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Sarah Jane Smith is helping out on a school trip. On the way
home, the group stop off at the Stone Whisperers, a dozen
standing stones enclosed by a dome. Set apart from the circle
is a thirteenth stone, the King Stone. Legend has it that
this was once an evil king who was captured in battle by twelve
knights and turned into stone. To keep him imprisoned, the
knights also turned to stone, holding him forever in their
power. Nice story, but it’s just a myth - isn’t
it? Luke finds himself strangely drawn to the King Stone.
Over two metres high, and covered in moss, it glows with a
strange, unearthly light. When the secret of the stones is
finally revealed, the school party’s enthusiasm turns
to terror...
“I
had enormous fun writing The Thirteenth Stone,”
explains its author, prominent Who novelist and editor
Justin Richards. “It’s always slightly daunting
writing a story that is going to be read aloud. You really
have to be at your best. But knowing that Elisabeth Sladen
- Sarah Jane Smith herself - was going to be reading it was
a tremendous boost to the confidence as well as a huge privilege.”
Sladen
is certainly no stranger to the audio medium, having played
Sarah on vinyl in Doctor
Who and the Pescatons,
on radio in Exploration:
Earth,
The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space,
and in two series of Sarah Jane Smith CDs from Big
Finish Productions. It remains to be seen (or heard) how Sarah’s
precarious fate at the end of the Big Finish series fits in
with her exploits in School
Reunion
and The Sarah Jane Adventures, but here Sladen succeeds
in bringing the various characters to life, including different
tones of voice for Maria, Clyde and two quite distinct versions
of Luke.
Just
as television episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures
are half the length of an episode of modern Doctor Who,
so this CD runs to just one disc (70 minutes), as opposed
to the double-disc releases of Tenth Doctor audio books. The
author throws in a few subtle nods to Who history along
the way, though I should point out that the Stone Whisperers
have nothing to do with the Ogri from The
Stones of Blood.
Richards’s
story is lower on incident and humour than Stephen Cole’s
The
Glittering Storm,
though his characterisation (and Sladen’s reading) of
the desperately dreary teacher, Mr Bradbury, did bring a smile
to my face.
Compared
with The Glittering Storm, The Thirteenth Stone
left me a little cold - but not stone cold.
Richard
McGinlay
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