An Autist Reviews: The Sonomancer (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition 2.4)
*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*
On a planet quickly shaking itself apart, Professor River Song is trapped in a mining capsule awaiting her husband’s arrival. But the Doctor who arrives isn’t the right one, but he’ll still do the job. As a Russian cyborg bear person exploits the native population, the Eleven and the Sonomancer have teamed up to get rid of any and all resistance. As Liv and the Doctor race to save the planet from being shaken apart, River Song and Helen race to stop the bear person and protect the inhabitants, then it’s off to get the Doctor out of whatever trouble he’s found himself in.
This is a simple, fun romp across a shaking planet with a cast of characters I adore, but sadly it falls short in a few places. The writing is very good, but some of it comes off a little basic and the Doctor especially has some out-of-character moments. I can’t say much else about the story though, it really is just plain and simple. River has to go through a lot to hide her identity, Liv gets a second showdown with the Eleven, and Helen gets to show off her character really well for the first time.
The acting is where things get hard. The Russian bear is really well acted; over the top and fun. The natives to the planet are rather plain but don’t appear too much, so that’s fine. As for River… boy oh boy is she interesting. Alex is a hit-or-miss actress. Her voice can do a lot of over-the-top fun things and a lot of over-the-top annoying and preachy things. Somehow Alex manages to use her voice to both its full potential and as poorly as she could throughout this entire episode. It’s really interesting. The Eleven and the Sonomancer are both pretty good, but the Sonomancer does fall short in some scenes. As for the Doctor and his crew; they all do really well. A typical good performance from the lot of them.
The music of this story is glorious and it fits the moods it needs to really quite well. From bouncy and fun to dark and sinister, it hits all of the beats it needs to, although it fades into the background often,
As far as replay goes, this is a fine story to listen to again, but it doesn’t offer anything new and honestly doesn’t get any more fun to listen to. The only good part of listening again is putting off the need to keep track of the story, but that is still very little.
All in all, The Sonomancer is an okay finish to a pretty good boxset. It hits ups and downs often, but all the parts of it are good. You won’t find yourself thinking you’ve wasted an hour of your life, but you won’t feel like you got your fill out of that hour either. I recommend putting this on in the background and enjoying it while doing something else. The acting is solid but has its bad moments, the effects are solid but have their bad moments, and the plot is okay but has its bad moments. This is only slightly more remarkable than Beachhead… and boy is that saying something.
Total - 7
Plot - 8
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Story - 7
Writing - 9
Enjoyment - 8
Twists - NR
Acting - 7
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MCs - 8
SCs - 6
BGs - 9
Effects - 8
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Music - 9
Voices - 7
Actions - 8
Replay - 6
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Re-Enjoyment - 7
New Details - 5
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