Expectations for "The Rapture" couldn't have been lower - and that's never a bad thing. THAT trailer was hilarious - a Doctor Who based around the Ibiza club scene when virtually nobody working on it was under thirty really set the impression. Forty year old teenagers yelling "I can't stop dancing!" and Tony Blackburn confirmed it. From THAT trailer onwards, this was always going to be a riot of a story.

The episodes themselves are even better, from "Fandabydozy!" to "Behooooold the rapture!". And here's the thing - it's all done so naively, the joy and determination of a new writer shining through - that it's utterly unpretentious, so you can't help but actually love it. No matter that Anne Bird is dreadful, that's just funny. There's no disappointment there because none of this was EVER going to work on a serious level. Come on, a Doctor Who story sound tracked by cheesy Ibiza dance music? Even Ace's character development works, because her new brother Liam is so refreshingly normal. Although may I take the chance to say how flawed the assertion that Ace actually NEEDED developing was? What difference does it make that most listeners haven't read the books? They - and her - were still shoved down our collective throats. Still, somehow here it works.

So this was never going to work. Then how come it does, and beautifully? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Ibiza may be the club capital, but it also evokes gently lapping early morning shores. There is no dance music at all in Episode 3. The writer has the sense to inform the script with his own experiences, so whilst all the dialogue that's shouted out in The Rapture may be more Kevin and Perry than Pete Tong, Catriona's reflections on her depression and Gabriel's reasoning that such inner problems are merely the last resort of a generation with nothing left to fight against are both mature and touching. In fact Anne Bird is actually great in Episode 2 - only lapsing when she's required to act like a drugged up teenager on a high.

If I have one abiding memory of my thoughts after first hearing "The Rapture" it's that, strangely given the unconventional setting, the structure was reassuringly traditional. We may feel more at home when Doctor Who is set in jungles and sinister warehouses, but it's more disappointing when it ends nonsensically. There are no time paradoxes here, and no convenient incidents to wrap up the plot. Because, and fancy that, it turns out that "The Rapture" is about people after all, not a nightclub or Tony Blackburn (who is hardly in it). Jude's simple plight - to help his brother regain his mind - is a pleasantly simple one, and mirrors Liam's attempts to help Catriona. In the end, it's just about people trying to help each other.

It's hard to avoid something that you initially laughed at sneaking up on you and emerging as really good, because it's a nice feeling. "The Rapture" makes me question my own negativity, and feel ashamed that my apparent sense of humour didn't stretch to thinking all this could still make me FEEL. There's more to "The Rapture" than first meets the ear.

CD Facts

Part 1 - Tracks 1-4

Part 2 - Tracks 5-8

Part 3 - Tracks 1-4

Part 4 - Tracks 5-8