4DA Series 9A Purgatoy 12/Chase the Night Discuss (Spoilers)

They all did Rorvik in Warriors Gate that’s what made me think so true to the era

There’s a quote about Lalla that endears her to me no end - she can answer the phone saying “hello” the same way other people say “fiddlesticks off”.

Anticipating the next two stories then?

Yes I pray for a speedy end to it poor folks who have caught it and I have friends over there.
In Hong Kong and Lanzhou so pray it gets contained.

That might be a good idea if you added FDA Series 6 to it as well. I think it's really interesting hearing mid-season releases to see how they change the overall tone and quality of that season.

Hello

Crashed ships. E-Space is filled with. The three television episodes had stranded ships of one sort or another. And two of these stores focus around crashed ships, with Purgatory 12 having one for spice. I wonder what the thinking is for this? Purgatory 12 and Chase the Night indicate that civilizations do exist, yet Big Finish has chosen isolated communities. I suppose it does develop a universe that seems young and lonely.

It appears that the four stories are an arch that links State of Decay, and concludes with Warrior's Gate. Romana's statement of future intent at the end of Chase the Night "might" explain her future reason for parting.

My thoughts reflect Stevo's with regards to Adric and Romana's representation; Lalla Ward found again that - hyper-intelligent warmth tinged steel that made her such an interesting equal to the Doctor. Somehow Aric seems to have matured into an awed space wanderer.

Matthew Waterhouse's insights about this period of Doctor Who and how it never was fully realized, and how his time travelling alone with the Doctor was rushed brings forth the obvious question: Does Keeper of Traken allow room for prior adventures?

I listened to these over the weekend, despite having a massive BF backlog, and I'm pretty glad I let it jump the queue as it was a really solid listen.

I think with this series going to the 4-parter and being explicitly set in quite a short time of TV Who it makes sense that it doesn't go too out there as it, more than a lot of the 4DAs, should feel of a piece with it's respective seasons. I think the one hour stories often don't feel like TV era Tom but that's fine as it's expanding the storytelling and giving us something new. Yet I think rightly this is "Let's try and write proper E-Space stories" almost like they were pitching directly for the season. They could almost be Lost Stories if we didn't know better - that's how seamless these fit. I should say I went in 100% cold and didn't listen to a trailer or even read a synopsis. Untill I downloaded it from my account I even forgot it was 4-parters.

Purgatory 12 gave us a nice spin on the prison planet trope as it kinda mixed that with the powerful entity that controls the fate of the people. Adric as the petulant kid works so much better here than later on as this story rightly gets that the kid is struggling with massive grief and he's been thrown into a universe bigger than he's ever imagined without time to take in what happened to his brother. The show never gave Adric that moment to remember and I love that we get it here. I wonder if Lalla struggled with the bit where she had to tell Adric she really liked him   I adored some of the dialogue here actually. Tom's "
Scraya, you look marvellous - last time I saw you, you were dead!
".  Scraya "We are the unforgiven"
, Doctor "Oh..you must forgive me". And pretty much Tom's whole eulogy for K9. His "He never had a bad word for anyone. I mean..he would shoot attackers on sight but even then...never a bad word for anyone". Just fantastic. Marc Platt's been a fave writer for a million years and he "gets" Who. From when to go trad to when to break the boundaries he knows what's needed.

Chase The Night gave me Snowpiercer vibes with the perpetual train moving round the world, I can't imagine that wasn't at least somewhere in Jonathan Morris' mind when coming up with the premise. The story itself was no great shakes but like others I enjoy that this is a story of survival more than anything else. No madman looking for power or crazy schemes. I did half expect some kind of cliffhanger ending maybe to bridge the A-B gap but nothing doing.  That's fine though. We're buying it anyway! Also...JANE ASHER as Pilot. I couldn't believe it when I heard that cast list. I mean Jane is more than just her acting CV, she's an icon of British pop culture from the 60s way back when she was Paul McCartney's girlfriend at the height of Beatlemania.  Synonymous with swinging London but she's been acting since Hammer's first Quatermass Xpermiment in 1955 through hip films like the great Deep End and the iconic Alfie.  Am I the only one who kinda lost my mind Jane Asher was here doing an actual Doctor Who? I even ate Jane Asher brand biscuits as a kid  

Yes...Lalla is too harsh sounding in her dialogue a lot of the time to address many of the previous remarks. You almost have to accept that now. She's stuck in President Romana mode now, I don't think flirty schollgirl outfitted Romana II is coming back any time soon!

So two nice authentic stories that with really minimal work could slot right into E-Space if that arc was longer on telly. As it is, it's nice to have them on audio. Not as revelatory as the Ann Kelso arc last year...but it's not trying to be. It's just doing old-school Doctor Who really well...and it does.