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Post by relativetime on Mar 12, 2021 11:07:24 GMT
Two episodes in so far and while these might not be the greatest episodes I’ve ever heard from the Eighth Doctor range, I’m still really loving the approach the team have taken for this series. For me at least, characters like Ron and Tony and Tanya (and all the rest) have been exactly what the Eighth Doctor range has been missing all this time. I love how these episodes have been prioritizing the character interactions over some massive ongoing threat and as someone who holds the LGBTQ+ community very close to my heart, the representation here is so very appreciated. I think this might be the best I’ve ever seen Doctor Who tackle representation, honestly. There’s still room for improvement - there always is no matter what - but I like the steps this series has been taking. Of the episodes I’ve listened to so far, I’d say Unit Dating was my favorite. Getting to see Andy basically function as a full companion by himself with the Doctor... well, it just warmed my heart. This whole episode warmed my heart really. I loved the development of Ron and Tony’s characters. There’s some sad undertones there in the present concerning mental health, but their storyline in the past was just so lovely. I do hope this means we’ll see them popping up in the Third Doctor boxsets from time to time. It’d be a shame not to. I was a bit skeptical about the series reintroducing time travel - or at least travel in the TARDIS - in only the second boxset of a series based on the crew being stranded, but these first two episodes seem to have justified that decision. I’m relieved to see the heart of the first set - the characters and smaller scale drama - is still the core of the series. If anything, the increased scope has complimented the small scale stuff. There’s still a looming threat the series is building up to, of course - and judging by the description of the last episode I’ve got a lot more of that buildup still ahead - but I don’t think that will necessarily be what makes this series so memorable. Once this series is over, I really do hope the range will continue to have some of these characters pop back up in future boxsets. As I said, strong reoccurring characters is something the Eighth Doctor range has been missing for a very long time; maybe since Auntie Pat.
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Post by elkawho on Mar 14, 2021 16:10:00 GMT
I liked Stranded Vol 1, but I love Stranded Vol 2. I think back to the MR story Other Lives, another "stranded on Earth" story, and Eight at that time had a much easier time fitting in. He's been off fighting cosmic battles for so long now it's really affected his ability to interact with people. I like how these stories are addressing that.
Of course, the standout story in the set is UNIT Dating. Just wonderful. A bonus of BF's recasting is that we are able to get stories like these. Culshaw's Brig continues to be outstanding. His responses to each encounter with The Doctor are perfect. I love that Eight finally acknowledges their friendship, as well as the Brig's response to it. Basically, thanks but get moving!! Ron and Tony's backstory is lovely, and I really liked the way they handled the relationship between the past and future of the couple. Powerful and touching.
While the other stories don't shine quite as brightly for me, they are all extremely good. Baker Street Irregulars is another story highlighting the unique backstory of some of the residents of the house. Well played by everyone and it really helps me understand the "sisters". I did not like them much after the first set, so this was a much needed story.
I have this habit of asking people about their backgrounds as I'm getting to know them. Not too early in my relationships with people, because that would seem rude, but as I get to know someone I usually ask when I feel it's appropriate. Sometimes I do it without even realizing it, until they are telling me how their ancestors came to this country or their parents met. I find people's stories fascinate me. Everyone has one. So, yeah, this set is speaking to me in a way that most things don't. Looking forward to the next one!
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Post by Chakoteya on Mar 16, 2021 17:38:00 GMT
Just finished, and boy was that Excellent! Roll on November!
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Post by tuigirl on Mar 20, 2021 20:37:33 GMT
Well, I just listened to this for 3 hours straight, after several weeks going without any audios. That alone should tell you anything you need to know.
Did it blow my mind? No. Was I dazzled and dazed by out of this world writing and performance? Also no.
What I got here were (so far) 3 good episodes of 8 and his gang and hangers-on.
It feels like coming home and looking in on some old friends.
The stories themselves were nothing special or too exciting (they are pretty much decidedly BF standard), however, they held my attention and this really lives off the relationships the characters share/ develop for each other. I actually like this. I like the way of storytelling, I like the characters, I like to learn more about all the people living in this merry house of misfits.
I really enjoy what Tanja and Andy are bringing to these stories, but then I am rather fond of Andy. He is basically the only character (apart from Billis Manger of course) who makes me check out Torchwood.
Come on, he charging in, in his police car, sirens wailing, just so he can have a ride in the TARDIS? How is that not awesome?
