|
Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 21, 2020 10:03:22 GMT
The Eleven has a plan. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos. With Ace working for the enemy, the Doctor must rely on scheming Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra for help. The stage is set for an epic confrontation. Because the Doctor has a plan to stop the Eleven. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos. Whichever one of them wins, the Dark Universe won’t want to lose...
|
|
|
Post by Tim Bradley on Jan 21, 2020 10:23:21 GMT
Joke for the thread!
|
|
|
Post by Timelord007 on Jan 21, 2020 12:40:58 GMT
Got feeling this going to be a dark audio drama, sounds Ace (groans).
This trilogy in the next story the Doctor not wearing the outfit featured here so is that story going to be set in the past, i just need know where put that story in my collection.
|
|
|
Post by themeddlingmonk on Jan 21, 2020 12:44:40 GMT
Got feeling this going to be a dark audio drama, sounds Ace (groans). This trilogy in the next story the Doctor not wearing the outfit featured here so is that story going to be set in the past, i just need know where put that story in my collection. This is, I can confirm Seven’s last adventure before he collects the Master's remains. It was already pretty much confirmed by the Prologue to Doom Coalition, but yes this is the same adventure that has just happened in the Doom Coalition prologue. And I’d say this is more comic than dark. Think The Quantum Possibility Engine.
|
|
|
Post by mark687 on Jan 21, 2020 12:51:16 GMT
Got feeling this going to be a dark audio drama, sounds Ace (groans). This trilogy in the next story the Doctor not wearing the outfit featured here so is that story going to be set in the past, i just need know where put that story in my collection. This is, I can confirm Seven’s last adventure before he collects the Master's remains. It was already pretty much confirmed by the Prologue to Doom Coalition, but yes this is the same adventure that has just happened in the Doom Coalition prologue. And I’d say this is more comic than dark. Think The Quantum Possibility Engine. Dark Humoured (I'll get my coat) Regards mark687
|
|
|
Post by denyer97 on Jan 21, 2020 13:29:18 GMT
Am going to give it another listen before my final thoughts but my initial reaction is....disappointed
|
|
|
Post by mark687 on Jan 21, 2020 14:22:20 GMT
One of Sylvester's best performances, Mark Bonner as always top notch, good effort in matching boxset matching pace style
So if your a Fan of:
The Eleven
The more mature 7th Doctor
The faster pace stories in the Boxsets
Get this
4.5/5
Regards
mark687
|
|
|
Post by nitronine on Jan 21, 2020 14:42:50 GMT
{Spoiler}Me expecting Big Finish to not lie in the advertising about main characters acting morally ambiguously, even though every time I've been excited about a "good character A" vs. "good character B" story before the twist has always been that they are secretly on the same side: EDIT: Just realised that all the examples that I can think of where this happens (excluding TV stories) have all been written by Guy Adams
|
|
|
Post by fingersmash on Jan 21, 2020 15:50:13 GMT
Niche question but is the incidental music in this one giving anyone else major Persona 5 vibes or is it just me?
|
|
|
Post by jacobz40 on Jan 21, 2020 17:09:41 GMT
Can anyone tell me (spoiler-free) how much background info is needed to enjoy this story. My friend and I have done all the EDAs with the Eleven (and gotten some Ollistra too), and she's a big 7th Doctor fan, but we haven't done his tv stuff or Ace's "Gallifrey: Time War" story. Are we good?
|
|
|
Post by Zagreus on Jan 21, 2020 17:11:05 GMT
Holy cow they just referenced The Other in a throwaway comment in episode 3 lol
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Jan 21, 2020 17:26:13 GMT
Downloading now. Have been looking forward to this one. Absolutely love the 11. Let's see if it is any good.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2020 18:35:43 GMT
Am going to give it another listen before my final thoughts but my initial reaction is....disappointed Oh dear, well I wasn't planning on getting this. Don't like 7th Doctor & the plot sounds tired, "The Eleven has a plan. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos." Another plan? I think currently I prefer the adventures that don't see the whole of the universe being at risk...again. lol
|
|
|
Post by Zagreus on Jan 21, 2020 18:41:57 GMT
Gonna be honest, this was kind of boring. Was basically the same plot as Anti-Genesis, ie: evil rival time lord enacts some plot using some ancient time lord weapon that allows him to dominate the entire universe in a plot that involves other dimensions and it all gets undone in the end via a giant reset button of some sort.
It was nice seeing Ollistra, cool seeing them lead in to the opening flashback of Doom Coalition, neat spotting the little continuity nods like mentioning The Other, and the Heavenly Paradigm.
But overall this was just, sorta, meh, really.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2020 19:00:13 GMT
Gonna be honest, this was kind of boring. Was basically the same plot as Anti-Genesis, ie: evil rival time lord enacts some plot using some ancient time lord weapon that allows him to dominate the entire universe in a plot that involves other dimensions and it all gets undone in the end via a giant reset button of some sort. It was nice seeing Ollistra, cool seeing them lead in to the opening flashback of Doom Coalition, neat spotting the little continuity nods like mentioning The Other, and the Heavenly Paradigm. But overall this was just, sorta, meh, really. Wow, sounds terrible!
|
|
|
Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 21, 2020 22:13:45 GMT
Wow. There are people who don’t subscribe to the Main Range. Who knew?
|
|
|
Post by Zagreus on Jan 21, 2020 22:14:05 GMT
When talking about evil renegades, The Doctor mentions The Eleven, The Master, The Rani, The Monk, and The Player, first scene/heard in The Plague of Dreams being played by Elliot Jackson. There, he's simply a runaway, and is helping the First Doctor... though he was coerced into doing so. Interesting to hear Seven talk about him in the same breath as the others, implying that he has been up to more nefarious performances since...
