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Post by elkawho on Aug 2, 2020 15:33:42 GMT
I loved this release. Have we ever had an anthology release of four historicals? I don't think so. I loved them all, but my favorite was Ghost Station. It was just so atmospheric. The tension was palpable. Just the way you want a story to be set in that time. That being said, every story was excellent and the choice of historical periods settings and circumstances were all new to Doctor Who (well, except for general Medieval settings). And regarding Mary in What Lurks Down Under, I really wanted the Doctor to take her on as a companion. I know she has a real historical counterpart, but man, if there ever was companion material it's her.
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Post by tuigirl on Aug 2, 2020 17:53:20 GMT
I just finished it. And I agree with the previous posters- this release was just FANTASTIC. I absolutely LOVED it. I am not the biggest fan of 5, and I am also not the biggest fan of short story anthologies. But this was VERY well done. Fantastic writing, interesting characters, tons of creepy atmosphere and great performances. I even had chills running down my spine several times, while sitting on my balcony at the height of summer!! And as a special bonus for me, a total lack of cringe-worthy German accents. Well done. Without doubt my favorite Main Range release for 2020 so far.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Aug 2, 2020 18:35:15 GMT
And while I didn't love it as much as Ghost Station, I really did enjoy The Bridge Master by the first lady of Big Finish writers, Jac Rayner. 21+ years and she still knows how to craft an entertaining tale full of well observed character beats.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Aug 2, 2020 18:44:50 GMT
To follow up on that, how nice that the first two tales of this anthology are so good and that they both come from writers whose work on the Main Range dates back to the earliest days. Rayner of course wrote The Marian Conspiracy as MR 006 and Lyons first contributed with MR 012, The Fires of Vulcan. Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 4, 2020 7:46:57 GMT
Great release loved all the stories apart from The Dancing Plague. I'd like to see Mary Wade return as a companion for the 5th Doctor.
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Post by IndieMacUser on Aug 4, 2020 9:22:20 GMT
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 5, 2020 16:02:00 GMT
Just finished this. I think the first half was much stronger than the second; Ghost Station is brilliant and The Bridge Master is great.
What Lurks Down Under didn’t do it for me, seemed like there were a couple of images and a story was written to fit them; I’ve pretty much forgotten the story. The Dancing Plague was alright.
Still, solo Fifth Doctor is great and it was nice to have four historical stories on the bounce. I was a little disappointed that the Doctor doesn’t really seem to carry on from the previous trilogy, though; that seemed a miss opportunity especially given it’s the reason he’s on his own.
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Post by Kamelion on Aug 8, 2020 2:47:11 GMT
266B. The Bridge Master Rowanfield, England, early 14th century This is a gorgeous story. Who doesn't love a new 5th Doctor story with Peter Davison in 2020? Not having a companion really focuses on the decades of Big Finish experience that Peter Davison has accomplished on his own and when paired with this Jacqueline Rayner story, it seems like it was meant to be. Sort of how when anyone listens to 'Crocodile Rock' by Sir Elton John for the very first time, even while having never heard it before, the 'Lah, Lah Lah Lah Lah Lah', it just comes naturally to sing along with as if the song had always existed. The story plot based on a metaphor of a bridge, which opens opportunity, trade, travel and wealth, also opens up opposition and even invasions. The plot is such an obvious mic drop that it's not even funny. Peter Davison and Jacqueline Rayner is a successfully completed bridge here as well. This makes for a great listen for anyone who enjoys Peter Davison. This may once again, be one of his finest performances yet, right after BF266A 'Ghost Station' from last month, as a part of this anthology of four stories. 'Welcome to my home. I have bread and ale.' - Agatha To which the Doctor answers; 'Well, if I only have a week to live, why should I be worried about carbs?' -The Doctor 'I'm not in pain, well. Really. It's just like someone stuck a meathook in my mind.' -The Doctor 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Well, some of the time people have to make a difficult choice.' -The Doctor 'I don't believe in ghosts.' -The Doctor Also mentions the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a list of the finest bridges in the world. Excellent all the way around. Music, sound by Wilfredo Acosta - all top notch. Yet the acting and the extremely obviously overlooked plot that no one thought of before (everyone has thought of it), was bleedingly obvious and needed to be done, well... ===> Jacqueline Rayner I think Jacqueline Rayner just dropped the mic and walked off the stage leaving everyone with their mouths hanging open. Some laughing at the irony. https://the**********.com/Story/story.php?audioid=6470
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Post by tuigirl on Aug 8, 2020 8:12:41 GMT
266B. The Bridge Master Rowanfield, England, early 14th century This is a gorgeous story. Who doesn't love a new 5th Doctor story with Peter Davison in 2020? Not having a companion really focuses on the decades of Big Finish experience that Peter Davison has accomplished on his own and when paired with this Jacqueline Rayner story, it seems like it was meant to be. Sort of how when anyone listens to 'Crocodile Rock' by Sir Elton John for the very first time, even while having never heard it before, the 'Lah, Lah Lah Lah Lah Lah', it just comes naturally to sing along with as if the song had always existed. The story plot based on a metaphor of a bridge, which opens opportunity, trade, travel and wealth, also opens up opposition and even invasions. The plot is such an obvious mic drop that it's not even funny. Peter Davison and Jacqueline Rayner is a successfully completed bridge here as well. This makes for a great listen for anyone who enjoys Peter Davison. This may once again, be one of his finest performances yet, right after BF266A 'Ghost Station' from last month, as a part of this anthology of four stories. 'Welcome to my home. I have bread and ale.' - Agatha To which the Doctor answers; 'Well, if I only have a week to live, why should I be worried about carbs?' -The Doctor 'I'm not in pain, well. Really. It's just like someone stuck a meathook in my mind.' -The Doctor 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Well, some of the time people have to make a difficult choice.' -The Doctor 'I don't believe in ghosts.' -The Doctor Also mentions the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a list of the finest bridges in the world. Excellent all the way around. Music, sound by Wilfredo Acosta - all top notch. Yet the acting and the extremely obviously overlooked plot that no one thought of before (everyone has thought of it), was bleedingly obvious and needed to be done, well... ===> Jacqueline Rayner I think Jacqueline Rayner just dropped the mic and walked off the stage leaving everyone with their mouths hanging open. Some laughing at the irony. https://the**********.com/Story/story.php?audioid=6470Jacqueline Rayner is absolutely fantastic.
