Only Human by Gareth Roberts

A good short read for an afternoon or a great book for kids, this Doctor Who story goes right back to series one and features Rose, Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor and Captain Jack.

We open with a strange diary entry from 7 year old Chantal in the year 438,533. Humans are obviously still around, but language has shifted. Chantal speaks of 'wrong-feelings' and genetically re-engineering her cat.

From this unsettling entry we are hurtled into far more familiar territory, the carnage of people in fancy dress in a present day nightclub, a brawl begun over one bloke looking at another's girlfriend the wrong way and the thug who bites off more than he can chew when he picks a fight with a caveman. Except this one really is a caveman, well, a Neanderthal to be precise, a long long way from his own time.

Cue the TARDIS, and Rose, the Doctor and Jack just about to go on holiday to Kegron Pluva when a flashing warning light indicates a temporal disturbance and, as usual, the holiday is derailed for high adventure in 2005AD and 29,185BC involving Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens, humans from the 437th century and some lethal genetic engineering. The very best of Doctor Who, excellent witty characterisation and great imagination.

Torchwood: The Lost Files AUDIO

Three Radio 4 full cast dramas set before the Children of Earth series

The Devil and Miss Carew is the simplest of the three adventures.  Rhys' great uncle dies drawing him and Gwen to the nursing home to pick up his belongings, but they encounter a resident speaking of other residents that have left with their life force restored to them.  As increasing power cuts disable the country and the world Gwen tracks down Miss Carew, previously dying from terminal heart failure, now back at the helm of her computing company, and Torchwood homes in on an alien force communicating via the Shipping Forecast.

In Submission the team receive a distress signal heard throughout the world through the water.  It's source is the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the sea.  Ianto is reunited with an old friend from Torchwood One and the team journey to the bottom of the sea.

In The House of the Dead it's closing night at the pub of the same name known as the most haunted pub in Wales.  As last orders are called a psychic calls on the dead to contact their loved ones, and Jack bursts in trying to stop the seance.  The ghosts start arriving, Jack's behaviour becomes erratic and Ianto and Gwen are torn between their trust in him and worry for him.  At first a good story, but then with a twist at the end that is a real punch to the gut, elegantly and devastatingly plotted.

All three plays carry each in their own way speak of what death is, how it defines life and The Lost Files is a precursor of and paen to the events to come in the Children of Earth story arc.  A great chilling collection.

Torchwood: Department X by James Goss (AUDIO), read by Kai Owen

Torchwood (if it's alien, it's ours) operatives Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are working undercover (cosmetics, and gentlemen's clothing) at GR Owen, Cardiff's ageing department store in the last throes of decline with a brand new shopping mall next door nailing the lid on the coffin.

As GR Owen is threatened with takeover and being turned into flats this is Captain Jack Harkness' last opportunity to solve one of Torchwood's oldest mysteries, the disappearance of the eponymous GR Owen, original owner of the store, and the location of the Department of Curiosities.  It doesn't help that the building itself keeps trying to kill him, pitching him down a lift shaft, dropping a chandelier on him, but he keeps coming back.

Firestone bank has brought in the administrators and within the claustrophobic confines of dated bedding department, gentlemen's wear, home furnishings, and behind the scenes among a labyrinth of unsold stock the tension racks up bit by bit.  A great version of the haunted house story, narrated by Kai Owen, the actor who plays Gwen's wonderful long-suffering husband Rhys.

Good story, and great narration, a quality bit of entertainment. Not suitable for young children, probably young adult upwards, given the black and adult nature of some of the jokes in the older sibling Doctor Who spinoff series.