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Post by coffeeaddict on Jan 1, 2018 3:40:15 GMT
So I'm still debating whether to get this now or later. What's the general verdict? Are people loving it? I would say it is worth getting. Both stories were fantastic. Safe to say this set will live on my frequent listen list.
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Post by elkawho on Jan 1, 2018 19:14:42 GMT
i never even heard of the great white hurricane and nyc is my town. looked it up and learned something new just like the show creators intended . destination war was my favorite of the 2. that beging waiting for the tardis crew to step a foot wrong was well done. i had no idea who the baddie was before it was revealed. i thought the actress that played susan could be a little high pitched and shrill. i wish susan was written more super genius alien instead of generic girl. it was a little weird listening to a first doctor story that didnt have peter purvis or william russel. but i liked it. ill probably order the 2nd set. Except Susan was never written as a genius, except in the first episode. She was rarely written as an alien, but much more the screaming teen that spawned way too many companions. I always found her to be shrill during the show, although much less so in her BF stories. I only really appreciated her through BF.
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Post by Ela on Jan 1, 2018 20:25:43 GMT
I have to admit to not being a big fan of Susan, even in Big Finish stories.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2018 20:37:44 GMT
I have to admit to not being a big fan of Susan, even in Big Finish stories. I couldn't really get in to the character either.
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Post by cr1980 on Jan 1, 2018 22:01:33 GMT
I find the older Susan from the 8th Doctor stories much more interesting than the one who travelled with the 1st Doctor.
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Post by glutamodo on Jan 1, 2018 23:05:39 GMT
Agreed. I actually wrote a long post a couple of hours ago where I talked about that same thing (the 8DA Susan) but then didn't post it because I felt it was a bit off-topic and because I've not yet listened to this new box set.
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Post by Ela on Jan 2, 2018 2:27:04 GMT
The Eighth Doctor Adventure Susan is somewhat more interesting, but I would call her "much" more interesting. I did enjoy her character in the Eight Doctor Adventure novel in which she appears more than I enjoyed her on television.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2018 11:51:34 GMT
Well after the wonderful first adventure I was less impressed with The Great White Hurricane. I really didn't care much for the subplot involving Rosalita. Performances were still great from the main cast though.
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Post by sherlock on Jan 3, 2018 1:21:46 GMT
The Destination Wars.
Good story, very much one you could imagine being mooted at the time (if they had a hugely bigger budget). Dreyfus' Master is great, a nice contrast to later ones in that he doesn't have plans of universal domination, he just simply wants to get what he wants and doesn't care about what other people he might sacrifice to get it.
The recasts-None of them are spot-on sound-wise really (Bradley's the closest) but they all capture the spirit of their characters suitably and after a while I didn't mind.
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Post by sherlock on Jan 4, 2018 0:31:28 GMT
The Great White Hurricane. Not as strong as the previous story but a decent historical.
I think this set was a sucess overall then, got used to the recasts over the course of the first story. Will definitely be back for Volume 2.
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Post by chapwithwings on Jan 4, 2018 15:37:11 GMT
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Post by kurumais on Jan 6, 2018 4:36:42 GMT
i was iffy on susan as well. i had only seen the very first doctor who story the unearthly child and then the cave man stuff. i remembering thinking she does a good job being an odd duck. but after the doctor shows up it
basically the doctor and ian show. but i started listening to the companion chronicles and the destiny of the doctor. i must say i kept listening more for william russell than carol ann ford. but i think she did an excellent
job in The Beginning i think that turned me around on her. maybe they should tweak her character in the david bradley box set.
jemma powell i noticed her parts are under written as well. she has a nice voice. i am listening to the fifth traveler as i type this, the poor first doctor is always getting swept away and out of his own adventures, in one
way or another.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2018 12:23:22 GMT
i was iffy on susan as well. i had only seen the very first doctor who story the unearthly child and then the cave man stuff. i remembering thinking she does a good job being an odd duck. but after the doctor shows up it basically the doctor and ian show. but i started listening to the companion chronicles and the destiny of the doctor. i must say i kept listening more for william russell than carol ann ford. but i think she did an excellent job in The Beginning i think that turned me around on her. maybe they should tweak her character in the david bradley box set. jemma powell i noticed her parts are under written as well. she has a nice voice. i am listening to the fifth traveler as i type this, the poor first doctor is always getting swept away and out of his own adventures, in one way or another. Very unique sentence/paragraph structure lol
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newt5996
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Post by newt5996 on Jan 6, 2018 16:42:49 GMT
Got around to finishing this set and The Destination Wars is the clear highlight. James Dreyfus is an excellent Master and using a story where you can have the whole we'll have flying cars by 2003 and the way that humanity actually developed worked very well. The Great White Hurricane was still a good story, but I feel the setting could have been used better. There should have been more of a trapped feeling with people succumbing to hypothermia, having nervous breakdowns, etc.
