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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 28, 2017 3:03:11 GMT
As I type this I’ve decided, that to celebrate Big Finish’s upcoming 20th anniversary. I’ll be listening to my entire Big Finish digital collection. A whopping 779 (and counting) stories in order.
There’s a bit of everything in here, stuff I know (doctor who), stuff I don’t know (Mervyn stone, a touch of avengers), OOP stuff (stargate) and stuff I’ve never really been interested in before (dark shadows & terrahawks) as well.
Im really looking forward to this adventure in seeing just how far Big Finish has come in the last 20 years and seeing all the stories by some of those beloved actors that aren’t with in any more.
My biggest hope is that during this run, more of the CD only stories (I’m looking at you Benny and early Gallifrey) are made available for download soon just to add even more stories to this challenge!
The order of these is basically as released according to the big finish app, so it’ll be quite easy for me to keep track of where I’ve been and what’s yet to come.
Up first, talking bout my regeneration!
Wish me luck!
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 28, 2017 4:14:18 GMT
So, I’ve just finished Talking bout my regeneration. Ideally I’d like to rate each story as I listen to it, but an interview like this doesn’t really need a rating it wouldn’t really make sense to, now would it?
That being said I did learn a few things in it, mainly about the AVs (I really should track them down). The biggest thing was just how young everyone sounded, nick especially sounded so much younger.
It was great hearing a lot of optimism about making new audio drama and the passion that everyone brought to the table with this new original story.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 28, 2017 18:20:27 GMT
The Sirens of Time.
Having listened to this landmark release, I wish I could be more flattering about it. There’s a lot of good, as well as some not so good. The format itself is solid, 3 solo stories with one team up at the end is great. It allows the three doctors to shine on their own while giving fans one of the loved doctor team ups.
Of the three solo stories, I’d have to say the second, Davison’s is the strongest, followed by Baker’s and lastly McCoy’s.
As for the not so good, I find the first story with Sancroff and Ruthley particularly difficult to get through. Ruthley in particular is very annoying. Her final fate is quite satisfying if only that it means we won’t be hearing from her again.
Now is it just me, or does the Temperon sound a bit rubbish? I can easily picture it being a guy in a badly fitting costume if this were produced as a television story.
So all this being said, this isn’t a bad story, but it’s one where it’s greatness could be influenced by its position as both the beginning of new regular doctor who and being a multi doctor story.
To sum up, it’s a good story, but still rough around the edges. A solid 7/10.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 28, 2017 23:39:47 GMT
Phantasmagoria
I can’t say as much as I did about This one as i did Sirens of Time. It’s a fairly good story, but it’s still rough around the edges.
One thing of not was the short running time of it, part one was done and dusted before I even realized it.
I’m not a Huge fan of the setting, while highwaymen make for great ideas in stories, This era of Britain’s history doesn’t do anything for me (I’m canadian, incidentally I also had the same problem with the doctors tale)
I felt Hannah was rather annoying, being very subservient and unwilling to stand up for herself, but that particular issue took care of itself quite nicely imo.
I find it’s typical Gatiss fare, better than a fair bit of his tv work, but having many of the same tropes of those episodes.
All in all, it’s a good story. But it’s average, it doesn’t stand out.
