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Post by icecreamdf on Dec 3, 2015 22:17:44 GMT
I don't think Adric acted out of character at all. He was always an obnoxious, self-centered idiot. After spending most of his life being worshipped by a bunch of bugs, I can definitely see him becoming an evil, obnoxious, self-centered idiot.
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Post by charlesuirdhein on Dec 3, 2015 22:28:52 GMT
I don't think Adric acted out of character at all. He was always an obnoxious, self-centered idiot. After spending most of his life being worshipped by a bunch of bugs, I can definitely see him becoming an evil, obnoxious, self-centered idiot. No, he wasn't. He was a teenager and a bit arrogant (cue some bad writing for him) but he wasn't the thing portrayed bu Paul Magrs.
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Post by icecreamdf on Dec 3, 2015 22:37:27 GMT
I don't think Adric acted out of character at all. He was always an obnoxious, self-centered idiot. After spending most of his life being worshipped by a bunch of bugs, I can definitely see him becoming an evil, obnoxious, self-centered idiot. No, he wasn't. He was a teenager and a bit arrogant (cue some bad writing for him) but he wasn't the thing portrayed bu Paul Magrs. He might have grown out of being an arrogant teenager if he had either stayed with the Doctor, or been dropped off in civilization. Becoming god of the bug people could only make him worse.
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Post by Ela on Dec 4, 2015 2:39:36 GMT
I also thought Nyssa was out of character for a lot of it. Which doesn't help. I don't believe that for an instant. nyssa doesn't have a character to be out of. I was going to say that I didn't remember Nyssa's characterization that much in that episode because I was too annoyed at the way they were portraying Adric. But I have to admit, the comment about Nyssa not having a character to be out of made me laugh out loud. I don't know if that's actually true, but I have never been a huge fan of Nyssa as a character. She's okay, but I guess she feels a bit too good to be real to me.
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Post by constonks on Dec 4, 2015 13:50:23 GMT
This is probably the only Big Finish audio I didn't like. There are bits I thought were interesting but, yeah, the treatment of Adric was weird if not entirely cruel. Mostly because I was expecting a huge reset button at the end and there just... wasn't one.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 17:08:44 GMT
This is probably the only Big Finish audio I didn't like. There are bits I thought were interesting but, yeah, the treatment of Adric was weird if not entirely cruel. Mostly because I was expecting a huge reset button at the end and there just... wasn't one. In my head there was a reset button. it's the only big finish story where I've ever felt the need to retcon it out of existence
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Post by mrperson on Dec 4, 2015 17:58:50 GMT
I don't think Adric acted out of character at all. He was always an obnoxious, self-centered idiot. After spending most of his life being worshipped by a bunch of bugs, I can definitely see him becoming an evil, obnoxious, self-centered idiot. This I generally agree with. Decades of isolation tends to do very negative things to a person. Who knows what happens when you through Scorpion God into the mix....
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Post by Ela on Dec 4, 2015 21:05:09 GMT
This is probably the only Big Finish audio I didn't like. There are bits I thought were interesting but, yeah, the treatment of Adric was weird if not entirely cruel. Mostly because I was expecting a huge reset button at the end and there just... wasn't one. In my head there was a reset button. it's the only big finish story where I've ever felt the need to retcon it out of existence Right there with you on that!
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Post by ausir on Dec 4, 2015 22:13:53 GMT
It's a bit of an alternate timeline, though. The Doctor and Nyssa themselves have also turned into spiteful, old mean versions of themselves in "The Eternal Summer", after all. And there might not have been an explicit reset button, but the Doctor clearly notes that the whole bug civilization thing is not right timeline-wise.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2015 8:24:37 GMT
It's a bit of an alternate timeline, though. The Doctor and Nyssa themselves have also turned into spiteful, old mean versions of themselves in "The Eternal Summer", after all. And there might not have been an explicit reset button, but the Doctor clearly notes that the whole bug civilization thing is not right timeline-wise. That was it! That's what I was clutching on to as a way out. I think it was some sort of time bubble thing which never happened. Now personally I always wanted an older Adric to come back, having been rescued by the Master for use of his lock transfer computation abilites. I thought the older Fitz in one of those Faction Paradox stories in the EDA range was a great model for what he could be like.
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Post by Timelord007 on Dec 5, 2015 9:15:50 GMT
This story just didn't work for me & Andrew Sachs was awful as Adric.
Nice cover art though.
