melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Nov 20, 2019 19:46:20 GMT
Over the past week or two I've been reading some of McCoy's novelisations on-and-off.
'At the minute I'm currently reading 'Enter Wildthyme', which I might finish tonight, before moving on to 'The Curse Of Fenric' and 'Revelation Of The Daleks' over the weekend.
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Post by newt5996 on Nov 26, 2019 0:59:59 GMT
Giving The Empire of Glass a reread for pleasure as I remember only thinking it was okay on initial reading. This time around I've been enjoying it much more and can see why a pdf was released by the BBC.
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Post by tuigirl on Dec 1, 2019 13:24:09 GMT
Voyager, the first 6th Doctor comic book. This is wonderfully absurd, with really great art. Better than I expected. And a great introduction to Frobisher.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2019 7:18:18 GMT
Voyager, the first 6th Doctor comic book. This is wonderfully absurd, with really great art. Better than I expected. And a great introduction to Frobisher. "Logic tells you the world is round, but logic is a new toy..." Some of my absolute favourites those stories. I don't think you could replicate them in quite the same way. There are loads of ways you could interpret Voyager itself -- a nightmare or a warped state of reality. Something perhaps in between? I can't remember who first came up with it, but there's an account that states the Web of Time was what established causality as we recognise it. Cause meeting effect in a logical, rational and scientific fashion. Before then was the Old Times. Where superstition reigned and space-time was... for want of a better word, soft. There's every possibility that Voyager plucked up the TARDIS and placed it down before the Web was established. It may be a rare glimpse into a cosmos before the Time Lords or to the deepest imaginings of the Doctor. Interesting stuff either way, eh?
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Post by tuigirl on Dec 2, 2019 8:39:55 GMT
Voyager, the first 6th Doctor comic book. This is wonderfully absurd, with really great art. Better than I expected. And a great introduction to Frobisher. "Logic tells you the world is round, but logic is a new toy..." Some of my absolute favourites those stories. I don't think you could replicate them in quite the same way. There are loads of ways you could interpret Voyager itself -- a nightmare or a warped state of reality. Something perhaps in between? I can't remember who first came up with it, but there's an account that states the Web of Time was what established causality as we recognise it. Cause meeting effect in a logical, rational and scientific fashion. Before then was the Old Times. Where superstition reigned and space-time was... for want of a better word, soft. There's every possibility that Voyager plucked up the TARDIS and placed it down before the Web was established. It may be a rare glimpse into a cosmos before the Time Lords or to the deepest imaginings of the Doctor. Interesting stuff either way, eh? I certainly had not expected THAT- and I am sure they would be unable to publish this today.
I am a bit sad that all these high concepts and experimental ideas get sidelined and forgotten these days and instead we get these more streamlined (and in some cases watered down) stories.
Yes, it is a bit harder to wrap your head around absurd stories, but I find it very gratifying.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 6:20:36 GMT
"Logic tells you the world is round, but logic is a new toy..." Some of my absolute favourites those stories. I don't think you could replicate them in quite the same way. There are loads of ways you could interpret Voyager itself -- a nightmare or a warped state of reality. Something perhaps in between? I can't remember who first came up with it, but there's an account that states the Web of Time was what established causality as we recognise it. Cause meeting effect in a logical, rational and scientific fashion. Before then was the Old Times. Where superstition reigned and space-time was... for want of a better word, soft. There's every possibility that Voyager plucked up the TARDIS and placed it down before the Web was established. It may be a rare glimpse into a cosmos before the Time Lords or to the deepest imaginings of the Doctor. Interesting stuff either way, eh? I certainly had not expected THAT- and I am sure they would be unable to publish this today.
I am a bit sad that all these high concepts and experimental ideas get sidelined and forgotten these days and instead we get these more streamlined (and in some cases watered down) stories.
Yes, it is a bit harder to wrap your head around absurd stories, but I find it very gratifying.
