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Post by martinw8686 on Feb 28, 2023 23:02:24 GMT
I wonder how each ranges average satisfaction level compares pre to post monthly range. I think some of the concerns posted would've been there for them before the monthly range ended. My view is it's unfair to compare to the early Big Finish years but perhaps look at the ranges last couple of years, so compare each range applicable from around 2017 - 2019 to 2020 - Present.
1st Doctor (1DAs/Early Adventures) - Pre 8/10 - Post 8/10. I enjoy all the actors portraying the 1st Doctor, I've just listened to The Outlaws and think Noonan is excellent, I hope he's with Big Finish for many years to come.
2nd Doctor - can't say I've heard enough to fairly compare, I personally prefer Michael Troughton as his performance feels more solid, with Hines and the Early Adventures it felt like the character was pushed to the background to support Hines pulling double duty.
3rd Doctor - Pre 8/10 - Post 8/10. An enjoyable range, for me the recasts have been successful and the format's experimented with nicely. The Annihilators was brilliant. I'd say my enjoyment of the range is about the same pre/post.
4th Doctor - Pre 8/10 - Post 8/10. I think the decision to move from 2 parters to 4 parters has done wonders for the 4DAs, series 9 was brilliant and we've had some really good stories recently, in particular Blood of the Timelords and the Ravencliffe Witch.
5th Doctor - Pre 8/10 - Post 8/10. The Marc stories were really good, ending in the postponed The Lost Resort set, which was excellent. Forty 2 was an absolute joy. I'm looking forward to April's double 3 parter, could be a compromise to the less meaty 2 parters.
6th Doctor - Pre 9/10 - Post 5/10. Sixie had some excellent Monthly range adventures towards the end, The Middle, Static, Scorched Earth and Plight of the Pimpernel all 10/10 for me. I enjoyed The Eleven and Wink but the reviews for the 6DAs last year were worryingly inconsistent.
7th Doctor - Pre 6/10 - Post 5\10. I love the 7th Doctor but he is in desperate need of fresh direction. I enjoyed Dark Universe and Subterfuge but I found last year's stories were just okay.
8th Doctor Pre 9/10 - Post 9/10. This range can do no wrong for me, Day of The Master was outstanding and Stranded was really original. I prefer the epic sets but last year's stand alone stories were really good, Albie's Angels was beautiful.
9th Doctor - 7/10 obviously it's great that we get new Eccelston stories but I am finding the stories very samey and directionless. Perhaps 5 stories I would say stand out across the 24 released, only 1 or 2 I would say I didn't enjoy but many 7\10s
10th Doctor Pre 8/10 - Post 9/10. Some decent stand alone releases before COVID and then we hit the jackpot with Tennant's extra recording time, I hugely enjoyed the River Song set, Dalek Universe and Out of Time 1 - 3.
11th Doctor Pre 6/10 - Post 9/10. I absolutely love the last 2 sets, the Valarie arc and the quirky stories have been a revelation.
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Post by masterdoctor on Feb 28, 2023 23:05:45 GMT
I never really cared for the Main Range to be completely honest. I got one prefer hour long stories with how long I can listen to a story in a given day, and four parters dragging is something that bothers me way more than 2 parters/hour long stories feeling rushed. Also before the international price beating, a regular priced MR release was more expensive per hour than most boxsets, and so that made me gravitate the boxsets more. All that preamble aside…
1DAs: Bradley’s five sets were a lot of fun, and apart from a couple of stories, were always very good value. Noonan’s first set was very enjoyable, and while I haven’t heard the second set yet, I’m happy to follow the range further since it feels like it’s carving out a new era with Lauren Cornelius’ Dodo being a breath of fresh air.
2DAs: Unlike the 1DAs, I’m very unsure so far of the range and its direction. Troughton’s take on his fathers role is probably the best performance of a 2nd Doctor recast(I like Hines’, but his performance always feels like a very one sided take, only really ever portraying 2 as a bumbling clown, probably influenced by his friendship with P. Troughton.) The actual set itself however doesn’t actually feel like it’s doing anything new, especially since it’s a Season 6B run, something they could do so much more than the Brigadier, Jamie, Daleks and The Ice Warriors. I did enjoy the Meta casting Trelor and Manning in new roles, and if nothing else, I’d be ok if they did stuff like that in the range.
3DAs: Love it, and probably the strongest Doctor range. I think I’ve only ever disliked one story (Operation Hellfire, because it falls into the trap of most Who featuring Churchill being way to sanitized of who Churchill really was, and out of all the incarnations, 3 is one that would hate him the most.) And I think it’s easy to say that Heather Challands is one of BF best producers, bringing such a fresh take into each range she’s on. And a testament to the quality of the 3DAs is that they immediately jump the queue when they release and only get held off while I finish a set I’m halfway though.
4DAs: Nowadays, the range is far more exciting and original than the first few years, which helps put it on the top half of my list when it used to be quite close to the bottom. The Anya arc is perhaps one of Big Finish’s best runs, both with the 4DAs and Dalek Universe, but both the Margret and UNIT runs up next are very exciting, and I feel that a Sarah Jane run with Sadie Miller is likely to be the 2025 run, which is exciting. (The mysterious SSS spinoff that was found on Spotlight better have Anya in it!)
