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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 30, 2019 21:15:10 GMT
The Condemned.
This one story single-handedly justifies Big Finish.
A story like this is one the TV show could never tell. A companion from the future accidentally goes back along the doctors timeline and has to try and preserve the web of time? That is such an amazing concept.
The opening few minutes are particularly good, Colin and India are absolutely on fire. They establish so effortlessly that there is a brand new dynamic and things are not the same as they were (or will be?). His eye for details tears Charleys flimsy lies to shreds. I do rather like that he's slightly more season 22 than normal, even though this is post Evelyn.
Now, for the main story, I absolutely love how dark this is. This is not a happy story by any means. It takes a fairly straightforward alien invasion idea and pushes it back into it's R&D phase. not to mention possesing the buildings is such a novel way of doing it. This story earns a ton of points for originality.
Anna Hope gives both of our regulars a run for their money and establishes one of the single best recurring characters in BF's catalog. It's a real shame that she never had her chance to meet up with Jago and Litefoot as per the original Avenues of Possibility.
This story kicks off one of the best Main Range Arcs and is a shining jewel in their catalog.
Doctor Who at it's finest.
10/10
P.S The single flaw in this story is the trailer at the end, BLECH
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 30, 2019 22:22:27 GMT
Cuddlesome
I'm not sure what to say about this one.
It was never going to win any awards, but as something to kill an hour it does the job quite well.
Clearly based off the Furbies of the 90's, the cuddlesomes fufill their role well, but i'd swear the new ones were metatraxi in disguise.
7/10
Heaven help me with Dark Husband.
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Post by mark687 on Oct 30, 2019 23:22:03 GMT
Cuddlesome I'm not sure what to say about this one. It was never going to win any awards, but as something to kill an hour it does the job quite well. Clearly based off the Furbies of the 90's, the cuddlesomes fufill their role well, but i'd swear the new ones were metatraxi in disguise. 7/10 Heaven help me with Dark Husband. The original AV Production pre-dates the Furbie
Advice for Dark Husband Drink!
Regards
mark687
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2019 2:28:53 GMT
Cuddlesome I'm not sure what to say about this one. It was never going to win any awards, but as something to kill an hour it does the job quite well. Clearly based off the Furbies of the 90's, the cuddlesomes fufill their role well, but i'd swear the new ones were metatraxi in disguise. 7/10 Heaven help me with Dark Husband. The original AV Production pre-dates the Furbie
Advice for Dark Husband Drink!
Regards
mark687
How I wish I could Mark, how I wish I could. Listening at work means I'm getting paid to listen, but I'm not paid nearly enough to listen to this. Now with Dark Husband, The 1st brewster trilogy, Ultimate adventure and the death collectors coming up, is there any way I can just watch Time Flight on loop instead?
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2019 6:27:53 GMT
The Dark Husband.
It’s not as bad as I remembered it to be, but it’s still really bad.
Some how, I managed to glaze over for most of it so I can’t remember most of it. (Small mercy!)
What I do remember is pretty bad. Somehow, every single joke manages to fall flat. Which in itself is fairly impressive. He also seems quite keen on the theme of dualisms, hard to miss when he seems hell bent on bashing us over the head with it.
Philip Olivier is excellent as ever and Sophie is putting in a good effort. Now I think McCoy saw the quality of the script, because he made absolutely no impression on me what so ever.
The bards were particularly bad and when the doctor asked for a fast forward I was tempted to oblige him.
Avoid this at all costs, I wouldn’t take this if it was free.
3/10
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2019 9:38:05 GMT
Cuddlesome I'm not sure what to say about this one. It was never going to win any awards, but as something to kill an hour it does the job quite well. Clearly based off the Furbies of the 90's, the cuddlesomes fufill their role well, but i'd swear the new ones were metatraxi in disguise. 7/10 Heaven help me with Dark Husband. The original AV Production pre-dates the Furbie
Advice for Dark Husband Drink!
