Doctor Who

Beautiful Chaos

By: Gary Russell

Narrated by: Bernard Cribbins

Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bernard Cribbins reads this gripping story of a new star and an ancient alien threat.

Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony. But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in the Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left...

The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times. Something powerful, angry and all-consuming...

Featuring the Doctor and Donna as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit series from BBC Television, Beautiful Chaos is read by Bernard Cribbins, who played Donna's grandfather in Doctor Who.

©2008 Gary Russell (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Beautiful Chaos, beautiful book

Beautiful Chaos was an unexpected treat. A novel that's more about Donna and her grandfather Wilfred Mott (played on the show by the novel's narrator, Bernard Cribbins) than the plot, Bernard brings his character and the others brilliantly to life in audio form.

That's not to say there's not plot to be had--far from it. Beautiful Chaos is a story of intrigue and astrology, and a plot that couldn't have been foiled if it weren't for Wilfred.

For anybody who wants to see more of Donna, Wilfred, and the Doctor, Beautiful Chaos is a highly recommended listen.

Bernard's great !!!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Really well narrated

What about Bernard Cribbins’s performance did you like?

Lovely to listen to the performance of a great actor - stretching to cover the different voices and emotions

I love this audio book....

I love Doctor Who. This book kept my attention waiting to see how the doctor would save the earth once again.

Gary Russell and Bernard Cribbins you made my day

Gary Russell wrote an solid family Noble story and let the Dr tag along. Missed the tardis but I do like when cars and vans blow up. Perhaps not an epic saga but definitely portrays the Noble family bond and how important the Dr's companions and their back stories are in keeping the Dr midly grounded through their lives... Bernard Cribbins is a favorite of mine and why I got this title. Hope he stays connected to the Whoniverse and does more narration or full cast radio dramas

Very moving!

Full to the brim of the great team of the Doctor/Donna!

The best part for me was the narrator's original character singing and the reasons why he was singing.

The ending is the best!

Wonderful story

This is one of my favorite Doctor Who audio books. Bernard Cribbens does an excellent performance. I listen to it often.

Kind of scary

This one was a little bit scary in a weird sort of way. The astrology stuff kind of messes with me. Also the ending was strange, it just dropped off sooner than I felt it should have. But a nice story, and also Bernard Cribbins, who's brilliant. Still trying to find the perfect voice of Donna, but this is getting closer than some I've read.

Bernard's Doctor lets down this story

This was a really interesting story, but I found it really hard to listen to Bernard Cribbins' portrayal of the 10th doctor. He totally misses the boat on the voice. The story is worth listening to, though.

Bernard Cribbins great actor, not a great narrator

I love Sir Bernard Cribbins. He is a great actor, but I just couldn't stay focused on his narration. The story itself wasn't made for radio, either, so it was just hard to follow, setting him up to fail. It's a decent story though, so if you're a Who Maniac, you're buying it anyways.....I mean .... I bought it. Still, there are a lot to pick from. Choose your narrator wisely.

Book might be good, but 1 burnable disc LAME-OH!

Burned to a cd, seemed to work fine, but about 40mins into the recording started to read disc error.

Went to re-burn at slower speed- But you only get 1 burn. So first exp with audible books was Unaudible...

Beautiful Chaos

If you love Doctor Who this book is brilliant. Bernard Cribbins has a great voice and enhances the strong storyline. Will certainly be buying others that he narrates. Storyline is easy to follow but enough to keep you listening

Beautiful little book

A pleasant addition to the Doctor Who library. If like me you grew up after the 'classic' series ended and are still working your way through the back catalogue, the villain loses something of its punch but this part of the premise still stands alone reasonably well.

The story is very sensitive to the regular characters involved - Tenth Doctor, Donna, Wilfred Mott, and Sylvia Noble. Bernard Cribbins' narration is a joy to listen to, with understated but well-pitched versions of all the regular characters besides his own, including a surprisingly good interpretation of Tennant's Doctor. Wilf, of course, is a spot-on delight as usual, both in writing and delivery.

The sub-plots are tenderly written and very moving, exploring the background of Donna's family and the relationship between Wilf and his new friend Nettie, a bold and worthy one-off character. This does steal quite a lot of runtime from the main plot about Chaos bodies and M-Tecs and conveniently-Italian-but-for-some-reason-not-evil kiddiwinks, and I'm not sure I followed the whole of the sci-fi thread. There may have been slightly too many auxiliary characters to hold together for a story of this length. But for all that, it ticks along nicely, and the emotional underlay has you caring about the rest of the story enough to make up for any other elements that don't quite satisfy. There is plenty of danger and excitement, and it wouldn't feel out of place in the Tenth Doctor's era on TV - but would you expect less from Gary Russell?

The ending reminds me most strongly of an earlier episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Russell takes a potential risk in the resolution of the plot in a way that fits well with the Tenth (and possibly Seventh and Eleventh too) Doctor but it pays off beautifully, and not a dry eye in the house.

Loved it.