THE GHOST TRAP

The Ghost Trap is a 2015 release from Big Finish‘s “Short Trips” range, and is the first time I’ve experienced this version of the range.  Short Trips are effectively narrated audiobooks by a key cast member.  The narration lasts for around a half-hour, and has some additional audio effects to enhance the reading.

The Ghost Trap is read by Louise Jameson, attempting to do the voices of her, the Doctor, and the aliens as necessary.  The different voices don’t really work and it would probably have been better if the story was just read, with more emphasis put on who’s doing the talking (the old “he said, she said”) instead of attempts at voices that sound pretty much the same, meaning you occasionally lose track of whether it’s Leela or the Doctor doing the talking.

The story itself starts slowly with the TARDIS landing on a cargo ship after the Doctor picks up a distress call.  They find three emaciated human corpses before finding similarly emaciated alien corpses.  Everyone is dead, and there’s a mysterious dark shadow following Leela.

The second half of the story increases the fear factor and rising dread as the Doctor figures out what’s happened, and Leela draws out the terrifying shadow of horrific faces.

It’s an acceptable story, if you allow yourself time to get into it. Short Trips are priced at £2.99 (download only) and, based on this single story, I’m not sure I’d want to buy too many more.  At the special price of 99p (as part of a weekend offer), all is good.  I prefer full-cast adventures, though, if I’m to be honest.