7/10
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Post by mark687 on Oct 28, 2017 23:49:43 GMT
Phantasmagoria I can’t say as much as I did about This one as i did Sirens of Time. It’s a fairly good story, but it’s still rough around the edges. One thing of not was the short running time of it, part one was done and dusted before I even realized it. I’m not a Huge fan of the setting, while highwaymen make for great ideas in stories, This era of Britain’s history doesn’t do anything for me (I’m canadian, incidentally I also had the same problem with the doctors tale) I felt Hannah was rather annoying, being very subservient and unwilling to stand up for herself, but that particular issue took care of itself quite nicely imo. I find it’s typical Gatiss fare, better than a fair bit of his tv work, but having many of the same tropes of those episodes. All in all, it’s a good story. But it’s average, it doesn’t stand out. 7/10 in hindsight it features a very early role for David Walliams (Little Britain, DW The God Complex) as well.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 29, 2017 7:16:37 GMT
Phantasmagoria I can’t say as much as I did about This one as i did Sirens of Time. It’s a fairly good story, but it’s still rough around the edges. One thing of not was the short running time of it, part one was done and dusted before I even realized it. I’m not a Huge fan of the setting, while highwaymen make for great ideas in stories, This era of Britain’s history doesn’t do anything for me (I’m canadian, incidentally I also had the same problem with the doctors tale) I felt Hannah was rather annoying, being very subservient and unwilling to stand up for herself, but that particular issue took care of itself quite nicely imo. I find it’s typical Gatiss fare, better than a fair bit of his tv work, but having many of the same tropes of those episodes. All in all, it’s a good story. But it’s average, it doesn’t stand out. 7/10 in hindsight it features a very early role for David Walliams (Little Britain, DW The God Complex) as well.
Regards
mark687
Didn’t notice him, I don’t really tend to watch much television, so outside of who it’s nothing too me. Anyways, onto Whispers of Terror! Big Finish’s first base under siege comes in the form of a very traditional story from Justin Richards. I’ll say that to me the biggest surprise to me in this story was Colin Baker himself. I’d somewhat recently listened to order of the Daleks (it was excellent) so coming to this story with him in full season 22 mode was not what I was expecting, in fact, it has me wishing for more season 22 stories in the future (but not before more post rani elite Peri stories plz). The guest cast were great, I picked up on Peter Miles’ presence right away. Lisa Bowerman makes for a great villain, but personally I don’t think I’d have used the leading actress of the only other range in a lead role. But that’s me personally. I felt Kramer was an effective monster in the beginning, but the more he spoke, the less intimidating I found him to be. Now what I do love is the setting and the concepts in the story. They’re very much nods to the new home of Doctor Who on audio and it isn’t afraid to flaunt it. However I did find it a little confusing at times due to the story itself assuming that the listener knows about some of the processes mentioned in it. All in all A great story, definitely the strongest of the first three releases, but not quite a classic. Still a few more to go before the first classic is released. Despite that Colin hits the ground running and begins his new lease of life as the sixth doctor. 8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 29, 2017 19:24:46 GMT
Land of the dead.
I hate to say it, but what I do have to say isn’t positive.
Frankly I found this story boring, it struggled to hold my attention for the first half of its run time. The second half while somewhat better fails to be as interesting as whispers of terror, which basically does everything that tgis story tries to do but better.
Add in that the supporting cast is reduced to a billionaire jerk, a walking Inuit cliche and frankly annoying guy believing Nyssa is some guardian spirit, they make the whiny lady quite tolerable. Hell even Davison seems to be phoning it in.
Big Finish’s first dud.
5/10
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Post by masterdoctor on Oct 29, 2017 20:38:17 GMT
Land of the dead. I hate to say it, but what I do have to say isn’t positive. Frankly I found this story boring, it struggled to hold my attention for the first half of its run time. The second half while somewhat better fails to be as interesting as whispers of terror, which basically does everything that this story tries to do but better. Add in that the supporting cast is reduced to a billionaire jerk, a walking Inuit cliche and frankly annoying guy believing Nyssa is some guardian spirit, they make the whiny lady quite tolerable. Hell even Davison seems to be phoning it in. Big Finish’s first dud. 5/10 Have to agree, this and Winter of the Adept are quite frankly the worst of what Big Finish have done(At least in my opinion.). As @davygallagher says, they commit the cardinal sin of being boring, with the added pain of being badly written, having bad acting and sounding really bad compared to the first other early main range stories.
