Synopsis:

• A Review by Stuart Gutteridge
• A Review by John Seavey

A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 8/5/03

By bringing the Sontarans into the proceedings, The Shadow Play offers a more focused plot than The Eleven Day Empire. Black humour is the order of the day between the Sontarans and Faction Paradox as their confrontations include couerteous insults and decapitations. There are also subtle nods to Doctor Who as Cousin Justine (the main focus of the story) escapes in a ship, complete with female companion in tow. An improvement on The Eleven Day Empire then and worth your indulgence.

A Review by John Seavey 18/5/04

Another great success from Lawrence Miles. This one isn't quite as enjoyable as The Eleven Day Empire, as it has to spend more time getting into the mundanities of the plot instead of dazzling us with the amazing world Lawrence has made, but it's definitely got a lot going for it. Justine continues her transformation into an absolutely frightening hero, Lolita becomes an absolutely loathsome villainess, and certain events happen that are so shocking that I'm still waiting for a resolution to them four discs later. (Let's just say that one of my favorite characters apparently dies, and I'm still waiting to see what happens to them.) But it's a great story, told at lightning pace.

And the theme music is great for these audios, by the by... it's a sort of jazzy reinterpretation of the Doctor Who theme, which makes a certain sense for a story that's a sort of post-science fiction reinterpretation of Doctor Who.