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Post by axelotl38 on Aug 16, 2020 0:30:59 GMT
This demonstrates the progression of Big Finish to box sets instead of monthly releases, where they are tied to a release date promise which is always pending BBC approval. Soon, they can just release stuff whenever they want and of course people can become unwilling investors by purchasing something in advance that has not even been produced yet, with no returns on their investments. So you got tired of trying to get GallifreyBase users' credit card numbers so you're gonna try here?
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Post by barnabaslives on Aug 16, 2020 8:21:12 GMT
Skipped ahead to Conflict Theory because it's a Nev Fountain story. Enjoyed it very much also - both the drama and suspense, and the humor, which felt very classic. Well done!
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Post by Ela on Aug 16, 2020 12:33:02 GMT
This demonstrates the progression of Big Finish to box sets instead of monthly releases, where they are tied to a release date promise which is always pending BBC approval. Soon, they can just release stuff whenever they want and of course people can become unwilling investors by purchasing something in advance that has not even been produced yet, with no returns on their investments. No one has to be an "unwilling investor" as you call it. We all have the option to pre-order or not. No one is telling you that you have to do it. You can even wait till the month it's released and still get the pre-order discount.
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Post by IndieMacUser on Aug 18, 2020 11:43:15 GMT
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Post by Whovitt on Aug 18, 2020 12:11:44 GMT
I'd like to start this post by saying this ended up reading much more negatively than I had intended, but I don't think I can express my feelings about this set any other way. I went into this release with no expectations. I wasn't excited for it, I wasn't expecting to dislike it, it was just Doctor Who box set from Big Finish. Somehow though, even with no expectations, I still feel disappointed by it. The Headless Ones has proved to me that I don't like Doctor Who stories set in Earth jungles. I don't think I could name a single one that I haven't found boring to listen to. Can't say I know why, it's just a trend I've been picking up on. Like could have been good, but I think it spent too long making jokes with its social commentary to focus on telling any sort of compelling story. Not bad necessarily, but certainly nothing to write home about. The Vanity Trap was an immediate struggle because we had Deleted Scenes in the Short Trips back in February. You can't use the "old movie that was never finished for mysterious circumstances" too often, and twice in one year was too much for me. It overruns by 15 minutes and I could feel every single one of those minutes. It also took far. too. long. to get going. I get the need to introduce characters, but I could quite happily have lost half of the intros just to get to the actual plot. Conflict Theory was an interesting one, mostly because it's pretending to be something that it isn't. My problem with it was I didn't really like what it was pretending to be, so by the time it was turned on its head I just wasn't interested any more. It's a shame, as I thought there were some really good ideas, they just weren't executed in a way I find engaging (which is something I see in a lot of Nev Fountains work - not everything, but a lot of it). The one pervading thing I didn't understand about this set was why they bothered to make it the post- Trial Peri. You could remove the tiny references to her time as Queen and I honestly don't think it would have made any meaningful differences to a single script. Beyond that, the characters are behaving much the same way as they were in the two Trial stories, at which point making this post- Trial seems utterly pointless. This should have been an opportunity to forge forward with this new Six/Peri era, and all we got was more of the same from their initial run. On the whole, there just wasn't too much to really like in this box set. I don't really dislike it either, I just feel so totally indifferent about it that the level of indifference I feel frustrates me
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Post by nitronine on Aug 18, 2020 12:41:05 GMT
The one pervading thing I didn't understand about this set was why they bothered to make it the post- Trial Peri. You could remove the tiny references to her time as Queen and I honestly don't think it would have made any meaningful differences to a single script. Beyond that, the characters are behaving much the same way as they were in the two Trial stories, at which point making this post- Trial seems utterly pointless. This should have been an opportunity to forge forward with this new Six/Peri era, and all we got was more of the same from their initial run. I think that's more of an issue with the original post-Trial Peri trilogy. {Spoilers for The Widows Assassin} IIRC in the first one, they reveal that this version of Peri was under mind control for all of her time apart from the Doctor, so while she remembers vague parts of her life as a queen it's not fully there and it's more a like a dream. Interesting set up for the initial story, but it means that not much character development had gone on behind the scenes as she was basically asleep for 5 years in between Trial and rejoining the Doctor so the rest were pretty much the same as pre-trial Peri. At a guess, the original plan might have been to have Peri become more confident and stand up to the Doctor more, leading to a new departure to give her a more satisfying end, but that's not really happened yet outside of the bait and switch of Conflict Theory.