I like that these stories are more grounded and that they deal with some depth about the fallout the Doctor leaves in his wake. And the writing does a good job bringing this across. And I just do not need any universe shattering events happening all the time. This is good, as it is, and it is in the usual high BF standard. It even makes me care about the cat! I am now really curious how the story about the cat progresses and I expect to have him become another feline companion! Now that they started with the cat, the cat has to stay. It would be a waste to simply forget about him.
Right.
As for this debate that is going on in this forum about the 8th Doctor adventures not being "prime time big adventure" anymore.
Ahm.... THIS is okay for me. I am enjoying myself and I actually just enjoyed 3 hours of audio, as much as I had not had in weeks.
And to be honest, these stories are not much different from 1. other 8 Doctor stories and 2. most of the main range.
I also realized that the tone and "feel" of Stranded (for me at least!) just is the same as it was for the later Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition. Yes, it is missing the "zing" of the first Dark Eyed/ Doom Coalition, but I just right now felt exactly as I felt when I listened to Doom Coalition 2 and 3.
Same tone, the same Liv and Helen, the vibe stays the same for me. I however have to add, I did not feel as strongly connected to "Stranded 1". So Volume 2 improves on that and I again begin to feel "at home". So yeah, Stranded 2 gets a thumbs up from me. Now I have to listen to the last story to see if this feeling stays or if we get back into "Stranded 1" territory...
Oh, and if I might voice some critisism. I know that BF wants to be inclusive and try and show villains in a better light and try to show that not all of them are monsters. And maybe they want to cater for us Germans? (clue- DON'T)
But this is now getting ridiculous.
Yes, not all Germans were evil during the war (and not all British were good, just look at the sadist dumbwits who chased my grandma up and down the potato fields in their big shiny war planes after they had finished bombing the city. Bet your macho bottoms even got a medal for that, great big heroes that you were).
But fact is, Nazi Germany DID happen and most of the people in power did in some way support the regime. Otherwise, the eternal Reich might have crumbled a lot sooner.
If all Germans were nice considerate people back then, WWII would never have happened. This might be a pet peeve of mine, but stop trying to present me with likeable Nazis. These people do not need to be excused or shown in an apologetic way AT ALL.
I want my evil sadistic David Tennant Nazi swine back.
Thank you.
(and by the way, no, I also do not want to have the next WWII story telling me about the evil British fighter pilots chasing harmless farmers, thank you even more. At the rate BF is going, that is up next).
Right, this must have been the longest post I made about an audio for quite some time.
In short, yeah, Stranded is fine. Presses as the right buttons for me.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Mar 20, 2021 20:58:14 GMT
My question. Why are we (the English) so obsessed with WW2?
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Post by tuigirl on Mar 20, 2021 22:18:49 GMT
My question. Why are we (the English) so obsessed with WW2? Uhm... when this COVID business is over, I might invite you over here. Then I can show you true obsession.... You cannot take a step without stumbling over some WWII memorial or another (around the corner of my workplace we have a memorial for freedom fighters who were hanged on that spot for "treason", since my workplace is on the site of a former Wehrmacht barracks) or switch on TV without at least 3 channels talking about it.... Don't mention the war indeed....
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
Likes: 5,665
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Post by shutupbanks on Mar 21, 2021 0:54:31 GMT
My question. Why are we (the English) so obsessed with WW2? I’d say that up until the 1970s you had people making entertainment who had fought in it (James Bond served during WW2 and he is still be written about and having films made); up until the 90s there were people making it who could remember it. Then they retired and had time to write memoirs about their time in the war. It’s also one of the few conflicts where you could say you were fighting for “a moral cause” (ie, the rise of fascism). There’s also a lot of footage available of it and the effects of it, and it birthed the Cold War, under which we lived in fear of nuclear conflict for a good forty years. In fact, it’s probably the pivotal event of the Twentieth Century, because nothing was the same afterwards and most of the world was affected by it. Even a phrase as current as “OK, Boomer” has its roots in World War 2 (cue giggling from the Australians).
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Post by number13 on Mar 21, 2021 2:10:21 GMT
My question. Why are we (the English) so obsessed with WW2? For precisely the same reasons that, throughout the 19thC, "we" were "obsessed" with the Napoleonic wars - they were both wars of national survival and in both we depended on non-land-based forces to repel the armies of a far stronger and totally hostile power which had already demonstrated its total barbarism in occupied lands. At this distance in time it's too easy to think of the Scarlet Pimpernel and 'Carry On - Don't Lose Your Head' and to forget the horrors perpetrated by the forces of the French Revolution both in France and in many places far beyond her borders, but at the time people were only too well aware they were fighting an enemy which threatened unlimited carnage, had they successfully crossed the Channel.
