|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 15, 2019 23:23:24 GMT
Mother Russia
Platt is back on form after a poor showing a few releases earlier.
A solid chunk of the story is built developing the family that Stephen and co are staying with, but once the alien arrives the story picks up and we get to the meat of it.
Purves plays this story exceptionally well, he doesn't overly sound like Hartnell, but he captures his cadence and mannerisms quite well. Each character has a developed and distinct voice, and there is no issue telling anyone apart.
Platt uses the narration to establish a more visual aspect to the story, he's an excellent writer and can play to the strengths of the medium.
my only concern is the framing story, everything is wrapped up nicely, but I can't see a spot for the framing story to happen.
a few nods to the savages show that Stephens time is coming to a close.
The Companion Chronicles have found their niche, I just wish that the more recent releases would strive to be closer to the two hander formula, rather than the early adventures light style.
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 16, 2019 4:44:43 GMT
Absolution
C'rizz gets interesting! Too little too late though.
I'll admit that C'rizz was definitely poorly served by the writing. His was a case of the writers seemingly not knowing what to do with him.
I think Charley was absolutely right to call the doctor out at the end of the story, but in the Doctor's defense he's only voicing what 99% of the fans are thinking.
Bless India, she's acting her heart out at the end.
The plot itself is solid enough, it ties everything satisfactorily together, but doesn't really achieve greatness.
Everything in the last 10 minutes or so is pure gold though.
7/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 16, 2019 6:23:06 GMT
Dalek empire IV: The Fearless pt 2
In this story, we see Kade the family man. Then the not so family man. Bad joke aside, this is a huge bit of development for him. He’s now far more focused on wiping out the daleks. His treatment of the PoW is particularly telling.
Landen is also getting more screen time and I like what I hear. She’s tough as nails, but I can’t shake a slight matronly feeling about her with her exchanges with kade.
What the Daleks did to Ollander is particularly vile. To kill is one thing, buy stripping someone of their very identity is disgusting.
Bring on part 3!
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 16, 2019 21:15:23 GMT
Helicon Prime
I don’t have much to say about this one.
Frazier is good, right from the beginning his Pat Troughton is on point. Susan Proctor does a fine job as Mindy.
The main issue I have is that the story itself never really takes off. It never becomes more that the sum of its parts.
What we are left with is a serviceable story that fails to capture the audience.
6/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 16, 2019 23:22:57 GMT
The minds eye
Seriously, is there anything in this story that isn’t stupidily cliched? This sounds like a plot a machine could write.
No one sounds engaged at all.
Once the central conceit was explained, this story could be predicted beat for beat.
Apply yourself.
2/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 17, 2019 21:53:37 GMT
Mission of the viyrans
This is pretty solid.
Nicola is absolutely fantastic in selling her terror. Some really unsettling bits from the viyran.
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 21, 2019 3:47:43 GMT
Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless pt 3 I enjoyed this one, the mission was fun. The interplay between Kade and Mendez was good.
I’m not sure why the Daleks didn’t just duplicate Suzan from the start of the first series. She’d have been far less of a liability to the Daleks.
The set up for the final episode is some top knot game stuff.
That ending though!
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 24, 2019 0:51:36 GMT
Return of the Daleks
This story took a week to finish.
I'm mixed on this story, as a Doctor who, the Doctor is far too passive. As a Dalek Empire, it doesn't feel like it carries the same weight to it the other stories do.
Revisiting Spiridon was good, even though it makes the story fairly continuity heavy. Seems like the Daleks were breeding, Having just watched PotD there's only Ten Thousand of them, this story bumps it up to 1.1 million daleks.
Overall, this feels more like an advertisement for the Dalek Empire range than a story in its own right.
6/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 24, 2019 1:44:06 GMT
Old Soldiers
This is a nice little story.
The Doctor and the Brig sitting down for a melancholic reflection of an adventure with the doctor.
This is a great little story, Nick Courtney gives it this wonderful weight with his performance. my only regret is that this is his only showing for this particular range.
Imagine if we had had CCs with Nick and katy, Or Nick and Caroline John. What we could have had.
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 24, 2019 21:22:50 GMT
The Girl Who Never Was.
Journey's End.
This is a fantastic way to cap off the Eighth Doctor's journey with Charley.
It's amazing that after a rough time in the divergent universe and their journeys immediately after , that come to this story it's back to business as usual, as much as Charley protests.
There are lots of lovely nods and call backs to the various journeys and adventures they've been through. I never caught the paradox of Charley sowing the temporal corrosion in previous listens, clever writing there.
The cast is great, Anna Massy is particularly good as Miss Pollard.
The only thing I'm unsure of is Byron, how were there two of them? Oh Well.
The endings, both of them, are fantastic. While I despair for another case of amnesia (This particular really should wear a helmet) Paul McGann really sells the feelings he's going through.
In particular, McGann's doctor really has grown from this story to Ravenous what a journey.
The post credits scene is a particularly well done bit of sound design, for anyone with a good ear, they know the door is off and the trial theme seals the deal.