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Post by muckypup on Oct 30, 2017 1:18:06 GMT
Land of the dead. I hate to say it, but what I do have to say isn’t positive. Frankly I found this story boring, it struggled to hold my attention for the first half of its run time. The second half while somewhat better fails to be as interesting as whispers of terror, which basically does everything that this story tries to do but better. Add in that the supporting cast is reduced to a billionaire jerk, a walking Inuit cliche and frankly annoying guy believing Nyssa is some guardian spirit, they make the whiny lady quite tolerable. Hell even Davison seems to be phoning it in. Big Finish’s first dud. 5/10 Have to agree, this and Winter of the Adept are quite frankly the worst of what Big Finish have done(At least in my opinion.). As @davygallagher says, they commit the cardinal sin of being boring, with the added pain of being badly written, having bad acting and sounding really bad compared to the first other early main range stories. But to be fair to BF, they may be the worst of the First batch but are still more listenable than any of the BBC's previous efforts from doc,s 3, 6 & 7. It makes me sad to remember just how terrible pertwee's last outing as the doctor is.
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Post by masterdoctor on Oct 30, 2017 1:36:48 GMT
Have to agree, this and Winter of the Adept are quite frankly the worst of what Big Finish have done(At least in my opinion.). As @davygallagher says, they commit the cardinal sin of being boring, with the added pain of being badly written, having bad acting and sounding really bad compared to the first other early main range stories. But to be fair to BF, they may be the worst of the First batch but are still more listenable than any of the BBC's previous efforts from doc,s 3, 6 & 7. It makes me sad to remember just how terrible pertwee's last outing as the doctor is. Of course very true, the one thing that always saves Big Finish from becoming truly bad is that they always care in their product.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 30, 2017 19:13:33 GMT
But to be fair to BF, they may be the worst of the First batch but are still more listenable than any of the BBC's previous efforts from doc,s 3, 6 & 7. It makes me sad to remember just how terrible pertwee's last outing as the doctor is. Of course very true, the one thing that always saves Big Finish from becoming truly bad is that they always care in their product. Very true, every story from Big Finish shows it’s a labour of love. Now for the Fearmonger I actually enjoyed this story more than I thought I would. It’s become even more relevant to the world as it is now than when it was published (I’ll speak no more on that subject, I don’t want this topic to get political). Pearce is great as Harper, showing both the divisive politician and the very human side to her character. I’m happy to know she’ll contribute to many more stories to come. I didn’t care for the DJ personally, but I find people like that rather annoying in real life. Walter was well portrayed as an unstable individual, but revelations about him later in the story worked well. All in all, my opinion of the story has changed considerably since the first time I listened to this. At what I originally thought was a finger pointing match at the end of part 4 made much more sense this time around. I will say, the part three cliffhanger was extremely weak in my opinion. All in all a great first outing for the Seventh Doctor and Ace. 8/10.
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2017 2:50:04 GMT
The Marian Conspiracy
Big Finish’s first historical story, as well as their first original companion. This story was definitely a gamble on their part and one that payed off extremely well in my opinion.
Let’s start with Evelyn. Wonderful from the start once she gets aboard the Tardis she dives into the adventure and doesn’t look back. Cut from a different cloth than any of her predecessors (as well as her successors) she brings a completely new dynamic to the 6th doctor.
The story itself is pretty good as well as far as historicals go, it isn’t a tragedy which is a little unusual for most pure historicals. Rather it serves the purpose of establishing Evelyn’s back story as a historian. Something that this story serves quite well. As for Queen Mary herself, she’s well acted, but I can’t speak to the accuracy of her portrayal as I know next to nothing about her.
The only quibbles I had with this story were Leaf and Crow, whom I found annoying and easy to get panicking.
A fantastic first outing for Evelyn.
8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2017 4:46:27 GMT
The Genocide Machine.
My goodness that was dreadful. Everyone except Elgin seems uninterested and the Prink stuff started out ok but started grating about halfway through.
Ace gets lots to do, which is a plus, but around half way through the second episode she starts getting annoying.
Bad and boring, I was tempted to speed up playback speed just to get it over with.
Mike Tucker can do so much better.
