(AudioGo)

AS the countdown to the 2011 series of Doctor Who gets underway, you can whet your appetite for the Time Lord’s return with this exclusive audio book, read by Meera Syal who appeared in the 2010 Silurians two-parter.

Taking the Babel fish concept from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and then spinning it into a dangerous menace, the story focuses on the all-new anti-viral handwash Gemini, which has been laced with Meme-Spawn, a sentient microorganism which makes the user fluent in every universal language.

Unfortunately, the manufacturers failed to test it on humans, who have a very bad reaction to Gemini – trying to speak every language at once while being seized with a violent urge to communicate.

Into this mix come the Doctor and Amy, landing on an Earth-bound cargo ship loaded with Gemini and with the crew already succumbing to the virus. Unable to escape the ship, and with Amy facing imminent infection, the Doctor is faced with a terrible decision: does he save Amy or the Earth?

The quality of these audio exclusives continues to impress, and almost makes you wish they’d use some of the same stories on TV, which is high praise indeed. This is an engrossing little tale which is based on an interesting concept, although there is something of a plot hole in the fact that Gemini’s inventors never tested their product on its chosen customers - humans!