Whispers of Terror

Something grand and theatrical from the old school of acting no doubt, loud, bombastic, not my sort of thing really.

The Sixth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor and Peri find themselves in the Museum of Aural Antiquities, where every sound is stored for posterity – from the speeches of Visteen Krane to security service wire taps and interrogation tapes. But they also find an intruder, mysteriously changed recordings, and a dead body.

Before long the Doctor realises that there is more going on than a simple break-in or murder. How can he defeat a creature that is made of pure sound?

Review

Whispers of Terror is a story that only works on audio. It has a sound creature and one of the twists relies on it being a rug pull for one of the characters being blind. It’s nice to see Big Finish using the audio format to tell a deeply compelling story.

Listening to Whispers of Terror in 2026, it feels incredibly timely. With concerns about AI and it’s ability to make people say things that they haven’t, this story could have been released in the last few years rather than when Big Finish were in their infancy. The story also shows an aspiring politician trying to manipulate speeches to gain support. Richards has written a very good and fast paced story, which contains a minimal amount of clunky dialogue. This is early Big Finish ainnt its best, but there are still issues that need to be worked out. What is remarnkable about Whispers of Terror is the premise and making a story that solely works on audio. Moments like Fotherill’s death where he is murdered by sound waves is horrendously chilling. There is also a very small audio hint to the truth behind Visteen Krane’s apparent suicide. The story retains an element of 80s grunginess, both from Fotherill’s murder and Dent being murdered by Stedgard through being stabbed. There is also political intrigue here, with Krane believed to be about to announce a run for the presidency.

The guest cast ate strong here. The headliners are probably Peter Miles and Lisa Bowerman, who get to play against their usual Whoniversal norms. Miles is the blind curator of the Museum of Aural Antiquities who knows his exhibits back to front. Gantman is crucial for the story’s final twist, that the student, Miles Napton, is in fact not real and is in actuality, is Krane. Miles performs the role really well, with the commanding performance that a part like this requires. Bowerman plays the villain of the piece, Beth Pernell, Krane’s number two and widely expected to have been his running mate for the presidency. Bowerman does evil really well, portraying the unhinged Pernell with a sense of real menace.

There is no creature. Sorry, I was wrong.

Wrong? That’ll be a first.

You mean he’s never wrong?

I mean he never admits it.

The Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown & Detective Berkeley

The Doctor and Peri start off this story with the spiky dynamic that they had for the run of Season 22. This has softened slightly, but Richards has managed to make it more playful than it ever was on television. I particularly enjoyed Peri thinking that the Doctor was referring to her when he described the corridor they land in at the beginning of the story as being dim. There’s also a nice moment where she realises that the sound creature is imitating the Doctor over the radio, because she’s never known him admit to being wrong. It’s easy to feel sorry for Peri in the course of her travels with the Sixth Doctor, but in Whispers of Terror, she gives as good as she gets. She does get captured in this story, but it is only briefly, and she does manage to escape from Stengard and Pernell pretty easily. Nicola Bryant is good here on her return to the role.

Colin Baker relishes the chance to get his teeth into a gripping mystery. Baker commands every scene that he’s in, almost as if he is trying to make up for the fact that yh listener cannot see his multicoloured jacket. His ability to command a situation is almost his undoing, as Krane attempts to use the Doctor as a way to escape the Museum of Aural Antiquities.  Putting the Doctor on the backfoot allows us to see this Doctor in a different light, showing signs of the direction that Big Finish would take this incarnation in.

Verdict: Whispers of Terror is a gripping piece of early Big Finish Who. 8/10.

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown), Rebecca Jenkins (Amber Dent/Car Computer), Hylton Collins (Goff Fotherill/Computer Voice), Matthew Brenher (Visteen Krane), Harvey Summers (Radio Announcer), Peter Miles (Museum Curator Gantman), Mark Trotman (Miles Napton), Nick Scovell (Detective Berkeley), Steffan Boje (Hans Stengard), Lisa Bowerman (Beth Pernell), Justin Richards (Answerphone Message) & Jacqueline Rayner (Audio Voices).

Writer: Justin Richards

Director: Gary Russell

Music: Nicholas Briggs

Sound: Harvey Summers

Parts: 4

Main Range Release Number: 3

Original Release Date: November 1999

Behind the Scenes

• The first Main Range story not to feature the Fifth Doctor.
• Working titles for this story included The Sound of Fear and Sound Judgement.

Cast Notes

• Hylton Collins would also appear in Red Dawn, Storm Warning, Sword of Orion and Minuet in Hell.
• Matthew Brenher also appeared in Red Dawn, The Rapture and Chronomancer.
• Peter Miles played Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks. He also appeared in The Silurians and Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
• Nick Scovell also played Churchman in The Stones of Venice.
• Lisa Bowerman is best known for playing Bernice Summerfield for Big Finish, both in Doctor Who stories and her own spin-off. She has also played Ellie Higson in the Jago and Litefoot spin-off.
• Jacqueline Rayner has also appeared in The Holy Terror, Minuet in Hell and Dust Breeding.

Best Quote

Democracy – an outdated, unworkable system that dispenses power so thinly it hardly exists. A morally justifiable way of doing nothing. Procrastination made politic.

Beth Pernell

Previous Sixth Doctor review: The Brink of Death

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