The Silent Scream

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Eternal Battle

A very fun and fairly unique story. There's a rich atmosphere in this and all the characters really help bring this to life. I like how this story explores Hollywood in the 1930s which is a setting I think should feature in Doctor Who a lot more.

The main monsters of the story, the living shadows, are very good and while not as scary as other shadow-based villains they still have a strong element of fear. The main villain is an evil time-traveller. I found his motivation a tiny bit ridiculous but his actions are horrifying and the scenes of him operating on someone who can't scream because their voice was stolen was extremely uncomfortable.

There are a lot of meta-jokes in this one about the main characters being actors and other funny gags like K9 providing directions like a GPS. Overall it's a very good story with a solid theme. It balances horror and comedy quite well. I think this story would fit marvelously in current Doctor Who, possibly even classic if they got the effects right.

As a side note, the cover is absolutely fantastic and captures the feel of the story brilliantly.

Next Story: Dethras