newt5996
Chancellery Guard
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Post by newt5996 on Mar 3, 2016 12:49:38 GMT
As later this year Cuthbert is returning to the Fourtth Doctor Adventures I thought this would be a prime time to see what the general consensus was about the previous two stories they were featured in. Personally The Sands of Life has its moments but is nothing special and The Final Phase is a lot better but still pretty flawed.
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Post by mark687 on Mar 3, 2016 14:53:29 GMT
I genuinely think that their Nick Briggs best scripts for the 4DA's perfectly captures the early Williams feel.
Regards
mark687
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Post by muckypup on Mar 3, 2016 14:56:28 GMT
to be honest, I cannot remember much about them....only was not that keen on any of that series of 4th doc
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bobod
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 2,759
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Post by bobod on Mar 3, 2016 14:59:03 GMT
I thought they worked better if listened to as one long epic rather than spread across the season.
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Post by seeley on Mar 4, 2016 2:27:32 GMT
I quite liked Conglomerate. It was a nice, economic story, perfect for its length. The Destructor Contract wasn't quite as good, but Cuthbert was great (I quite like his Mancunian accent) and you've gotta love the Temperons. Enclave Irrelevant was brilliant (it's a shame Alan Lear never wrote for the TV-series,) though it's not so much a Conglomerate tale as a story with Cuthbert filling in for the Master (the story's original villain.) I haven't yet gotten to Subterfuge, so I can't comment on that.
So yeah, I think the Conglomerate is a charmingly novel idea for a reoccurring faction. Stories involving evil corporations run the risk of being revenge-fantasies, but Arthur Wallis avoided that, I think.
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Post by Hieronymus on Mar 4, 2016 3:19:39 GMT
My feelings:
The Sands of Time was tiresome, with Romana reduced to the ineffectual role of Deanna Troi "sensing" the aliens. Although, as I understand it, the story was originally written for Elisbaeth Sladen, so perhaps some mismatch of Companion is to be expected.
War Against the Laan is less tedious, but has some moments that do not visualize well, mostly because the Laan are floating manatees with psychic powers. The story has its moments, but never rises to greatness.
The Dalek Contract is a step up, in that is has no silliness and is not tiresome. It is standard, and even a bit unremarkable.
The Final Phase was quite good. Strong story, interesting characters, clear storytelling.
Mind you, the performances from some of the cast (especially David Warner) are far better than my overall evaluations might suggest.
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Post by Hieronymus on Mar 4, 2016 3:35:16 GMT
I quite liked Conglomerate. It was a nice, economic story, perfect for its length. The Destructor Contract wasn't quite as good, but Cuthbert was great (I quite like his Mancunian accent) and you've gotta love the Temperons. Enclave Irrelevant was brilliant (it's a shame Alan Lear never wrote for the TV-series,) though it's not so much a Conglomerate tale as a story with Cuthbert filling in for the Master (the story's original villain.) I haven't yet gotten to Subterfuge, so I can't comment on that. So yeah, I think the Conglomerate is a charmingly novel idea for a reoccurring faction. Stories involving evil corporations run the risk of being revenge-fantasies, but Arthur Wallis avoided that, I think. Just want to let people know that seeley has not fallen into madness, but is referring to a pre-BF audio series. Look it up at your own risk.  Seeley, I think most people don't know that particular series of stories at all (I've never listened to them them), and intended to discuss the 4DA stories. But perhaps you knew that. |
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Post by seeley on Mar 4, 2016 3:42:05 GMT
I quite liked Conglomerate. It was a nice, economic story, perfect for its length. The Destructor Contract wasn't quite as good, but Cuthbert was great (I quite like his Mancunian accent) and you've gotta love the Temperons. Enclave Irrelevant was brilliant (it's a shame Alan Lear never wrote for the TV-series,) though it's not so much a Conglomerate tale as a story with Cuthbert filling in for the Master (the story's original villain.) I haven't yet gotten to Subterfuge, so I can't comment on that. So yeah, I think the Conglomerate is a charmingly novel idea for a reoccurring faction. Stories involving evil corporations run the risk of being revenge-fantasies, but Arthur Wallis avoided that, I think. Just want to let people know that seeley has not fallen into madness, but is referring to a pre-BF audio series. Look it up at your own risk. Seeley, I think most people don't know that particular series of stories at all (I've never listened to them them), and intended to discuss the 4DA stories. But perhaps you knew that. Indeed. I was deliberately acting oblivious. I fell prey to one of those oddball muses that champions gratuitous weirdness. To paraphrase a certain boggle-eyed alien, there's no point in being coherent if you can't be baffling sometimes. |
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newt5996
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 2,685
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Post by newt5996 on Mar 4, 2016 4:31:28 GMT