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Post by number13 on Jan 8, 2018 1:10:41 GMT
The Destination Wars
This story was a winner for me in every way: it was authentic to the era, it drew on canon we know now that was unknown then, it established the new cast and it introduced another superb Master to the Big Finish collection of Masters. I admit I had my doubts when this project was first announced, but a glance at the synopses and the authors persuaded me to preorder - and I'm so pleased I did.
This is a great First Doctor story by Matt Fitton which perfectly blends the traditional and the new to start the new range in style. On the traditional side, there's the humanoid colony world seemingly under siege by hostile lizard people - and all good 'Doctor Who' fans know never judge by appearances but wait while the Doctor delves under the surface and finds out who (if anyone) is the villain of the piece. And if there's a conflict, can there be peace through dialogue? Classic themes explored in a classic way, the companions making discoveries in 'secret corridors' and the Doctor being the first person ever to bother actually talking to both sides in a war. And the new elements hinted at: the Doctor finds and adapts a 'translator' device but also mentions he has help from elsewhere when it comes to understanding alien languages. We know that's the TARDIS at work of course, but not in 1963/4 we didn't, so it can be hinted but not stated openly.
I liked that respect for the era in the opening parts of the adventure very much, including the more formal, slightly slower style of acting as cast and director create a very authentic 'soundtrack' - and then...
And then, into the era-authentic story comes - the Master! Complete with his own TARDIS (more or less), and even a mention of the repair yards on Gallifrey and the Quadriggers at a point in the Doctor's story long before we discovered there were other Time Lords or more than the TARDIS.
Bringing the First Doctor and the First Master together to start this new series was inspired. I liked the parallels drawn between them, old former friends who we learn left home by similar means, each with a stolen TARDIS except the Master's was in far worse shape than the Doctor's! And its crumbling nature underlies this story - who but the Master would dare operate a TARDIS without the outer shell in place, moving not the TARDIS but the local Universe around it through Time? A great idea.
David Bradley is a splendid First Doctor, picking up on character traits given to the Original by William Hartnell and creating his own excellent interpretation of the Doctor, which I liked very much indeed. And the new First Doctor collides with James Dreyfus' equally splendid First Master - to my ears with definite echoes of the definitive Master, Roger Delgado. Here he seems less of the megalomaniac and more a very selfish and ruthless person willing to exploit a world and its peoples to help his escape. From the viewpoint of the exploited people of Destination, he's still just as evil whatever his motivation, but the contrast with later Masters was well done. And perhaps it was the Doctor who tipped him over the edge by the way he ends this encounter? I loved the way that the Doctor (through a clever scheme with Time) imprisons the Master in the remains of his own TARDIS - and does so with exactly the same impish delight as when he left the Monk trapped in the Middle Ages. But how long did the Master remain trapped with only his own mind for company and what effect did that have...?
I liked Jemma Powell's Barbara in 'The Fifth Traveller' and again here, very much in the spirit of Jacqueline Hill's original performance. I thought Jamie Glover took a different approach to playing Ian, true to the character but not trying to be the William Russell 'Ian'. The moment when he arrived for me as an alternative Ian was when Ian and Barbara performed a tag-team take-down of the Master, bundling him up in (nice touch) one of the Doctor's trademark cloaks! Two fine companions making a reliable team as always - any Time Lord should be proud to have such humans with him. Claudia Grant’s Susan seemed to me the most different from the original character, a Susan probably several years younger than Carole Ann Ford's Susan ever was and noticeably higher-pitched. (Personally I preferred her voice as heard in 'Adventures in Space and Time'.)
