the overgrown Amazon rainforest at the start of the 19 th century. Teeming with aggressive life forms – both animal and human – the Doctor, Amy and hapless Rory (yes, if you are missing the running joke about which surname the married couple have adopted then you’re in for a treat here) have to keep their wits as sharp as a Janis thorn (more information here) as they battle the enemy within and above.

Amy and Rory (together): Williams!

As the jungle echoes with both organic and technologically sounds only to be abbreviated with the familiar wheezing groaning of the TARDIS, the opening sequence can be likened to Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK as a trio of huntingVelociraptor outwits the park’s Warden, Robert Muldoon but, thankfully, without the grusesome denouement courtesy of a couple of takeway sausage in a bun. Thrilling set-up but the yet has yet to come.

The plot is carefully delineated – my seven year old followed it without further discussion – and separated into “two-parts” across the two discs.

A hunting (read: collecting) expedition, lead by blustering Oliver Blazington aims to draw together a menagerie of creatures for the newly established London Zoological Garden in addition to satisfying his philanthropic enterprise in supplying exotic life for private collectors. However, as in all good DOCTOR WHO comeuppance plotline twists, the hunter eventually becomes the hunted but how safe are our intrepid Time Travellers? Is the Doctor, as the “last of the Time Lords”, the most “collectable species of the jungle?

Restrained in “acting” every single role, David Troughton is reassuringly avuncular, guiding the listening through the unceasing action and even has time to verbally revisit the CLASSIC SERIES story for which he played a lead role within (THE CURSE OF PELADON). The author’s reference by Troughton may go over the head of younger fans but the more mature fan will develop a wry smile.

Unsurprisingly, Troughton’s delivery is so evocative of his father that, at times, you sink back into the sofa thinking that he is narrating a 2 nd Doctor audiobook (and that the script editor had accidentally inserted Amy and Rory’s name instead for Zoë Herriot and Jamie McCrimmon). Even Darren Jones’ phrasing for the 11 th Doctor is so similar to the expectation of Patrick Troughton’s characterisation. Glorious.

AUDIOGO’s exclusive to audio, DOCTOR WHO – THE EYE OF THE JUNGLE is an excellent diversion from the (too) complicated, rowdy television series as it retains the essence of the NEW SERIES but incorporates the values of the CLASSIC SERIES in perfect balance.