📝5/10 = MIDDLING!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “GALAXY FOUR (AUDIOBOOK NOVELISATION)”

Maureen O’Brien (Vicki) narrates the audiobook version of the Target novelisation of Galaxy Four, written by the writer of the original serial, William Emms.

The original serial is fully missing, and the telesnap reconstruction does it no justice—there are a lot of scenes with no dialogue and only a couple of settings and a handful of characters, so the reconstruction is dull. The animation is a better way to experience the story, and this novelisation also works well because you don’t have to sit through long moments of silence and strange sound effects. The text does a fine job of describing the action, the world, and the characters, and it’s a faithful recreation of the original four-parter, down to most lines of dialogue and every twist and turn in the story. It also helps us to better understand Maaga and the Drahvins, as Emms describes their thoughts and feelings.

The story itself still isn't overly exciting. The theme of not judging a book by its cover is as effective as ever, and Maaga is a compelling villain, but the overall plot is too thin even for a four-parter. Most scenes go on for a long while, meaning that your minds begin wandering, and that’s never a good sign. There’s not a lot of action or tension, even if you know that the world the characters are stuck in is rapidly meaning its points of destruction.

Chapter 4 is where the air runs out. The climax is lengthy and slow, and even the narration or the interesting exploration of the differences between Rill and human concepts don’t keep up the momentum. The very ending, when the planet is destroyed, is an effective moment.

The small sound effects help greatly in bringing the story to life, and O’Brien’s narration is lovely, especially her character voices for Maaga, the Drahvins, and Vicki. I also enjoy that they bring in a male voice in the scene where Vicki is talking with the Rill—the entire Chapter 3 is pretty lovely.