Doctor Who: The Library of Alexandria

A First Doctor story told from the perspective of Ian. The TARDIS arrives in 4th century Alexandria, during the final years of the titular library. The first half of the story plays out as a straight historical, and one in which the travellers are relaxing and enjoying the sights, rather than facing any obvious peril. As Susan points out, what exactly happened to the Library, and when it happened, are unclear from the perspective of 21st century history, so that the force of the First Doctor's “not one line” philosophy is notably blunted.

In the second half, however, it becomes clear that the Library was destroyed by giant shape-shifting aliens, something that wouldn't have happened on the TV show of the era even if the budget and technology had allowed it. As a result, despite the unusual recourse of splitting the action by having Hypatia, rather than Ian, narrating parts of it, this half of the story is weaker than the first. Plus, given the short length of the story, and the aliens not arriving until the half way point, they have to be dealt with in a fairly perfunctory manner.

This is a story that would have worked better in the longer, full cast, format of the regular audio plays, something that wasn't an option for First Doctor stories at the time. And Russell's voice is, unsurprisingly, very much betraying his age - he was in his late 80s when this was recorded. The ending is also rather predictable; I saw both of the ‘surprise' revelations at the end coming a mile off.

Yet, despite all this, it's still a good story, as pretty much everything by Guerrier is. The first half of the story, at least, fits in perfectly with the TV era, with good characterisation of Ian and guest character Hypatia, including some nice touches based around Ian's relationship with Barbara. Hypatia's eventual real-world fate is only hinted at (albeit quite heavily hinted, for those who know their history), and the story is a good deal more upbeat than one might expect for the subject matter.

Listeners will inevitably have different opinions as to whether these high quality elements outweigh the (mostly unavoidable) weaknesses. I felt that they did, although that may be in part because I'm a big fan of historicals - even ones with giant shape-shifting aliens in them. 3.5 stars, rounded up.