Day of the Cockroach [AUDIO/2012.5.3]

★★★☆☆

  I would hesitate to call it the standout release of the New Series Adventures Audio Exclusives range, but Day of the Cockroach does something worthy of mention, and that's a successful stab at creeping listeners out with mostly ambient sound effects while the narration (and therefore, the script) does almost all the heavy lifting in setting the scene. It's either this or my fear for cockroaches coming into play, and I'm inclined to believe that Steve Lyons simply did a wonderful job here.

  I'll be honest and say that Arthur Darvill being a pretty darn good narrator wasn't on my bingo cards, but here we are. He captures the three main characters with ease, and even gives a notable stab at all the other incidental characters as well. It's his assured tone and Lyons's script that bring Day of the Cockroach to life, a weird little tale about sentient bugs brainwashing people of 1982 into thinking a nuclear strike happened. It's the sort of oddball Dr. Who tale that I sometimes have the craving for, and with its unsettling atmosphere, genuinely creepy cockroach moments and a comparatively dark atmosphere to your usual NSA fix, I'd call this pretty enjoyable. Memorable, even.