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Average Customer Rating:

Unlike anything I've heard before. Simply staggering

Customer Rating:

One of the main reasons why I loved the fourth series of Doctor Who so much was because of Catherine Tate. She made the character of Donna Noble such a fantastic one to love and cherish, which made her departure from the series all the more heartbreaking. Which is why I am so thankful for the recent audiobooks which feature more of Donna. However, The Forever Trap is truly special as it's narrated by Catherine Tate herself. The story here is set sometime after TV episodes The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky. During the Doctor and Donna's travels, the TARDIS is invaded by a viral transmission, or rather, a holographic marketing scam that doesn't take `No!' for an answer. Despite their best efforts, the travellers find themselves trapped on the Edifice, a planet-sized complex of luxury apartments in space. Millions of beings across the Universe have been abducted, and where some really enjoy living in the Edifice, others have been taken from their natural habitat and cannot survive. Some are also vicious creatures who live only for war and conquest, and others still are mindless predators who look only to feast. Long story short, the Edifice is not all it's cracked up to be and is in fact a nightmarish mismatch of emotions that condemns all inside to eternal hell and death. With seemingly NO - WAY - OUT. Obviously, The Forever Trap has been compared a lot to Pest Control, the other audiobook set during Series 4. Like Pest Control, The Forever Trap is a tale that's been done exclusively for audio. But is it better than Pest Control? Absolutely. Dan Abnett, the author, is a man who should need no introduction. He's written plenty of stuff for Marvel UK (such as Transformers and Doctor Who) and he's famous for writing 2000AD, X-Men, stories for DC and Wildstorm and many bestselling novels. He's one of the most famous science-fiction writers in all the UK. So that was another reason why I wanted this audiobook so much. And true to nature, Abnett doesn't disappoint. He has written a STAGGERING story here. Whereas Pest Control was action-filled, thrilling, multi-layered and great fun, The Forever Trap is much deeper and more psychological. As the mysteries of the Edifice unravel, the story becomes more sinister and darker. Like all good Who tales, there are plenty of twists-and-turns and enough action to liven things up, but this audiobook's greatest strengths are all the different alien species encountered, the whole concept of the Edifice, all the dangers and horrors within, the faultless relationship and conversational exchanges between the Doctor and Donna, Donna's bravery and resoluteness and finally some brilliant nods to important parts of the Doctor's life. The Ood and the Sontarans get a mention here, as does the Doctor's lost homeworld of Gallifrey, which is very creative and really adds to the psychology of the story. But it's the SOUND that truly makes The Forever Trap really tense and nail-biting. Catherine Tate provides a PERFECT narrative to Abnett's story. She reads excellently, gives each of the characters great distinctive voices, continues to make Donna special and also does a good impersonation of the Doctor. Of course, all this is a given. We all now how excellent Catherine is at doing voices. Like Pest Control, the music and sound effects really add to the drama of the story, but what's different and better here is that it's more varied. The music is so much more creepier and eerie and the sound effects WILL keep you on edge and make you jump throughout, especially during the EPIC finale when our heroes discover the Edifice's sinister secret. Another reason to purchase The Forever Trap is because it's very much a `Doctor and Donna' story. All the other characters have minor roles and don't really have that big an impact on the course of events as the supporting characters did in Pest Control, and that's what makes the audiobook so refreshing. The Doctor and Donna's friendship is what made the fourth series so brilliant and this is a reminder of how true it was and how many great moments it provided for, such as the constant insistence to everyone that they WEREN'T a couple, and how much they were there for one another. Doctor Who: The Forever Trap has everything it needs to satisfy die-hard fans. I put it on my iPod and was really glad I did. It will have you absolutely hooked from start-to-finish because of everything that's on it. Psychological, deep, gripping, tense, and will send plenty of chills down your spine. Utterly worth having.

