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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Feb 9, 2021 9:32:45 GMT
"The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Turlough to a high-tech scientific installation on the planet Testament in the distant future. The human race have become intergalactic buccaneers, thanks to their ability to generate vast amounts of power for long-distance travel. Testament is the source of that power – and the Doctor has never quite understood how it works.
But experiments are underway on Testament - experiments with potentially explosive and devastating consequences. And even the Doctor may be too late to stop it.
With politicians and bureaucrats getting in the way, the race is on. Not to stop a disaster - but to save as many people as possible."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 10:50:04 GMT
How it began with 5 and Turlough and hopefully a fitting nearly end to the MR...am hooked in already really is a bit of a thriller this one and definitely worth a relisten..enjoyed very very much
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Post by mark687 on Feb 9, 2021 14:00:19 GMT
Well now our final hidden gem of the MRs, though having read later comments I should've said the last divisive one A faniststing, if at times unsubtle, comment on society, mixed with a disaster thriller (be interesting if the Extended Extras reveal if the Casting was Script or Director led cause it subverts the usual expectations of who would display which attitudes, unless I'm over thinking it). Kudos to the Actors who played multiple roles they were distinctly different. 5 and Turlough are always a good team Very much Recommended Regards mark687
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Post by mark687 on Feb 9, 2021 14:49:49 GMT
Regards
mark687
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Feb 9, 2021 19:50:13 GMT
That might have been around the time Mark was here in Australia and i asked him if he was recording anything new and he looked at me coyly..LOL
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Post by elkawho on Feb 9, 2021 22:16:04 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work.
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Post by grinch on Feb 9, 2021 22:28:57 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work. I take it it was rather heavy handed then with regards to its messages and themes?
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Post by mark687 on Feb 9, 2021 23:09:37 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work. I take it it was rather heavy handed then with regards to its messages and themes? Potentially yes. Regards mark687
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Post by mark687 on Feb 9, 2021 23:14:26 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work. I will admit at times I thought it could have used a bit of 6th Doctor Moral Outrage instead. Regards mark687
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Post by elkawho on Feb 9, 2021 23:58:00 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work. I take it it was rather heavy handed then with regards to its messages and themes? Yep
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2021 6:45:36 GMT
I don’t tend to dissect things till the third listen 😂😉
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Feb 10, 2021 11:37:31 GMT
Whilst I will say that I can see why people didn't like this one, for me it was definitely a great way to start 'wrapping up' the run.
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Post by Chakoteya on Feb 10, 2021 14:59:08 GMT
Fair enough story, marked down for the presence of that overgrown whinging schoolboy - my second least favourite companion.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2021 15:03:44 GMT
I'm listening to one episode per day, and after getting to the end of Episode One, I am really loving it so far. This is exactly my kind of story, the sound design is great, and the performances are very enjoyable with some good distinctive voices.
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Post by shallacatop on Feb 10, 2021 17:21:27 GMT
I went from enjoying the first part, to indifferent in the second and third, to wishing it hurry up and finish by part four. I thought it just went on and on with such broad characterisations and the cliches that entails. Turlough does nothing, the Doctor is frustratingly muted and if I hear “dear” one more time it’ll be too soon.
I really like this TARDIS pairing and we don’t get much of them together in this, which is a shame in itself, but the way they’re used is really lacking.
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Post by number13 on Feb 10, 2021 20:17:50 GMT
I don't feel like I was listening to the same story as you guys. I hated it so much. Yes, hate is a strong word, but that's how I felt. The actors were great, this one was all down to the writing. It was every nonsensical cliche about government they could cram into one story. I didn't believe a single character in here could actually exist. The Doctor was written as a blind, gullible idiot and Turlough did nothing for this at all. There were times when I was driving to work that I was actually yelling about how stupid the characters were. There were one or two of them that made me actually feel bad that the actor had to figure out how to say those lines. And it made me mad that with only 2 MR releases left, THIS is what they gave us. I gave it a 2/10 because I was feeling generous toward the talented individuals that tried their hardest to make this mess of a story work. I take it it was rather heavy handed then with regards to its messages and themes? Heavy handed? Well, weight varies depending on where you weigh an object, so it depends if you think a very large hand made of neutron star matter weighed in an extreme gravitational field could be as heavy-handed as this story, or not.
