Doctor Who: Babblesphere (Destiny of the Doctor #4)(Audio Theater Production) (Doctor Who - Destiny of the Doctor) Audio CD – Audiobook, May 14, 2013

Im new to this reviewing on here so bear with me. Babblesphere is the 4th story in the Destiny of the Doctor series, currently I have only heard this one so far. Babblesphere is a 4th doctor story read by Lalla Ward and Roger Parrot and both of them do a wonderful job! Its mainly told from Romana's perspective and even includes a special guest towards the end ( I wont spoil you unless you have already heard this audio). This is essentially an audio book as it has only two actors and much of it read and acted out so if you want more characters I would suggest an audio drama with full cast, Lalla does a brilliant job in playing multiple characters including the doctor and the guest star. The story is well told and is a dangerous take on social media such as twitter, facebook, myspace etc. I wont give away anything so you will have to listen for yourself I know I enjoyed it and would love to hear more of these stories in this series. If you are a Romana and 4th doctor fan I highly recommend it especially if you dont mind the story being read by two actors.

I just got my CD. It is a very good story, and you can tell that there is a silver thread that goes from the first story and the first Doctor to the 11th Doctor. This story does not have the voice of Tom Baker, but it does have the voice of Lala Ward who played the part of Romana II. Romana II was a companion of the Doctor and also a Time Lord. She narrates the story from Romana's perspective and in the past-tense like she was referring to her memory of the incident. It is entertaining, and any person who remembers and loves the Fourth Doctor will love this episode.

I didn't really like this story. I know Doctor Who is aimed at the family audience. But this story felt like it was aimed at little kids.

The Babblesphere is great story written by Jonathan Morris that would have fit easily into Season 17 when Douglas Adams was the script editor. It's a humorous tale that also manages to offer social commentary on our twenty-first century reliance (and probably over-reliance) on social media as the Doctor encounters a colony held in the thrall of the Babblesphere, a network in which everyone's private thoughts are shared, but some users are turning up murdered.The story is clever and a lot of fun to listen to. The only thing I had mixed feelings on was the Eleventh Doctor's cameo (listing the Ood as one of your top five enemies. Really?) Still, it's an entertaining and fun hour that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The did a good job on all these 50th anniversary stories. I am very happy to add this to my audio collection

Great to have.

This is the Fourth in a series of Doctor Who talking books entitled 'Destiny of the Doctor.' Each features a different incarnation of the Doctor. And although they are stand alone stories, there is a linking storyline running through all of them.Since this has no tie in to any of the preceding ones, and since the linking storyline doesn't effect the main one in this release, it is something that casual listeners can get into quite easily without having heard any of the others in the range.It runs for seventy minutes [approx] and is basically one long episode, complete on a single cd. The only breaks are the usual cd chapter ones.The inlay gives minimal information about the era of the show in which this story is based, plus copyright details and advertises other bbc product.this story is read by Lalla Ward, who played the second Romana opposite Tom Baker's Doctor in the last two years of his tenure on the show. She reads the narration in the third person, and does all the character voices, save for one which is read by a guest actor.K9 doesn't feature in this. But his absence is explained. In a believable way.In Babblesphere, the Doctor and Romana find themselves on a planet where civilisation is in decay. As the inhabitants spend all their time connected to a computer network that allows them to share their thoughts and feelings with everyone else. Not being part of the network is a crime. But someone has just died in mysterious circumstances. There is danger in the network....This does have the feel of a story of the time, and you can easily visualise it in your mind's eye in the style of such. Even the music and the sound design do have the feel of the era. Said era did attract criticism for getting silly at times, but this never goes that far. It does bring in some eccentric characters but they're never over the top. There are some fun moments of Doctor and Romana banter that do show how well this writes the two characters.It's a very good listen for the first third as it sets everything up, and Lalla Ward is a very good narrator. It does threaten to lose it's way slightly in the middle third as the story meanders a little. But it pulls itself together well in the final third for a good finale that is also well in keeping with the style of the times.There's some obvious social satire here also, but that never gets the least bit annoying.Regular listeners to this range will know how the linking theme works by now. Which does run the danger of getting repetitive. But this does do it slightly different. And it's fun also.Not the best of the range, but a fun listen and worth getting.

