The Audio Novels range continues with Prisoners of London, a seven-hour enhanced audiobook written and narrated by Matthew Waterhouse. As you might expect with Waterhouse as author, this story features the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Adric and Nyssa and sees them arrive in a very different London to the one they know…
Like The Dead Star before it (review here), this is another Audio Novel with no returning elements aside from the Doctor and his companions, but that’s no issue, as Waterhouse crafts a detailed storyworld full of richly-drawn characters in which it’s truly a pleasure to spend this story’s enormous runtime. This commitment to worldbuilding from Waterhouse is undeniably Prisoners of London‘s greatest strength.
There’s also a pleasingly diverse array of tones here, the first four parts being a tense political mystery, before the last two parts introduce a kind of eco-thriller element. The storylines introduced in the last third of the story are definitely the most interesting, so it’s a shame they don’t get explored as much, as some of the dilemmas the characters have to deal with are so huge they could easily have sustained an entire story.
In fact, excellent worldbuilding aside, the opening two thirds of the story are somewhat of a slog to get through compared to the final act. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with this part of the tale, certainly, but I definitely found myself wondering when something more interesting would happen. For those who enjoy a slower-paced narrative, this might be a boon, but to me it just felt like the story was wheel-spinning for much of the middle two parts, particularly with regards to the character of Tegan, who is oddly sidelined throughout.
Despite these gripes, however, Prisoners of London is still an enjoyable story, particularly in its climax, which culminates with an unexpected but fan-pleasing coda. This is, in part, due to Matthew Waterhouse‘s excellent narration, which captures well the wide variety of characters that populate his script, and even manages a strikingly accurate impression of Peter Davison‘s Doctor. A long, and inconsistent, but ultimately rewarding listen.
Prisoners of London is available as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com
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