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Post by grazey on Nov 2, 2015 8:03:35 GMT
I'm listening to stories from this era and one thing that has struck me is how much in flux this era is. I know with Nick taking charge over things were bound to change but I didn't realise how much. They introduced the anthology releases and experimented with 3 part stories. They tried colin and Sylvester without a companion. The mcgann era was being wound up on the main range for that time being with crizz being written out and Charlie switching to colin. Peter Davidson lost erimem and gained Thomas Brewster and Colin as mentioned had Charlie join and Evelyn had her last regular appearance for over 2 years. I know some of these are down to scheduling and availability but i can't help but wonder what people thought about this era. Was it a case of having a new captain that the ship was finding its feet again?
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Post by omega on Nov 2, 2015 8:39:14 GMT
Don't forget it also began the trilogy format, with the three Fifth Doctor releases that year being part of the Thomas Brewster arc. There were a couple of spin-off range ties-ins during that period, with Return of the Daleks for Dalek Empire and Kingdom of Silver for Cyberman's Orion War. The latter's one part even featured a character who appeared in the Cyberman 2 box set! Granted, Kingdom of Silver makes sense by itself, but it expands on the Cyberman universe, and one of the few narratives concerning it to get an unambiguous completely happy ending.
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Post by mark687 on Nov 2, 2015 10:55:44 GMT
I love the 7th Doc solos Frozen Time, Kingdom of Silver are just great.
Charley and 6 The Condemned is brilliant, Brotherhood of the Daleks crazy, Raincloud Man another class job.
But Brewster Trilogy DREADFUL.
Regards
mark687
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Post by jasonward on Nov 2, 2015 11:46:44 GMT
It's also the time that Who came back to TV, and BF found that sales dropped when they had been expecting them to rise.
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Post by elgranto on Nov 3, 2015 1:44:21 GMT
I've recently gone through this era and I must say that Nick Briggs did an excellent job with the transition. All of the releases with Charley were superb, Sylvester got the string of solo stories he always wanted, and - perhaps I'm in the minority here - I found the Brewster trilogy to be very good all round.
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Post by constonks on Nov 3, 2015 13:00:31 GMT
I've recently gone through this era and I must say that Nick Briggs did an excellent job with the transition. All of the releases with Charley were superb, Sylvester got the string of solo stories he always wanted, and - perhaps I'm in the minority here - I found the Brewster trilogy to be very good all round. I liked the Brewster trilogy other than The Boy that Time Forgot but maybe I should give it a relisten. Speaking of the Charley stories, this is also the period where we first met DI Menzies who is a fantastic character. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 13:24:39 GMT
There were a couple of spin-off range ties-ins during that period, with Return of the Daleks for Dalek Empire and Kingdom of Silver for Cyberman's Orion War. The latter's one part even featured a character who appeared in the Cyberman 2 box set! wasn't actually a main range release, as it was the subscriber bonus story for 2006. It was rather good though and tied-in to the Dalek Empire series quite nicely. As for the Main Range of that era... It was a time of evolution with some good ideas and some bad ideas. For the latter, put me down as being in the Thomas Brewster being a mis-step by Big Finish catagory. For me he was an awful compnion that added nothing to the stories he was featured in. In fact, Thomas Brewster as a character actually detracted from my enjoyment of those stories as he was so annoying. I hope we never hear from him again. I can't say there was a whole pile of really great stories during that period, but Son of the Dragon is my favourite release by far from that era, with Renaissance of the Daleks being my most disliked story from those days. I did like the three-part Main Range stories with a single part story afterwards though, like a back-up comic strip. It obviously wasn't a feature many other people liked though, as they stopped doing them. |
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Post by constonks on Nov 4, 2015 3:06:56 GMT
I did like the three-part Main Range stories with a single part story afterwards though, like a back-up comic strip. It obviously wasn't a feature many other people liked though, as they stopped doing them. I'd expect the three and ones were a bit more work to produce than a normal story but I could be wrong. Personally, I found the one-part stories generally outperformed the three-parters. If there's any sort of consensus to that, maybe that's why anthology releases continued while 3-and-1 releases fell to the wayside (with the Klein trilogy offering a brief and inspired return to the format). |
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Post by Hieronymus on Nov 4, 2015 5:46:44 GMT
Although I haven't listened to the #90-110 yest, I'm getting close.
I've recently finished #77-88, and they were all superb, with just one total dud.*
* "Pier Pressure", in case there was any doubt.
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Post by omega on Nov 4, 2015 7:21:38 GMT
The evolution wasn't restricted to the Main Range. There were alternate Doctor Who ranges with the Companion Chronicles and Eighth Doctor and Lucie adventures, new stories for the Doctor separate from the Main Range and involving him more that the other spin-offs like Dalek Empire and Cyberman had. It'd be fascinating to get the reaction of listeners during this period, for thing like new stories for Doctors 1-4 and a dedicated Eighth Doctor range.
There were also a few new ranges based on non-Who properties, like Dark Shadows, which remains very popular. Sapphire and Steel and Tomorrow People are others, however they haven't had the same longevity due to low sales and revoked licences.
