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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2017 1:40:32 GMT
I would really love to hear some darker themes and stories in Who, this strand is a missing for me. I agree, it is. Although it is probably still more a case of the BBC wanting Big Finish Doctor Who stories to be 'kiddie-friendly' [my term, not the BBC's] and accessible to any new fans coming on board via the new series on TV as opposed to people at Big Finish not having the creativity for darker themes and stories. So if the BBC guidelines demand nothing too controversial - I think Gary Russell once said; no black magic, terrorism, gratuitous violence or religion - then Big Finish as licensees can't stray too far from the 'safe' path. What we do get from Big Finish is damn good, but yes I'd love to see a return to main range stories that pushed the boundaries a bit. It's definitely not for a lack of talent in that regard ( Torchwood, Survivors, etc.), I still wonder how they were able to sneak through The Peterloo Massacre under the BBC oversight. I enjoy the TV appropriate stories as much as their forebears, but part of Big Finish's appeal for me as a kid was that it tended to push boundaries. Jubilee, The Council of Nicaea, Creatures of Beauty, even something like The Pirates (which had some very dark themes in its framing story), we don't tend to get stuff like that as much. It's kind of odd really because the television series itself tended to go much further than what children's shows do today. Maybe it's the context in which it's perceived. There's room for guns in the New Captain Scarlet, but not Thunderbirds Are Go despite both original series employing them.
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Post by Whovitt on Sept 25, 2017 2:19:56 GMT
Strangely, I was quite against some of the stronger themes and violence in the earlier Big Finish era. Don't get me wrong, most the stories were still really good, but to me Doctor Who isn't about pushing those boundaries (we have Torchwood now for that), it's about having fun adventures, and sometimes I felt those early stories were being a bit too mean spirited. That being said, Doctor Who and the Pirates and Creatures of Beauty are among some of my favourite audios, the first for its comedy and the second for its genius way of telling its' story. Stuff like Project: Lazarus occasionally felt like it was overstepping the line by going all Alien Resurrection on us, but while it didn't really feel like Doctor Who to me, I still really enjoyed it. Of those early years, there's only one story that I distinctly remember not enjoying, and that was The Holy Terror. Yes, it had a great first half, but the second... it got too nasty. It went places that I just couldn't accept from a Doctor Who story. Master almost pushed that barrier as well, but the acting, particularly Philip Madoc's performance, was just too wonderful to prevent me from going back to it. I haven't heard much of the 'modern' Main Range (only last years 13 releases), but I must say that I enjoyed all of them a lot more than I did most of those early releases. Maybe it was because I started at the start and I was apprehensive about Doctor Who on audio, but they just felt so different, while these newer ones felt so 'right'. All of this is, of course, subjective, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents (damn, those were the only 2 cents I hadn't spent on Big Finish... what a waste! )
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Post by dalektimecontroller on Sept 25, 2017 9:16:58 GMT
I agree, it is. Although it is probably still more a case of the BBC wanting Big Finish Doctor Who stories to be 'kiddie-friendly' [my term, not the BBC's] and accessible to any new fans coming on board via the new series on TV as opposed to people at Big Finish not having the creativity for darker themes and stories. So if the BBC guidelines demand nothing too controversial - I think Gary Russell once said; no black magic, terrorism, gratuitous violence or religion - then Big Finish as licensees can't stray too far from the 'safe' path. What we do get from Big Finish is damn good, but yes I'd love to see a return to main range stories that pushed the boundaries a bit. It's definitely not for a lack of talent in that regard ( Torchwood, Survivors, etc.), I still wonder how they were able to sneak through The Peterloo Massacre under the BBC oversight. I enjoy the TV appropriate stories as much as their forebears, but part of Big Finish's appeal for me as a kid was that it tended to push boundaries. Jubilee, The Council of Nicaea, Creatures of Beauty, even something like The Pirates (which had some very dark themes in its framing story), we don't tend to get stuff like that as much. It's kind of odd really because the television series itself tended to go much further than what children's shows do today. Maybe it's the context in which it's perceived. There's