‘TWEAKER’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Alan Collins meets the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa
This story is by Dan Abnett, and it features the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. This is my favourite story out of the ‘Short Trips: Transmissions’ collection of ‘Doctor Who’. In the story, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa attempt to obtain a certain music record from a collector called a tweaker named Alan Collins.
There is an audiobook version of ‘Tweaker’, read by John Banks. Originally, the audiobook version of ‘Tweaker’ was released to Big Finish subscribers with ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. That was how I was able to download it from Big Finish as well as the audiobook version of ‘Methuselah’.
Nowadays, ‘Tweaker’ is available to Big Finish subscribers with ‘Afterlife’. Like ‘Only Connect’, I enjoyed how John Banks read the story, especially with how he voiced the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. It’s also nice how he voiced Collins, in a similar manner to voicing James Willaker in ‘Only Connect’. 🙂
I like that ‘Tweaker’ is taken from Collins’ point of view when he meets the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, who he sees are watching him from a distance before he meets him. They visit his home, where he keeps records collected over the years. Collins’ ‘tweaker’ background was fascinating to check out. 🙂
Collins suspects the Doctor and Nyssa are some form of competition, especially when the Doctor mentions he has Konec Phonotron, which is a rare item for playing music. Collins tells the Doctor and Nyssa to ‘get out’ a few times; before the Doctor asks that he give up a certain record he’s keeping.
Understandably, Collins isn’t willing to give up one of his record collection. The Doctor offers an exchange, as he has certain record of an artist that Collins likes. The Doctor refuses to let Collins buy the record from him. Very soon, Collins reluctantly agrees to give up the record the Doctor requires.
The exchange is made and Collins has the special record the Doctor has given him. I liked the scene between the Doctor and Nyssa at the story’s end to explain why they wanted the certain record from Collins so badly. There’s a deadly scheme involving that record. It has ‘his Master’s voice’ on it.
‘Tweaker’ rating – 9/10
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