4/10
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Post by mark687 on Oct 31, 2017 10:22:54 GMT
Of course very true, the one thing that always saves Big Finish from becoming truly bad is that they always care in their product. Very true, every story from Big Finish shows it’s a labour of love. Now for the Fearmonger I actually enjoyed this story more than I thought I would. It’s become even more relevant to the world as it is now than when it was published (I’ll speak no more on that subject, I don’t want this topic to get political). Pearce is great as Harper, showing both the divisive politician and the very human side to her character. I’m happy to know she’ll contribute to many more stories to come. I didn’t care for the DJ personally, but I find people like that rather annoying in real life. Walter was well portrayed as an unstable individual, but revelations about him later in the story worked well. All in all, my opinion of the story has changed considerably since the first time I listened to this. At what I originally thought was a finger pointing match at the end of part 4 made much more sense this time around. I will say, the part three cliffhanger was extremely weak in my opinion. All in all a great first outing for the Seventh Doctor and Ace. 8/10. I like this story quite a bit myself
Its sad it not just a bleak vision anymore but almost foreshadows real history.
Regards.
mark687
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Post by mark687 on Oct 31, 2017 10:41:03 GMT
The Marian Conspiracy Big Finish’s first historical story, as well as their first original companion. This story was definitely a gamble on their part and one that payed off extremely well in my opinion. Let’s start with Evelyn. Wonderful from the start once she gets aboard the Tardis she dives into the adventure and doesn’t look back. Cut from a different cloth than any of her predecessors (as well as her successors) she brings a completely new dynamic to the 6th doctor. The story itself is pretty good as well as far as historicals go, it isn’t a tragedy which is a little unusual for most pure historicals. Rather it serves the purpose of establishing Evelyn’s back story as a historian. Something that this story serves quite well. As for Queen Mary herself, she’s well acted, but I can’t speak to the accuracy of her portrayal as I know next to nothing about her. The only quibbles I had with this story were Leaf and Crow, whom I found annoying and easy to get panicking. A fantastic first outing for Evelyn. 8/10 I think this is release where I went "Oh my Big Finish mean business"
Colin becomes the Doctor he should've been in the span of the opening scenes.
Maggie Stables is just about perfect.
The Doctor's discussions with the Queen in fact the whole emotional depth of the story is brilliant.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Star Platinum on Oct 31, 2017 18:16:33 GMT
The Marian Conspiracy Big Finish’s first historical story, as well as their first original companion. This story was definitely a gamble on their part and one that payed off extremely well in my opinion. Let’s start with Evelyn. Wonderful from the start once she gets aboard the Tardis she dives into the adventure and doesn’t look back. Cut from a different cloth than any of her predecessors (as well as her successors) she brings a completely new dynamic to the 6th doctor. The story itself is pretty good as well as far as historicals go, it isn’t a tragedy which is a little unusual for most pure historicals. Rather it serves the purpose of establishing Evelyn’s back story as a historian. Something that this story serves quite well. As for Queen Mary herself, she’s well acted, but I can’t speak to the accuracy of her portrayal as I know next to nothing about her. The only quibbles I had with this story were Leaf and Crow, whom I found annoying and easy to get panicking. A fantastic first outing for Evelyn. 8/10 I think this is release where I went "Oh my Big Finish mean business"
Colin becomes the Doctor he should've been in the span of the opening scenes.
Maggie Stables is just about perfect.
The Doctor's discussions with the Queen in fact the whole emotional depth of the story is brilliant.