room for guns in the New Captain Scarlet, but not Thunderbirds Are Go despite both original series employing them. I enjoyed the earlier Monthly Range stories in this regard, because a lot of them were doing things that we'd never seen before, which gave BF their own flavour of Doctor Who (much like eras of the TV show and the Virgin books had their own feel distinct from other Doctor Who). I might be in the minority, but I prefer it when Big Finish concentrates on writing totally original stories and employs concepts we've never seen before, rather than trying too hard to recreate specific eras and feels of the show - part of the reason ranges like The Lost Stories have never really done it for me. IMHO, the golden era of Big Finish is from about the first McGann stuff (Storm Warning) to about The Kingmaker where we got a totally distinct type of Doctor Who and really variable stories. This "era" of Big Finish prioritised new and inventive story-telling over rehashing old ideas and recreating the feel of the Classics. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy what's going on now, but it will be hard to top this era for me.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2017 9:45:33 GMT
It's definitely not for a lack of talent in that regard ( Torchwood, Survivors, etc.), I still wonder how they were able to sneak through The Peterloo Massacre under the BBC oversight. I enjoy the TV appropriate stories as much as their forebears, but part of Big Finish's appeal for me as a kid was that it tended to push boundaries. Jubilee, The Council of Nicaea, Creatures of Beauty, even something like The Pirates (which had some very dark themes in its framing story), we don't tend to get stuff like that as much. It's kind of odd really because the television series itself tended to go much further than what children's shows do today. Maybe it's the context in which it's perceived. There's room for guns in the New Captain Scarlet, but not Thunderbirds Are Go despite both original series employing them. I enjoyed the earlier Monthly Range stories in this regard, because a lot of them were doing things that we'd never seen before, which gave BF their own flavour of Doctor Who (much like eras of the TV show and the Virgin books had their own feel distinct from other Doctor Who). I might be in the minority, but I prefer it when Big Finish concentrates on writing totally original stories and employs concepts we've never seen before, rather than trying too hard to recreate specific eras and feels of the show - part of the reason ranges like The Lost Stories have never really done it for me. IMHO, the golden era of Big Finish is from about the first McGann stuff (Storm Warning) to about The Kingmaker where we got a totally distinct type of Doctor Who and really variable stories. This "era" of Big Finish prioritised new and inventive story-telling over rehashing old ideas and recreating the feel of the Classics. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy what's going on now, but it will be hard to top this era for me. Yeah, I'm the same, I think I've spent long enough in the fandom to get to that point too. Maybe I've become weirdly jaded in my own way. Big Finish have been masterful at bringing back old concepts and giving them entirely new leases in life, but I also really enjoy the Forge, Nix, Galyari, Viyrans, Eminence, Loups-Garoux, Rocket Men and who knows how many other additions they've brought us over the years. There's so much from BF you could consider iconic outside the televised monsters. I got into BF fairly late into the game, so my golden age tends to hop about quite a bit, I think. Storm Warning to Neverland is definitely what I'd consider to be top tier Eighth Doctor stories, the kind you'd show to a newcomer. Legend of the Cybermen was definitely the last time I was camping out the BF website for upcoming releases, after that I started to drop off afterwards due to a variety of real-world factors. Lack of time and money, mainly. But you know... As much as I might moan about the approach sometimes, I still very much enjoy things like The Seeds of War or The Waters of Amsterdam as fun romps around a familiar playground. I miss the old approach with the lack of punches pulled, but yeah, this era is just as entertaining in its own way. If nothing else, it's still Doctor Who and done by people who love it.
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Post by omega on Sept 25, 2017 10:20:10 GMT
2012 to 2015 is where Big Finish really got going for multi-trilogy arcs. The two main ones are the Seveth Doctor, Ace and Hex ones that ran 2009 to 2013 and the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Tulough and Older Nyssa trilogies from 2010 to 2015, talking a break in 2014. It's still going on today, with the Sixth Doctor, Flip and Constance as well as with the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Mel.
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