Regards
mark687
I've a strong impression it was a comment on Teddy Ruxpin dolls, Nigel Fairs mentions something about "killer teddy bears" in the book, Justyce Served. The remake is a light bit of fluff, but the 90-minute original is grim. Take Terror of the Autons, mix it in with the 1984 Edge of Darkness and you've got a close approximation of the tone. I think it was also the last story that Michael Wisher did for AV before the company metamorphosed, putting in a powerful performance as the grandfatherly -- but secretly deeply unhinged -- Mr Turvey, the Cuddlesome dolls' creator.
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Post by mark687 on Oct 31, 2019 11:35:35 GMT
The original AV Production pre-dates the Furbie
Advice for Dark Husband Drink!
Regards
mark687
How I wish I could Mark, how I wish I could. Listening at work means I'm getting paid to listen, but I'm not paid nearly enough to listen to this. Now with Dark Husband, The 1st brewster trilogy, Ultimate adventure and the death collectors coming up, is there any way I can just watch Time Flight on loop instead?Good alternative (though I do have a soft spot for The Death Collectors), but the 1st Brewster Trilogy from the end of Haunting is a massive ball drop.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2019 16:31:19 GMT
The original AV Production pre-dates the Furbie
Advice for Dark Husband Drink!
Regards
mark687
I've a strong impression it was a comment on Teddy Ruxpin dolls, Nigel Fairs mentions something about "killer teddy bears" in the book, Justyce Served. The remake is a light bit of fluff, but the 90-minute original is grim. Take Terror of the Autons, mix it in with the 1984 Edge of Darkness and you've got a close approximation of the tone. I think it was also the last story that Michael Wisher did for AV before the company metamorphosed, putting in a powerful performance as the grandfatherly -- but secretly deeply unhinged -- Mr Turvey, the Cuddlesome dolls' creator. I’ve never heard of those Teddy Ruxpin dolls, but for me they just fit the Furby mood so well I can’t help but picture them as the cuddlesome. I guess every generation has that one iconic toy that everyone remembers and as a child of the late 80’s I fell right into the Furby trap.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2019 16:35:39 GMT
Brave New Town
This story is a wonderful take on autons. It’s finally a story which takes them and does something other than an earth invasion a la spearhead and Terror.
There’s one or two instances where the dialogue could be a touch more polished, but other than that it’s got no major flaws that jump out at me.
The wonderfully bizarre town earns a solid 8/10 for me.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2019 21:07:34 GMT
Stargate SG-1: Gift of the Gods
After 200 or so Doctor Who and Doctor Who adjacent stories, this really is a breath of fresh air.
This story is fairly early in the SG-1 series, probably season 2/3 at the latest.
The writer, Sally Malcolm is new to BF, but clearly they did their research when they hired her, as she's written a handful of novels for the brand.
The story is good, and respects it's source material with nods to events in the series and a few tried and true cliches (Poor Daniel!).
Shanks comes off a little flat, but I think that's more a lack of familiarity with the format than anything else. John Schwab does a good job as well and has a fairly good american accent as well!
One tiny plot niggle is that generally the stargates themselves can only connect to another single gate at a time, but somehow they're connected to both another version of themselves AND a hostile Jaffa planet at the same time.
It's a real shame they could get the rights to, or at least remix the title theme to the main show, it doesn't feel quite right without it.
That aside this is a good story and a fine start to a range that was unfairly maligned by stargate fans.
8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 1, 2019 15:36:18 GMT
The Skull of Sobek
I don’t mind this story to be honest. No it won’t win any awards for being the strongest story that this particular tardis team has had but I do find it’s serviceable.
Conceptually a crocodile monster cult is a really cool thing that I’d love to see in the series, provided they get a good budget to do them.
Nothing really stands out, but nothing is horribly bad, so I’ll give it a 6/10.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 2, 2019 0:31:44 GMT
The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
Heaven help me.
So the first episode is almost completely doctor free, leaving us to spend a not so pleasant half hour with an idiot who is frankly incapable of following basic instructions to save his life.
The main musical sting starts to grate fairly early on.
There are a few good ideas sprinkled here and there throughout the story, the doctor pursuing him throughout his life, the origins of the baker street house. But even that is not enough to salvage this story.
On a first listen, this story would probably score higher, but knowing where brewster goes frankly it can't end fast enough.
1 down, six more terrible brewsters to go.
4/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 2, 2019 23:37:35 GMT
Grand theft Cosmos
After that last story, this is exactly what I needed.
After Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition and Ravenous, hearing this much joy and excitement from the 8th doctor is a real delight.
This light hearted joy of a tale buzzed along at a great pace, the jokes all land (Cream Cheese!) and you can tell the entire cast are having an absolute ball.
Paul and Sheridan are absolutely on fire. if I hadn’t been told, I’d have never guessed they recorded separately. No offense to India Fisher, Nicola Walker or Hattie Morahan or any of the others but McGann and Smith bring out the absolute best in each other. They are the definitive 8th doctor team.
As close to perfection as can be 10/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 3, 2019 23:45:29 GMT
Star Gate: Atlantis A Necessary Evil
A great start for the Atlantis range!
This is a story that would have been an excellent episode, slotting in perfectly before the season 3 finale.
Higginson steps back in to the role effortlessly. I do definitely think she outplayed her costar in this one.
I’d always liked the Weir character and to see how abruptly her storyline ended in the show always hurt.
I wish we’d gotten more with her, but as her sole entry it’s a great one.
8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 4, 2019 4:34:52 GMT
Assassin in the Limelight
Thank goodness that is over.
In an appreciably consistent manner, Robert Ross delivers a story which is both mind numbingly boring, but also a story that is painful to listen to.
While the previous stories had David Tennant and Roy Huff giving excellent performances, this story utterly fails in that regard. As consistent as Colin usually is, even he comes off as bored with this script.
Given that I’m in the final few stories with this team, it’s awful that I know actively dread any of this teams upcoming stories.
With a terrible plot, and characters that grate the nerves every time they open their mouths and the single most unimaginative vcover on a Big Finish release, this is a story that should never have left the drawing board.
2/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 4, 2019 9:14:54 GMT
The Death collectors
I’m sorry. I can’t make heads or tails of this.
I’ve no idea what was going on or what the dar traders do (auto correct really doesn’t like that name. Took three tries to get that down!)
A little to high concept for me, but I can see why I thought poorly of it before. I was definitely wrong to lump it In with dark husband and Brewster.
6/10
I hope the darkening eye helps make more sense of this when I get to it.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 4, 2019 22:26:14 GMT
Spider's Shadow
It really didn't take long to turn the melodrama up to 11, didn't it?
It starts off a little on the confusing side
I do rather like the fact that at the heart of the story, it's just the Doctor helping two sisters fix their relationship. It seems especially powerful coming from this particular Doctor, given all of his grand schemes and chessmaster nature.
I would love to see Katarina Olsson's contract, she seems to be in everything lately.
Solid enough, could have been a bit longer. 7/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 4, 2019 22:48:05 GMT
The Zygon Who Fell to Earth.
This one is a fantastic story, but it seems a bit tonally confused.
There starts with a bit of comedy but the story doesn't seem to want to commit to it. Personally, in my Big Finish experience, the best comedies have that edge of darkness to the (Omega, Piscon Paradox, Widow's Assassin) The darkness brings out the jokes better. But here, it feels like Magrs wasn't confident enough in the jokes he had to pursue it.
The emotional core of this story is utterly brilliant and starts sowing the seeds for later revelations.
8/10. Pity Magrs couldn't have hit the same level of quality for his next story.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 5, 2019 0:21:35 GMT
Stargate SG1: Shell Game
I really enjoyed this one.
Claudia Black was an excellent addition to SG1 and giving her a story to shine in was an inspired move. Even better was making sure that her costar was Michael Shanks as the two absolutely shine together.
The late SG1 tone is captured perfectly in this release. I could easily see this as a missing episode.
So far, every stargate release has been outstanding. I can't fathom why the stargate fanbase rejected these. Their loss.
8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 5, 2019 1:24:57 GMT
The Boy that time forgot.
40 minutes in, I'm drawing the line.
How anyone thought this was a good idea is beyond me.
I understand that Adric was not an overly popular character, but this is brutal. Compared to Divided Loyalties, that story was positively kind to Adric.
Magrs turns an unpopular character into an abomination. How Big Finish convinced Waterhouse to return to the role after they produced this is shocking.
If it were up to me, Magrs would never have written for BF again, Iris and Peterloo Massacre be damned.'
0/10
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