The Monthly Adventures #003 - "Whispers of Terror" by Justin Richards

With the audio plays being a whole new method of storytelling for Doctor Who, it would be expected that some innovative ideas would be done with the format. So, just three audios in, writing regular Justin Richards created a story with a creature made entirely of sound as the villain. It’s a novel concept for an entirely sound based story that would eventually be perfected in the magnificent Scherzo but here, it’s clear Richards was not the writer for such an out there idea.

In a museum of auditory antiquities, the Doctor and Peri come across a murder and a series of peculiar tamperings. With a presidential candidate trapped with them, the pair must uncover a conspiracy heralded by a creature made of sound.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

At first glance, Whispers of Terror seems to be a classic base under siege with a distinct horror element, which unfortunately is not the case. It keeps up this persona for its whole first part, which is easily the best bit of the story, being incredibly well written, scary and honestly quite stressful. It’s here we’re introduced to the sound creature, which for the first half of the audio is our villain and it’s with this inclusion that we see Whispers of Terror’s excellent sound design; the ghastly voices the creature speaks in and the uncanny mimicry it carries out are both incredibly well executed and undeniably scary, though these concepts would be done better in Scherzo 49 episodes later. The creature is not underutilised either, there are some fantastic scenes making use of the idea, such as when it’s tortured via an editing software, having bits of its soundwave cut out and mixed up. Between the creature, the sound design and the setting, a wonderfully alien museum of sound, I was ready for a chilling horror adventure with great effects and a better antagonist.

However, after Part 2, this story turns from a horror story to a political thriller when, in a somewhat madcap reveal, the sound creature turns out to be the consciousness of a murdered presidential candidate and his former pick for vice president - Beth Pernell - becomes our antagonist. It’s a weird change in tone that honestly doesn’t work for me and I feel the episode does away with what was a really strong concept. However, it does try another twist besides the reveal of the sound creature’s identity: one character is revealed to not be real and instead just the sound creature again but using a different voice. It’s a weird choice and it never really comes back, which makes the whole thing just seem odd. As for our leads, this is deep into JNT bitching era and neither the Doctor or Peri are any fun; this was a few audios before Big Finish decided to go down the route of a kinder Sixth Doctor and so here, he does nothing but bicker and is honestly at points like the worst of Season 22. I appreciate the fact that some people like a more boisterous Doctor but him just being permanently irritated makes listening to him miserable.

Whispers of Terror is a story in two halves - a well written and constructed horror and a somewhat messy conspiracy thriller, two stories that simply do not go together. It had some great concepts that only contributed to a couple of great scenes, with the rest feeling somewhat like wasted potential. Not bad by any means whatsoever but it’s a story that has been done and will be done better.

6/10

Pros:

+ Great first part that expertly builds tension

+ Conceptually rich and interesting setting

+ Really creative usage of the sound creature mechanic that makes for some fantastic scenes

+ Wonderfully eerie sound design that really elevates the horror

Cons:

- Loses focus after its first part

- Compared to an abstract living soundwave, vice president Beth Pernell is a very dull villain

- The reveal that a character was really just the sound creature tricking somebody felt unnecessary

- The Doctor and Peri were written incredibly insufferably