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Post by Whovitt on Aug 18, 2020 13:02:02 GMT
The one pervading thing I didn't understand about this set was why they bothered to make it the post- Trial Peri. You could remove the tiny references to her time as Queen and I honestly don't think it would have made any meaningful differences to a single script. Beyond that, the characters are behaving much the same way as they were in the two Trial stories, at which point making this post- Trial seems utterly pointless. This should have been an opportunity to forge forward with this new Six/Peri era, and all we got was more of the same from their initial run. I think that's more of an issue with the original post-Trial Peri trilogy. {Spoilers for The Widows Assassin} IIRC in the first one, they reveal that this version of Peri was under mind control for all of her time apart from the Doctor, so while she remembers vague parts of her life as a queen it's not fully there and it's more a like a dream. Interesting set up for the initial story, but it means that not much character development had gone on behind the scenes as she was basically asleep for 5 years in between Trial and rejoining the Doctor so the rest were pretty much the same as pre-trial Peri. At a guess, the original plan might have been to have Peri become more confident and stand up to the Doctor more, leading to a new departure to give her a more satisfying end, but that's not really happened yet outside of the bait and switch of Conflict Theory. I've heard The Widow's Assassin as I guess you're kind of right. It doesn't change the fact that they had the opportunity to push the boat out here and try to do something a little different. I think I'm mostly disappointed that everything was exceptionally safe and not trying to do anything particularly interesting (in my opinion, at least).
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Post by nitronine on Aug 18, 2020 14:18:35 GMT
I think that's more of an issue with the original post-Trial Peri trilogy. {Spoilers for The Widows Assassin} IIRC in the first one, they reveal that this version of Peri was under mind control for all of her time apart from the Doctor, so while she remembers vague parts of her life as a queen it's not fully there and it's more a like a dream. Interesting set up for the initial story, but it means that not much character development had gone on behind the scenes as she was basically asleep for 5 years in between Trial and rejoining the Doctor so the rest were pretty much the same as pre-trial Peri. At a guess, the original plan might have been to have Peri become more confident and stand up to the Doctor more, leading to a new departure to give her a more satisfying end, but that's not really happened yet outside of the bait and switch of Conflict Theory. I've heard The Widow's Assassin as I guess you're kind of right. It doesn't change the fact that they had the opportunity to push the boat out here and try to do something a little different. I think I'm mostly disappointed that everything was exceptionally safe and not trying to do anything particularly interesting (in my opinion, at least). Yeah I agree, I was expecting the first few stories to be standalone and kind of safe but I thought the last one would push the boat out, and it kind of does but like I said before it undoes it all by the end because it's actually part of the Doctor's plan. ETA: I don't mind a twist that a story's events have been manufactured in some way and there are lots of cases where this works well but when the story is focused on character development like this one, I feel a little bit disappointed because I realise that the story I've been invested in has no consequences. Also on relistens I struggle to care because I know it's going to turn out to all be fake (I know it's all "fake" anyway because it's fiction but I can't think of a better term to describe it, I hope you can get what I mean).
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Post by Digi on Aug 19, 2020 13:42:17 GMT
Got The Headless Ones on right now, and honestly it is just not holding my attention. About three times now I've pulled up the app to see how far through it I am because I keep thinking 'isn't this over yet?' Not doing it for me.
