PLOTLINE  

The TARDIS lands the Doctor and Martha in the Lake District in 1909, where a small village is being terrorised by a giant, scaly monster.

The search is on for the elusive 'Beast of Cumbria', and explorers, naturalists and hunters from across the country are descending on the hills. King Edward VII himself is on his way to join the search, with a knighthood for whoever finds the Beast.

But there is more at work in the Lakes than just a monster, and when the Doctor discovers certain old enemies have made an appearance, the hunting party - and even the king - may find danger they couldn't have imagined.

COMMENT

As an impressionable nine year old, an encounter with a shape-shifting orange-nodular zygon alien attacking my favourite DOCTOR WHO assistant (Sarah Jane Smith) at the end of episode one of TERROR OF THE ZYGONS was terrifying.

I had hope that the NEW SERIES would have re-encountered the creative aliens by now (more so as Tennant has cited that the "monsters" were his favourites too) so when rumours abounded about a Zygon story being written it was like having Christmas, Birthday and a bar mitzvah all on one day.

However, it was the eventually tempered by the fact that it was only for a novel (and later audiobook) by Stephen Cole, and not a 45-minute TV drama. Robert Banks Stewart's Zygon shape-sifting creation could have replaced the shape-manipulating Slitheen in SERIES 1's ALIENS OF LONDON/WORLD WAR THREE - minus the "farting", if you excuse the word - but they didn't sadly.

This second zygon story is a rich, character-driven romp (or should that be "yomp" due to the number of scenes set on the heather carpeted landscape of the British "Lakes") that not only demonstrates how much the Doctor loves the historical intricacies of Earth but allows Martha Jones (impressively played by Freema Agyeman on BBC ONE) to confidentially loosen the apron strings previously tied to the Time Lord.

Unfortunately, STING OF THE ZYGONS fails to be as engaging and enjoyable as the previously released abridged audiobooks due to the miscasting of (primarily) TV presented, Reggie Yates. He's not an actor and it is a lack of expertise that makes listening a chore and not a joy.

I was relieved to hear the immortal words, "End of disc one".

Yates struggles to be delineate Stephen Cole's rounded and intelligent characters with poor pronunciation ("Martha" becomes "Marva") and laboured pacing leaving me with head in hands ruefully saying, "Oh, dear!"

He has no richness or depth or mature tone in his reading, and would perhaps struggle, as a Nursery School Classroom Assistant, to engage a classroom of four year olds during a Friday morning story-time session.

In the hands of a "real" actor, this audiobook would have been successful as the basic plot & sub-plots are skilfully woven into a highly entertaining adventure story.

After a 32-year wait, the return of the zygons is literature triumph but an aural disaster.