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Post by Whovitt on Feb 10, 2021 22:33:29 GMT
I've seen people mention that BF can fall back on the "capitalism=bad" formula for a story, but this is the first time I really saw what they mean. I agree with the others upthread - almost nothing the guest characters did was remotely believable, and making every decision a business decision became so boring so quickly that I was glad when the story was finally over. For me, it probably doesn't help that we had a similar story in The World Traders last month, only that at least tried to be comedic (even if it fell down a bit for me by trying to be too comedic). I also felt the Doctor was way too gullible, especially when you consider how many similar situations he's encountered by this point in his life, and Turlough didn't really contribute anything to the story at all. in fact, thinking back, I think you could remove his entire subplot from the narrative and everything would have pretty much panned out the same way, except perhaps Brad being made an ambassador at the end. And people say the classic companions on TV didn't really get to do anything...
Also, I really don't see what made this a "thriller". For all that was going on, it was much too slow-paced. Everyone was talking about how the planet was going to be destroyed but I don't think there was a single moment where I felt anyone was in any serious danger. I don't know, it just didn't work for me.
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Post by number13 on Feb 10, 2021 23:04:13 GMT
I've seen people mention that BF can fall back on the "capitalism=bad" formula for a story, but this is the first time I really saw what they mean. I agree with the others upthread - almost nothing the guest characters did was remotely believable, and making every decision a business decision became so boring so quickly that I was glad when the story was finally over. For me, it probably doesn't help that we had a similar story in The World Traders last month, only that at least tried to be comedic (even if it fell down a bit for me by trying to be too comedic). One of them might well have been me! I dodged 'The World Traders' because I guessed what sort of angle it might take and waited for the verdict of DU, but this one came at me straight out of my MR sub and I so couldn't dodge it.
Since I'll never want to listen to 'The Blazing Hour' again, I will be doing the free market capitalism thing of putting the CDs on ebay to recover some of my financial loss. Imploding them into a singularity isn't technically available to me and while it might be satisfying, it wouldn't be cost-effective anyway.
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Post by IndieMacUser on Feb 12, 2021 15:00:02 GMT
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Post by slithe on Feb 13, 2021 11:39:25 GMT
A bit of an uneven release this one... I like this type of story usually and was a bit surprised to see this style used with the 5th Doctor - the 7th or 6th Doctors would be more appropriate here.
The story is pretty generic - government wanting to make money, pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable/ignores warnings and chaos ensues. In suppose the issue with this story is that is a very slow-moving train crash - we know the ending here and it is just seeing how we get to it. Stories like this either need plenty of tension or a very strong cast with well-written characters. For me, the pace and tension was almost non-existent - it did not feel like an hour to go, which did undermine the aim of the story. The characters were ok - only Violet came out as quite interesting, the rest were relatively 2D and more 'stock' characters than anything else.
That aside, I suppose as the MR comes to an end, we can't expect to see anything that will open up new plot-lines/arcs too much. It is a standard 1980s TV story and on that metric, works quite well.
However, I noticed a few things that are possibly hinting at things to come. The Fifth Doctor is noticeably darker here than has been the case previously - the quote about him being 'the destroyer of worlds' is not something that is usually associated with this incarnation - he's usually much lighter and looking to see the good in people (naively perhaps). The idea that 'another companion' has been lost to this incarnation is played well - perhaps explaining the more subdued approach at the end (Adric and Marc - assuming this follows after that arc) would explain that. The Fifth Doctor is also a bit more vindictive - he is far more sparky with Violet and far less trusting, which suggests a development of a 'darker Fifth Doctor' which would lead into the characterisation we saw in Androzani.
I would find it fascinating if we saw the Fifth Doctor develop many of the traits that the Sixth was initially criticised for. What if the trauma of the regeneration had simply compounded things that were already set in motion? I got that idea being hinted at here. The Doctor is not that complementary about the humans and, I need to listen to this again, actually leaves before the explosion and doesn't solve anything. The idea of the Fifth Doctor willing to sacrifice himself is also explored (again) here.
Turlough also makes an interesting comment - he also appears to be questioning the point of travelling with the Doctor and is seeing TARDIS life as not always as glamorous as it once might be.
On the face of it, this is quite a standard tale. I think the gems here are the subtle hints at what might be coming - this is 'standard' Fifth Doctor but there's something about the character that doesn't fit here. It's more dark and subdued.
Sadly, this story gives away when it was written. The Prime Minister is a carbon copy of someone who left office over a year ago...
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