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Jan 21, 2020 22:26:47 GMT
Hmm. I am going to write my first impressions first and then go down into some spoilery discussion and critisism. So bear with me.
This was a fun release. I enjoyed myself.
Mark Bonnar is absolutely at the top of his game and the Eleven is as brilliant a character as ever.
Sylvester McCoy also does a great job and is equally good at playing the ominous voice in the background as he is at playing the court jester. He certainly has no problem going VERY dark. It certainly is his best performance for a while now.
Sophie, well, she seemed to have really enjoyed playing the older Ace. I am still amazed how little her voice has actually aged.
So yes, this was quite fun.
But, I admit, it is not really what I had expected.
After all that build up in the 8th Doctor range and the expectations we had from Doom Coalition- I am in one part happy with what they did and in one part disappointed.
The first two episodes of this release were certainly the better half. There is quite a bit of suspense and there are some really clever time shifts, framing devices and little twists in there. This release certainly will profit from a second listen. You definitely will keep guessing what is really going on and who is crossing and double crossing whom. I think this was very well done.
I liked Ace standing up to the Doctor and being properly furious with him.
Now I am coming down to the things that did not work so well for me. I had expected an epic story, yes. Saving the universe again, fine. But I had more expected a fun run-around with Rasmus and the Doctor chasing the Eleven with Ollistra giving a snarky commentary from the background.
It did kind of deliver, but not quite. First- {Spoiler} Rasmus. He was written pretty bland here. I had expected more of the character we got to know in Ravenous, but honestly, here, you could have exchanged him with any random Time Lord. I had a hard time believing it was the same character. I also had expected more Rasmus/ Doctor action. From what the 8th Doctor described, this is not what I had in mind.
Second- {Spoiler} Ace. They chickened out. Again. I had waited for a real serious show-down between the Doctor and Ace and of Ace standing her ground and kicking is manipulative bottom. What do we get? Ace still is the willing pawn. Yeah, she moans about it and throws the occasional hissy fit, but this is not what I see as a real confrontation.
Third- {Spoiler} So this was a Doctor Who release? The most we hear of the Doctor is when he is used as some kind of framing device to hold the story together. This could also have been a special release called "The Eleven strikes back". The Eleven clearly is the main character and draw of this story. Forth- Zagreus critizised that the plot was basically War Master Anti-genesis. Well, I would not even go that far. {Spoiler} It is basically the same plot we had in Ravenous of the Eleven teaming up with an unstoppable eldritch abomination destroying the universe- just this time, there is no Master around. This time, the Doctor is doing all the scheming. Fifth- And now we come to what I think the real problem with this story is. {Spoiler} Huge big threat to the universe? Everything gets destroyed? Yes, as is very common these days, this includes- surprise!- Gallifrey. Except for Ollistra and her red-shirt Rasmus who escape for some unfathomable reason and they team up with Ace to save the universe? Seriously? It is at this point at the latest that one realizes the limitations of a small cast and the small scale of a Main Range Production (no shiny box set). This universe presented here, which is about to be destroyed/ rescued feels positively MICROSCOPIC. One just cannot help but feel disappointed on how much this ran out of steam really fast in the second half of the story.
Hmm... I must sound pretty sad after coming up with all these critical points.
This is me, after all, I love the Eleven and I think Guy Adams is a great writer!
Yes, as I said, I enjoyed this. The writing is certainly very clever and witty and the performances are great. I see what they were trying to do.
I would not fault the actors nor the writer.
However, for such an supposedly epic story, it just falls apart because of the limited production values and the limited cast.
For anyone spoiled by the shiny all-star 8th Doctor box sets, this is glaringly obvious and a noticeable step down.
Especially {Spoiler} since this story is so similar to the amazingly brilliant Day of the Master with which it sadly will have to be compared. Maybe it would have worked better if we heard this story first and then continued with Doom Coalition? Possible, but I will never know.
So, on it's own, a decent and fun release. In the scope of BF continuity... hmm.
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Jan 21, 2020 22:37:13 GMT
Can anyone tell me (spoiler-free) how much background info is needed to enjoy this story. My friend and I have done all the EDAs with the Eleven (and gotten some Ollistra too), and she's a big 7th Doctor fan, but we haven't done his tv stuff or Ace's "Gallifrey: Time War" story. Are we good? You will be fine. No deeper knowledge needed than Doom Coalition.
Just maybe that the Doctor does not always treat Ace well (or better, appallingly and borderline abusive) and they had a couple of fall-outs in the TV show and in novels (and the novel adaptations) like "Love and War". Ace has every right in the world to be VERY angry with the 7th Doctor.
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Jan 21, 2020 22:48:45 GMT
Gonna be honest, this was kind of boring. Was basically the same plot as Anti-Genesis, ie: evil rival time lord enacts some plot using some ancient time lord weapon that allows him to dominate the entire universe in a plot that involves other dimensions and it all gets undone in the end via a giant reset button of some sort. It was nice seeing Ollistra, cool seeing them lead in to the opening flashback of Doom Coalition, neat spotting the little continuity nods like mentioning The Other, and the Heavenly Paradigm. But overall this was just, sorta, meh, really. Wow, sounds terrible! It was not that bad, really. However, I think I can say with some confidence that you might not like this one.
|
|