‘THE SONS OF THE CRAB’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The First Doctor visits Wengrol in the Crab Nebula
Here we are with another ‘Doctor Who’ audio annual to check out on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. 🙂
This is ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’! Though, shouldn’t this be ‘The Sons of the Crab & Other Stories’, as ‘Time Wake’ is the last story of the collection? Technicalities aside, I purchased this audio annual as a download via Audible so that I could hear the audio version of ‘Night Flight to Nowhere’.
Having read and enjoyed the 1983 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ and heard ‘The Doctor Who Audio Annual’ on a 2-disc CD, it was only fair to revisit ‘Night Flight to Nowhere’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan as part of my ‘Nyssa Challenge’ reviews. A lot of audio annuals have come out since then.
Like the first ‘Doctor Who Audio Annual’, ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’ is a collection of certain stories featured from various ‘Doctor Who Annuals’ over the years, read by actors who have played characters in the TV series. ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’ is the fifth ‘Doctor Who’ audio annual here.
The stories themselves feature the Doctors from 1 to 6. They include ‘The Sons of the Crab’ with the First Doctor, ‘Only A Matter of Time’ with the Second, ‘War in the Abyss’ with the Third, ‘Famine on Planet X’ with the Fourth, ‘Night Flight to Nowhere’ with the Fifth and ‘Time Wake’ with the Sixth. 🙂
Would I like the stories featured in ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’? Over the years, some of the Short Trips and ‘Doctor Who Annual’ stories that I’ve come across have been mixed at best. But I was hoping to keep an open mind. Hopefully, something good would come out from this audio annual. 🙂
The audio annual begins of course with ‘The Sons of the Crab’, read by Dan Starkey from the 1966 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ – the first one published in fact. I found it odd that Dan Starkey was reading this audio version of the annual story. Usually, Dan plays the Sontarans in the TV show and on audio.
I would have preferred it if Peter Purves, who plays Steven Taylor in ‘Doctor Who’, read ‘The Sons of the Crab’, as he does a very good voice for William Hartnell’s Doctor. I don’t think Dan Starkey’s voice for the First Doctor is that great, although he is good in providing voices for other characters. 🙂
‘The Sons of the Crab’ isn’t that special as far as I’m concerned. I managed to read the story by printing off the pages for it from the PDF version of the 1966 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ from ‘The Web Planet’ DVD. But even with reading the story and hearing it in the background, it wasn’t that great.
My main issue with ‘The Sons of the Crab’ is that the story didn’t go anywhere. The Doctor visits the planet Wengrol in the Crab Nebula where he gets taken by humanoid scientists who consider him a specimen. The Doctor also has conversations with Fomal, the Chief Yend, which don’t go anywhere.
The writing for this annual/audio story is odd too. As well as the Doctor being referred to as ‘Dr. Who’ for most of the time, he tells Fomal and others of his kind, “I’m human, just like you are” and that he’s from the planet Earth. This was before the Doctor’s origins were unveiled later on in the TV show.
After the story, there’s ‘One Doctor – Five Men’ read by Geoffrey Beevers from the 1984 ‘Doctor Who Annual’. This was a feature detailing the history of ‘Doctor Who’, including how the Doctor had changed from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton to Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker to Peter Davison. 🙂
‘The Sons of the Crab’ rating – 3/10
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