Grand Theft Cosmos [AUDIO/2008.5.?]

★★★★☆

  A simply delightful experience for most of its runtime, Grand Theft Cosmos is Eddie Robson setting out to write a Dr. Who heist story, getting so much into it that every scene is filled with the most wonderful lines and crammed with the sunniest atmosphere -- up until he discovers that the story must have some kind of ending. Robson then proceeds to smack a sort of resolution from his mind's bag and calls it a day. It's a shame the final... what, ten minutes?... were so obviously written in different mindsets, because the breathless energetic pace of the majority of this audio drama is infectious. It quite literally whisks you off into a high-spirited adventure in 19th-century Sweden, with all the trappings of a good heist plot: mingling with the royalty, an equally cunning and devious opponent, exchanges of private information over the lunch table, the lot. There's a handful of fun uniquely Dr. Who things throw in for good measure as well, including the return of the wonderful Headhunter, a stone golem guarding a jewel which contains a pocket universe inside it, the use of Elvis Presley's name as a codeword/activation passphrase for mind-crontrolled royal guards, not to mention a scrumptious performance from Christopher Benjamin as the alien artist Tardelli... and I was somehow not supposed to enjoy it to bits? Grand Theft Cosmos forgets it's supposed to have an ending halfway through, and therefore hastily finds itself one within the last ten minutes, but that's the only flaw I can think of in this otherwise sublime piece of work. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith sound positively revved up with all the energy of the script, and their performances here are top notch. Whenever I'm on the train, I get the itch to listen to this thing.