The Sentinels of the New Dawn [AUDIO/2011.4.14]

★★★☆☆

  It's always wonderful to listen to the late Caroline John's voice, narrating new adventures of Liz Shaw and her fiercely intelligent Doctor. It's a triumph of Season 7, their dynamic of mutual respect, and it bleeds into every story they share. The Sentinels of the New Dawn has many small, sweet moments where this respect pays off in dividens (for instance, Liz's description/musing on the Third Doctor shows a level of respect that doesn't go towards reverence, but rather a bittersweet, almost detached observation that he is a man beyond men -- and it goes to show how amazing she is when he trusts her with all his hearts).

  I've always had a soft spot for this story because I rather like conspiracy theories popping up in my science fiction stories; they're absolutely ridiculous in real life, and often times things that are ridiculous in real life tend to open the imagination in fiction. Here, the Sentinels of the New Dawn are your typical shadow organisation taking over the world covertly, using bio-weapons to lay waste to the world and anticipating opposition by using rudimentary time travel technology like a window. They're not the most original, mind, but they're still a whole heap of fun by being the stereotypical baddies in your 1970s spy action film, which this is very much in the veins of. Add a giant machine bird into the mix, as well as a few well-done chase sequences, and you've got yourself James Bond in the future (or to us, eight years in the past) -- the ultimate amalagamation of early-70s fictional cliches dished up remarkably with the efforts of Paul Finch and Lisa Bowerman. The Sentinels of the New Dawn is the kind of audio drama you listen to while you sit back and close your eyes; it knows its goals as a spy fiction thriller/action adventure romp and it delivers a heck of an engaging story.