Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Doctor Who: Damaged Goods Audio CD
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5.67 x 0.43 x 5 inches
- ISBN-101781784396
- ISBN-13978-1781784396
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Product details
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1781784396
- ISBN-13 : 978-1781784396
- Item Weight : 3.68 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.67 x 0.43 x 5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,611,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25,008 in Books on CD
- #422,403 in Science Fiction & Fantasy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product, click here.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The novel has a reputation for being one of the best novels to come out of the Wilderness Years, so expectations were pretty high for this release. That said, I read the novel a couple of months or so ago finally and must be one of the few people who wasn't overawed with it. The novel suffered from a number of problems including pacing and the fact that, while Davies painted beautiful portraits of his own characters, he largely relegated the TARDIS crew to the sidelines. The novel tone was also far darker than anything Davies did with Doctor Who on television (indeed, the novel felt more like Torchwood at times) and Davies himself stopped it being reprinted ahead of the New Series airing in 2005 for just that reason. So it was surprising to see that Big Finish had been allowed to tackle it, but tackle it they did.
The entire thing works because of a superb adaptation by Jonathan Morris. Morris not only keeps much of Davies' original dialogue and plot but also manages to work some of Davies' wonderful prose into the script as well. The novel's haunting opening pages are wonderfully transformed into a monologue that opens the first disc with the character of Bev Tyler relating events instead. It's also wonderful to hear Sylvester McCoy actually saying the dialogue Davies wrote way back in the 1990s, and Morris keeps some of the best Doctor moments from the novel in place, such as sequence where the Doctor explains why the Quadrant (the housing estate where much of the story takes place) is like a series of little fortresses. Morris also does a wonderful job of fixing one of the main issues I personally had with the novel, which is putting the TARDIS crew at the center of events rather than having them as supporting characters for much of the story's length. The result being that this particular version of Damaged Goods works even better than the original did.
Perhaps more surprising is how faithful to the original novel it is where tone is concerned. Damaged Goods may give us familiar Davies territory with a Tyler family, a housing estate and homosexual characters, but the tone of the novel wasn't so much Doctor Who but that of Torchwood (especially the bleak but brilliant Children of Earth). Everything revolves around drugs and family secrets playing out on a 1980s London housing estate, and this version doesn't shy away from that. A particular drug, and what is lurking within it, is still at the heart of the tale. The fictional drug Smile is substituted for the cocaine that was in the original, though it isn't hard to read between the lines. Much of the violence and body horror of the novel is here as well, perhaps made even worse because of what can be managed on audio where everything is left to the imagination of the listener. While some of the darkness is toned down to a certain extent, and much of the more explicit language is deleted, the essence and feeling is still there and the main body of the story isn't affected. The result is that one can still get the flavor of the original novel from listening to this.
There are some changes of course. Morris streamlines much of Davies' plot, which, given how sparse the plot of the novel is, isn't a bad thing. The character of Eva Jericho, and especially what causes her actions, is simplified a bit, which also isn't a bad thing given the running time restrictions and the fact the audio couldn't easily do the appendices that Davies put into his original novel. Two of the biggest changes though revolve around elements that were part of the arc that was running in the novels at the time which, due to the other novels not being adapted, are replaced with something that those familiar with Davies' work on the New Series will undoubtedly recognize (and, like me, will likely punch the air when they hear them). There's also some altering of the ending as well, with some changes to exactly who survives at the end (apparently done at Davies' own request based on the recent Doctor Who Magazine article about the story) which does make it end of a slightly better note. None of which hurts at all.
Morris' adaptation is just one part of what makes this work so well. A large chunk of it is the performances. It's wonderful to hear McCoy bringing this slightly darker version of the Seventh Doctor to life and there are moments, such as the aforementioned conversation about the Quadrant, which he just does beautifully. This release is also the audio debut of novel range companions Chris and Roz, played by Travis Oliver and Yasmin Bannerman respectively, both of whom are brought to life wonderfully. There's a very strong supporting cast with the various members of this particular Tyler family (Michelle Collins as the mum Wendy, Georgie Fuller as Bev and Tayler Marshall as Gabriel) being standouts. Denise Black has the unenviable task of bringing Eva Jericho - a character that is brilliantly written but so easy to play wrongly as a simply insane woman - to life and rises to the challenge splendidly. The one sour-note in the supporting cast is Daniel Brocklebank as David who perhaps overplays one important, defining part of that character to the point of being cringe worthy at times. On the whole though, it's a superb cast.
Last, but certainly not least given that this is an audio production, is the sound design and music. Big Finish stories always stand out in this category, not matter how good or bad other elements might be, but Damaged Goods especially excels. Howard Carter does an excellent job bringing the Quadrant and the less fashionable side of 1980s' London to life here which, when combined with the score and a glorious new version of the Doctor Who theme, gives the entire two-hour production a real cinematic feeling. It's one of the best post-production jobs Big Finish has done to date on any production, which, given the high standards of the company's output, is saying something.
Damaged Goods is well worth seeking out. As an adaptation of the original Russell T Davies' novel from 1996, it's superb as it condenses the novel into a two-hour package while also holding onto much of the flavor and characters that make it stand out while also improving it in the pacing department. As a Big Finish story, it's also superb, with a combination of elements that give it the true feeling of being a Doctor Who movie without the pictures. Even if you haven't read the original novel, this is well worth a listen as it might be not just the best Big Finish Doctor Who release so far this year but a rare case of an adaptation improving upon the original source material.