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Post by nucleusofswarm on Sept 8, 2023 14:00:07 GMT
Gave this one a holiday listen and... I'm very middle of the road on it. All 3 leads are great, Strax made me laugh a lot (Sumatra! Sumatra!) and Ghosts of Greenwich was an effective little Gothic romp with just enough of a twist on the premise to keep it fresh (even if the villain one was obvious instantly). That said, and maybe I've been spoiled by the Jago sets, but the boxset just felt a bit too workman-like, a B or C tier project without a real passion to tell stories with these characters. These feel like they could've been in any other NuWho set and you wouldn't need to change a great deal - in fact, Cars feel very Ten or Eleven with the runaway factory and steampunk transformers.
It's like with Missy 2: it's often funny, but it captures Moffat's weakness more than his strengths. It's like a boxset made up of the opening ten minutes of Magician's Apprentice - the jokes and setpieces overwhelm the drama and anything meatier (like references to Jenny's past in Photograph or Vastra's own displacement) is just window dressing. I didn't think it was atmospheric enough, Photograph and Ghosts are a little too similar, and it didn't feel like it made enough use of our three leads' unique backgrounds or traits - Vastra was a bit more Doctorish than I had expected.
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Post by masterdoctor on Oct 10, 2023 17:21:31 GMT
The Cars That Ate London by Jonathan Morris:
In the lead up to the new run, I’m relistening to the series and I was struck how effortlessly this acts as a pilot for the series. All three leads have their own distinct threads, and when they are together, The Paternoster Gang fires on all cylinders. The plot is basic, but that works well in a pilot imo. The theme song is one of the best Big Finish have produced, and it’s nice to see the moments that lead into the series arc, however small they may be.
A Photograph to Remember by Roy Gill:
I don’t think it would be hard to say that Roy Gill is one of BF’s best writers, and he troves in the world of the Paternoster Gang. Not only do we have a thrilling face-off between our crew and the Bloomsbury Bunch, and some great individual character moments alongside a breezy mystery. I really do hope Gill has contributed at least one story to the new run.
The Ghosts of Greenwich by Paul Morris:
This is a solid finale to the set, though I do think it’s a bit long, and could have been a fantastic 50 minutes. Love the combination of science and supernatural, and I particularly enjoyed Starkey and Stewart in this one. However, I found a lot of scenes to be a little too long, and the sound design didn’t sound as well-done in other stories.
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