An Autist Reviews: Songs Of Love (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition 4.2)

*This is an older review, it is not as detailed as my more modern reviews*

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

After Padrac sends the Doctor and his allies to their deaths, River acts quick on her feet and puts herself in his good graces. Welcomed onto Gallifrey, River finds herself in the midst of Padrac’s plan, and multiple other plans to stop or hinder him. Meanwhile, Liv and Helen are saved from death by a mysterious force and find themselves on a quickly disintegrating Earth.

If you’ve read my review of ‘The Gift’ then you know that I have a habit of liking okay stories far more than I should. This is a less egregious example of that. This story takes place in two parts. Most of the time you’re with River and the Doom Coalition, but for roughly ¼ of this story, you find yourself with Helen and Liv. The story is very intriguing, being very political and slowly paced. You always wonder who knows about Padrac’s plan, who’s fighting against him, and what is being planned. There are some very poor writing moments, and I personally don’t like how the Sonomancer talks, as it annoys me how poetic she is. A certain talk about River between Liv and Helen could have been better written, but other scenes are pure gold. If you like a slower story, you should enjoy this one.

Boy, the acting ain’t perfect here. The side characters generally suck. A good number are better than okay, but most aren’t great. The main characters also take a rather bad turn acting-wise here, but they’re not nearly as bad. The acting goes from pretty good, to okay at best, but it doesn’t matter too too much. Padrac, the Sonomancer, and the other nutters in this story also vary in skill, but they do range higher on the scale than others. If it weren’t for the last 20 minutes, the bad guys would have a 9/10. All in all, the acting isn’t horrendous, but it’s not Shakespearean.

The music is lovely. I can’t describe it better. Every area has its own score, and most of the time they fit perfectly. Sometimes the score is out of place, but not often. The voice effects are also lovely, aside from a few ones near the end specifically. As for the action sound effects… they’re great. Really. Aside from a few MAJOR exceptions… worst being, perhaps, the MULTIPLE scenes where actors have to act as if they are talking over extremely loud crowds of timelords… when the effects guy decided ‘let’s go with murmurs so quiet that you almost don’t even notice they’re there!’

This story is fun to relisten to… that doesn’t mean I would want to do it over and over again. I don’t. But with that being said, it’s a fun and interesting ride. You won’t get many new details out of relistening to it, and I think after a few listens you’ll tire yourself out. Still, good replay value… just not great.

All in all, a fun, calm, important story. It hits tons of good beats, but the writer and effects guy dropped the ball in a good few scenarios. The acting ain’t great, but it’s not bad, and the music and voices are both wonderful aside from a few small issues here and there. You won't get much out of relistening to this, but go ahead and do it if you want to. I personally like this story more than I should, and honestly, that allows me to overlook a lot of issues others might not so feel free to listen and make your own decision about the acting and effects here. This is a great story, so dive in and relax, you’ll find it a nice way to spend an hour.

Total - 8

Plot - 9
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Story - 8
Writing - 7
Enjoyment - 10
Twists - 9

Acting - 7
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MCs - 8
SCs - 6
BGs - 8

Effects - 8
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Music - 9
Voices - 9
Actions - 7

Replay - 7
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Re-Enjoyment - 8
New Details - 6

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