Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet

By: BBC Audiobooks

Narrated by: Anneke Wills

Length: 1 hr and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Cybermen make their first ever appearance whilst William Hartnell's Doctor nears the end of his first incarnation, in this classic soundtrack adventure with linking narration by Anneke Wills. The year is 1986, and at the South Pole the crew of the Snowcap Base have detected a new planet on their radar. The arrival of the Doctor, Ben, and Polly at the Base coincides with another landing, that of a spaceship whose humanoid passengers have used cybernetics to replace their limbs and vital organs. Battling alongside the humans to save their planet, the Doctor appears to weaken and age before the eyes of his companions. An ultimate collapse appears to signal his death, but then...

In an exclusive bonus interview, Anneke Wills, who also narrates the story's soundtrack, recalls her memories of making The Tenth Planet.

©2004, 2006 BBC Audiobooks Ltd. (P)2004, 2006 BBC Audiobooks Ltd.

Fantastic Listen for Doctor Who Fans

In his final adventure before his very first regeneration, the Doctor and his companions, Polly and Ben, land at the South Pole. They are greeted by the discovery of a new planet, eerily similar to Earth, from which the famed "Cybermen" appear. The Cybermen are determined to take over the station and will kill anyone in their way. However, the stakes are raised even higher when their failing planet, Mondas, becomes the centre of a plan to blow it up.

I've been a Doctor Who fan for so long that I'm not even sure when I became such a fan. The show has been around for fifty years now and I haven't been around for quite that long, so it's been around all my life. The great thing about being a fan of audiobooks is that I can listen to radio plays and novels on audio, especially while I'm eagerly awaiting the next episode of Doctor Who on tv.

William Hartnell's appearance as the First Doctor is way before my time, but I've seen some tv episodes with him and I decided he'd be a good place to start reading some of the novels. In "Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet" this is his first regeneration and the first appearance of the Cybermen. It's a great adventure and it's fun to see the interaction between the Doctor, his companions, Ben and Polly, and how they get out of the mess. It's interesting that in all the adventure the sonic screwdriver is only vaguely mentioned once, as Ben tells a crew member that he has a "screwdriver" that may help deactivate the bomb!! For a lot of this episode the Doctor is in failing health and it's really up to Polly and Ben to save the day.

The audio is fantastic. It's narrated by Anneke Wills, who plays Polly, and I really felt like I could be back in the 1960's and listening to this play on the radio. I loved the sound effects used and the interview with Anneke Wills at the end was a fantastic bonus. She talks about William Hartnell's failing health during the filming of the actual episode and the regeneration.

If you're a Doctor Who fan I strongly suggest listening to this one on audio. It was a super fun episode and great on audio.

The first Doctors last adventure.

What made the experience of listening to Doctor Who the most enjoyable?

That I was listing to history in the making. The first time the Doctor regenerates into a different person.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Doctor Who?

The first appearance of the Cyberman. The regeneration of the Doctor.

Which character – as performed by Anneke Wills – was your favorite?

Her Polly was great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the Doctor was dying.

Any additional comments?

It was sad that William Hartnel had to leave the show. But his legacy is that the show is still popular and still going. No smal part because of him.

The end of the 1st Doctor

I really enjoyed this audio title, the acting naturally is top class due to most of it been taken from the tv print. At this point it is very evident that Bills health was failing him due to his absence totally in one episode. The voices and style may seem a little hammy these days but this was cutting edge stuff in its time, and whoever doesn't like a wobbly set scifi romp doesn't really like scifi at all.

Bill is in my opinion one of the best doctors and I would love to see another grumpy old doctor before the end of the 12 regeneration.

Well worth a listen even if it just for the regeneration scene!

Future nostalgia presently...

Despite the 'fillers' by Anneke Wills (excuse the spelling), this is a splendid piece of Auntie Beeb's sci-fi nostalgia. I like that this is now part of a series of repackaged works, they benefit from this and the extra post production interviews immensely. I would recomend this not only to sci-fi enthusiasts, but to anyone who appreciates a darn good radio play.

Pivotal Who story well narrated

This is the story that gave DOCTOR WHO its long life, the final for William Hartnell and his regeneration into Patrick Troughton. This also gives us iur very first meeting with a classic monster!

In some ways this TV soundtrack with narration improves

Despite the input of Kit Pedlar, a real scientist, there is little or no real science. However

TV works on radio? done this well, yes!

I wasn't sure if a TV programme would work as an audibook... this one does.