Yeah, part of that I think is the stigma (or at the very least, apprehension) that's been held towards mediums like comics or science fiction. Both are getting shaken quite thoroughly loose these days. You can't really point to a character like Frobisher and say that he'd be unmarketable anymore. Not after Rocket's appearance in the extremely high-grossing Infinity War/Endgame. The interest's definitely there. Unwriteable? That's a bit trickier. I think if he were ever to come over to Big Finish, he'd be a Special Release character purely because you want to get him right each time. I'd say he's not an easy character to write for, but a very rewarding one. Like, as a writer, I knew what I personally considered (un)believable was completely arbitrary when I discovered that lobsters injected with a radioactive explosive compound in their chitin was unacceptable, but giant alligators mutated by a growth hormone dumped in the Louisiana bayou was a-okay. Reality's often stranger than fiction, after all. The one I always remember is cordyceps fungus hijacking ants' nervous systems, which sounds an awful lot like The Web Planet on a much smaller scale. A large part of making these stories work, I think, is you do what actors do and treat it as something genuine. Not necessarily serious in the sense of being grim, but an authentic experience. For these characters, in this setting, these circumstances are very real and quite threatening. They matter. The Doctor throughout Voyager is disturbed by Astrolabus's apparent hold over his life. Just as much as by the figure who's set to punish everyone for a single man's mistakes. The fantasy is tied to something quite authentic. Very human emotions. I think if you can nail both halves of that -- the high fantasy and the true feeling -- the storyteller can pull it off. (And if you enjoyed that, I recommend picking up The Tides of Time, which does something very similar with the Fifth Doctor. It's a bit more grounded by comparison, but the off-the-wall imagery and ideas are still very much there.)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2019 21:45:47 GMT
TSV's novelisation of City of Death. Inordinately recommended. A little different from the commercial version by James Goss, but no less entertaining. I always like coming back to it for the lovely prologue between the young Doctor and the Hermit, and the first chapter with the Doctor having thrown together Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Chippendale, Will Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Napoleon Bonaparte and many more besides for a quiet evening dinner party. It really shouldn't work and yet: Quite cheerfully, it does. The whole thing from beginning to end just overwhelms you with its charm.
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Dec 6, 2019 6:09:24 GMT
Finally read Twelve Angels Weeping – WOW. All the stories are good and some of them – Celestial Intervention in particular – are some of the best Doctor Who short stories I've read. Lots of unique, different angles on Doctor Who monsters. The Weeping Angel story fits perfectly with what's established but also manages to tell a really new story with them that doesn't just rely on the usual tricks. Celestial Intervention might be the best take on the Doctor's backstory I've read. It even has looms!
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Post by newt5996 on Dec 6, 2019 18:16:32 GMT
I've started Mark Morris' Deep Blue, but as I'm super busy with exams and finishing the semester, I haven't read much.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Dec 7, 2019 5:58:02 GMT
I can imagine the petulant whinging manxchildren of the world clutching their pearls in terror when they read the prelude to “Star Tales” because the driving motivation for the Doctor to regale Yaz with stories of some of the famous people she’s met is .... {Spoiler} Yaz is mensutrating and the Doctor is helping her like they’ve helped her other companions in the past, reflecting its a little easier this time because she’s also female this time.
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Post by newt5996 on Dec 12, 2019 4:01:12 GMT
Because I needed something to take my mind off my final exam in the morning I decided to reread Lungbarrow which is just a magical experience
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
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Post by ljwilson on Dec 24, 2019 12:32:50 GMT
Not read as such, but for Christmas I've bought myself:
Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters Doctor Who and the Daleks The Deviant Strain ('cos I like Justin Richards' stuff)
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Post by constonks on Jan 9, 2020 1:59:51 GMT
Devoured Birthright in a day and a half. Enjoyed it quite a lot - it moves at a brisk pace and the first half is a good demonstration of what Benny's solo adventures had the potential to be! For all that I barely remember Timewyrm: Apocalypse, this has made me want to give Nigel Robinson a second chance on that one.
Moving onto Iceberg now! What better time than 2020 to read a book set in 2006 and published in 1993? (The answer? Last year, probably, as the math would have worked out better... Ah well.)
But when I'm listening instead of reading, I'm also in the middle of the Scratchman audiobook - no-one reads an audiobook like Tom Baker, let me tell you. He chuckles and shouts through dialogue and narration and even gives personality to the chapter headings - "Chapter Five??" Tom asks, seemingly baffled by the very notion that a fifth chapter might follow a fourth. His narrative style is very literary, as well, with lines like "The unloved afternoon was slinking away..."
(And a note for timeline chroniclers like me: It's also, interestingly, set some time after The Android Invasion - giving a handy place to put any other Sarah and Harry adventures that don't mention answering the Brigadier's space time telegraphic summons!)
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 12, 2020 15:37:49 GMT
Devoured Birthright in a day and a half. Enjoyed it quite a lot - it moves at a brisk pace and the first half is a good demonstration of what Benny's solo adventures had the potential to be! For all that I barely remember Timewyrm: Apocalypse, this has made me want to give Nigel Robinson a second chance on that one. Moving onto Iceberg now! What better time than 2020 to read a book set in 2006 and published in 1993? (The answer? Last year, probably, as the math would have worked out better... Ah well.) But when I'm listening instead of reading, I'm also in the middle of the Scratchman audiobook - no-one reads an audiobook like Tom Baker, let me tell you. He chuckles and shouts through dialogue and narration and even gives personality to the chapter headings - "Chapter Five??" Tom asks, seemingly baffled by the very notion that a fifth chapter might follow a fourth. His narrative style is very literary, as well, with lines like "The unloved afternoon was slinking away..." (And a note for timeline chroniclers like me: It's also, interestingly, set some time after The Android Invasion - giving a handy place to put any other Sarah and Harry adventures that don't mention answering the Brigadier's space time telegraphic summons!) Agreed. The Scratchman audiobook was definitely a unique experience. I am not sure I would have liked the book so much if I had read it myself, but Tom reading it made it a real event.
