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Post by omega on Dec 15, 2017 6:03:00 GMT
DOCTOR WHO - FOURTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES » 7.1. THE SONS OF KALDORReleased January 2018Synopsis(Note that this release is one of four collected together in Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 7A) Finding themselves in a seemingly deserted spaceship on an alien world, the Doctor and Leela stumble into some familiar foes - the Voc robots from the planet Kaldor - and… something else. Something outside. Trying to get in. Reviving the robot’s Kaldoran commander from hibernation, the travellers discover that they’ve found themselves in the middle of a civil war. The ship was hunting the Sons of Kaldor, an armed resistance group working with alien mercenaries to initiate regime change on their homeworld. But now the Sons of Kaldor may have found them. The Doctor and Leela will have to pick a side. Or die. Written By: Andrew Smith Directed By: Nicholas Briggs CASTTom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Martha Cope (Commander Lind), Oliver Dimsdale (Rebben Tace), Toby Hadoke (V26), John Dorney (Brin / SV9 / V12).
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Post by omega on Jan 1, 2018 0:33:47 GMT
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Post by omega on Jan 18, 2018 10:25:20 GMT
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 18, 2018 22:38:50 GMT
Well, that was a rather good start. Andrew Smith is a truly reliable writer in general and especially for Doctor Who. I loved how Smith twisted everything around with the robots and how he tied in the First Family to his story. Excellent work across the board and Tom & Louise were both in excellent voice. Also dorney turning up for a couple of parts!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2018 16:17:28 GMT
Yep, that was a typically strong series opener from the always good Andrew Smith. Like many of his stories, this will benefit from another listen as I found events quite fast-moving and, well, I want to hear it again. One of the differences between a boxset (as this is) and stories released individually (as used to be the case with the 4DAs) is that you have several stories to listen to and I can resist anything but temptation!
I like the way the 'legend' of the robots is built upon here. We are aware that they can be both killers and misunderstood scapegoats - so we truly don't know where we are with them. And the author has fun playing with that uncertainty. Tom and Louise are on great form as always, as are the supporting actors.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2018 4:29:31 GMT
I'm still a little convinced the robots will work with Sutekh end of this series, as evidenced by the second last release being called "Kill the Doctor!"
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Post by chronotis on Jan 22, 2018 5:04:43 GMT
I really enjoyed this one and The Crowmarsh Experiment. Two stories in and I can see that Series 7 is shaping up to be a gooden. I also loved the mention of the sewer pits from Kaldor City. I half expected someone to say "we are all in this together".
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Post by number13 on Jan 22, 2018 13:31:49 GMT
4DA 7.1 The Sons of KaldorA classical start to the set with a very strong story puttiing the Doctor and Leela face to unresponsive face with their old foes / friends / neutrals the Robots of Kaldor. In any story about these 'mechanical men' (as Leela calls them), the travellers never quite know where they stand. On past form, any robot might be about to help / ignore / kill them and yet give no outward clue - the cause of robophobia! Andrew Smith uses that uncertainty typically well here to keep the mystery going, with clues around (which I missed until about the fourth time they were offered!) that these aren't your usual Vocs and Dums helpfully following orders, but instead V-26 is giving them. And not a robot revolution but (much more interesting) robot evolution. I thought this was a great idea and thought-provoking. SV-9 and all his fellow SuperVocs are held continually in check by electronic constrainers, not just to enforce the 'laws of robotics' but to prevent them becoming self-aware. If a Kaldor robot is intelligent enough to command a ship of other robots, it's also intelligent enough to become a self-aware being - unless it is controlled... but surely, if self-awareness is at stake, 'controlled' then means 'enslaved', doesn't it? It's a classic adventure story and another robot 'whodunnit' with many twists, as I hoped. And it branches off into fascinating ideas including the indigenous intelligent species who were treated as slave labour by the human settlers until they were emancipated by the creation of the robot society - so, freed only because they were no longer needed, not for moral reasons. And now they have helped the self-appointed 'Sons of Kaldor' to overthrow the 'decadent' robot-aided society and to replace it with - what? An equal society in which we are told nobody will ever again be addressed as 'Sir', only 'Mr.'? It makes a change from 'Comrade' I suppose! But the signs are all-too-evident that this nominally successful revolution has already failed in any moral sense. 'Mr.' Tace clearly considers himself far more equal than others and his extreme actions driven by robophobia would be genocide if the robots were sentient beings... but if you give them the chance, they do become sentient beings, don't they... It really is a story full of ideas that will repay repeated listening - and be a classic Fourth Doctor and Leela story to hear every time too, full of incident. Even the Doctor doesn't know what the ultimate outcome will be for the Robots of Kaldor - perhaps he (and we) will find out some day? A great start to the series. I had one head-canony after-thought: SV-9 is damaged and loses some of his constrainers, which gives him the ability to begin evolving when he is left without human command (interference) for a period. In 'The Robots of Death', agent Poul's undercover robot ally known as D-84 was obviously a SuperVoc in disguise - he could reason and deduce. Perhaps as a robot undercover agent he wasn't fitted with all the usual constrainers, to allow more independence in his missions, and he was left without human command when Poul became ill with robophobia. Did we see "D-84" starting to evolve and never realised? He did seem unusually "human" when talking with the Doctor and Leela, I thought...
