Doctor Who - Audio Details

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 changing 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?

The starting point for Whispers of Terror was a desire to do something with the aural medium that just could not be done in the same way on television or in a novel.  Having decided that, I then turned to Shakespeare - always a useful inspiration, I find! - and asked myself, What if the voice of her conscience that drives Lady Macbeth to suicide were 'real'?  Just as her husband actually sees Banquo's ghost, what if she really hears someone whispering to her - driving her quite deliberately to suicide?

I was aware as I was writing that I was asking for a lot technically.  But it was only during the recording that I realised the extent of my ambition.  Sitting beside Harvey Summers while he sighed and swore and mumbled about how BBC studio engineers would say all this was impossible only confirmed my evolving suspicions.  I was indeed asking a lot both of the technicians and the actors.  But as you will hear, I was asking it of the people best qualified in the world to deliver.

Justin Richards, July 1999