If we really want to go back in history, to the time of Spain under the Inquisition, the Spanish Armada gained a similar place in our national memory and for the same reasons. (I would add that in each case we had a leader who managed to successfully embody that spirit of national resistance to a degree far beyond normal for a leader - Elizabeth I, William Pitt and Winston Churchill. Very diffrerent people, but they each fulfilled the same role.)
These wars justifiably fed into the picture of an island nation, standing defiant at times when most or all of the rest of Europe was either hostile, conquered or uneasily neutral.
Defensive wars fought against brutal tyrannies are wars easy to be proud of having fought - and so we should be. Defending, among other things, the right of other European nations to also enjoy peace - and our right to trade with them. This last point might seem small beer compared with the 'moral high ground' arguments, but keeping open our access to the ports of Europe was a key part of English / British foreign policy, then as now. Being an island nation is not the same as being isolationist.
(Not having heard 'Stranded' yet, I've not a clue why the question was asked! No doubt I'll discover the answer one day. )
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2021 5:14:34 GMT
Well, I just listened to this for 3 hours straight, after several weeks going without any audios. That alone should tell you anything you need to know.
Did it blow my mind? No. Was I dazzled and dazed by out of this world writing and performance? Also no.
What I got here were (so far) 3 good episodes of 8 and his gang and hangers-on.
It feels like coming home and looking in on some old friends.
The stories themselves were nothing special or too exciting (they are pretty much decidedly BF standard), however, they held my attention and this really lives off the relationships the characters share/ develop for each other. I actually like this. I like the way of storytelling, I like the characters, I like to learn more about all the people living in this merry house of misfits.
I really enjoy what Tanja and Andy are bringing to these stories, but then I am rather fond of Andy. He is basically the only character (apart from Billis Manger of course) who makes me check out Torchwood.
Come on, he charging in, in his police car, sirens wailing, just so he can have a ride in the TARDIS? How is that not awesome?
I like that these stories are more grounded and that they deal with some depth about the fallout the Doctor leaves in his wake. And the writing does a good job bringing this across. And I just do not need any universe shattering events happening all the time. This is good, as it is, and it is in the usual high BF standard. It even makes me care about the cat! I am now really curious how the story about the cat progresses and I expect to have him become another feline companion! Now that they started with the cat, the cat has to stay. It would be a waste to simply forget about him.
Right.
As for this debate that is going on in this forum about the 8th Doctor adventures not being "prime time big adventure" anymore.
Ahm.... THIS is okay for me. I am enjoying myself and I actually just enjoyed 3 hours of audio, as much as I had not had in weeks.
And to be honest, these stories are not much different from 1. other 8 Doctor stories and 2. most of the main range.
I also realized that the tone and "feel" of Stranded (for me at least!) just is the same as it was for the later Dark Eyes and Doom Coalition. Yes, it is missing the "zing" of the first Dark Eyed/ Doom Coalition, but I just right now felt exactly as I felt when I listened to Doom Coalition 2 and 3.
Same tone, the same Liv and Helen, the vibe stays the same for me. I however have to add, I did not feel as strongly connected to "Stranded 1". So Volume 2 improves on that and I again begin to feel "at home". So yeah, Stranded 2 gets a thumbs up from me. Now I have to listen to the last story to see if this feeling stays or if we get back into "Stranded 1" territory...
Oh, and if I might voice some critisism. I know that BF wants to be inclusive and try and show villains in a better light and try to show that not all of them are monsters. And maybe they want to cater for us Germans? (clue- DON'T)
But this is now getting ridiculous.
Yes, not all Germans were evil during the war (and not all British were good, just look at the sadist dumbwits who chased my grandma up and down the potato fields in their big shiny war planes after they had finished bombing the city. Bet your macho bottoms even got a medal for that, great big heroes that you were).
But fact is, Nazi Germany DID happen and most of the people in power did in some way support the regime. Otherwise, the eternal Reich might have crumbled a lot sooner.
If all Germans were nice considerate people back then, WWII would never have happened. This might be a pet peeve of mine, but stop trying to present me with likeable Nazis. These people do not need to be excused or shown in an apologetic way AT ALL.
I want my evil sadistic David Tennant Nazi swine back.
Thank you.
