|
|
Post by agentten on Mar 28, 2016 21:17:37 GMT
The fifth season of the 4DAs is continuing to be a really strong season. I like this one a lot and I was glad to hear Romana and K-9 play important roles in the story. Big Finish seems to finally be getting on top of the hour format for the 4DAs as this one felt naturally paced. Looking forward to next month's second half!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2016 7:48:14 GMT
It's always hard to assess the first part of a larger story. This could be made a masterpiece by what follows or it could fall flat. That said, BF sell it as two individual stories and charge you twice so to take it purely as a one discer, here's a few of my thoughts without hearing 5.04 yet. The very idea of a planet being at war with itself at a different point in time is absolutely wonderful and instantly grabbed me. You can't kill your ancestors for fear of being erased from the timeline but they can kill you since at your end, time is still in flux. What a brilliant notion. As was using a bomb as a time capsule. That would liven up the Blue Peter garden! Like other stories thus far, splitting Romana from The Doctor is a good idea. I'd imagine it not only cuts down, practically, on how much expensive time they need to hire Tom Baker for but it absolutely makes sense in universe since Romana very much sees herself as the leader. She even refers to him as "my companion" in this. Given the era of the TV show, when Lalla did have to take the lead when Tom C.B.A-ed with the role depending on his moods, I like that interpretation of this being a show with co-leads. I wonder if a lot of the fans of the Moffat era who use that awful term "Clara Who" to criticise how much of a role Jenna Coleman has had in recent years would apreciate Romana II being as crucial as The Doctor. I doubt it  The Ep 1 cliffhanger was a nice setpiece. What a lovely idea that Romana and The Doctor are at different points in time but geographically in the same location for the cliffhanger. I particularly enjoyed K9 being part of the resolution at both ends of the timeline. Waiting 1,000 years to save his master..."Good dog", indeed! And as for the ending...I'm almost tempted to take a break for a while (though I won't - I've saved my audios all year for my Christmas time off) as I liked the "I...am...Machina" ending. Pure sci-fi trope schlock but absolutely perfect for this era. I thought this story could actually be a TV-one from the time. Limited sets, bunkers no less, that could be re-dressed to film the other end of the timeline. Nice touch. Could almost have the 'It's Saturday tea-time in 1977 all over again' branding we used to get on early 4DAs, albeit for 1979 in this case. You know me, I love my character actors so I apreciated hearing Simon Rouse and Tom Chadbon here. They're not just DW veterans from roughly the era this story is set but are both fantastic audio actors. Rouse spent nearly 30 years of his career doing nothing but playing DCI Meadows in The Bill and I always feel a bit melancholy seeing/hearing him before and after that period as I think he could have had a very diverse and interesting career. He's got more talent than a lot of bigger TV stars. A strong start to what could be at the top end of the 4DAs when it comes to two-parters. I've been let down by the second part of stories in this range before...here's hoping this bucks the trend. |
|
|
|
Post by ulyssessarcher on Dec 30, 2016 7:34:13 GMT
Listened to this one tonight, the political punch is coming, so hunker down.
Romana made a statement that I totally disagree with and shows how out of touch she really is, even as a fictional character, and yes, this is for the writer.
She said, guns have no defensive capabilities. I know this to be purely false. I know at least 1 person who is alive due to being defended with a gun, and she never touched the gun.
If you want to know more, then PM me, but I was not going to let that false statement lay there as fact.
Other than that, it was a pretty good story.
|
|
|
|
Post by mrperson on Dec 30, 2016 15:41:32 GMT
She said, guns have no defensive capabilities. I know this to be purely false. I know at least 1 person who is alive due to being defended with a gun, and she never touched the gun. I suspect the point is that that is still an offensive capability, used defensively. A defensive capability would be, for example, to act as a shield. |
|
|
|
Post by Ela on May 3, 2018 20:57:16 GMT
I enjoyed this story. And, yeah, these comments from upthread pretty much sum it up!  The whole problem seems to be a paradox. The future, area 24, are going back to the past, area 14 here, to get the things they need to restore their civilisation. But the people in area 14 are hoarding the crystals and developing time travel precisely because the people from area 24 are stealing the crystals and the animals, leaving nothing for the people of area 14 to maintain their civilisation. It's a classic chicken and egg conundrum, where the interference from the future has potentially created the problem they are using time travel in an attempt to solve. There's still another two episodes left to go, so who knows what will happen? I bet that the Doctor will prevent the initial time travel experiments, thus eliminating the problem. The K9 from the future (the one with the Doctor is accounted for throughout the story) has shades of Festival of Death, which I'm surprised wasn't brought up in the interviews, especially given that this was recorded not long after it was re-released for the 50th anniversary. The Doctor and Romana switching time zones was funny, like how you're in the lift going up as the person you're meeting is going down in the other lift at the same time (that's happened to me before). It may not be an original observation, but having four episodes really allowed the first half of the story to breathe. It's also the first two-parter (one story across two releases) not to have an overly traditional feel, so the first part has succeeded, lets hope the second half won't run out of steam! Yeah, I felt like face-palming when the guy was explaining to the Doctor that the people in the past didn't use the crystals for some unknown reason, so they were going back in time and stealing the crystals. Exactly, they've had centuries of developing time travel so surely someone had thought about the implications and realised that the seeming lack of crystals in the past is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy. The best solution would be to return what was taken back to area 14, discourage Embery's time travel experiments and let a better future take place. That way the new area 24 doesn't have time travel capabilities, can't steal from the past and none of this ever happens. Living underground and scavenging off your own past can't be a very good existence. No wonder it's the Paradox Planet! |
|
|
|
Post by Chakoteya on Oct 15, 2021 16:20:30 GMT
A superb premise.
More in 'part two'.
|
|
The Ep 1 cliffhanger was a nice setpiece. What a lovely idea that Romana and The Doctor are at different points in time but geographically in the same location for the cliffhanger. I particularly enjoyed K9 being part of the resolution at both ends of the timeline. Waiting 1,000 years to save his master..."Good dog", indeed! And as for the ending...I'm almost tempted to take a break for a while (though I won't - I've saved my audios all year for my Christmas time off) as I liked the "I...am...Machina" ending. Pure sci-fi trope schlock but absolutely perfect for this era. I thought this story could actually be a TV-one from the time. Limited sets, bunkers no less, that could be re-dressed to film the other end of the timeline. Nice touch. Could almost have the 'It's Saturday tea-time in 1977 all over again' branding we used to get on early 4DAs, albeit for 1979 in this case.
