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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 20, 2021 9:59:49 GMT
By Guy Adams
When a day out in 21st Century London leads to the TARDIS being impounded, the Doctor and Leela find themselves getting involved with the mysterious Amapan Investments, a company that’s managed to become remarkably successful in a remarkably short amount of time.
So what’s their secret? The Doctor and Leela are about to find out.
The Usurians have come to Earth. And they have big plans.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 10:03:23 GMT
Yes I prefer this method
And I like the link added to for those who perhaps don’t know .Will be listening to it after another hour of Minuet in hell lol...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 16:17:32 GMT
totally enjoyed this I won’t spoil it for anyone.Tom and Louise are on great form and there are a few neat ideas contained within for the Usirians.
Sian(isnt she in everything 😉🤭😂) plays well against Tom.When more get to listen I will add more.Enjoy.
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Post by elkawho on Jan 21, 2021 4:55:00 GMT
Great story. It gets a bit mad in the second half, but good Doctor Who kind of mad.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 21, 2021 6:25:06 GMT
/photo/1
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Post by IndieMacUser on Jan 22, 2021 10:18:09 GMT
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Post by shallacatop on Jan 22, 2021 11:45:31 GMT
I thought this was okay. A few neat ideas that aren't really explored in detail and the story can't decide if it's being more of a statement, a la The Sun Makers, or if it's being an absurd bit of Season 17-esque fun. It probably doesn't help that there isn't a lot to it and it struggles to sustain four parts. That is more of a common criticism I have of Guy Adams, who produces some great 60 minute adventures, but often struggles with anything more.
Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Sian Phillips & Ramon Tikaram are all on fine form and inject life into what's an otherwise sparse story. It sounds sparse too, one of the rare moments where Big Finish have dropped the ball with the sound design and music.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2021 16:42:53 GMT
This is the definition of the term 'mixed bag' for me. If I'm honest, I found parts of this - a lot of the humour in particular - really bad. Was the Graham Williams' era really like this? Obviously on television, you have visuals to help translate the 'funnies', and with Big Finish, it all has to go into the vocals.
Other parts of The World Traders were really good. The majority of the performances were terrific, and Leela in particular gets some great lines. Sian Philips is great, as is Roman Tikaram. None of the cast drop the ball. But then we get the standard BF synthesised voice, and an extraordinary variable episode three.
I looked forward to the return of the Usurians. A deep, biting satire of greed and establishment and all the horribles that go with it would have been great. This story wasn't it. The character of Sil seems to have claimed the award for least scrupulous business villain, but The Director had a good run. At the moment, I'm thinking of this story as a good central idea, padded out with too much nonsense to fill the running time. I'm a great champion of four part stories, but this is one that would have benefited from less episodes.
So, as I say, the definition of a mixed bag. I'll listen to it again, to work out whether or not I like it. I can't put it any more coherently than that.
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Post by masterdoctor on Jan 22, 2021 17:02:09 GMT
Loved this one. It expands on the ideas present Kill the Doctor!/The Age of Sutekh as well as, of course, The Sunmakers. Almost a trilogy examining the fallacies of Capitalism.
The World Traders really starts off on a good foot with Episode One. It’s full of wit, with Leela, The Doctor and The Director all being full of life. The plot is paced well, and leaves so much more to be excited about over the rest of the story.
Part Two then takes the time to really flesh out our guest cast, especially Raman Tikram’s President Dunn-La and Sara Powell’s Emma Freemantle. I also love the idea of selling the UK’s land mass to propose, albeit in the prehistoric era. Not an idea that could have sustained itself, so using it here is great IMO.
Part Three is probably the weakest of the story, however, it is still good. This is probably because everything feels like set up for a very good finale, but it is still well-written. One of those traps that even the best writers can fall into. However, I found that this episode had the best sound design and the music in this is really something special.
Part Four ties everything up well, with more wit. I realized during this part that Guy Adams, to me at least, has a great handle on Robert Holmes’ sensibilities as a writer. Whether it is this story, Peepshow or Kill The Doctor!/The Age of Sutekh, he really captures the specific charm from Holmes’ stories.