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Post by Digi on Jan 22, 2018 20:21:15 GMT
Very strong start, and right up my alley. I love stories set in desolate locales with an ominous mystery to uncover, so this was like candy for me.
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mbt66
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Post by mbt66 on Jan 23, 2018 21:04:00 GMT
Welcome back 4DAs!
That was an excellent release and special mention to Oliver Dimsdale...what an incredible villain. I cannot get over what a sneering voice he had.
I love, love, loved the whole thing.
10/10
Roll on next week for the next story!
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Post by ChildrenOfHúrin on Jan 24, 2018 8:32:20 GMT
Was I the only one bothered by the fact that {Spoiler} the Doctor and Leela were both happy to just walk away at the end of this story? I mean, it's a planet occupied by a ruthless dictatorship determined to crush all resistance and destroy all the robots, the Doctor and Leela protect a small group of robots from just one person, and then at the 1 hour mark were suddenly like "wellgoodluckgettingridofthemwe'reoffcheerio".
Why would either the Doctor (who loves nothing more than destroying corrupt regimes) and Leela (who is always spoiling for a fight) just get up and leave (other than the story ran out of time)? The Doctor even admits to Leela that he has no idea if the resistance will succeed or any of the robots will ultimately survive.
The story up to that point is ok, but it makes no sense to me that they would just smile and walk away and say 'job done' when they have accomplished comparatively little and the threat still remains.
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Post by theotherjosh on Jan 24, 2018 15:39:38 GMT
This was really quite enjoyable. Dorney and Hadoke are always welcome anywhere and Oliver Dimsdale gave a standout performance as the baddie.
It occupied the sweet spot between nostalgia and innovation.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2018 11:30:08 GMT
I thought this was an excellent start to the new season of 4DA's. The Sons of Kaldor brings an interestng take on some familiar elements from a classc era of Doctor Who, just when you think you know where it's going there's a nice twist in the second half. Tom and Louise were in great form, as always, and their chemistry is obvious for all to hear. This really is my favourite Fourth Doctor/companion pairing. I can't say anything bad about this story as it was very enjoyable to listen to, so I'll give an enthusiastic 10/10 rating for The Sons of Kaldor... and maybe we haven't seen the end of those Robots of death either?
Now, do I wait until the February to listen to the next story or just carry on and binge with these? Hmmm...
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mbt66
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,075
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Post by mbt66 on Jan 28, 2018 10:46:07 GMT
I thought this was an excellent start to the new season of 4DA's. The Sons of Kaldor brings an interestng take on some familiar elements from a classc era of Doctor Who, just when you think you know where it's going there's a nice twist in the second half. Tom and Louise were in great form, as always, and their chemistry is obvious for all to hear. This really is my favourite Fourth Doctor/companion pairing. I can't say anything bad about this story as it was very enjoyable to listen to, so I'll give an enthusiastic 10/10 rating for The Sons of Kaldor... and maybe we haven't seen the end of those Robots of death either? Now, do I wait until the February to listen to the next story or just carry on and binge with these? Hmmm... Wow I thought I was showing great restraint deciding to listen to these weekly!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2018 10:49:54 GMT
This was OK. Hopefully the final 2 stories will be better.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2018 12:29:43 GMT
Now, do I wait until the February to listen to the next story or just carry on and binge with these? Hmmm... Wow I thought I was showing great restraint deciding to listen to these weekly! But what do you do when you've finished the four stories in four weeks... no more Uncle Tom and Auntie Louise until May! Not good.
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Post by number13 on Jan 28, 2018 13:33:40 GMT
Wow I thought I was showing great restraint deciding to listen to these weekly! But what do you do when you've finished the four stories in four weeks... no more Uncle Tom and Auntie Louise until May! Not good. Four weeks? Five days it took me and I thought I was being very restrained by waiting a whole day for 'The Demon Rises' to complete that four-parter.
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Post by barnabaslives on Jan 28, 2018 23:17:46 GMT
But what do you do when you've finished the four stories in four weeks... no more Uncle Tom and Auntie Louise until May! Not good. Worse yet I will most likely have to listen to The Mind Runners / The Demon Rises as one story, too. So... Coming soon from Big Finish in six weeks, The Crowmarsh Experiment...
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Post by mark687 on Jan 28, 2018 23:54:18 GMT
Wow I thought I was showing great restraint deciding to listen to these weekly! But what do you do when you've finished the four stories in four weeks... no more Uncle Tom and Auntie Louise until May! Not good. You could re-listen to your entire 4DA collection again while you wait
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2018 11:13:24 GMT
But what do you do when you've finished the four stories in four weeks... no more Uncle Tom and Auntie Louise until May! Not good. You could re-listen to your entire 4DA collection again while you wait That actually could happen!
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