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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2016 12:41:41 GMT
Hey everyone,
Last year, Nicholas Briggs talked of the possibility of Big Finish moving away from monthly releases featuring Doctors 5-7 to box set releases. What do we think of this potential change?
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Post by fitzoliverj on Jun 4, 2016 12:52:36 GMT
If you can afford to subscribe, it shouldn't make any difference. But for those of us who pick and choose individual plays, it would basically rule out making purchases.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2016 13:12:39 GMT
Personally, I think it'd be a VERY bad step. One of the biggest draws to Big Finish is that it's Doctor Who away from the TV series - particularly when the series is off the air - and the monthly releases are a nice jumping on point for new customers, particularly with that hefty back catalogue, particularly at $12.95 Australian. I don't think that feeling would extend for some to pricer box sets, even with Big Finish's attention grabbing tactics (e.g. Eldread returns, expanding upon Tegan's return to the TARDIS, Nyssa's return, the return of Peri, etc).
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Post by SoundableObject on Jun 4, 2016 13:22:53 GMT
Well it would not happen for a very long time. The monthly subscription will go to at least 2020 what with the super subscription. But I think Big Finish should always have the four part stories. I'd resist a move to four hour long stories in a set which I assume this would be. I don't mind it when it is extra stories in addition to the main range but I'd be dead set against replacing them.
My idea would be to convert the Main Range and the Eighth Doctor Adventures into something akin to the Early Adventures and the Companion Chronicles. So have the 4 Doctors with three releases throughout the year and have one set for each Doctor every two years (so two sets each year).
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Post by muckypup on Jun 4, 2016 14:44:15 GMT
it would be suicide!! as would a streaming service for anything but the oldest of releases
over the last few years we have seen a move to charge as much as possible for box sets and see what sticks, well it seems that we are only really willing to pay £25-£30 for a box & £20 or less for a download...judging by the way benny adventures, hinchcliffe and prisoner have had to have the drop vol 2 and reduce vol 1
this would work out far less revenue than the current subscriber system
but it seems a bit irrelevant as the main (upps sorry monthly) range goes to 2020 and we may be in a very different position by then, with all but Paul of the classic doctors being 70+
personally I would welcome a move away from box sets 60 min episode format.
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Post by elkawho on Jun 4, 2016 14:49:08 GMT
I hate the idea of moving everything to boxsets. I love the individual stories every month. The boxsets, while having their own strengths, takes away the ability to make individual 4 part stories with a beginning, middle and end. And while BF isn't as experimental as it used to be, the monthly range stories allows for more unique storytelling that is tough to do in boxed sets. The Main Range is like the backbone of BF, and everything else seems to be structured around it (to a point. I know it's not as much as it used to be.)
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mbt66
Chancellery Guard
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Post by mbt66 on Jun 4, 2016 15:14:55 GMT
Well I don't see any reason why they can't have their cake and still eat it.
Big Finish have already set their store out and will be producing the monthly range for the considerable future, so why not package the trilogies into box sets and offer them for sale a year after their original release for (say) £40. They would be the same three releases simply collected in a cardboard slip case.
That would give them two bites at the same cherry and then another year or so later they can offer them individually in sales for a lower amount and and continue to nibble those cherries...
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Post by relativetime on Jun 4, 2016 16:08:30 GMT
I like box sets well enough and I actually do look forward to seeing a few more in the future for Doctors 5-7. But having them replace the Main Range entirely? I'm not so sure. I think it's a long way off, if it ever does happen, and I think there's still potential for the range to tell some unique and absolutely brilliant stories as it is now. These past couple of years, to me at least, have proven that.
Still, I think there's a case for switching up the formula the Main Range has fallen into - as in, trilogy for one Doctor, anthology, trilogy for all three Doctors, trilogy for another Doctor, and trilogy for the other. Maybe we could just return to the format we had before we started having trilogies or maybe have an interlinking plot going on in each Main Range release that finally culminates in something huge at the end?
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Post by jasonward on Jun 4, 2016 16:23:55 GMT
I hate boxsets.
Don't want them.
I would happily subscribe to weekly/monthly/bi-monthly/whatever period releases.
Give me a steady stream of stories.
Even buying boxsets annoys me, I like to purchase 2 or 3 times a year from BF, basically purchasing whats been made available for sale since I last purchased, boxsets just make life difficult and annoying. Buying a subscription so much easier to keep track of, find and buy.
Boxsets are spawn of melkor.
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Post by constonks on Jun 4, 2016 16:26:23 GMT
That just made me think: What if BF did a thirteen-story arc with all three of their MR Doctors? Like an entire year's worth of story, perhaps with either Tom or Paul appearing somewhere along the way.
Anyway, I personally like the Monthly Range. It's nice to have something reliable each month and a little bit of delayed gratification is basically a novelty in this era of streaming.
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Post by jasonward on Jun 4, 2016 16:29:30 GMT
it would be suicide!! as would a streaming service for anything but the oldest of releases A bunch of BF releases are available for streaming on Napster if not other places too, no Who, at least not yet, but Sherlock and Blake's 7 probably others too. Yes, seems like commercial suicide to me. I pay Napster something like £20 a year, or some such, I pay BF many hundreds, but why would I continue to pay BF anything at all if their releases come to me via Napster? Huge misstep on BF's part.
