Halfway through Cold Fusion. The novels adaptations range has been so consistently awesome that I'm really sad it had to end due to lackluster sales.
They were good... It was a shame that they ended though. Pity they didn't get the rights to adapt some of the BBC PDA Books - there's a few there which would be interesting to hear. However, I can understand why the adaptations might not have sold that well...
'Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
Conversion.....I really do like this ruthless & desperate 5th Doctor. It makes for a nice change of pace from the most amiable of Doctors.
This is why I really LOVED this, too!
I've just finished this one. It is a very good story for showing the darker side of the 5th Doctor. It's not an incarnation we often see like this, but you get the feeling that this is a man you wouldn't want to mess with. Definitely darker than the 7th Doctor here - quite scheming and nasty... This would be the characterisation I'd have liked to have seen had Davison stayed for Season 22.
'Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
Halfway through Cold Fusion. The novels adaptations range has been so consistently awesome that I'm really sad it had to end due to lackluster sales.
They were good... It was a shame that they ended though. Pity they didn't get the rights to adapt some of the BBC PDA Books - there's a few there which would be interesting to hear. However, I can understand why the adaptations might not have sold that well...
Well, at least it didn't mean the end of Seven, Chris and Roz. Hope the NA box set sold decently enough and we can get some other new adventures with them soon.
The Whispering Forest, which is Stephen Cole starting out strong then kind of just falling out of whatever story he's telling. It's the same premise as The Face of Evil and while the plot is different the comparisons are painful.
Listened to the first half dozen or so chapters of Writing on the Water today. Good on Big Finish for supporting one of their own in making an audiobook out of it, and even moreso for asking Jane Slavin to do the reading of her own book, but I think this one is just Not For Me.
Yeah dumped this. Apologies to Miss Slavin, her reading was lovely, but the novel itself is just not my thing.
Started up The Omega Factor: Spider's Web this afternoon. I'm not very far in yet, but enjoying what I've heard so far. As always, Lou Jameson is excellent.
Wow, that did not turn out the way I thought it would at all. Granted, I didn't read the product blurb, but I'm glad I didn't. Talk about a curveball. Hell, even after the twist halfway through, I still failed to guess at what was really going on. Nonetheless a pleasant (well, for me anyway) trip to the seedy side of Edinburgh with the usual Six/Evelyn verbal repartee slathered on top.
Interesting to see Evelyn starting to understand the Doctor's attitude to historical intervention (or lack thereof), she'd been having such a hard time accepting it. Especially since Sixie spends the first episode or two being such a ghoul. I didn't even realize Daft Jamie was played by David Tennant until after I finished and looked at the cast list. An honorable and good-hearted chap.
This one does tend to fall prey to the bloat continuing to affect the Main Range during this period. A lot of stories have episodes well in excess of the 30 minutes, some are even clocking in around the 40+ range. I'm glad that Big Finish is not as tightly constrained as the TV series was on runtime, but it's starting to be a bit much. Even the good stories are feeling long in the tooth sometimes. Just because you don't have to edit things down to 25 minutes doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't.
I'm surprised I've heard very few people talk about Medicinal Purposes. It's not the most incredible story I've ever heard, but a very solid one, and its unpredictability is very welcome.
This one does tend to fall prey to the bloat continuing to affect the Main Range during this period. A lot of stories have episodes well in excess of the 30 minutes, some are even clocking in around the 40+ range. I'm glad that Big Finish is not as tightly constrained as the TV series was on runtime, but it's starting to be a bit much. Even the good stories are feeling long in the tooth sometimes. Just because you don't have to edit things down to 25 minutes doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't.
I think I remember Nick saying on one of the podcasts that that was pretty much the very first thing he did when he became exec producer after Gary Russell left -- strict adherence to 25 minute parts.
This one does tend to fall prey to the bloat continuing to affect the Main Range during this period. A lot of stories have episodes well in excess of the 30 minutes, some are even clocking in around the 40+ range. I'm glad that Big Finish is not as tightly constrained as the TV series was on runtime, but it's starting to be a bit much. Even the good stories are feeling long in the tooth sometimes. Just because you don't have to edit things down to 25 minutes doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't.
I think I remember Nick saying on one of the podcasts that that was pretty much the very first thing he did when he became exec producer after Gary Russell left -- strict adherence to 25 minute parts.
Oh, that's interesting. I'll make a note of that and see how that takes effect as I continue the Main Range. I'm not opposed to being flexible and running long, it just better be worth my time is all.
MR: Dreamtime. Well, I finished it again and liked it a bit better this time but I've still not much idea what was going on, especially in the 2nd half. Will (again) revisit at some point.
Post by captainpugwash on Jun 10, 2020 11:54:09 GMT
“Red moon” audio drama from wireless theatre. It’s an alternative history type story about what would happen if the USSR landed on the moon first. It’s available on Bbc sounds app (I know it’s a terrible app, been trying for 2 weeks now to download the prisoner)
MR: Dreamtime. Well, I finished it again and liked it a bit better this time but I've still not much idea what was going on, especially in the 2nd half. Will (again) revisit at some point.
Have listened to this several times and I will never fully understand it. A story with big ideas, but not well executed or described. Perhaps too visual for an audio adventure if that makes sense?
'Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
Wow, that did not turn out the way I thought it would at all. Granted, I didn't read the product blurb, but I'm glad I didn't. Talk about a curveball. Hell, even after the twist halfway through, I still failed to guess at what was really going on. Nonetheless a pleasant (well, for me anyway) trip to the seedy side of Edinburgh with the usual Six/Evelyn verbal repartee slathered on top.
Interesting to see Evelyn starting to understand the Doctor's attitude to historical intervention (or lack thereof), she'd been having such a hard time accepting it. Especially since Sixie spends the first episode or two being such a ghoul. I didn't even realize Daft Jamie was played by David Tennant until after I finished and looked at the cast list. An honorable and good-hearted chap.
This one does tend to fall prey to the bloat continuing to affect the Main Range during this period. A lot of stories have episodes well in excess of the 30 minutes, some are even clocking in around the 40+ range. I'm glad that Big Finish is not as tightly constrained as the TV series was on runtime, but it's starting to be a bit much. Even the good stories are feeling long in the tooth sometimes. Just because you don't have to edit things down to 25 minutes doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't.
I'm surprised I've heard very few people talk about Medicinal Purposes. It's not the most incredible story I've ever heard, but a very solid one, and its unpredictability is very welcome.
It's not a bad release, but doesn't really do much for me. It is overwritten and has too much in it - 'bloat' as you say. I know Baker/Stables are on good form, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the other stories with this TARDIS crew.
If I'm honest, with the exception of The Harvest, I always thought 2004 was a bit of a lean year for BF... It might have been that I was busy doing other things at the time and would eventually drift away for a while, but it's always an impression that stuck with me. Whether that's fair or not, is a different question.
'Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
It's not a bad release, but doesn't really do much for me. It is overwritten and has too much in it - 'bloat' as you say. I know Baker/Stables are on good form, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the other stories with this TARDIS crew.
If I'm honest, with the exception of The Harvest, I always thought 2004 was a bit of a lean year for BF... It might have been that I was busy doing other things at the time and would eventually drift away for a while, but it's always an impression that stuck with me. Whether that's fair or not, is a different question.
Well, that's fair enough. It's certainly not as good as the top-level Six/Evelyn stories are, but it's like a solid baseline "good" story for me. I liked it for being a pleasant surprise, more than anything. There is absolutely way too much of it, though.
As for 2004 in general, I would be inclined to agree with you. The Main Range especially has felt pretty stagnant. But, I went back and looked at my leaderboard, and out of the MR that year, (so far) my rankings are: 1 terrible, 3 meh, 1 good, 3 excellent. An even split between the upper and lower halves of the scale. That's actually a better track record than it feels like it was. And if you add on the first series of Gallifrey that average goes way up.
I wonder why the dichotomy between enjoyment of individual stories versus the general feeling overall?
An excellent character study of Omega with some cracking ideas and dialogue. Only to be expected really when it comes to a Nev Fountain script. I do think this story is perhaps the weakest of the Villains Trilogy but that’s only because the other two are just that tiny bit better. Still a good story though.
Also can’t help but wonder what this story would have been like had it focused on the Celestial Toymaker as was the original pitch. Guess we can chalk that up to one of those missed opportunities.
Post by barnabaslives on Jun 10, 2020 20:58:28 GMT
Now there isn't any Counter-Measures that I haven't heard before, but I'd very much been looking forward to The Movellan Manouevre and The Dalek Gambit so it was about time I gave them a listen, and they did not disappoint.
I liked this a fair bit more this time than I did on first listen. It has an interesting, imaginative setting. It is the most "fun" the Eighth Doctor stories have been for quite some time. Many releases in a row it's been high-stakes drama with a lot of hurt feelings, or else just bizarre like Natural History of Fear.
Normally I would be feeling impatient at the lack of arc progress, especially as the opener for the new "season." But frankly, the arc is not the slightest bit interesting, especially not when I know it already, so Faith Stealer becomes a welcome break from all that.
C'rizz is given some proper development for once, though I'm still not sold on the character or how the others interact with him. They seem to waffle between accepting his more violent actions and being uneasy around him.
I won't go into the religious stuff too much but overall I felt it was pretty even-handed and good-natured when compared to the way some other SF franchises treat the subject.
I suppose there's something to be said for a solid, relatively normal Doctor Who story as a palate cleanser if nothing else.
MR: Dreamtime. Well, I finished it again and liked it a bit better this time but I've still not much idea what was going on, especially in the 2nd half. Will (again) revisit at some point.
Interesting to see Australian Indigenous art on the front cover of the story.
I'm going back through a good chunk of Leela and Romana's stuff in the next little while. Right now I'm on Tom Baker's very first Big Finish release - Foe from the Future!
Leela: "Shall I run him through?" Doctor: "I suppose so. (She advances on the vicar.) Oh, no, no, no, better not. Tends to be considered impolite."
I recall thinking this one was great on first listen, so I'm looking forward to it. Life indoors makes long stretches of listening a little harder though so a six-parter might take a while.
(Then it's onto Light at the End and some Eighth Doctor Short Trips I wanted to finish before Stranded!)
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