Regards
mark687
Hit the nail on the head there Mark, Colin is particularly wonderful in all his scenes with the queen, showing a wonderful sensitivity with her. Personally on of my favourite scenes is with him and lady Sarah talking about how the definition of sin is always changing. Again such sensitivity shows how his doctor should have been from the get go. Now onto the real meat of my post. Red Dawn. It’s not the greatest story, but there are a few things of note in it. First is the cast, there’s a few names that would go on and become BF regulars (and one that should have!) Fewell has done a few Benny’s at this point and would go on to do several more and Georgia Moffett is slated to star in Big Finish’s worst kept secret. Davison pits in a good performance, but Nicola Bryant is the one who really gets to shine in this story. In fact she does most of the legwork in this story, and she’s a real treat to listen too. Fewell plays a role that screams “look at me! I’m the bad guy!” Meanwhile Moffett’s character is likeable enough but I find the revelation about her heritage doesn’t really cut it as an explanation for her knowledge of how to work ice warrior tech as a poor excuse. When has genetic memory ever shown someone how to work complex equipment? As for the Ice Warriors themselves, I’m pretty happy with themeven though they don’t sound quite 100%. It’s nice seeing them in a role that’s more than just the monsters in the story. Can’t do that with too many monster. It’s a nice change from having them as straight villains. All in all. It’s a good story, but one with a very thin plot and a couple good performances. Good, but not great. 6/10.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 1, 2017 4:17:19 GMT
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor.
At long last, we get a proper adventure for the Sixth Doctor and the Brigadier. I must say the three of them are wonderful together. While Evelyn doesn’t get as much to do as she did in the previous story, what she does get is still excellent stuff. I particularly enjoyed her relationship with the Brig, she’s not a member of unit and she’s much closer to his age than either Jo or Sarah. This creates much more of an even relationship with him than any of the unit era companions did. Shame about her falling into the exact same trap that Peri did back in Whispers of Terror.
The story itself is good stuff as well, we get some classical monsters and more dreary haunted locations which both work well on audio.
One tiny issue is I think Sancreda’s voice sounded a bit silly.
Another excellent outing for this Tardis team.
8/10
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 1, 2017 6:19:04 GMT
Winter for the Adept.
There’s the seed of a good story in here, but it’s stifled by the finished product and some of the mistakes Cartmel made in writing this.
I’ll start with the Elephant in the room. Nyssa. Sarah Sutton does a really good job of carrying the story without Peter Davison, however the moment he shows up her established character goes out the window in exchange for a new miserable whiny persona.
I enjoyed the narration at the beginning (first time the MR has had narration.) but to do that little bit means you’ve opened up a framing story which Cartmel never addresses. Why have you remembered it? What made you look through you’re diary to reminisce about this time?
The sound design is really good, the piano bit during the narration is lovely and the piano being played on its own is suitably spooky.
I have the feeling that had this been commissioned and released now, there may have been another draft and the ending might have been a bit better. But alas, as it is we have a boring story that could have been so much more.
5/10.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 2, 2017 7:25:52 GMT
The Apocalypse Element.
If you’d asked me to write this a year or so ago, this would be a very different review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It hits all the right notes in terms of dalek invasions (absolute bloodbath). We first start off on a conference on archetryx and soon after the Daleks roll in and we are reunited with Romana. Fast forwarding a few episodes ahead and we have the Doctor, Evelyn and Romana not only fighting for their survival, but the survival of the very universe!
Again, we see more growth for the sixth doctor (had we seen this story in season 22, I’m sure he’d have spent more time berating Vansell! As for Evelyn, I feel this story doesn’t serve her as well as the previous ones, but that’s not to say she’s been neglected by it. She has some great moments and finds herself vital to the plot in a few places. Now Romana, she shines in this story. Her introduction in the story, seeing her so beaten down by the Daleks, to see this done to a former companion absolutely sells their threat. She takes the spotlight as primary companion in the story and she plays it extremely well. Looking forward to hearing her again in neverland.
A great story, an easy 8/10.
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Post by mark687 on Nov 2, 2017 10:06:30 GMT
The Apocalypse Element. If you’d asked me to write this a year or so ago, this would be a very different review. A great story, an easy 8/10. What's changed your opinion of it?
I agree this is the strongest of the loosely linked "Empire" stories,
Evelynn's gun-ho nature, Colin's Doc's growing frustration at the situation, smarmy Vansell back, and Romana 2s introductory scene is actually very good.
Regards
mark687
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