I love most of the stories she has written and many leave me in stitches.
I hope we get many more from her.
And I agree, this anthology might be the best one BF has done so far. Davison is great in this.
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Post by vivdunstan on Aug 12, 2020 8:05:48 GMT
Enjoyed this, though not as much as I’d hoped. But the theme was a good one, and Peter Davison excellent as usual. In terms of story rankings I’d order them from best to not as good 3, 4, 1 and 2. I think I should have enjoyed 1 more, given its Sapphire & Steel vibes, but it didn’t quite click for me. 4 and especially 3 were a delight though. Such a shame Tommy didn’t get to hear how this turned out. He wrote a cracker.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Aug 13, 2020 22:40:14 GMT
I finished up the set and thought it was one of the stronger anthology collections we have had in some time. The only story that really didn’t click with me was the final one, The Dancing Plague and even there I didn’t find anything wrong with it, it just didn’t capture my imagination the way the other three did. Hopefully as the MR moves to whatever it becomes these short story collections don’t disappear.
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Post by Who Review on Aug 14, 2020 12:12:54 GMT
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Post by Ian McArdell on Aug 18, 2020 21:50:25 GMT
My take on these four is up at CultBox - for my part, I adored 'What Lurks Down Under'!
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Post by mark687 on Aug 21, 2020 15:35:28 GMT
DW MR Subscriber PDF Script and Extended Interviews DL is in Accounts
Regards
mark687
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Post by slithe on Oct 30, 2020 10:58:08 GMT
I'm catching up with a backlog of MR releases and have just worked through Time Apart. I like the premise here - the Doctor taking some 'time out' and finding his own way without companions because he thinks people are better off without him. Ironically, each situation he finds himself in ends up needing him to take action and solve things.
Undoubtedly, Ghost Station and What Lurks Down Under are the highlights of this set. Ghost Station is a really great, claustrophobic and self-contained story. I've listened to this a couple of times and it is more rewarding on subsequent listens. Perhaps the effect of lockdown/Covid has had an impact here, but the idea of trying to 'escape' something is quite prescient at the moment and the Doctor offering a way out (if Petr chooses to take it) is a great concept. I got a Day of the Daleks vibe with this one - the idea of alternate timelines and paradoxes/ghosts and the tunnel, which I am not sure was intended or not.
What Lurks Down Under has the potential of seeing the Doctor meet up with Mary again. I am not sure whether he will or not, but it extends the story more than would be the case usually. Davison's warning that travel with him isn't always fun is well served and developed. It's a simple but effective story and I think it would have been one that could have easily be done in Season 19-20. The numerous puns in the title are also quite fun - Tegan, the fish, the location for the ship...
Davison is great in this release. With the exception of the Kamelion trilogy last year, his stories have been really good. He is giving Baker a run for his money and I think the 5th Doctor stories have been the best ones so far. It is a pity that Lockdown has stopped the natural progression of this story-arc, but hopefully the wait will be worth it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2020 15:53:14 GMT
Davison is great in this release. With the exception of the Kamelion trilogy last year, his stories have been really good. He is giving Baker a run for his money and I think the 5th Doctor stories have been the best ones so far. It is a pity that Lockdown has stopped the natural progression of this story-arc, but hopefully the wait will be worth it. The Fifth Doctor has had some very solid MR stories of late, probably not quite to the level of Colin's Doctor, but they've still been very good. Peter's stories can be hit and miss at times, the Kamelion stories fall in to the latter category for me, but Peter Davison always turns in a good performance. It will be interesting to see where they go with the Fifth Doctor once things return to normal.
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Post by slithe on Oct 31, 2020 9:08:06 GMT
The Fifth Doctor has had some very solid MR stories of late, probably not quite to the level of Colin's Doctor, but they've still been very good. Peter's stories can be hit and miss at times, the Kamelion stories fall in to the latter category for me, but Peter Davison always turns in a good performance. It will be interesting to see where they go with the Fifth Doctor once things return to normal. In terms of the range as a whole, Baker undoubtedly has had the best stories and is constantly the Doctor I enjoy and look forward to the most. I agree about Davison being hit and miss. Certainly, I thought the trilogies up to Mistfall (2015) were rather miss, with only the odd release particularly great (The Emerald Tiger, Fanfare for the Common Men being two that spring to mind). From Equilibrium onwards, there has been a noticeable improvement with 2016-2018 being particularly good. Kamelion stories were not the best, but the Marc arc ended up back on form (I excuse the Kamelion ones on the grounds that BF were trying something different). McCoy, sadly, is always the weak link for me. A lot of his stories end up in the once-only listen to. It's a shame as there's so much for that incarnation...
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Post by Ela on Oct 18, 2021 2:07:00 GMT
I liked Ghost Station and The Bridge Master the best of this set of stories. Really good set of stories overall.
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