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aztec
Chancellery Guard
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Post by aztec on Jun 4, 2016 18:20:34 GMT
No thanks.
-It could mean a move to more 1 hour storylines, which wouldn't feel right for Doctors 5-7 i.m.o, i.m.o there is already on over reliance on boxsets, I sometimes prefer the feeling of having one new story per week month etc, rather than having 4 or 5 all in one go, though £20 for 3 or 4 stories is certainly beneficial for those of us on a tight BF budget.
-Following 3 Doctors across boxsets instead of one simple subscription could be confusing and prohibitively expensive for some, it may also lead to more pick and choosing of which Doctors people follow.
-Although I don't subscribe to the Main Range, and I haven't listened to many of them outside Paul's stories, to me this just seems like an unnecessary change that could alienate alot of long time BF customers, if it ain't broke why try and fix it? The Main Range was BF's mainstay and backbone for years, it combines the nostalgia and tradition of the structure of Classic Who with a huge amount of experimentation, getting rid of that merely to take a more commercial option designed to appeal to new listeners wouldn't sit right with me personally...
In fact I'd rather they brought McGann (maybe even Tom) back to the monthly range, phase out the reliance on trilogies and play around with the format a little more...
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Post by mark687 on Jun 4, 2016 19:55:57 GMT
No Thanks
My answer's pretty much as JasonWard's expect I don't have the patience to wait for sales so I'm now buying boxset bundles as close to the end of pre-order period for the 1st item as possible or as and when I have disposable cash.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jun 4, 2016 21:32:21 GMT
Well I don't see any reason why they can't have their cake and still eat it. Big Finish have already set their store out and will be producing the monthly range for the considerable future, so why not package the trilogies into box sets and offer them for sale a year after their original release for (say) £40. They would be the same three releases simply collected in a cardboard slip case. That would give them two bites at the same cherry and then another year or so later they can offer them individually in sales for a lower amount and and continue to nibble those cherries... I think this makes a lot of sense. I don't think the Main Range as we know it is going anywhere any time soon. And while I like box sets, I also like my 4 part monthly dose of Who. If I could make any change, I would work as hard as possible to bring in as many new writers as I could while also playing with the trilogy format. Of course if we had had this conversation a year ago I would have said to blow the whole monthly range up since it seemed like we had a serious run of mediocre stories.
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Post by agentten on Jun 4, 2016 22:08:32 GMT
I think it's set up pretty well as it is right now with monthly adventures and boxed sets for special occasions (return of Adric, Phillip Hinchcliffe, etc.) I rather suspect I would wind up buying less overall if things were switched to boxed sets because I would focus on buying my favorite Doctors and probably skip some sets that didn't sound as interesting to me.
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Post by grazey on Jun 4, 2016 22:14:38 GMT
I think it will happen eventually but more out of necessity than anything. As much as I'd like them to they aren't going to be able to continue doing big finish forever. When 1 of them decides to stop doing big finish (whether it's due to retirement or ill health)it could lead them having a gap in the monthly range of they are unable to get Paul or Tom to fit in which could domino into them having to change how the monthly range is released. As much as I have faith in the three doctors I just can't see the monthly releases surviving on just 2 doctors.
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Post by elkawho on Jun 4, 2016 22:43:07 GMT
So, does anyone actually like the idea? It seems like a pretty unanimous "no".
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Post by omega on Jun 4, 2016 22:47:18 GMT
I prefer the Main Range as it is. It's been around since the beginning and there's comfort knowing that no matter what, there'll always be at least one new story from that range each month. Issues I've had with the Main Range in the past few years are being addressed (just need a Fifth Doctor trilogy without Nyssa) and the quality of the stories has improved significantly over the past 18 months. I don't mind one off box sets with a hook, but I don't want to see box sets take the place of the Main Range stories.
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Post by ausir on Jun 4, 2016 22:47:52 GMT
I hate the idea of moving everything to boxsets. I love the individual stories every month. The boxsets, while having their own strengths, takes away the ability to make individual 4 part stories with a beginning, middle and end. And while BF isn't as experimental as it used to be, the monthly range stories allows for more unique storytelling that is tough to do in boxed sets. The Main Range is like the backbone of BF, and everything else seems to be structured around it (to a point. I know it's not as much as it used to be.) But even if they are released as box sets, it doesn't mean they cannot be individual stories. E.g. the Hinchcliffe box set had two unconnected stories, as do the CC box sets. I don't mind it. Especially if it would mean them being cheaper per-story.
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Post by jasonward on Jun 4, 2016 23:35:17 GMT
No Thanks My answer's pretty much as JasonWard's expect I don't have the patience to wait for sales so I'm now buying boxset bundles as close to the end of pre-order period for the 1st item as possible or as and when I have disposable cash. Regards mark687 To clarify, when I say "on sale" I meant, made available for sale, not discounted in a sale.
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