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Post by jasonward on Mar 3, 2016 18:44:05 GMT
I thought it was me as I had headphones on in a noisy office. Very strange sound mix Have to agree about the sound,whenever the Vord spoke it just felt weird and indistinct???!! (Had to strain my ears) Enjoyed the story though! Uh, same sin in the 4th episode, this time extremely bizarre, River is alone, talking to herself, yet for some reason her voice is made almost inaudible.
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Post by kimalysong on Mar 3, 2016 19:36:22 GMT
I had no issues with hearing the Voord
That being said while I loved the atmosphere of this first story and the call back to the 3rd Doctor era I did feel the plot was nothing special. It was pretty straightforward until the last line. Enjoyable enough with some nice moments between the characters but it won't go down as one of my favorites.
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Post by Tony Jones on Mar 3, 2016 19:57:48 GMT
I heard the second on the way home - much better in places and tons of imagination. I did feel the Doctor was a bit indifferent and let Liv take charge. That might be part of the overall arc though as he had suffered a mental force in the first story
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Post by elgranto on Mar 4, 2016 4:04:35 GMT
Did anyone else have to up the volume during Scenes from Her Life? The sound mix was especially bizarre at the start when Stormblood and Sepulchre are having their dinner; a lot of faint voices and minimal sound effects (if any)... almost as if I were listening from another room.
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Post by pawntake on Mar 4, 2016 8:01:12 GMT
I certainly felt there were sound issues in the 1st story (The only one I have listened to on Audiobook DL)SO will DL the mp3 version and see if it makes a difference.
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Post by Tony Jones on Mar 4, 2016 10:06:13 GMT
Just finished Marc Platt's The Gift. My favourite by a long way of the three. Great setting and some attention grabbing moments for the Doctor
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Post by elkawho on Mar 4, 2016 13:25:07 GMT
I've only heard the 1st story off the download and didn't think that there were any sound issues. However for the 1st boxed set I first heard the download, but I also got the CD set and thought the sound on the CD was terrible. Had to keep changing the volume throughout, so I can see how they could be different.
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Post by Tony Jones on Mar 4, 2016 15:12:51 GMT
Just finished the final story - River worked pretty well and Liv is much moved on from how she originated. Nice to see Helen developing. Quite a lot of characters in this story and not all had a lot to do. In some ways this felt like a semi colon - it sort of told a story but didn't conclude for me. Enjoyed it though.
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Post by Digi on Mar 4, 2016 16:29:14 GMT
Listened to part 3 on my drive this morning. Another rather good one, but it suffers a little for being the story immediately following Dorney's incredible Scenes From Her Life. In all, so far, another solid release. Planning on listening to Part 4 on my drive home tonight.
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Post by relativetime on Mar 4, 2016 16:48:52 GMT
A rather good release overall! Nothing really stood out immediately like "The Red Lady" did in the first box set, but I overall really enjoyed this one. As far as story arcs go, Doom Coalition is already shaping up to be far better than Dark Eyes was.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2016 18:43:52 GMT
My post-listening reactions to all stories:
Beachhead - "Meh."
Scenes from Her Life - "Errrmm..." *Looks at watch*
The Gift - "Hm. Cool, I guess."
The Sonomancer - "Hey, this has so many elements, but it's so well paced! It's so action-heavy! Yeah, kick the s*** out of the Eleven!"
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Mar 4, 2016 18:57:08 GMT
Solid set It's a darn shame the next instalment is so far away. Beachhead Nice straightforward story that eases us back into the arc. 6.5/10
Scenes from Her Life Highlight of the set. A great plot, stylishly presented, with fun characters and cool imagery. And it had a good character beat for Helen, who I was worried was becoming a bit unnecessary. 10/10
The Gift Another great one that really packed a lot in (was surprised to see it was less than an hour). The Doctor's madness and interaction were very enjoyable. The mechanics of The Gift itself, links back to LA, and Helen and Liv's struggle with the Quake. All top notch stuff. 9/10
The Sonomancer Bit of a cluster TBH, but too many cool bits to be harsh on. I might have disliked it if the Sonomancer had died, which would have been a waste, but it all wrapped up quite nicely, while sewing the seeds for the future. 7/10 As far as story arcs go, Doom Coalition is already shaping up to be far better than Dark Eyes was. Agreed. It's got a cool set of recurring villains now, and the arc is working well with the stories, instead of being a weak link, or overly restrictive. Seems like they've learned a few lessons from Dark Eyes.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2016 19:30:28 GMT
Agreed. It's got a cool set of recurring villains now, and the arc is working well with the stories, instead of being a weak link, or overly restrictive. Seems like they've learned a few lessons from Dark Eyes. I still don't like the arc-heavy stories/box sets. And the Doom Coalition series hasn't changed that for me in anyway either. Arc-heavy stories that try to have their own identity feel too busy and poorly paced, especially the connecting stories that lead into each other. It appears to be a controversial opinion, but I do still prefer the Dark Eyes box sets better than the Doom Coalition box sets (so far!). Yes, it might have been stretched out a bit too long, but I prefer them because the stories they were telling were the entire focus of the runtime. The stories WERE the arc, and was always progressing it and not just like stories that feel clearly vacant for {Insert Story Arc here} like Doom Coalition feels like. My favourite stories of Doom Coalition so far have been the ones that actually progressed the arc immensely (Other than The Red Lady, which barely said anything about the story arc and pretty much just told it's own story). Those would be The Eleven and The Sonomancer, both stories which focused on the Eleven/Eleven's allies.