5DAs: Probably my second least favourite range currently. I enjoy them enough, but I’m just tired of most of 5’s companions. I’ve really only have any real interest in Turlough and Peri for Five, and when it comes to Tegan and Nyssa(and by extension Adric, who still interests me, but just 5 and Adric is hardly possible.) So as of right now, the stories and writers matter a lot when it comes to whether I feel like purchasing 5DAs, and I’d really like to have a new direction for him, which doesn’t even have to be huge, but adding Marc into the mix have everything such a fresh coat of paint even when the stories were quite normal Who.
6DAs: I totally agree at how messy the current run is, but I still enjoy it a lot. It’s carving a new era for Sixie, and Hebe as a character, and the story they are doing with her time in the Tardis is interesting. The writing is all over the place and times, and it’s not subtle at all, but tbh, I don’t need subtle when it comes to this storyline, because Doctor Who hasn’t ever really tried to do anything like it.
7DAs: For such a master manipulator, there doesn’t seem to be much of a plan for 7’s stories at Big Finish. While I enjoyed Sullivan and Cross: AWOL, being two very solid stories, it was yet another one off that has plagued 7 for so many years. And while no arc runs can work for me, such as the 3DAs and the 9DAs, the quality for 7 varies so wildly, that I find it hard to have much interest.
8DAs: Liv and Helen are my favourite 8 companions, and to be honest, I don’t care for any other 8 companions, especially Charley, who I find to be so grating as a character, so right now, I’m quite content with the range. I haven’t heard the new Time War set, but am interested in it, so I’ll pick it up on sale, since very few releases justify a 30$ price tag.
War Doctor: Both Hurt and Carley have been magnificent in the role, and I think Big Finish have done some really great stuff with the War Doctor, of which the idea of this incarnation has always been something I’ve enjoyed a lot more than 8 being the Doctor during the Time War. I look forward to the two sets this year, and am happy for them to continue after those two.
9DAs: Loving the range for the most part, though Ravagers and Hidden Depths just OK in my opinion, and I haven’t heard Shades of Fear yet. I would like to see longer form stories like Ravagers, and I’d be happy with a multiple set arc or a companion that goes past a story, whether it Rose or not, but I’m not to bothered either way.
10DAs: Apart from Dalek Universe, which was fantastic, the 10DAs are really safe enjoyable comfort Who, which is fine, but have very little affinity for 10 and his era, most of it is just OK. When Big Finish is able to do more with Tennant, I hope it’s much more Dalek Universe than the rest of the range so far (though it’d be even cooler if they did 14th Doctor audios, provided there is room for them to do it.)
11DAs/12DAs: The Doctor Chronicles range is very hit and miss for me, and while I enjoyed the first two 12th Doctor sets, and the second 11th Doctor set, I’ve not really been much interested. I’ll get around to the Valerie run after its finished, and I’m sure I will enjoy them, but even then, I’d rather more Lone Centurion/River Song/Paternoster Gang when it comes to the Moffat era until Smith or Capaldi join up.
So all together, I’m ok with the switch to boxsets, and my ranking right now would be as follows.
1. 3DAs 2. 9DAs 3. 1DAs 4. War Doctor 5. 4DAs 6. 6DAs 7. 8DAs 8. 10DAs 9. 2DAs 10. 11/12DAs 11. 5DAS 12. 7DAs
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Post by martinw8686 on Mar 1, 2023 0:18:57 GMT
Love a ranking. Here's my current take, based on last year or two,
8 War Master War Doctor 4 11 10 1 3 5 2 9 6 7
In terms of the full 24 years of Big Finish I'd rank,
8 6 4 5 7 War Doctor/War Master 10 3 1 2 9 11/12
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Post by muckypup on Mar 1, 2023 4:36:54 GMT
I am afraid big finish has lost its way, the new box set range makes it harder not easier to keep up with stuff… Every doctor, has suffered, 3 tales per box all too often there is 1 great story watered down by 2 average stories, and the 3 disk tales feel too long and often don’t really work in this format, and the 2 tale well let’s say I’m still not convince that it’s not 1 and a filler…….
The desire to reinvent the wheel, has made me less enthusiastic for the content, the only stand out for me in recent years, has been the dalek universe stuff which felt like old school big finish
Torchwood lost its way a long time ago, the Anderson stuff fails to interest me…….
So for me at least, perhaps after 20+ years maybe I have overload and not seeing the bigger picture, but I have gone from buying everything to a few boxes…..
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Post by BHTvsTFC on Mar 1, 2023 17:06:59 GMT
It's one of those questions that is difficult to judge, in that sometimes the last release will either leave me feeling good or bad about a particular range. Also I have biases towards certain Doctor/companion teams. For instance whilst I didn't care much for Forty as a concept or in execution I've still listened to both volumes several times because it's then Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, Adric!!
Currently the best stuff coming from BF for me is the audio novels, River Song and the War Master. The latest releases for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 have all left me a little underwhelmed but that doesn't mean recent releases featuring those Doctors haven't. The last Companion Chronicles, The Annihilators, The Blazing Hour, The Grey Man of the Mountain, and the last 8DA set were mostly entertaining. I also think Hebe will be a slow burner in much the same way Flip was.
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