I want to mention the cover briefly, the rusty Cyberman is gorgeous, but i'm surprised the New Series hasn't swiped that look. Seriously, we have wooden cyberman but not rusty!
Absolutely fantastic end of an era, and a clever set up for the beginning of a new one.
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 27, 2019 3:45:45 GMT
Dalek empire IV: The Fearless pt 4
Pretty good, all things considered.
Kade seemingly goes of the deep end. He holds Landon accountable in his trademarked insane way.
Overall this has been a good series. It’s only issue is that running along side the first series, we know they can’t win. We know exactly how all of this plays out for them.
I think, having been watching DS9 during this, and I think that that the collaboration angle is definitely a missed opportunity.
7/10.
Sorry if this is a little all over the place. Right now I’m several drinks deep.
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 28, 2019 22:13:02 GMT
The Catalyst
Just to start, the sound design is this story is absolutely fantastic, it really sells the tone of this. it's superbly haunting and well used.
Louise is an excellent narrator, each character is distinct and her Jessica in particular is well done.
I'm not crazy about creating companions like Lord Douglas like this, similar to Gemma and Samson they exist only because the story demands it. There is very little substance to the characters and frankly, I've never seen the point to it.
The Z'Nai are a great creation and the central conceit that they're all altered to look and sound like Hombrackle is perfect for the cast limitations of the companion chronicles.
My only really annoyance with the story is that Leela becomes the catalyst for a disease capable of wiping the Z'nai out, but we don't know when this happens.
a small mis step that tarnishes the story, but that aside a strong release.
8/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 29, 2019 4:51:31 GMT
The Bride of Peladon
This one really didn't do much for me. There's nothing bad per say, but the story just doesn't grab me the way it should. Especially for a landmark story like a companion departure.
The Hamlet nods are nice, they work well in this setting, but it feels like they take to long to pay off. Arcturus sounds like a cyberman half the time.
Pandora, Yasmin Bannerman shines. She plays the role quite well and is pleasant to hear. Pelleas, frankly comes off as a bit wet, and having recently watched the The Green Death, the romance between him and Erimem comes off closer to that of Leela and Andred rather than that of Jo and Prof Jones.
The last part of the story also doesn't quite mesh with the first three episodes and Sehkmet doesn't carry the weight that Sutekh does.
A passable final story for Erimem, but frankly I feel she deserved better.
7/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 29, 2019 6:24:33 GMT
If someone could please explain Dead London to me, that’d be great.
I’ve just under 20 minutes of it left and I can’t make heads or tails of it.
|
|
ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
|
Post by ljwilson on Oct 29, 2019 10:13:21 GMT
If someone could please explain Dead London to me, that’d be great. I’ve just under 20 minutes of it left and I can’t make heads or tails of it. I don't think I could either, but for me it is one of the better 8DA.
|
|
|
Post by mark687 on Oct 29, 2019 11:48:57 GMT
If someone could please explain Dead London to me, that’d be great. I’ve just under 20 minutes of it left and I can’t make heads or tails of it. Parallel Earth
Dystopian London/ Law
Its written by Pat Mills so its kind of a 2OOOAD vibe
Regards
mark687
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 29, 2019 20:15:53 GMT
Thanks for the Feedback on this one guys, I do appreciate it. It became sort of clearer at the end but still left me fairly mystified. McGann was good as usual and Sheridan shines as always.
I don't think it's a bad story by any means, but I think it may have needed an extra draft or two to really make the point of the whole story shine through a bit more.
Entertaining, but fairly nonsensical.
6/10
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 30, 2019 6:43:45 GMT
Max Warp.
Full disclosure, I’ve never seen a single episode of Top Gear. I do remember hearing about Jeremy Clarkson getting the boot.
That being said, Graeme Garden plays him EXTREMELY well.
This story is just tons of fun. Everyone involved is having an absolute blast. The pace is fantastic, the story just works extremely well. Then the actors and sound designers just bring it to the next level. I couldn’t help but notice that the main song used in the story is also used in the podcast from years and years ago.
Jonathan Morris does it again. 9/10
|
|
ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
|
Post by ljwilson on Oct 30, 2019 20:08:16 GMT
Still here and still reading mate so keep posting!
In fact, I'm in a hotel and the footy is on so I'm going to go back to your pg.1 and have a re-read (still think you were harsh on The Genocide Machine, but all is forgiven).
|
|
|
Post by Star Platinum on Oct 30, 2019 21:00:30 GMT
Still here and still reading mate so keep posting! In fact, I'm in a hotel and the footy is on so I'm going to go back to your pg.1 and have a re-read (still think you were harsh on The Genocide Machine, but all is forgiven). I find I'm overly hard on both Sylvester and Sophie. They can be very erratic as performers. But as the main performer, the biggest burden is placed on the two of them. But when they're on their A game (Protect and Survive, Colditz, Death in the Family ect.) They're some of the best stories BF has produced. I'm hard on them because I love them.
|
|