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Post by mrperson on Dec 5, 2015 18:05:34 GMT
This story just didn't work for me & Andrew Sachs was awful as Adric. Nice cover art though. That I can agree with
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Post by Tim Bradley on Jan 17, 2021 10:41:47 GMT
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Post by grinch on Jan 17, 2021 20:57:34 GMT
Perhaps I simply had bad taste but I actually didn’t mind this one. If you look at Andrew Sachs depiction as merely an possible future of Adric, it’s actually not half bad.
My only real issue with it to be honest is that The Doctor and co simply leave the already established sentient and intelligent scorpions behind to die. I actually saw a suggestion on another blog years ago where they said it might have worked better had the Doctor persuade the scorpions to use their block transfer equations to send them all back to the future. Whilst the scorpions conveniently shunt themselves off to their own pocket dimension.
Maybe that would be a bit too neat or twee a solution I’ll grant you but I’d prefer it to what we got.
So, it’s not a brilliant story but by no means is it forgettable. Mind you, I am glad Matthew Waterhouse was able to be persuaded to reprise the role as so far I have really enjoyed his tenure at Big Finish.
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Post by dalekcapaldi on May 5, 2021 9:59:49 GMT
I’d been putting this one off a bit as it always comes up in people’s lists of least favourite episodes. Finally got round to it yesterday and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - I ended up listening to all four parts in one sitting. I don’t think Adric’s characterisation was questionable - he had 500 years of bitter resentment building up, of course he’d go a bit manic. My only real issue with it is I was expecting some kind of reset at the end, so that his TV death remains intact, but then rather than let this detract from the story I’ll just shift it to the “Unbound” section in my head. I can see why people hate the canon bending but it’s honestly not a bad tale at all.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2021 10:11:00 GMT
I’d been putting this one off a bit as it always comes up in people’s lists of least favourite episodes. Finally got round to it yesterday and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - I ended up listening to all four parts in one sitting. I don’t think Adric’s characterisation was questionable - he had 500 years of bitter resentment building up, of course he’d go a bit manic. My only real issue with it is I was expecting some kind of reset at the end, so that his TV death remains intact, but then rather than let this detract from the story I’ll just shift it to the “Unbound” section in my head. I can see why people hate the canon bending but it’s honestly not a bad tale at all. I agree. There's no pressure on the listener to include this, or any, story in Doctor Who's canon. If you have problems with it, then an Unbound section is probably the best place for it. Personally, I love the story and don't necessarily think it does a disservice to Adric, although it would be interesting to know what Matthew Waterhouse thinks (I understand he hasn't heard it). I like experimental stories like this, stories that manage to toy with our expectations of what can and can't be done, but I imagine that the mixed reaction this one got - not least from Nick Briggs himself - disinclined Big Finish from being this adventurous again. A shame.
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Post by barnabaslives on May 5, 2021 16:20:07 GMT
To be fair, it is a good story and a good production, and I think it might have been poor timing more than poor taste? I mean, Adric was made out to be pretty creepy, but I suppose Tegan under the influence of the Mara was pretty creepy too. The thing of it for me was that at the time it came out, that was sort of all of Adric there was on audio and it seemed to be hitting the reset button on Adric's heroic end in the worst way.
It wasn't quite so bad as it could have been since the Fifth Doctor Box Set had come out by then but it still struck me as disrespectful to the character and the way he was meant to be remembered. I'm sure Big Finish is light years ahead of me when it comes to respecting DW characters but it still seems so easy to take as people saying "We want Adric" and Big Finish sort of saying, "Oh no you don't" lol.
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Post by fitzoliverj on May 5, 2021 16:43:00 GMT
Although the basic concept for the story was not a good one, the execution is actually quite good. Well, in fact it's disappointing, because various characters and concepts are introduced but aren't sufficiently developed; unfortunately, I do find that Paul Magrs tends to get interested in concepts but doesn't necessarily find much to do with them (which is perhaps why so many characters nad plots recur in his writing wihtout necessarily beging in continuity with each other). Also, am I the only person who thinks that Andrew Sachs didn't sound too far frmo Matthew Waterhouse's voice anyway?
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2021 17:01:22 GMT
I love the fact that we're still discussing this story now, which means it must have had some lasting impact whatever people seem to think of it.
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Post by grinch on May 5, 2021 17:09:57 GMT
I love the fact that we're still discussing this story now, which means it must have had some lasting impact whatever people seem to think of it. True. For all its faults I don’t think I could ever call the story forgettable.
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