From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   Before I cycle back to Hartnell, I'm going to do a brief 11th Doctor   
   set.  Stories to be reviewed:   
      
   Blackout (BBC Audio)   
   The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe   
      
      
   Commencing with the first review...   
      
      
      
   BLACKOUT (BBC AUDIO)   
      
   1 episode.  Approx. 77 minutes. Written by: Oli Smith. Produced by:   
   Alec Reid. Read by: Stuart Milligan.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   A man walks into a psychiatrist's office...   
      
   Chet, a New York city taxi driver who dreams of writing the Great   
   American Novel, has been having disturbing dreams. Dreams in which he   
   is abducted by aliens for unspeakable experiments. He has gone to a   
   psychiatrist to try to get a handle on these visions. But the man who   
   waits in the doctor's office tells him that the dreams are real. Chet   
   truly was abducted by aliens, and now this strange Doctor needs his   
   help.   
      
   It is New York City, November 9, 1965. The date of the Great Northeast   
   Blackout, the largest blackout in American history. Though history has   
   it that the blackout was caused when a transmission line near Niagara   
   Falls tripped, the Doctor is about to learn that the actual cause was   
   aliens - the very beings who abducted Chet. These aliens have put a   
   drug into the New York water supply, a poison which causes the body to   
   experience extreme heat, eventually resulting in death.   
      
   For the Doctor, it's a particularly desperate situation. He, Amy, and   
   Rory took the train to New York, leaving the TARDIS in another state.   
   If the Doctor can't improvise a solution, then he and his friends will   
   die within the hour - along with the entire population of New York   
   City!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: As was hinted at in the Fifth Doctor's regeneration story,   
   he can hold back his own death if he puts all his focus into doing so,   
   though it takes all of his considerable will. He feels anger about   
   what the aliens are doing to the people of New York, but is still   
   easily distracted by the fun of using a classic car to generate static   
   for his generator. He has an innate authority which, combined with his   
   psychic paper, makes the crowd of people in Times Square easily accept   
   him as someone to be listened to.   
      
   Amy/Rory: Are largely consigned to the "generic companion" roles for   
   this story, being chased by aliens to allow for some activity while   
   the Doctor spends about half the story building a generator. There are   
   a few nice moments, such as Rory reminding Amy to "mirror, signal,   
   manoeuvre," when she finds a vehicle for them to drive and Amy's   
   general protectiveness of Rory... but overall, this is a very weak   
   story for the companions.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   Blackout opens superbly. It has a catchy teaser that is both amusing   
   and intriguing, leading us into the theme music with a laugh on our   
   lips and interest piqued. Based on this opening, I perked up and   
   expected to end up writing an enthusiastic review.   
      
   This initial impression carried me through the first third or so of   
   the story. Unfortunately, as the tale goes along, it becomes   
   increasingly clear that writer Oli Smith just doesn't have enough   
   story to fill the CD.   
      
   The middle is particularly weak, as the narrative basically marks time   
   until the climax. The Doctor reaches Times Square and spends most of   
   the rest of the story constructing a Magic Gizmo. Amy and Rory are   
   chased around New York by an alien whose motive for chasing them is   
   that their defense against an attack caused it to become infected...   
   But given that the story explicitly tells us that the aliens have a   
   cure, it seems bizarre that this individual wouldn't just go back to   
   his ship to get cured. Basically, both strands exist only for the sake   
   of a few tepid set pieces, and that becomes painfully clear all too   
   soon.   
      
   It's frustrating how little-used the story's setting is. One of my   
   reasons for picking up this particular audio was the potential I saw   
   in setting a Doctor Who story against the Great Northeast Blackout.   
   It's an inherently atmospheric backdrop, and memorable scenes and   
   interactions could easily be created for this - some drawn from   
   history and/or urban myths about the blackout that are already well-   
   known.   
      
   None of this potential is tapped. The historical facts about the   
   blackout aren't even mentioned in the audio, not even an aside by the   
   Doctor about the reported cause, the extent of the power outage, and   
   what it led to. Instead, the outage is just a generic backdrop, hardly   
   painted as something that threw millions of lives into disarray for 13   
   hours. New York City itself is just a generic city and, but for the   
   names of a few landmarks and the accent of the reader, might as well   
   be London. No guest characters particularly stand out, not even Chet,   
   the Doctor's "substitute companion" for the story. It's all   
   absolutely, depressingly generic.   
      
   Though it's odd to hear an American accented reading of a Doctor Who   
   story, I actually think that Stuart Milligan does a solid job. His   
   Doctor is pretty good, capturing quite a lot of Matt Smith's vocal   
   tics - though he seemingly can't do the accent and the performance at   
   the same time, leaving this most enthusiastic of Doctors feeling oddly   
   subdued and detached. His Amy and Rory are much weaker, but since they   
   are so blandly characterized by the story it's hard to feel too   
   letdown. While I would be wary about purchasing another audio written   
   by Oli Smith, I would be perfectly willing to listen to another read   
   by Stuart Milligan.   
      
   On the whole, one of the more disappointing Who audio books I've   
   listened to. Not recommended.   
      
      
   Overall Rating: 3/10.   
      
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