The most enjoyable of the series so far, `Babblesphere' successfully captures the sardonic wit and light-hearted banter that characterised the television show during Douglas Adam's time as writer and script editor (fortunately without any of the crass comedy exhibited in the early stages of `The Horns of Nimon' for example). As such it serves as a more than adequate tribute to the later years of Tom Baker. The drawback being that the excellent Philip Hinchcliffe era of the Fourth Doctor gets no representation in this series.As Romana references a couple of times during the course of this story, the Doctor has battled quite a few mad computers with delusions of grandeur. However, this story doesn't really re-cover old ground and is distinctly original and different. It involves a computer enslaving the human colony of Hephastos through a social media network known as the eponymous Babblesphere. The author manages to maintain a light tone in mocking obsessions with such things like Twitter and Facebook whilst simultaneously creating a sense of threat to society if such things get out of control. There is something of a social critique on modern times.With the pedisiquads (I have no idea how to spell that) there is the inclusion of some robots to generally act as minions for the computer and perform the usual chasing and incarceration of the TARDIS crew. Their voices are quite good in a gravelly, mechanical way, but they do sound a bit like they could be adolescent Daleks. There isn't a great deal to them but they adequately serve their purpose in this story.Lalla Ward is one of the many Doctor Who actors who exhibit a very pronounced and distinctive voice. It lends itself perfectly to audio. Her narration is outstanding and it is a joy to listen to her re-visit the role of Romana. Her Tom Baker `impersonation' leaves a lot to be desired though. The tone and inflection feel all wrong but I suspect this is also something to do with the dialogue, which doesn't feel quite right for the Fourth Doctor. In fact her impersonation of the Eleventh Doctor is actually better.Her other voices are all fairly strong and entertaining; although the performance as Phylis does sound like an impersonation of Joanna Scanlan.The only disappointing aspect of this audiobook is the lack of the Fourth Doctor. There is a vast section during the middle of it where he doesn't even appear and I can't help thinking that this audio would have been even better if Tom Baker had performed on it. But that is not what this range is about.As with the previous stories in the series the Eleventh Doctor makes a brief, unexplained appearance. This time he interacts a bit more with the story, directly helping and instructing the Fourth Doctor and Romana. There is no further clue to what the Eleventh Doctor is up to, however. Hopefully this will develop well as the series continues.I admit that a Doctor Who adventure featuring the Fourth Doctor and Romana which makes fun of things such as Twitter and Facebook is and idea easily sold to me. Even so, there is plenty here to entertain and amuse as well as to contemplate. This makes this a strong addition to the range.

This is the fourth in the continuing series (of 11) stories featuring each of the eleven Doctors up to the time of the 50th anniversary. This story features a tale told of the time of the Fourth Doctor, as played by Tom Baker, and told by Romana I, as played by Lalla Ward.These stories operate a bit like the Companion Chronicles done by Big Finish, where one character narrates almost all the parts, and tells the story, with usually one other actor playing another main part. In this case, the character of Aurelius is played by Roger Parrott. Each story has an element popped in somewhere during the run of the story which is contributing to an overall story arc which will (hopefully!) be revealed in all its glory in the eleventh, and final story.In this story the Fourth Doctor and Romana land in the Tardis. They are confronted almost immediately by a dead body. We, the audience have already heard the last moments of this poor departed soul in the prelude to the story, but we are as much in the dark about what may have happened to him, and why as the Doctor and Romana initially are. Confronted by robot serving mechanisms, the Doctor and Romana are taken into the city, where faded grandeur surrounds mumbling people milling about. What could possibly have happened to this civilisation? And can the Doctor and Romana save themselves?This was a good story; well characterised with the parts of the Doctor and Romana, and well narrated and played by Lalla Ward as Romana. The story did not feature, for much of its length, anything of the Doctor who had been separated from Romana, but Romana had plenty to do to keep herself occupied in the meantime. There was a very true feeling of the Fourth Doctor era of the late 1970s in this story, and I enjoyed the digs that the story made in its references to social media and its addictive qualities. I’m enjoying these stories, and look forward to the Fifth Doctor story, Smoke and Mirrors.