2008 implemented a download service alongside CD purchases. This has certainly made the Big Finish product more accessible, and has indeed become necessary in allowing listeners to retain legal access to the early material at a decent price. It also bridges the international gap, letting listeners worldwide have access to the releases at more or less the same time, removing the need to wait for overseas delivery to finally hear the story (a godsend for people who might have to wait two or three weeks for CDs to arrive in the post). It's also a great back-up for discs that eventually get scratched (through regular use or improper handling).
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2015 12:39:12 GMT
2008 implemented a download service alongside CD purchases. I think that is the best thing that Big Finish have ever done! As an international customer postage charges and delivery times are a thing of the past. So for me, it was brilliant when Big Finish started their download service. We take it for granted today, but at the time it was a big change. |
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Tony Jones
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Professor Chronotis
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Post by Tony Jones on Nov 4, 2015 13:22:23 GMT
Although I haven't listened to the #90-110 yest, I'm getting close. I've recently finished #77-88, and they were all superb, with just one total dud.* * "Pier Pressure", in case there was any doubt. While I like bits of Pier Pressure, this run of titles is exceptional in quality. My least favourite (partly as I listened in a strange order) is The Gathering. Looking back through the titles anyone who subscribed to just this set of 12 had a really good set of titles to listen to! |
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Post by grazey on Nov 6, 2015 8:59:58 GMT
How could I forget the start of the trilogy format. That's probably the biggest change to the monthly range outside of digital downloads starting and is still on going today.
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Post by omega on Nov 6, 2015 9:07:02 GMT
How could I forget the start of the trilogy format. That's probably the biggest change to the monthly range outside of digital downloads starting and is still on going today. It is understandable that you wouldn't notice it at first, since the three relevant releases weren't consecutive (#107, #110 and #113 respectively), and multi story plot and character arcs had been done before. They were even doing that in 2008 with the Sixth Doctor and Charley. It's easier to spot in hindsight that Brewster was at that point a one-off trilogy companion figure. |
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Post by grazey on Nov 6, 2015 9:15:25 GMT
How could I forget the start of the trilogy format. That's probably the biggest change to the monthly range outside of digital downloads starting and is still on going today. It is understandable that you wouldn't notice it at first, since the three relevant releases weren't consecutive (#107, #110 and #113 respectively), and multi story plot and character arcs had been done before. They were even doing that in 2008 with the Sixth Doctor and Charley. It's easier to spot in hindsight that Brewster was at that point a one-off trilogy companion figure. Ahh. That explains it. I'm not up to 113 yet. Not far off it though. |
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mbt66
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Post by mbt66 on Nov 7, 2015 15:33:22 GMT
Yes Nick Briggs taking over from Gary Russell did shake up the range.
Personally I think another such shake up is overdue.
However that's not to say "Nick Briggs must go!" Perish the thought, it is simply that the range is no longer exciting me enough to subscribe. Especially as they are providing so much other content.
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Post by mark687 on Nov 7, 2015 15:49:09 GMT
Yes Nick Briggs taking over from Gary Russell did shake up the range. Personally I think another such shake up is overdue. However that's not to say "Nick Briggs must go!" Perish the thought, it is simply that the range is no longer exciting me enough to subscribe. Especially as they are providing so much other content. How would you shake it up?
My idea as I've said many times would've been to drop the 4DA's and have a 4th Doc trilogy per year
Regards
mark687
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Post by jasonward on Nov 7, 2015 15:51:27 GMT
Much as I love the main range, I too think it's not exciting, in so much as it's lost it's focus at BF, it's gone from being the core of what they do, to seemingly just another thing they do, which more or less seems to mean "oh yeah, that other Doctors thing we do".
I've never been a fan of strong story arcs or even the trilogy releases, I really don't care what order things are recorded in, but for me the main range wants be the back bone of Who content, the thing from which all the boxsets etc hang off of (and boxsets are perfect for story arcs) the main range I want has all the Doctors BF are working with and provides a range of great one off adventures.
Given the FDA, EDA's and boxsets, I see no reason why we can't have other Doctor boxsets (if we must have boxsets at all).
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Post by mark687 on Nov 7, 2015 16:00:21 GMT
Much as I love the main range, I too think it's not exciting, in so much as it's lost it's focus at BF, it's gone from being the core of what they do, to seemingly just another thing they do, which more or less seems to mean "oh yeah, that other Doctors thing we do". I've never been a fan of strong story arcs or even the trilogy releases, I really don't care what order things are recorded in, but for me the main range wants be the back bone of Who content, the thing from which all the boxsets etc hang off of (and boxsets are perfect for story arcs) the main range I want has all the Doctors BF are working with and provides a range of great one off adventures. Given the FDA, EDA's and boxsets, I see no reason why we can't have other Doctor boxsets (if we must have boxsets at all). And yet with the Super Sub earlier this year BF and the customers have made a massive commitment to it.
Regards
mark687
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Post by jasonward on Nov 7, 2015 16:08:00 GMT
I don't see that as a massive commitment from BF, just a great way for them to get a pot of cash for product they won't have to deliver for years, yes a huge commitment from the customers, but BF did nothing special apart bank a chunk of money.
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