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 12, 2020 15:40:47 GMT
I just finished reading the 13th Doctor Holiday Special Comics. I have not been very impressed with the previous comics in this series. However, this one had me pleasantly surprised. I went in having not very high expectations. But in the end, it is a clever little story with lots of Easter Eggs and good use of all the characters. Visual style is also very pleasing. Very well done Christmas special. I think this might be the best 13th Doctor comic yet, at least in my book.
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
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Post by ljwilson on Jan 12, 2020 17:55:53 GMT
Finished The Deviant Strain, which started as an intriguing mystery in an excellent setting (an abandoned Soviet sub base on a cold foreboding peninsula), but did get a bit too busy after half way. I enjoyed it, 6 out of 10.
Now on to the Cave Monsters.
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Post by constonks on Jan 12, 2020 19:39:49 GMT
Agreed. The Scratchman audiobook was definitely a unique experience. I am not sure I would have liked the book so much if I had read it myself, but Tom reading it made it a real event.
So far, I'm about three hours in and from a big-picture narrative standpoint not all that much has happened. It's a classic Doctor Who runaround, complete with "middle episodes" that don't do very much for the story. The closest analogue I can find is The War Games (and not just because the frame narrative has the Doctor on trial) - it starts in one place and eventually it will end up elsewhere with a much greater scope. It hasn't yet though. Three hours in. But the narration is so charming and Tom's reading is so lovely that I would recommend it nonetheless.
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 12, 2020 20:08:03 GMT
Agreed. The Scratchman audiobook was definitely a unique experience. I am not sure I would have liked the book so much if I had read it myself, but Tom reading it made it a real event.
So far, I'm about three hours in and from a big-picture narrative standpoint not all that much has happened. It's a classic Doctor Who runaround, complete with "middle episodes" that don't do very much for the story. The closest analogue I can find is The War Games (and not just because the frame narrative has the Doctor on trial) - it starts in one place and eventually it will end up elsewhere with a much greater scope. It hasn't yet though. Three hours in. But the narration is so charming and Tom's reading is so lovely that I would recommend it nonetheless. Haha, you are in for a surprise. And yes, you are right, they will end up "elsewhere". Greater scope is involved, too.
However, I would not exactly compare it to "War Games". You will understand when you get there.
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Post by scriptortempore on Jan 12, 2020 21:10:08 GMT
I just finished reading the 13th Doctor Holiday Special Comics. I have not been very impressed with the previous comics in this series. However, this one had me pleasantly surprised. I went in having not very high expectations. But in the end, it is a clever little story with lots of Easter Eggs and good use of all the characters. Visual style is also very pleasing. Very well done Christmas special. I think this might be the best 13th Doctor comic yet, at least in my book. Yeah I really have to agree! I was a colossal fan of the 11th Doctor Titan run and so to move from that to this is a real disappointment. The bar was set quite low imo, but I think this story was just fun! The art didn't have any weird faces as each issue normally does, and the plot didn't take itself too seriously. My biggest complaint was a lack of an "Incidentally a merry christmas to all of you at home" line, but ah well, at least IDW did it in their 11 specials!
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 12, 2020 21:26:07 GMT
I just finished reading the 13th Doctor Holiday Special Comics. I have not been very impressed with the previous comics in this series. However, this one had me pleasantly surprised. I went in having not very high expectations. But in the end, it is a clever little story with lots of Easter Eggs and good use of all the characters. Visual style is also very pleasing. Very well done Christmas special. I think this might be the best 13th Doctor comic yet, at least in my book. Yeah I really have to agree! I was a colossal fan of the 11th Doctor Titan run and so to move from that to this is a real disappointment. The bar was set quite low imo, but I think this story was just fun! The art didn't have any weird faces as each issue normally does, and the plot didn't take itself too seriously. My biggest complaint was a lack of an "Incidentally a merry christmas to all of you at home" line, but ah well, at least IDW did it in their 11 specials! Haha, I waited forthat line, too, after all the effort to set it up! Yeah, well, the Titan 11th Doctor Comics were my favorites, too. They got really dark and gruesome and I just had not expected them to show what dark personality 11 was hiding. I was stunned, it completely subverted my expectations. I love it when Who goes dark. Hardly any of the other Who comics (apart from some of the serialised 8th Doctor ones with Izzy and Destrii) do even come close to what they did in those Titan 11th Doctor comics. So yeah, sadly, I did not expect that level of storytelling. But this was a definite improvement to the previous ones. The story was clever and as you say, it was fun. And, I am happy to say, Titan appears to be on a roll. I also finished the first issue of the comics of 13 meeting 10 and Oh. My. God. Mind blown. I had not expected that level of quality storytelling. On the surface it looks gimmicky, but it is really clever. It is basically the second half of the story of „Blink“. The one with 10 and Martha stranded in the past. It really builds great atmosphere and suspense and has a gripping cliffhanger. In general, this is the first 13th Doctor comic that I would call „gripping“ in general.
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