So it may take me a little time to completely get used to the new cast, but that's time I'll be very happy to give and I'm pleased to be subbed to the full first series.
A cracking story to start the new range, and both the story and the range idea are yet more winners from 'Big Finish'!
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Post by kurumais on Jan 8, 2018 4:05:05 GMT
i was iffy on susan as well. i had only seen the very first doctor who story the unearthly child and then the cave man stuff. i remembering thinking she does a good job being an odd duck. but after the doctor shows up it basically the doctor and ian show. but i started listening to the companion chronicles and the destiny of the doctor. i must say i kept listening more for william russell than carol ann ford. but i think she did an excellent job in The Beginning i think that turned me around on her. maybe they should tweak her character in the david bradley box set. jemma powell i noticed her parts are under written as well. she has a nice voice. i am listening to the fifth traveler as i type this, the poor first doctor is always getting swept away and out of his own adventures, in one way or another. Very unique sentence/paragraph structure lol yeah that kind of got away from me
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Post by barnabaslives on Jan 8, 2018 8:27:24 GMT
I'm terribly fond of Susan - plus she's the Doctor's granddaughter, and she was there at the very beginning.
I've gone back and finished the first story now, I am indeed very impressed. Bradley and Powell's characterizations already feel a lot to me like Tim Treloar's Third Doctor - not imitations, but excellent invocations of the mannerisms and spirit of the original characters.
I think Claudia Grant must have by far the hardest job here of the lead cast, it feels like she's maybe trying to weave together some diverse aspects into something a little different, perhaps somewhat in deference to Carole Ann Ford's portrayal? It kind of feels like she's on the verge of creating something original by maybe making a bit of aristocratically lofty but likeable into unearthly but accessible, or something like that? Maybe a little of everyone settling into their roles here but things shaped up very well very quickly.
I certainly hope we hear more of Carole Ann in First Doctor stories as well as others, but it's ever bit as nice to hear First Doctor stories in glorious full-cast again as I had hoped.
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Post by shallacatop on Jan 8, 2018 20:06:58 GMT
Listened to The Destination Wars. Good story; Bradley and Dreyfus are brilliant and really shine together. Glover is rather good too. Grant and Powell just sound too mannered to my ears.
I think I’d have preferred to have heard Bradley’s Firsf Doctor with a new companion, or with Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, etc. I have to keep reminding myself that this set was merely coincidental with Twice Upon A Time and was planned some time ago as featuring the An Adventure in Space and Time cast. It makes me wonder if things would have been different if it was an idea that spawned from TUAT.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 8, 2018 20:13:40 GMT
I certainly hope we hear more of Carole Ann in First Doctor stories as well as others, but it's ever bit as nice to hear First Doctor stories in glorious full-cast again as I had hoped. I tried starting this box set yesterday and I had to give it a break. I found it really hard to wrap my brain around a full cast 1st Doctor audio. This isn't a slam to the production but rather me being surprised by my reaction to it and wanting to give it a little more time.
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Post by number13 on Jan 8, 2018 21:14:26 GMT
I certainly hope we hear more of Carole Ann in First Doctor stories as well as others, but it's ever bit as nice to hear First Doctor stories in glorious full-cast again as I had hoped. I tried starting this box set yesterday and I had to give it a break. I found it really hard to wrap my brain around a full cast 1st Doctor audio. This isn't a slam to the production but rather me being surprised by my reaction to it and wanting to give it a little more time. I know what you mean - I found the first two episodes a very strange experience. I was enjoying the story and the effort that had clearly gone into being authentic, but the authenticity + new cast made it seem even stranger! It was entirely my fault, but I found I was spending too much time listening to the production, rather than listening to the story, if that makes sense? Oddly enough, I really found myself settling down when the Master showed up and we went off in a less authentic direction; a gripping story yet far more 'timey-wimey' than they would have done in the early years. By the end of the adventure I felt fully at home with the new idea and just wanted to know what would happen next! I'll be listening to the set again when the CDs arrive, if not before, and I'm looking forward to hearing these excellent stories again after a short break when the new cast and their takes on four familiar characters won't be such a novelty. I'm grateful we were able to have the EAs and CCs that we did and wish there could have been more of the William Russell EAs especially, but I'm already looking forward to the second set of these new First Doctor adventures. I think Big Finish have another excellent range!
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