Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain

Anyone with a tin ear who can't tell a decent accent from a lousy one.

No. Anyone who's never listened to Doctor Who books before would be put off for good, and anyone who has listened before would be appalled.

The voices of Doctor Who characters are very, very well known to their fans. Not all narrators attempt to capture each character's voice, and fair enough. Stuart Milligan *attempts* it, but does not succeed. His accents are all over the board -- the Russians sound more like Mexicans, Rose sometimes has the same accent as the Doctor, and the Doctor, well, he sounded more like a caricature of an Englishman. Milligan's intonational patterns were likewise bizarre, as if he were reading the book for the first time aloud and didn't realize how the sentence was going to end. I don't want to be harsh, but as an aficionado of audio books and Doctor Who books in particular, it just wasn't good enough, and I will not listen to Milligan again.

I have, however, listened to several other Justin Richards books and enjoyed them very much. This time, I really didn't, but I believe that's down to the performance more than the writing, although it's difficult to separate one from the other.

The narrator, sorry.

The Ninth Doctor is my favorite and I've relished the novels in which he is featured, but The Deviant Strain was the absolute worst way for me to wrap up Nine's stories. It broke my heart to rate this as low as I did.

Poor Stuart Milligan has been torn apart in the reviews, and unfortunately, I can't defend him. It was a gamble to have an American narrate something so quintessentially British, and that gamble was lost. Captain Jack is the only person in this book who is supposed to have an American accent, but Mr. Milligan failed to capture even Jack's voice. I'm no connoisseur of British accents, but even I can tell that the accent Mr. Milligan used for the Doctor in no way resembles the Northern accent of Christopher Eccleston. None of the characters sound like themselves and it really pulled me out of the story.

Speaking of the story, I didn't care for it, either. The setting is interesting, but the plot and motivations have left me cold (no pun intended). Full disclosure: I have not finished this story, and with 90 minutes left to go, I probably never will.

I would recommend this book only to people who feel compelled to have complete collections. It is not enjoyable in the least.

A great tale of the Doctor in a remote location with strange goings on. Of course, that describes just about every Doctor Who story, but this one raises the bar and is quite well performed.

I would buy another Justin Richards book, but I would NEVER listen to Stuart Milligan ever again if he was the last audio reader on earth.

If someone, anyone else read it. Note to BBC Audio: NO MORE AMERICAN READERS!

I'm about two hours into the book and I had to stop and write this review - while I'm enjoying the story, I have to say that just because Captain Jack is in the book is absolutely no excuse for having an American reader. Especially one who has hands down the WORST British and Russian accents humanly possible. The fact that he's even trying to do accents is an insult to accents everywhere. I probably could have eventually (and against my will) adapted to Milligan's American voice if he didn't attempt the accents, but this is SO awful, I'm not sure how it even got made - much less, why the BBC hired him AGAIN to read another Dr Who audio (Blackout). But I guess I'll put up with a lot for Dr. Who because I am enjoying the story enough to finish the audiobook. Zero stars for Milligan (if only negative stars were possible) and four stars for Richards

I'm sorry, but Doctor who is ENGLISH. Having someone doing the most APPALLINGLY bad English accent for both Rose and The Doctor DOES NOT WORK!!!!! I have only listened for 10 minutes and I really don't know if I can be bothered listening to the rest.