(and by the way, no, I also do not want to have the next WWII story telling me about the evil British fighter pilots chasing harmless farmers, thank you even more. At the rate BF is going, that is up next).
Right, this must have been the longest post I made about an audio for quite some time.
In short, yeah, Stranded is fine. Presses as the right buttons for me.
Glad you enjoyed. I just didn’t but like I said I was never ever going to enjoy EVERYTHING and hopefully next Series after STRANDED will be more to my listening taste...will I continue with it ?Yes I wouldn’t want to give up hope hahahaha
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2021 6:08:16 GMT
My question. Why are we (the English) so obsessed with WW2? I’d say that up until the 1970s you had people making entertainment who had fought in it (James Bond served during WW2 and he is still be written about and having films made); up until the 90s there were people making it who could remember it. Then they retired and had time to write memoirs about their time in the war. It’s also one of the few conflicts where you could say you were fighting for “a moral cause” (ie, the rise of fascism). There’s also a lot of footage available of it and the effects of it, and it birthed the Cold War, under which we lived in fear of nuclear conflict for a good forty years. In fact, it’s probably the pivotal event of the Twentieth Century, because nothing was the same afterwards and most of the world was affected by it. Even a phrase as current as “OK, Boomer” has its roots in World War 2 (cue giggling from the Australians). The sheer volume of it also fits with the idea of writing as therapy, which is common practice. Russell T. Davies, talking about It's a Sin and the AIDS crisis, was talking about the anger and bitterness that will start emerging after COVID in fiction. It usually takes about twenty years for a cultural trauma like a war or an epidemic to become something more freely discussed in pop culture consciousness. The Vietnam War, for instance, doesn't really start getting a showing in American pop culture consciousness until the 1980s with First Blood, Platoon and any number of other films/series you could mention. For Doctor Who, specifically, a lot of writers lived it as soldiers, but also as civilians or prisoners. Bill Strutton, who wrote The Web Planet, was a prisoner-of-war for a large part of it, which influenced what he wrote for that story on Vortis. There's a curious cultural divide that happens in the 1960s. You could do The Dalek Invasion of Earth as a parable for fears of a Nazi invasion of England, but stories addressing the regime itself -- the people within and behind it -- was considered a very difficult topic to address directly. It was painful. A lot of the difficut subject matter -- like Susan and David hiding while a man is shot to death, screaming about his dead brother -- was possible to do in a family slot only with that bit of fantasy as a buffer. Nevertheless, a lot of those sequences and memories would have been first or second-hand, at best. It wasn't something hidden from families. They knew what it was like, they'd lived it. The difference was, in fiction, they could directly see the people fighting against it. There's a story, actually, done by The Saint in 1963 called "The Saint Plays with Fire" and it's about the rise of a new fascist party in Britain. Joseph Fürst, who you probably know as Professor Hermann "Nothing in the world can stop me now!" Zaroff, played the chief controller of the Nazi party. Fürst is Austrian and the performance he gives is one of the most chilling aspects of the whole story. It comes from a real place of terror as a survivor of the conflict. You'll never think him kitsch again if you watch the scene where his character, after killing a journalist, is frothing to the party members that: " You are not going anywhere, until that article is FOUND AND DESTROYED!" It's so intense that the scene doesn't linger, it cuts away immediately away from it as soon as it can. The whole episode has this energy, that's never explicitly named in the script, but it's a shivering, bone-raking chill. The shock in the blood and mind after a car crash. It is retelling that feeling of knowing, somewhere in your bones, that you are going to die. And a lot of those stories ask either one or two questions to those worn down by the War. Either: "How the hell did this happen?" or, alternatively: "What would you do if it happened again? If a fascist power, abroad or at home, rose again and you had to fight it?" With British fiction, in particular, the focus is less on asking the soldiers, it asks the ordinary people. "Could you do it?" The answer was down to the individual, but there was an emphasis on the fact that "Yes, it can be fought." But, it rarely shied away from the reality of the terror and I think that helped people get past it. In ways that couldn't be expressed or articulated in a conventional conversation.
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Post by tuigirl on Mar 21, 2021 16:40:19 GMT
Finished the set. I also liked the last story. I am rather partial to in medias res stories, and I do enjoy a nice "keeping the audience guessing" and interrogation story. However, since Volume 1, early on, I had already suspected who the Big Bad was going to be, and surprise! I was right. Oh well, you cannot always have evil time lords, and I think this villain really fits the theme of this series, with the heavy emphasis on character development and interaction. I also rather like Tom's character. Including the aborted "jelly baby" line. All in all, looking forward to the next volume. Yes, I still think this is not as good as Dark Eyes and the following series, but honestly, that might have been too much to ask for.
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Mar 21, 2021 23:53:01 GMT
Dead Time 7/10{Spoiler}Decent enough. Solid romp, well-distributed cast focus, with some foreshadowing for where the story is going. UNIT Dating 8/10{Spoiler}This is very nearly a 10/10. The place where it really fudges it is the link between the A plot and B plot.
The act of using the radio to send the message back through time was so needlessly convoluted (can send a message, but it'll suffer time erosion, can only be short and in morse code, they settle on SOS for some reason as if that would be remotely helpful, and also, don't do it too quickly or it'll fry the circuits (how does Liv have such certain opinions on how this should work when it's probably never happened before ever, let alone to her)).
But then, they don't even get the message, but it acts as a snag for the TARDIS, which had already happened at the beginning of the story. From a dramatic standpoint, it would have made much more sense for it to play an active role in solving the time loop problem. And if it didn't help in the way they planned, why the hell did it require that level of specificity?
I'm not usually one to get hung up on technobabble stuff like this if it servers the story, and has a dramatic logic to it, but this really was confounding.
Other than that, lots of fun, with a melancholy ending. The Baker Street Regulars 6/10{Spoiler}It was alright, and had a great twist ending, but didn't leave much of an impression on me elsewise. The Long Way Round 6/10{Spoiler}The concept for this I love; having a whole episode being recorded interviews, but it didn't fully capitalize on it.
Don't really like so much of it being focused on the "is the Doctor a good guy or a bad guy" thing. While I do prefer "the name doesn't matter, the actions do" perspective, this exploration has been so done to death both in the show and on audio. The reveal at the end as to who "The Doctor" is was pretty cool, but didn't really make up for the monotony.
It's just the Doctor's friends defending him against a brick wall. None of them falter or doubt him in any interesting ways. We don't really learn anything more about them. Even the things we learn about this evil future regime is pretty minimal.
But there's some interesting spots here and there, and I liked the way it cut back to the Curator and the younger girl. It wasn't bad, just a little unsubstantial. Overall, an improvement on the last set. Hopefully by the end of this story arc, everything's really gonna fall together.
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Post by mark687 on Mar 23, 2021 22:44:47 GMT
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Mar 24, 2021 9:02:21 GMT
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Post by Timelord007 on Mar 24, 2021 14:39:49 GMT
Two episodes in, had relisten again this morning as my concentration was distracted by a personal family matter.
Anyway so far so good, not edge of your seat audio drama but intriguing nevertheless.
I hope this set of box sets are building up to something with a bigger story arc.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Mar 24, 2021 22:10:59 GMT
Two episodes in, had relisten again this morning as my concentration was distracted by a personal family matter. Anyway so far so good, not edge of your seat audio drama but intriguing nevertheless. I hope this set of box sets are building up to something with a bigger story arc. Yes.. I wouldn't like to see "WandaVision" syndrome.. Not everything has to be massively universe shattering epic.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2021 8:17:11 GMT
Wee spoiler for Stranded 4 on the Master Release...perhaps 😂 yeah think it was a slip relistened...
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Post by chopper on Apr 12, 2021 11:12:30 GMT
It's all a bit hmmmmm, really. First and last stories did absolutely nothing for me at all. I'd rather they stayed in (parallel) 2020 and checked out some stuff. The interrogation scenes had some nice moments, but the payoff just didn't seem to make sense. I'm still not sure what it was all about. Also I think I preferred the way it was done in Judge Dredd: War Crimes www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/judge-dredd-war-crimes-678Second story was by far the most entertaining. As for the Third story, didn't quite get the feeling that the Doc and whatserface were parachuting into war torn France. Nice characterisation around the Nazi.
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Post by Who Review on Apr 12, 2021 19:48:36 GMT
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Post by drj on Apr 19, 2021 23:45:17 GMT
I liked this. The space for character development, the different character team ups we get to see and their various dynamics, it really works for me. Yes, we’re not on a grand scale “save the universe” adventure, but to be honest, we don’t always have to be. We’ll always have the character development we see here in future four part box sets, so in some sense it’s a good investment into the depth of the different personalities and their history with each other. A character focused version of the world building we see in Robots, you could say.
Special shout out for UNIT dating, I have to say. Lovely little tale about relationships. Plus... the Brig!
Roll on Stranded 3!
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