Wirrn Isle – William Gallagher Free Audiobook

Written by William Gallagher
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 256 Kbps

Though intended to exploit the popularity of “Doctor Who – The Ark In Space [1974] [DVD] [1963]”, in particular the insect foes faced by the Fourth Doctor in that serial (as explained during the 15 minutes of interviews at the end of Disc Two), the first half of “Wirrn Isle” could have featured any creature really. Here human intelligence is combined with an insect body not via the Wirrn’s usual method of absorbing the knowledge of their prey, but as the result of a transmat accident. Thus William Gallagher’s script plays out more like a “Doctor Who” spin on “The Fly” than a follow-up to “The Ark in Space”.

Many of his character names don’t reflect the earlier serial either. Whereas in 1975 we had exotic, futuristic names such as Vira, Rogin, Lycett and Libri, here we meet a husband-and-wife team, Roger and Veronica Buchman (Tim Bentinck and Jenny Funnell), whose names appear to be deliberately mundane versions of Rogin and Vira. They have given their children the rather bizarre monikers of Iron and Toasty (Rikki Lawton and the endearingly voiced Tessa Nicholson). Of the Nerva descendants, only Paul (Glynn Sweet) seems like an authentic name to me, being a Biblically inspired designation for a leader, like Noah in “Ark”. Nor do these humans use the peculiar and precise speech patterns of Vira’s crew, though this could be a result of cultural blending with GalSec colonists – of whom we meet a couple of examples in the final two episodes.