It’s time to listen to and discuss The Sandman
Buy it online using the link above, or listen for free - you’ll find links where to listen free on the story page!
Once you’ve listened, talk about it below! Even if you listened to it before and just want to discuss it - dive right in! Just please use spoiler tags where appropriate.
Everyone who participates will get a coveted Audio Club badge! 
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Jenna Coleman is great in the Sandman as Johanna Constantine. Pretty much an iconic role for her.
The Sandman is one of those stories that just isn’t much to behold.
It’s idea is brilliant - the Doctor is the bogeyman to a whole species - but then you actually get to the episode and it doesn’t do a single interesting thing with it.
More than anything, The Sandman is disappointing, because it could’ve been great.
Alas, it is not.
4/10
Full review here. If you enjoy, feel free to drop a like:
I have definitely listened to this audio, but can I remember it? No, not really, and that’s saying something… I’ve been a fan of Colin’s audios so far, but I just couldn’t connect with this one.
I don’t even think I can give it an accurate rating, given my lack of memory here.
Another Colin audio that leaves me cold. I know everyone round here rags on the 5th Doctor audios, but for me there are far more proper low lows with Ol’ Sixie - …ish, The Year of the Pig, Pier Pressure, The Nowhere Place (I literally remember nothing about that story), 100 BC, Patient Zero and this one, The Sandman. (Admittedly 6 also has some stratspheric highs but still…)
I very recently listened to The Bone of Contention again, which is the Benny story with the Galyari. I did enjoy it, but it’s a very dense story with a lot of war and politics - it’s slow and does drag in places, and you’ve got to pay attention.
But this is not a Benny story. In fact, the only reason I bring it up is because I can not remember even one tiny little thing about The Sandman, which leads me to believe it’s unremarkable, and as it’s by the same guy as Contention, I can imagine it’s also dense and slow.
I think therefore the issue is that Forward wants to write hard SF instead of DW, and the thing about DW is that when people go hard SF with it, it almost invariably doesn’t work
This one thinks it’s far cleverer than it is, unfortunately, and that’s most of my recollection of it.
Powering through this before I leave for Eras Tour and then a 5 night cruise this weekend and… it’s completely unremarkable. I’m not bored but I’m certainly not entertained either.
The only part of this audio I liked was when Six was “stimming” with the chair he was sitting in, to Evelyn’s great chagrin (this was while they were waiting for such-and-such to show up in the office). Everything else can go.
Oh boy, what did I just listen to?
Answer: I literally don’t know! I was aware of the questionable reputation The Sandman has among the fandom, but I didn’t expect this dumpster fire.
You could say that Simon A. Forward has got everything backwards with this story - he doesn’t know how to or care about writing a fun, enjoyable Doctor Who adventure.
The Sandman is dull, monotone, confusing, and pretentious. Baker and Stables are lost in the mix of confusing sound effects and voice-modulated performances. Anneke Wills (yes, that Anneke Wills!) is wasted in a performance you don’t notice. The basic idea of the Doctor being a legendary monster from a children’s fairytale is good but amounts to nothing. This one is frustrating, annoying, and utterly crap. It makes me angry and sad, as I know I dislike it but can’t remember why. I blame you, Simon Forward!
Sandman is one of those audios that I really want to like more than I do. And I think part of it is that it’s the wrong Doctor. I feel like “the Doctor pretends to be an ancient bogeyman to solve a problem” is far more of a Seventh Doctor move than a Sixth Doctor one. And honestly, the bit about them being unable to look at Sixie’s coat and that becoming a mythological attack is just a bit too clever for its own good. A good rewrite, and maybe a switch of cast, would do a lot to salvage this.
I went into this not knowing what the general consensus is (did you know you can hide ratings on stories you have not yet rated on TARDIS Guide? I recommend doing that, because seeing others’ opinions can affect your judgement) - actually, for some reason I thought this was going to be a really well-liked story, I had it confused with something else, but also Evelyn is usually brilliant.
Well, it started out interesting - love the idea of the Doctor being a bogeyman, and of The Clutch, very good ideas - but terribly executed. I had to read the plot on TARDIS Wiki afterwards because I was so confused. I’m still not any wiser.
Not a fan! Moving on…
I think in theory and on paper I like this one. The ideas are something I would enjoy and find interesting. Though the final execution makes that the story starts to muddle and feel like how the cover looks. Ideas are introduced, and it’s cool, and then… stuff happens. That’s the best I can describe it.
Thingythings happen that maybe in a book would work better, but I found it a bit difficult like this to get immersed in the story.
Well, this was just bad…
