Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#003. Whispers of Terror ~ 8/10

◆ An Introduction

Calling the Sixth Doctor a controversial incarnation would be stating the blatantly obvious, but he would become the earliest success story of the audio adventures. When BigFinish reworked the character, he would receive some of the greatest scripts, and the best companions, but that’s not for a couple of releases yet. This information might tempt you into skipping his first full audio outing, but you would be missing out on something rather inventive.

People often take the sound design in these adventures for granted, but you’d certainly be paying attention if sound itself were the enemy…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

The Doctor and Peri find themselves in the Museum of Aural Antiquities, where every sound is stored for posterity – from the speeches of Visteen Krane to security service wire taps and interrogation tapes. But they also find an intruder, mysteriously changed recordings, and a dead body.

Before long the Doctor realises that there is more going on than a simple break-in or murder. How can he defeat a creature that is made of pure sound?

◆ The Sixth Doctor

Considering this was written before the grand reworking of this incarnation, I’m surprised at how well-characterised Ol’ Sixie is. Justin Richards has perfectly captured his piercing wit, his stratospheric ego, and that flair for the dramatic which makes him oh-so captivating.

Even before the enforced mellowing of his character, Colin Baker had long been my favourite incarnation of the Doctor. Firing on all cylinders from the very beginning, he delivered an amazing performance in ‘Whispers of Terror’.

He doesn’t shout! People who have to resort to shouting to get what they want are merely demonstrating the inherent porosity of their argument. It’s something that he never, never does… he said whilst shouting like a lunatic. The Doctor claims to have a better sense of direction than a homing pigeon. He’s never all that helpful and forthcoming, which Peri finds very annoying!

◆ Peri Brown

Our resident botanist made pretty sporadic appearances alongside the Sixth Doctor – production were seemingly more interested in her travels with his predecessor – so it’s rather unfortunate that she spent this adventure fading into the background.

Donning the fake accent once more, Nicola Bryant steps back into her role with the utmost ease. I appreciate that she still delivered a solid performance, despite not getting much to do in ‘Whispers of Terror’.

Where’s her sense of adventure? Where’s her curiosity and longing for knowledge? According to Peri, it’s longing to leave.

◆ Sound and Vision

Justin Richards was the first person to take full advantage of the audio medium by making a sentient sound creature that had the ability to manipulate or perfectly reproduce any other sound. He also decided to set this adventure within the Museum of Aural Antiquities: an archive of every recorded sound in existence, featuring everything from government wiretaps to old broadcasts of Liza Tarbuck’s show on BBC Radio 2. Essentially, the sound creature had quite a lot of camouflage.

The sound creature in this adventure was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his time. He was a very private man who shunned the visual medium, working mainly in the field of audio recording.

Visteen Krane later turned to politics and eventually announced his candidacy for the Presidency. It was widely believed that he would win the election with a landslide majority and name his agent, Beth Pernell, as his running mate. However, finding her ruthless policies and ambitions abhorrent, he planned to record a speech denouncing her. Upon discovering this, Pernell had Krane assassinated… but that wasn’t the end! Although Krane’s body perished, he had earlier used the equipment in his sound suite to transfer his brain waves into the medium of sound.

Several attempts have been made over the years to replicate the basic ideas of this adventure – even the legendary Tim Foley tried with ‘Fight Motif’ – but none of them have been able to replicate the success of this original outing.

◆ Sound Design

This was the first script to really take advantage of the audio medium, which meant Harvey Summers got the opportunity to create a gorgeously experimental soundscape. Every sound and recording is stored within the Museum of Aural Antiquities, but having a sentient sound creature bouncing around the place can really mess with your head. Glitching audio tapes from a recently deceased actor, several murders, and even a spectacular car crash towards the climax of this adventure! Considering ‘Whispers of Terror’ is a twenty-five year old production, it’s aged remarkably well.

Babbling voices drift through the museum as the TARDIS begins materialising. Heavy rain falls outside while two criminals attempt to break in. Gantman claims there are shades of sound as well as light, and demonstrates this by manipulating Krane’s most famous speech; raising the pitch by 20% and making the late actor sound like a nightcore edit! The recording of Krane’s speech starts glitching and distorting throughout the museum. An ominous whistling comes from outside of the sound studio, mere moments before Fotherill is taunted by what sounds like the laugh from a corrupted audio file. Fotherill is electrocuted: several thousand volts spark through his body. The sound creature starts ranting and raving at Dent, demanding answers and causing her to become hysterical with fear. The final recording of Visteen Krane is played several times over; the gun firing, followed by his body falling to the ground with a thud. The sound creature sends itself as a voicemail to Pernell’s car phone… causing her to violently crash the car, killing herself in the process!

◆ Music

There’s a harshness to this score which likely comes from the cheap and cheerful equipment the sound artists were lumbered with back then – the equipment wouldn’t be upgraded for another four releases, if I remember rightly.

Considering this adventure features an entity composed of pure sound, we could always imagine that it was interfering with the score itself. Some great work from Briggsy here.

◆ Conclusion

“If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it!”

Visteen Krane was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his time, who later turned to politics and eventually announced his candidacy for the Presidency. It was widely believed that he would win the election with a landslide majority and name his agent, Beth Pernell, as his running mate. However, finding her ruthless policies and ambitions abhorrent, he planned to record a speech denouncing her. Upon discovering this, Pernell had Krane assassinated… but he managed to transfer his brain waves into the medium of sound. He would have his revenge!

Justin Richards took the metaphorical bull by the horns and created the first experimental audio adventure, featuring a sentient sound wave. Nowadays, it would seem like the obvious thing to do… but that’s probably because several writers have attempted to replicate the idea. He executed it really well, and even added in some political intrigue with the Pernell plot.

Despite being a production from twenty-five years ago, ‘Whispers of Terror’ has aged like fine wine! This was when BigFinish realised the full potential of the audio medium, and I can highly recommend giving it a listen if you’re curious.