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Post by mrperson on Nov 17, 2016 18:26:46 GMT
If Big Finish have one weakness, it's that they use their often brilliant ideas to the point where they overstay their welcome (such as Old!Nyssa, Hector, Eight/Charley). In terms of flaws, that's probably one of the best. Eh, and even there, tastes will of course vary. Out of that list, I think eight/charley is the only thing that began to grate on me a bit.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2016 22:49:03 GMT
If Big Finish have one weakness, it's that they use their often brilliant ideas to the point where they overstay their welcome (such as Old!Nyssa, Hector, Eight/Charley). In terms of flaws, that's probably one of the best. Eh, and even there, tastes will of course vary. Out of that list, I think eight/charley is the only thing that began to grate on me a bit. That's true and it often isn't for very long either. For both Hex and Nyssa, it was only three or four releases too many.
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Post by muckypup on Nov 18, 2016 0:40:47 GMT
I think it's fine for river to meet classic doctors, the line about him being young, works if she is talking about the looks of the previous incarnations of the doctor it tenuous granted but there have been bigger continuity blunders over the years. I am happy so long as she doesn't meet 10.
If you were married to the doctor with the ability to travel in time why would you not check out the previous incarnations.
It's a hard for BF to use river without it feeling like a gimmick, but I am happy to go with it. So far I think it's worked.
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Post by icecreamdf on Nov 18, 2016 4:34:25 GMT
I am happy so long as she doesn't meet 10. I think its fine if she meets Ten in a story set after Silence in the Library (from the Doctor's point of view). Until BF gets Matt Smith on board that's really the only way they can have the Doctor and River interact without gimmicks like memory wipes or psychic wimples.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 7:02:52 GMT
I think it's fine for river to meet classic doctors, the line about him being young, works if she is talking about the looks of the previous incarnations of the doctor it tenuous granted but there have been bigger continuity blunders over the years. I am happy so long as she doesn't meet 10. If you were married to the doctor with the ability to travel in time why would you not check out the previous incarnations. It's a hard for BF to use river without it feeling like a gimmick, but I am happy to go with it. So far I think it's worked. I interpret the line as being specific to Tennants Doctor(s). So any further adventures with ten have to be post his meta crisis, when he has the same body, but older eyes.
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Post by barnabaslives on Nov 18, 2016 8:16:04 GMT
I think I like River a lot for the same reason I'm so fond of Romana, which is that either one can take care of themselves and the stories get to be about bigger and more interesting concerns than whether the companion is going to twist their ankle crossing a cow pasture. That seems like a good way to frame it because when River walks on in DC2 or DC3, I feel pretty much the same elation as when Romana has just walked onto the set in a 4th Doctor story.
I guess the difference would be that we pretty much know what to expect from Romana whereas in the TV series, whereas other than River being a force to reckon with, she doesn't seem so cut and dried and has turned up as this, that and the other thing, so I've really been enjoying having River show up with what seems like a stronger sense of purpose as a woman on a mission in the Big Finish audios, particularly Doom Coalition. Maybe the best part was that she seemed to do so without eclipsing Liv or Helen which is fantastic because I really don't think they should be shelved just because River shows up.
The only thing I can think to really hope for is that Big Finish will be able to take the sort of patchwork of River's character from the New Series and make it still more cohesive. I think Diary was a great step in that direction, but I think she still seemed a bit sketchy after having been written so much that way previously. I do still have some residual trouble to relate to her because she's been so much of a wild card before, but I don't want to let that get in the way of my fondness for the character. Again, I think she's full of qualities that generally make for some outstanding companions.
Who River really is or really wants to be besides The Doctor's "sweetie" is probably even more important to me than which Doctors she gets to meet, although I've nothing against that, I think it's great in general for the characters and performers to be able to interact in unusual pairings. Maybe that's gimmicky, or maybe it's no more so than The Three Doctors or The Apocalypse Element, I only know that I enjoy those classic mash-ups a great deal and they always seem very special to me.
I do think Doom Coalition has consistently had very interesting stories though with or without River, and has received well-deserved awards and acclaim accordingly. I think the closest thing to an exception comes from the dismal environment of the last story in the first volume trying to make it somehow seem to me like a bit of a dismal story when it really isn't (I still get the same thing from the TV episodes enough - I groan when The Doctor has to trudge through a sewer and I really could have done without in Talons of Weng-Chiang and several others, but that does not at all actually mean they're not great stories).
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Post by Johnny Cannuck on Nov 18, 2016 14:07:30 GMT
Agreed! Big Finish has a habit of taking the ridiculous and confusing from the TV world and turning it into something of depth and coherence. The problem with River in BF is that her timeline and character is such a tangled mess, as you described, that it may be asking the impossible for our BF to salvage her. Then again, they did redeem Colin Baker's Doctor so well that I often forget that he was even in the tv version!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 14:15:27 GMT
... then again, they did redeem Colin Baker's Doctor so well that I often forget that he was even in the tv version! Well...I had tried to forget some of those TV episodes I really had! Fortunately, the Big Finish Sixth Doctor audios with Colin were the perfect medicine to help me forget them. Redemption with a capital R!
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