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Post by Digi on Aug 20, 2020 13:05:25 GMT
Have Like on right now, with about 11 minutes left...how long ago was this written? This was an episode of The Orville a few years ago. And an episode of Black Mirror a year or two before that.
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 21, 2020 15:11:58 GMT
The Vanity Trap was rather painful, I thought. It doesn't help that the premise is rather niche and was done in a Short Trip a few months ago, and is much better than this. It takes a long time for anything to happen, what happens isn't anything great and then it takes a long time to actually reach any sort of conclusion.
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Post by Digi on Aug 22, 2020 13:18:01 GMT
The Vanity Trap was rather painful, I thought. It doesn't help that the premise is rather niche and was done in a Short Trip a few months ago, and is much better than this. It takes a long time for anything to happen, what happens isn't anything great and then it takes a long time to actually reach any sort of conclusion. Just finishing it up now. It's a bit slow, yeah. I do think it's an improvement over the first two stories though.
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Post by Kestrel on Aug 23, 2020 11:08:51 GMT
Welp, I've listened to the first story, at least. It was fine.
But when did Peri become a Queen?
My expectations for #2 are pretty low as this is a very tired premise that has never been handled well IMO, but Colin Baker can elevate pretty much anything.
And I gotta say, my opinion of Peri remains somewhat low... really hope future 6DA sets change things up a bit with different companions. I'd love a set with DI Menzies, for example.
But mostly I suppose I'm sore tha. Six had such a perfect companion in Evelyn and no one else, least of all Peri' comes close to measuring up to that.
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Post by themeddlingmonk on Aug 23, 2020 11:13:49 GMT
Welp, I've listened to the first story, at least. It was fine. But when did Peri become a Queen? My expectations for #2 are pretty low as this is a very tired premise that has never been handled well IMO, but Colin Baker can elevate pretty much anything. And I gotta say, my opinion of Peri remains somewhat low... really hope future 6DA sets change things up a bit with different companions. I'd love a set with DI Menzies, for example. But mostly I suppose I'm sore tha. Six had such a perfect companion in Evelyn and no one else, least of all Peri' comes close to measuring up to that. She became a Queen after Trial of a Time Lord, when she married Yrcanos.
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Post by elkawho on Aug 23, 2020 13:07:46 GMT
Welp, I've listened to the first story, at least. It was fine. But when did Peri become a Queen? My expectations for #2 are pretty low as this is a very tired premise that has never been handled well IMO, but Colin Baker can elevate pretty much anything. And I gotta say, my opinion of Peri remains somewhat low... really hope future 6DA sets change things up a bit with different companions. I'd love a set with DI Menzies, for example. But mostly I suppose I'm sore tha. Six had such a perfect companion in Evelyn and no one else, least of all Peri' comes close to measuring up to that. I get what you are saying about Six and Peri, she's not my favorite either. There are a few audios that redeem her. Go ahead and listen to The Reaping, Peri and the Piscon Paradox in the Companion Chronicles Range and The Widow's Assassin. They are great and really open up and give depth to Peri's character. And then there are her adventures with Five and Erimem. Most of those are terrific.
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Post by Digi on Aug 23, 2020 15:51:02 GMT
Finished off the set now. Conflict Theory was a marked improvement over the rest of the set.
I gotta say...I'm very surprised at how disappointed I was in this set overall. Big Finish has been wonderful to Sixie, and Colin Baker has been wonderful in the role. But this time, I don't know. Colin is still on form, but this is both a rare miss in decent stories for him and a weirdly concentrated number of Sixie stories I disliked.
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Post by ollychops on Aug 23, 2020 19:37:12 GMT
Finished this set yesterday, and as much as I love Sixie, I was really disappointed by this set.
The Headless Ones was... okay. But that's about it, it did struggle to keep my attention throughout though.
Like was fine but the social commentary wasn't subtle at all.
