|
Post by Digi on Jun 17, 2022 2:58:45 GMT
Lately I've been listening to the new XDAs alongside the early MRs I originally skipped past. Gotta say--and maybe I'm mistaken and this is all in my head--I feel like the XDAs have thus far very deliberately tried to mimic specific eras of the TV show (and that seems to be the trend for future releases, too) whereas the early MRs, while not a.ways successful, we're a bit more ambitious about playing with the classic themes, tone and formatting. Basically I'm saying that between these very new stories and very old stories--both of which I'm listening to for the first time--I'm finding the older ones to be fresher and more imaginative. Which isn't exactly something I can also say with regard to the later MRs, but... well, you know. Suffice it to say I now miss the Monthly Range more than I thought I would. .... Also, looks like that MR price decrease I predicted so long ago is finally happening... a far smaller decrease affecting far fewer stories than I supposed, but welcome all the same. I currently own 195 Monthly Range stories (sans special releases) so I still have quite a few left to finish out my collection. The Gary Russell era was...different, for sure. I feel like they took a lot more creative risks than after he departed. When it paid off, it did so in spades, but when it didn't....well, we got schlock like Minuet in Hell. I think the revival of DW on TV also really significantly changed the calculus in terms of the stories that Big Finish was able to tell. I don't mean to bag on any of the writers here, they've all done extraordinary work no matter what era of Big Finish governance we're talking about. But I think it's just reality that wilderness years Who was one thing with one set of rules and content allowances, and 2005- era Who is something much more family-friendly, and the tone and content of Big Finish's DW stories is reflective of that. I don't really know where I was going with this, just that I think the (noticeable) tonal shift in Monthly Range stories isn't exactly a question of quality per se, just a change of the 'rules' and best understood through that prism.
|
|
|
Post by chrism1999 on Jun 17, 2022 15:05:25 GMT
I think the revival of DW on TV also really significantly changed the calculus in terms of the stories that Big Finish was able to tell. I don't mean to bag on any of the writers here, they've all done extraordinary work no matter what era of Big Finish governance we're talking about. But I think it's just reality that wilderness years Who was one thing with one set of rules and content allowances, and 2005- era Who is something much more family-friendly, and the tone and content of Big Finish's DW stories is reflective of that. I don't really know where I was going with this, just that I think the (noticeable) tonal shift in Monthly Range stories isn't exactly a question of quality per se, just a change of the 'rules' and best understood through that prism. Night Thoughts is the classic example here. When it was first commissioned, before the revival was on the air, the BBC seem to have basically nodded it through like some of the more 'edgy' VNAs of the earlier wilderness years. Come time to release it, and now we're back on the air and there's a little more attention being paid by the production team on TV to what else is being released; the finished product is sent to them for approval and OH MY GOD WHAT THE FRESH HELL HAVE WE AUTHORISED.
|
|
|
Post by Kestrel on Jun 20, 2022 16:02:14 GMT
The Gary Russell era was...different, for sure. I feel like they took a lot more creative risks than after he departed. When it paid off, it did so in spades, but when it didn't....well, we got schlock like Minuet in Hell. I think the revival of DW on TV also really significantly changed the calculus in terms of the stories that Big Finish was able to tell. I don't mean to bag on any of the writers here, they've all done extraordinary work no matter what era of Big Finish governance we're talking about. But I think it's just reality that wilderness years Who was one thing with one set of rules and content allowances, and 2005- era Who is something much more family-friendly, and the tone and content of Big Finish's DW stories is reflective of that. I don't really know where I was going with this, just that I think the (noticeable) tonal shift in Monthly Range stories isn't exactly a question of quality per se, just a change of the 'rules' and best understood through that prism. I don't know. Maybe I'm just misremembering many of the early MRs (how would you define the "Gary Russel" era? EG from which # to which #?) but I don't feel like the average tone was all that dissimilar to what RTD (and later Moffat) were doing. Many of my favorites seem perfectly at home with that era--which is largely what brought me into Big Finish in the first place. Like many, I suspect, my first audio (at emphatic recommendation) was Storm Warning, and I loved it precisely because it had a very similar tone, texture and feel to what I most loved about New Who. Likewise my favorites, like The Marian Conspiracy, or Creatures of Beauty. I know of a few MRs that went kind of dark, but in general i think those are exceptions: I don't find the tone to be anything that would have fit in fairly well with the TV show. Several MR story concepts were even repurposed for the TV show, right? And vice versa. Maybe I'm being too vague, and I apologize, but im finding this hard to articulate. I suppose you could say im finding the XDAs too unambitious? In that they seem to be aimed at fans of the TV show with no real desire to establish or build on any new continuity. I mean, I loved that first(?) 5DA set, but it was mostly just about the TARDIS team working through their trauma and grief over Adric. Which is fine, but also something we've seen before.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2022 18:15:39 GMT
The Gary Russell era was...different, for sure. I feel like they took a lot more creative risks than after he departed. When it paid off, it did so in spades, but when it didn't....well, we got schlock like Minuet in Hell. I don't really know where I was going with this, just that I think the (noticeable) tonal shift in Monthly Range stories isn't exactly a question of quality per se, just a change of the 'rules' and best understood through that prism. I don't know. Maybe I'm just misremembering many of the early MRs (how would you define the "Gary Russel" era? EG from which # to which #?) but I don't feel like the average tone was all that dissimilar to what RTD (and later Moffat) were doing. I would probably define the "Gary Russell era" from Doctor Who [monthly] release #1 to around #90 (Year of the Pig) and I think if I'm being honest I'd be hard pushed to find one absolute tone for those releases! It was one Producer's era, but boy were those monthly releases a broad church... there was just about everything you could think of in there somewhere; including chocolate cake and singing! Not everything was family friendly though which is probably the point Digi is trying to make, as clearly the rules Big Finish had to play by were different once Doctor Who had returned to BBC1 in 2005.
|
|
|
Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jun 27, 2022 11:01:24 GMT
Coming this week.. BF Twitter reminder.
|
|
|
Post by Kestrel on Jun 29, 2022 2:10:03 GMT
I don't know. Maybe I'm just misremembering many of the early MRs (how would you define the "Gary Russel" era? EG from which # to which #?) but I don't feel like the average tone was all that dissimilar to what RTD (and later Moffat) were doing. I would probably define the "Gary Russell era" from Doctor Who [monthly] release #1 to around #90 (Year of the Pig) and I think if I'm being honest I'd be hard pushed to find one absolute tone for those releases! It was one Producer's era, but boy were those monthly releases a broad church... there was just about everything you could think of in there somewhere; including chocolate cake and singing! Not everything was family friendly though which is probably the point Digi is trying to make, as clearly the rules Big Finish had to play by were different once Doctor Who had returned to BBC1 in 2005.
Ah, I see, thank you. As for being "family friendly," I think that's kind of a weird line. The 2005 show, for example, was definitely pushing some things far more than Big Finish ever did--more references to sex (that scene of Billie Piper groping herself... oof), Jack's pansexuality, and then the body horror in S1, and then just a year or two later they really went off the deep end with Torchwood, giving us (among other things) iconic creatures like, "sexy cyberman in a metal bikini."
|
|