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Post by jasonward on Mar 4, 2016 20:02:49 GMT
I too am no fan of story arcs, I'd far rather we have four hour long episodes of the same story, it could even include much from the single stories. What I mean is, look at Lord Of The Rings, it's not arc that covers a range of stories, it's one story that has a huge number of elements, many of which could easily have been a story in their own right, but the story in LOTR has a consistency, the characters are driving for the same end (within the confines of the story) from the start, and the different things that they encounter are part of the larger story, not adjuncts to it.
I am a fan of what I call gentle arcs, and by that what I mean is something like "The Doctor is a renegade Timelord", this impacts in many ways many Doctor stories, sometimes heavily, sometimes lightly, sometimes not at all.
I'm a huge fan of Cybermen stories, and I am waiting for the day when BF decide to tell the story that illustrates that Cybermen just keep appearing, reappearing and reappearing, it would be a theme in a collection of stories, but the stories wouldn't have to bend themselves to fit each other, they need to have no connection at all other than the Cybermen and The Doctor.
The stories in this boxset were OK, nothing bad, nothing (except the sound mix) annoyed or distracted me, but in truth for me far from the best 8th Doctor and far from the best BF.
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Mar 4, 2016 20:23:49 GMT
The best Eighth Doctor Arcs are Auntie Pat and Series 4 in general (at least structurally, as I do love Charley's arc and the DU). Dark Eyes just felt way too restrictive. As a rule I prefer stand-alone stories to arc heavy ones, since that's pretty much what Doctor Who is custom built for.
But we've had lots of stand-alone stories for Eight, so I'm happy for them to try something more interconnected. For me Dark Eyes stumbled (mostly with 3 and the ending), but Doom Coalition has got a good balance so far.
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Post by pawntake on Mar 5, 2016 0:32:40 GMT
I was also distracted by the sound mix for the 1st time in well over 200 Downloads.The soundscape is usually rich, crisp,and crystal clear.But sadly not on this occasion.Overall the stories themselves were fine,"Scenes from her life" being my favourite.
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Post by Tony Jones on Mar 5, 2016 7:50:15 GMT
I was also distracted by the sound mix for the 1st time in well over 200 Downloads.The soundscape is usually rich, crisp,and crystal clear.But sadly not on this occasion.Overall the stories themselves were fine,"Scenes from her life" being my favourite. Did you listen to the MP3 version or the audiobook? I'm testing the new iPad app, which I think uses the audiobook. I had problems
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Post by pawntake on Mar 5, 2016 9:03:55 GMT
I was also distracted by the sound mix for the 1st time in well over 200 Downloads.The soundscape is usually rich, crisp,and crystal clear.But sadly not on this occasion.Overall the stories themselves were fine,"Scenes from her life" being my favourite. Did you listen to the MP3 version or the audiobook? I'm testing the new iPad app, which I think uses the audiobook. I had problems I tried both.i play the files on my computer which links via Bluetooth to my music centre and listen with my stereo headphones. normally its great.I think the mp3 files were slightly better.I do have the BF app on my ipad and phone.i also have undulib, so maybe I will give it a listen on one of those just to compare.
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Post by escalus5 on Mar 5, 2016 17:21:06 GMT
I thought the audio mix for the first Doom Coalition was inferior. I had to keep turning the sound up to hear the dialogue and then down again to avoid getting blasted out of the car by the effects. It was particularly difficult to hear McGann during "The Eleven." I didn't have as much of a problem with Doom Coalition 2, probably because I listened to the majority of it in the quiet of my living room. But yeah, I've never had this problem with any of the other BF releases. The sound is usually consistent.
Question for the folks who have heard "The Gift": Did anyone find the gangster characters to be anachronistic? Can't say I've done a lot of research on the San Francisco underworld in 1906, but I doubt they were saying things like "It's curtains for you," which sounds like something from the Prohibition-era hoods of a James Cagney movie. I listened to the Behind the Scenes interviews and noticed that one of the actors mentioned Damon Runyon's writing as an inspiration -- the bulk of Runyon's output was published in the 1930s and 40s, though. I like Marc Platt's writing and I enjoyed "The Gift," but the gangster characters were a little annoying.
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Post by Zagreus on Mar 5, 2016 19:20:38 GMT
Anyone listened to the eighth extent episodes together to see if they work better as an overall series than Dark Eyes did?
Also wondering if we're going to get a third member of the Coalition somewhere along the line. The Eleven has ties to The Doctor; The Sonomancer now has some history and affinity with Helen; Would be interesting to pull in a third member that has some thematic ties to Liv in the third set, then wrap things up in the fourth.
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