As the DOCTOR WHO theme music rattles and gallops through the speakers the heart starts to race and the mouth becomes drier with anticipation for Martin Day's premiere novel audiobook, WOODEN HEART .
Since 2006, BBC AUDIO has released a range of companion (to the printed hardback novels) abridged readings that have, surprisingly, satisfied both new fans to the "brand" (DOCTOR WHO is a worldwide success and, rightly so, no longer relegated to the "cult TV" section of bookstores and toy shops) and the jaded fans that have remained resolute and faithful since the programme's beginning in 1963. 1963? It's another age.
WOODEN HEART is one of the few novels that would warrant a re-working for television broadcast as it encapsulates the tried and trusted formula that has become the staple diet of the NEW SERIES. A seemingly abandoned floating spacecraft that holds both a disturbing yet intriguing secret that spins the storytelling on to its head forcing even the perennially positive Time Lord to test his own expectations of what is and what can be.
And like many television episodes, author Martin Day nudges the curiosity of the listener in to discovering more about the subject matter or in discovering a new phrase or word. In the age of J K Rowling and Phillip Pullman, none of the audiobook releases have been compromised (read: dumb-downed) to pander to a "younger" audience, alienating the more mature. There's off-the-cuff asides to CS Lewis' WARDROBE adventures, Ancient Mythology, the writing of Lennon/McCartney and even - perhaps - LITTLE "Computer says, 'No'" BRITIAN.
For CLASSIC SERIES fans the plotline may be familiar as an appreciation of Peter Davison's CASTROVALVA homage to Escher seemingly impossible environment but in WOODEN HEART Martin Day has the diligence & time to produce a logical rationale that the TV series had not.
Adjoa Andoh's reassuringly dramatic reading is aided by her clear character delineation and fastidious presentation is expected from such a skilful actor (she appeared in NEW EARTH as a "Cat Nun", and later, for SERIES 3, as Martha Jones' mother, Francine). Delivering a dazzling performance that matches the imaginative & captivating mystery that makes an Agatha Christie novel read like a copy of HEAT magazine.
Martin Day's novel is littered with adroit & carefully crafted Tenth Doctor-isms that makes you believe that this is a TV episode:
DOCTOR: Smidge. Soup-sons.
Or
DOCTOR: Hey, Jude! I've always wanted to say that.
The author's description of the impossible vision of the forest is equally precise & bewildering.
Martha and the Doctor stood in a small clearing in a forest surrounded by thin autumnal trees and angular evergreens. There was thick carpet of bronze coloured leaves beneath their feet and over their heads a circle of blue sky that was unblemished but for a curl of blue cloud.
"That should be deep space", said Martha pointing upwards. She bent down forcing her hands through the leaves. "This should be a metal floor. The TARDIS should be just in front of us". "Perhaps it is", said the Doctor, "but we just can't see it". "So this is some sort of virtual reality? "I don't think so."
Why is the research space station drifting through the vastness of cold space and how did the crew die or disappear? How did the forest world exist aboard the space station? Is it "real" or holographic or existing through a time-space portal? And what is the secret of the forest world's "island"? Should the Doctor (and Martha) leave the spacecraft with the forest world in tact or repatriate its inhabitants to a safer place away from the monsters?
WOODEN HEART is an absorbing, intelligent (for all age ranges) and character driven story, balancing the jeopardy and wit fans have become accustomed to in the NEW SERIES episodes, read with vigour and emotion making the release one that deserves repeat listening in months to come.
![DOCTOR WHO - WOODEN HEART [2007]](../../../../images/bbc-covers/audio/series-3-tie-in/woodenheart-100.jpg)