I quite liked Conglomerate. It was a nice, economic story, perfect for its length. The Destructor Contract wasn't quite as good, but Cuthbert was great (I quite like his Mancunian accent) and you've gotta love the Temperons. Enclave Irrelevant was brilliant (it's a shame Alan Lear never wrote for the TV-series,) though it's not so much a Conglomerate tale as a story with Cuthbert filling in for the Master (the story's original villain.) I haven't yet gotten to Subterfuge, so I can't comment on that. So yeah, I think the Conglomerate is a charmingly novel idea for a reoccurring faction. Stories involving evil corporations run the risk of being revenge-fantasies, but Arthur Wallis avoided that, I think. Yeah curious thing the Audio Visual stories. Always wondered how good they were as cheap fan productions, any others you would recommend? |
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Post by seeley on Mar 4, 2016 4:49:15 GMT
I quite liked Conglomerate. It was a nice, economic story, perfect for its length. The Destructor Contract wasn't quite as good, but Cuthbert was great (I quite like his Mancunian accent) and you've gotta love the Temperons. Enclave Irrelevant was brilliant (it's a shame Alan Lear never wrote for the TV-series,) though it's not so much a Conglomerate tale as a story with Cuthbert filling in for the Master (the story's original villain.) I haven't yet gotten to Subterfuge, so I can't comment on that. So yeah, I think the Conglomerate is a charmingly novel idea for a reoccurring faction. Stories involving evil corporations run the risk of being revenge-fantasies, but Arthur Wallis avoided that, I think. Yeah curious thing the Audio Visual stories. Always wondered how good they were as cheap fan productions, any others you would recommend? I'm midway through Season 4, so I can't speak for anything past Endurance, but Cloud of Fear (Alan Lear's first story,) Blood Circuit, Second Solution, Sword of Orion (admittedly not that different from the Big Finish version,) Requiem, and Cuddlesome (stunningly different from the light-hearted BF-version) were all stand-outs. The only one's I'd recommend avoiding are Trilexia Threat (dreadful,) Secret of Nematodia (ditto,) and Endurance (one of the few Dr. Who stories that has bored me.) Jim Mortimore uploaded the lot of them to MediaFire, last year. I provided the link to them a few months ago, but Accoustic Wolf was understandably uncertain about the legalities, and so removed it. He said that the mods were going to discuss it, though I am not sure if anything came of that. EDIT: Oh, and now that I think of it, The Space Wail wasn't very good either, but it's worth listening to as an historical curiosity (as well as for its comically inept Doctor. Thank goodness he regenerated into Nick Briggs!) |
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Post by glutamodo on Mar 4, 2016 9:08:58 GMT
I liked the original Cuthbert a great deal - while Warner was fine, I just prefer Barry Killerby's original take on the character.
We did discuss the A/V link. My vote was for to allow it, this is material that's 25-30 years old now, was never intended to make a profit, and the surviving sound quality isn't the greatest. Still much the same as the old days of tape trading and a curio of it's time. Also, I work for a fan-produced sci-fi spin-off series...
But, in the end, we decided that while we never got an answer from BF on this issue, we don't want to do anything to put us in Bad Graces with them so we decided not to allow it.
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Tony Jones
Chancellery Guard
Professor Chronotis
Still rockin' along!
Likes: 2,132
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Post by Tony Jones on Mar 4, 2016 12:54:09 GMT
Yeah curious thing the Audio Visual stories. Always wondered how good they were as cheap fan productions, any others you would recommend? I'm midway through Season 4, so I can't speak for anything past Endurance, but Cloud of Fear (Alan Lear's first story,) Blood Circuit, Second Solution, Sword of Orion (admittedly not that different from the Big Finish version,) Requiem, and Cuddlesome (stunningly different from the light-hearted BF-version) were all stand-outs. The only one's I'd recommend avoiding are Trilexia Threat (dreadful,) Secret of Nematodia (ditto,) and Endurance (one of the few Dr. Who stories that has bored me.) Jim Mortimore uploaded the lot of them to MediaFire, last year. I provided the link to them a few months ago, but Accoustic Wolf was understandably uncertain about the legalities, and so removed it. He said that the mods were going to discuss it, though I am not sure if anything came of that. EDIT: Oh, and now that I think of it, The Space Wail wasn't very good either, but it's worth listening to as an historical curiosity (as well as for its comically inept Doctor. Thank goodness he regenerated into Nick Briggs!) Personally I like them even if some don't work very well. We took the link off as we have a rule of not sharing links to anything of possibly debatable status. I did ask Ian at Big Finish for a view; he said ask Nick. Nick didn't respond so we haven't thought any further. At the risk of the accusation of hypocrisy, I did put the link on my blog and I have a full set. I head most of them around the time I got into Big Finish and as a set they are very solid and give a lot of clues as to how Big Finish would develop. Sword of Orion is rock solid in my personal view, and yes Space Wail is not one to savour! |
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