All Round Success

Customer Rating:

First things first, Catherine Tate, what a reader. The range her voice has, has always astounded me. From watching The Catherine Tate show to hearing her speak naturally in interviews then as Donna in Doctor Who, she has a voice for every occasion, each with its own unique traits. The second thing you notice is the way she portrays the Doctor. As with every audiobook, the main characters are always the funniest ones to hear. Having had David Tennant portray Rose and Donna in a comical masculine-female way, to having Catherine Tate voice him with that know-it-all tone, is really the clincher for these products. Ignore the story for a second, if they can't get the voices right it's not worth it. And Tate really does it justice. Hats off to Abnett for yet another satisfying story in the world of Doctor Who and Torchwood. When you read his written words the images he creates are always wonderful, from the action packed sequences to those more tender moments, and as ever, Abnett manages this in audio form. I've found in the past that some stories can dry horribly when transferred from the page onto the waves, but this is something The Forever Trap does not do. The sound effects that litter the background add to the depth of the story and are well placed. They add tension when it is needed, excitement when the Doctor and Donna are facing certain doom. All in all the effects are well crafted and excellently placed, and add an entire new dimension to the story. Would it have had the same effect without them? Who knows, but its so perfect the way it is, I don't want to find out. When listening to audiobooks, I'm normally doing something else at the same time, like trying to sleep or drawing and painting a set for a drama production, like I was this time. With most audiobooks I can tend to switch off from them and continue with what I'm doing having the story as a background noise, The Forever Trap, on the other hand was the other way around. I found myself stopping what I was doing in order to listen to what was happening. I was so engaged with the story I had to know what happened next and I couldn't stop listening. I put down my paint brush and I listened to every word, every sound effect until it was over. I was impressed. Any niggles? No, not that I recall. Catherine Tate was an excellent reader with such a well crafted story. Like all Doctor Who storylines it had multiple strands, twists and turns and things you wouldn't expect. Everything I love about the show in one. Nothing ignored. The characters were spot on, the voices were great and overall, I left wanting more.

lost in escher

Customer Rating:

following on from the talking book doctor who: pest control, which had david tennant reading an original doctor who story and doing lots of different character voices, it's now catherine tate's turn to do one. like pest control, this is spread over two discs, each running for roughly one hour and ten minutes. there are no episode breaks in the middle of these discs, although there are chapters for ease of access, so essentially this is in two long episodes. the first does end on a cliffhanger. the story involves the doctor and donna getting stuck in the edifice, a huge apartment block come space station. the place has dissolved into chaos as all the other residents, including some highly unusual aliens, are fighting amongst each other. can the doctor and donna find who runs the place and save the day? catherine tate has an excellent reading voice and is good to listen to. she does a very good impression of david tennant as the doctor, and there was one point early on when I forgot it wasn't him speaking. she also does voices for many other characters. some of the male ones are a bit obvious but some of the alien ones are very imaginatives and work very well. the story scores over pest control in that it's a bit more imaginative, both in the unique setting and the highly unusual aliens the doctor and donna meet on their way. this possibly would be even stronger a piece of work if it was shorter, but that's a minor complaint as it's both an entertaining doctor who story and an enjoyable listen, thanks to the writer and the reader

Pitch-perfect characterisation of the Tenth Doctor and Donna partnership

Customer Rating:

"Doctor Who": The Forever Trap: No. 2 (Dr Who Audio Original 2) I know some folks have been less than impressed with Abnett's work for the Whoniverse thus far, but he has crafted a pitch-perfect story for the Tenth Doctor and Donna, and Catherine Tate clearly relishes reading it - on occasion she does a near-perfect impersonation of David Tennant's manic Tenth Doctor, and all her other character voices are easily distinguished from each other, and many really managed to convey aurally the charaters that I couldn't see. This audio novel is far superior to Peter Anghelides "Pest Control". I felt that Abnett created some interesting, original alien creatures and the story was well paced. Donna was incredibly Donna-ish - and I loved her to bits in this story. I cannot recommend it highly enough as it was a very satisfying story.