Like I said, I loved this one. The only main gripe is that Part Three isn’t as strong as the rest, due to it having a case of feeling like it has to move pieces for the finale. However, this is one of the strongest casts in a fourth Doctor tale at Big Finish ever. The sound design is minimalistic, but works well for the story.
Definitely a recommendation, and a great capper to the quasi-trilogy of examining Capitalism.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 23, 2021 12:44:38 GMT
/photo/1
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Post by elkawho on Jan 23, 2021 13:55:33 GMT
While listening to the BTS, I started thinking, how are they all in studio? Tom is recording remotely! Then remembered that they record these years before release. This was recorded almost 4 years ago. It was like listening to a time capsule. Ahh, what it was like before COVID.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Jan 24, 2021 8:31:17 GMT
Great fun. Siân Phillips is really good & the tone of the story perfectly suits the 4th Doctor.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Jan 24, 2021 10:27:21 GMT
I’m torn - the most terrifying person from my childhood (seriously - nightmares about the Reverend Mother Helen Mohiem from Dune) in a story with thr archetypical “anti-nightmare fuel” (Tombo).
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Post by Who Review on Jan 25, 2021 21:02:06 GMT
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Post by number13 on Jan 25, 2021 23:35:45 GMT
Loved this one. It expands on the ideas present Kill the Doctor!/The Age of Sutekh as well as, of course, The Sunmakers. Almost a trilogy examining the fallacies of Capitalism. Definitely a recommendation, and a great capper to the quasi-trilogy of examining Capitalism. Only thing is, 'The Sunmakers' was Robert Holmes' rant about statism and Socialism, in a world where the government had become all business and taxed workers (literally) to death. As written, it was apparently an even more blatant satire on the UK's then Labour government and their high-tax polices, but the production team blurred it for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
Which didn't stop them making the Collector a glaringly obvious satire on then (Labour) Chancellor Healey (for overseas fans, UK Chancellor = chief treasury minister ie chief Collector), he who set the eye-watering tax levels that Robert Holmes was having a go at. (I believe the peak rate for certain taxes was then 98% - yes, ninety-eight.) Those very bushy eyebrows were the 70s newspaper cartoonists' universal shorthand for Mr. Healey. Put huge eyebrows on anything back then and the nation instantly got the reference! (I wonder if he ever saw 'The Sunmakers'?  We would have disagreed about economics, but otherwise I rather like what I know of him from his writing etc.) Also the context of the time matters a lot with this story. 1970s Britain was at the peak of industrial nationalisation, when the government was large parts of business (again, the reference is pretty clear) - docks, steel works, coal mines, lorry companies, bus companies, airlines, car factories, breweries, all telephones, etc. etc. (The Cabinet even had to decide which model of car should/not be produced at the nationalised car factories, hard though it is to believe now.) And most of the "businesses" lost money in vast quantities and ordinary tax payers paid up endlessly to fund the losses. Robert Holmes gave us a couple of scathing satires as well as his Gothic classics - 'The Caves of Androzani' is in part a 1980s satire on the free market operating without the rule of law. And there's a lot of 1960s satire on education and protest in 'The Krotons', hidden behind those clunky monsters! But in the 1970s, 'The Sunmakers' was never intended by him as a satire on Capitalism; quite the opposite. |
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Post by masterdoctor on Jan 26, 2021 1:17:04 GMT
Loved this one. It expands on the ideas present Kill the Doctor!/The Age of Sutekh as well as, of course, The Sunmakers. Almost a trilogy examining the fallacies of Capitalism. Definitely a recommendation, and a great capper to the quasi-trilogy of examining Capitalism. Only thing is, 'The Sunmakers' was Robert Holmes' rant about statism and Socialism, in a world where the government had become all business and taxed workers (literally) to death. As written, it was apparently an even more blatant satire on the UK's then Labour government and their high-tax polices, but the production team blurred it for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