The Vanity Trap was a slight improvement but it was longer than it needed to be, and as someone else mentioned, Deleted Scenes did a similar sort of plot much better earlier in the year.
Conflict Theory was probably the best story of the set, but considering I usually enjoy Nev Fountain's stories, I was left a bit underwhelmed by it. It pretends to be something other than what it really is for the majority of it, and I really wasn't enjoying where it was going, but it redeemed itself by switching and revealing the true plot. I think this story will be one I enjoy more when I relisten to it.
Like others have said, I was disappointed by the fact that they didn't do much at all with the fact that it was post-Trial Peri, and you wouldn't even be able to tell it was the older version of her aside from the couple of times that she mentioned that she was a queen. I feel like they could have done so much more with it - otherwise it should just have been the younger version of Peri.
So yeah... Colin was fantastic as usual but overall it was an average set of stories for me, unfortunately.
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Post by tuigirl on Aug 24, 2020 7:47:44 GMT
Still have not listened to this. After reading all of your reviews, this does not appear to be the outstanding Sixie celebration we have been looking for. This is why I try to listen to it in the right mood... stressed out after work I might be less than favorable towards it. And I do love both Peri and Sixie.
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Post by number13 on Aug 24, 2020 11:40:25 GMT
Still have not listened to this.After reading all of your reviews, this does not appear to be the outstanding Sixie celebration we have been looking for. This is why I try to listen to it in the right mood... stressed out after work I might be less than favorable towards it. And I do love both Peri and Sixie. I'm a bit surprised by some of the reaction to this set, but I enjoyed it very much, Sixie and Peri doing their usual thing, saving people and worlds as best they can, sparring and joking a bit along the way and definitely a team. What also surprised me (and maybe this is what disappointed some other listeners) is that the set didn't do anything really "new" with their friendship despite being set after Peri's time as Queen of Krontep (except Peri is a lot more confident than very early Peri was, and that's just as it should be.)
I too had expected that the set would 'break new ground' (presumably because of some publicity comments, though I don't remember what - it might have been us fans speculating!) But while listening I realised that I hadn't really wanted it to do that anyway and this was what I wanted! I wasn't in the mood for angst and recriminations and reassessments, I wanted some 80s-style adventures with Sixie and Peri and hopefully a few laughs along the way, and that's exactly what I got. One story was OK (but very obvious villain imo), one was timey-wimey and complicated (and a good story I enjoyed) and two are clever and lots of fun!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
{Mini Spoiler} 'The Vanity Trap' won me over instantly when Sixie decided to blend in with their 1970s destination by wearing the clothes he wore in the 70s - the full Pertwee! Naturally, I loved that idea
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 24, 2020 11:50:24 GMT
Conflict Theory is the best of the set, but I think that's faint praise given how indifferent I felt to the preceding three. It's been mentioned a couple of times already, but what brings this down is that it pretends to be something else, but what it pretends to be isn't all that interesting. I don't find the Sixth Doctor & Peri's relationship really justified the treatment; they've had their ups and downs, but the two biggest things - the post-regeneration stuff and the events of Mindwarp - were either long ago or she was practically asleep and it didn't have much effect. I felt as though Nev Fountain was trying to make more out of their relationship than there is and it didn't quite work. Colin plays it as very knowing and sarcastic too, which isn't a criticism of his performance, but it doesn't really sell the events that are unfolding.
I come across as more critical than I intend to; it isn't a bad set, but it's not good either. It's so indifferent and such a missed opportunity that makes it all the more frustrating to listen to, I think. I can respect a story that tries to do something that isn't to my tastes, but I didn't feel that with this. It just coasts. They should have pressed on with a new era for the Sixth Doctor & Peri but all they've done is nipped that in the bud as far as my interest goes. I can't really reconcile a string of adventures post-Trial that are meaninglessly placed, aside from a couple of references to Peri being Queen.
Sixie said it best in Conflict Theory: "this is a waste of time!"
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