Now this was a pleasant surprise.

I was initially dreading this audio as I disliked the novel that it's based off of. But the audio adaptation managed to fix some of the biggest issues that I had with the original.

Spoilers below for a 30 year old book and 5 year old audio ahead.

So one of the things that angered me so much about the original novel was the ending where the doctor's wife was killed for seemingly no story reason other than to give the main character more man pain that he didn't need. It was a classic case of fridging; introducing a female character just to be a love interest and then killing her off for the sake of the male character's development.

Oh I still hate it to this day!

The audio changes this up somewhat. It's not a perfect solution, but instead of getting murdered by the bad guy, the character of Patience disappears in a time vortex.

It's still removes her from the narrative abruptly without closure and is confusingly presented on audio, but at least it doesn't kill her off. Her fate from that point is left ambiguous and she can be brought back later if anyone wants to.

And as I like the character, I do hope she comes back.

Patience is given so much more personality in the audio that was missing from the book, and I enjoy the idea of the doctor running into a person from his past that he can't quite remember, but knows he has a connection to. At least conceptually I like it, poor execution can drag this idea down hard. (glares daggers as River Song and Moffat)

But on to other things I liked, I liked how the Tardis crews were presented and how they all had things to do. Adric was my personal favorite and it was good to hear him back. I liked his chemistry with everyone, especially with the Seventh Doctor.

Speaking of the Seventh Doctor, I have never really cared for the New Adventures take on the character, and there are still things here that annoy me slightly, but McCoy breathes so much life into his performance that I can manage to swallow some of the more dodgy aspects of the character.

It's not a major improvement, but it is an improvement.

I also didn't even mind the Other or the Looms this go around. For one, it's left ambiguous as who's memories we're really seeing, and it's hinted that Patience may be from another dimension entirely. One where Gallifrey was destroyed by the aliens that are invading reality/time.

If taken to that conclusion, couldn't the Other be a Doctor from another universe? One who has a different history to our own? Our even a connected one, if you prefer?

Anyways, I like the headcannon and I'm keeping it.

Now on to what I didn't like. Even at six episodes, the story was rushed. The one advantage the novel has over the audio is that things can breath more.

The ending suffers the most as the weight of things, (Patience's 'death', the villain reveal and his comeuppance, the Seventh Doctor's betrayal, ect.) doesn't have time to really be felt by the audience or the characters before we're off to the next thing.

Furthermore the wrap up is, well, a bit fanw*nky and fails to provide a conclusion to the Doctor's new found animosity towards himself. And it all ends rather abruptly without any real closure. Meh...

Still this doesn't hamper the lead up to the final episode which is still loads of fun, and that's what good Doctor Who should be, fun.