Which didn't stop them making the Collector a glaringly obvious satire on then (Labour) Chancellor Healey (for overseas fans, UK Chancellor = chief treasury minister ie chief Collector), he who set the eye-watering tax levels that Robert Holmes was having a go at. (I believe the peak rate for certain taxes was then 98% - yes, ninety-eight.) Those very bushy eyebrows were the 70s newspaper cartoonists' universal shorthand for Mr. Healey. Put huge eyebrows on anything back then and the nation instantly got the reference! (I wonder if he ever saw 'The Sunmakers'? We would have disagreed about economics, but otherwise I rather like what I know of him from his writing etc.) Also the context of the time matters a lot with this story. 1970s Britain was at the peak of industrial nationalisation, when the government was large parts of business (again, the reference is pretty clear) - docks, steel works, coal mines, lorry companies, bus companies, airlines, car factories, breweries, all telephones, etc. etc. (The Cabinet even had to decide which model of car should/not be produced at the nationalised car factories, hard though it is to believe now.) And most of the "businesses" lost money in vast quantities and ordinary tax payers paid up endlessly to fund the losses. Robert Holmes gave us a couple of scathing satires as well as his Gothic classics - 'The Caves of Androzani' is in part a 1980s satire on the free market operating without the rule of law. And there's a lot of 1960s satire on education and protest in 'The Krotons', hidden behind those clunky monsters! But in the 1970s, 'The Sunmakers' was never intended by him as a satire on Capitalism; quite the opposite. Interesting, I always saw it as a comment on how those in power and with great wealth use a capitalistic government’s taxation to keep the middle and lower "class" in line. Thank you for the background! |
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Post by number13 on Jan 26, 2021 2:51:56 GMT
Only thing is, 'The Sunmakers' was Robert Holmes' rant about statism and Socialism, in a world where the government had become all business and taxed workers (literally) to death. As written, it was apparently an even more blatant satire on the UK's then Labour government and their high-tax polices, but the production team blurred it for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
Which didn't stop them making the Collector a glaringly obvious satire on then (Labour) Chancellor Healey (for overseas fans, UK Chancellor = chief treasury minister ie chief Collector), he who set the eye-watering tax levels that Robert Holmes was having a go at. (I believe the peak rate for certain taxes was then 98% - yes, ninety-eight.) Those very bushy eyebrows were the 70s newspaper cartoonists' universal shorthand for Mr. Healey. Put huge eyebrows on anything back then and the nation instantly got the reference! (I wonder if he ever saw 'The Sunmakers'? We would have disagreed about economics, but otherwise I rather like what I know of him from his writing etc.) Also the context of the time matters a lot with this story. 1970s Britain was at the peak of industrial nationalisation, when the government was large parts of business (again, the reference is pretty clear) - docks, steel works, coal mines, lorry companies, bus companies, airlines, car factories, breweries, all telephones, etc. etc. (The Cabinet even had to decide which model of car should/not be produced at the nationalised car factories, hard though it is to believe now.) And most of the "businesses" lost money in vast quantities and ordinary tax payers paid up endlessly to fund the losses. Robert Holmes gave us a couple of scathing satires as well as his Gothic classics - 'The Caves of Androzani' is in part a 1980s satire on the free market operating without the rule of law. And there's a lot of 1960s satire on education and protest in 'The Krotons', hidden behind those clunky monsters! But in the 1970s, 'The Sunmakers' was never intended by him as a satire on Capitalism; quite the opposite. Interesting, I always saw it as a comment on how those in power and with great wealth use a capitalistic government’s taxation to keep the middle and lower "class" in line. Thank you for the background! I was just logging in to edit to say: 'Sorry for entering "number13 Lecture Mode"!' when I saw your post. So, thanks for your thanks.
I remember reading a book on 1970s British politics and suddenly coming across a page on 'The Sunmakers'! I was pleased that just for once my Who fandom gave me some advanced knowledge; we never know when it'll come in useful do we?  (The author notes that Gatherer Hade also seems to be a dig at Mr. Healey, in appearance and manner of speech. I guess Robert Holmes was really miffed about his tax bill!) |
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Post by Chakoteya on Jan 26, 2021 9:04:07 GMT
Excellent story. Wonder where he got the idea of politicians so blinded by currency signs that they didn't step back and properly think through the logical conclusions of their actions....?
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 26, 2021 9:21:26 GMT
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 26, 2021 10:18:45 GMT
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We would have disagreed about economics, but otherwise I rather like what I know of him from his writing etc.)
(The author notes that Gatherer Hade also seems to be a dig at Mr. Healey, in appearance and manner of speech. I guess Robert Holmes was really miffed about his tax bill!)
