Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Stuart Milligan, Dan Starkey, Jo Woodcock, Lizzie Roper.

There are just so many excellent elements to Starlight Robbery that it is surely impossible to dislike. Aside from the sublime writing of Matt Fitton, who makes a welcome return after a few months away, you have the erstwhile Elizabeth Klein, portrayed as usual with great assurance and ease by Tracey Childs, the sublime Stuart Milligan reprising his role as Garundel and the inclusion of the great Dan Starkey playing every Sontaran under the sun, what more could you ever want in an audio C.D.?

Starlight Robbery follows on from the excellent Persuasion and yet whilst there is a lot more humour in this particular adventure for the Doctor, Klein and the young probationary Unit Science officer Will Arrowsmith, there are moments on which the listener understands that the darkness, the void in which good and evil resides, is never that far from blinking into existence.

Whilst the concept of persuasion is not shoved to the foreground as in the previous Sylvester McCoy tale, it peaks round small corners and sits under the noses of the listener who might not even notice that they are being coaxed into believing that the persuasion machine is more than an inducement, a tantalizing machine in which all the warring species are falling themselves over for, including the fantastic Sontarans for which Dan Starkey is unbelievably superb at capturing each facet of, the last couple of years portraying one of the finest characters in the revived series playing well in this audio. The art of urging on people to do what they feel they need to do is framed not by a machine but by the seller and with Garundel holding the auctioneers gavel the possibilities are endless.

Matt Fitton has taken this collection of almost disparate characters and people and turned the story into one that runs along gently, there is no need for manic fast paced story telling when you have the likes of Elizabeth Klein and The Doctor, the utter luxury of writing for a character who stands out as a key part of the Seventh incarnation of the Doctor’s life and the main man himself, being upstaged by Simon Milligan and Dan Starkey.

As listeners of the previous audio will have seen, persuasion comes in many forms. The Doctor is a master manipulator, even being on the side of good, he is able to manoeuver people into doing his bidding by sheer force of his conviction. This episode by Matt Fitton focuses on what persuasion can sound like when employed by someone who has all the skills of being charming and able to sell weapons of mass destruction to those with the lust of war coursing through their veins. It also draws neatly on the argument employed by arms sellers that they just provide a service; they are not the ones pulling the trigger, the utter absurdity of such a suggestion is either naively brutal or outrageously arrogant but in the silver tongued voice of Garundel, this premise takes on a new terrifying prospect. The question remains though that persuasion can be a force for good, a force in which to coax others in to doing what you believe to be good for them, so what happens when persuasion is used by those whose aim is to destroy you, the voice of anger and tyranny imploring mass destruction and hatred of another species.

Starlight Robbery is a fine addition to the canon, not just to Doctor Who but to Matt Fitton’s growing and seemingly unstoppable reputation as a writer of note as well.

Starlight Robbery is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall