‘THE REAL HEREWARD’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri meet Hereward the Wake
‘The Real Hereward’ is the sixth and last story to be featured in ‘The Doctor Who Audio Annual’, taken from the 1985 ‘Doctor Who Annual’. It’s read by Nicola Bryant who plays Peri in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and the Big Finish audios and features the Sixth Doctor and Peri. I enjoyed this story!
In fact, I find ‘The Real Hereward’ to be the best story out of ‘The Doctor Who Audio Annual’. It doesn’t have much action in it, but the historical aspects of it helped to keep my interest. ‘The Real Hereward’ is a pure historical story where it has the Sixth Doctor and Peri meet Hereward the Wake.
Mind you, the story is debated for its historical accuracy. For you see, the tale presents the idea that Hereward the Wake and King Harold/Harold Godwinson were the same person. I don’t know much about history in Middle Ages-era England, but it’s intriguing how the tale presents that concept here.
The Saxons and the Normans are featured in this tale. There is an atmosphere of ‘The Time Meddler’ presented in this story as I heard it. I wonder what it would’ve been like had the story presented the Sixth Doctor and Peri meeting the First Doctor, Vicki and Steven at the same time. It’d be interesting.
Nicola Bryant is a very good reader and I enjoyed her voices for the Sixth Doctor and Peri in this adventure. The story also has the Doctor taking advantage of encouraging Hereward/Harold to not make a march into London and to stay where he is. The Doctor also uses a little toy robot in the tale.
‘The Doctor Who Audio Annual’ has been pretty average overall. The stories are a mixed bag, being hit and miss. I was hoping ‘The Penalty’ to be a great story out of the collection, but most of the stories tended to be plot-driven rather than character-driven which is what I’m looking for in stories.
I’m glad I’ve heard the collection on CD and it has been enjoyable and interesting to listen to each story in turn. I don’t know what goes into the choices made for these stories featured in the audio collection, but I’m certain I’ll be reading and hearing more ‘Doctor Who’ anthologies in future.
‘The Real Hereward’ rating – 7/10
‘The Doctor Who Audio Annual’ rating – 6/10
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