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Post by dasmaniac on May 13, 2021 16:23:58 GMT
Listening to Sphere of Freedom right now. I just can't believe how easily Eccleston settles back into the role. It's like he never left and it's still 2005. Absolutely unreal.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2021 19:15:23 GMT
Sphere Of Freedom. Yeah, Chris is back. Lots of people were kind enough to like my hypothesis that I think he's kinda playing a "new" Doctor as much as, if not more so than he is reprising his role. Having spent 45mins with him now, I think that even more. What this appears to be, to me, is Chris' Doctor without the angst and the guilt. It's almost like this is the Ninth Doctor who doesn't think he blew up Gallifrey. If Hurt's Doc could remember the events of Day Of The Doctor, this is who he'd be. So far at least. No big speeches. No brooding. Just seeing people in trouble, something odd with time...and here to help, with a screwdriver and some paper. Magic! He's still very much The Doctor but he's bouncier, more fun and with a much more vibrant line delivery. If Colin created "Cuddly Uncle Sixie" then this is "Weird fun cousin Niney". OK...that won't catch on but hey I thought it was quite bold to do a frenetic paced piece jumping around the timeline of the story. I must admit about 15mins in it felt a bit convoluted but when you click what's going on that dissipates. Hard not to get War Games vibes when there's Romans and the British Army in a weird time-line Who story. Thus far Nova is fine, hasn't had much to do. It's been much more about The Doctor learning whats what and setting up the arc more with the ending reveal (which felt a bit Ravenous) - I don't think this needed to do this much in the first story out but I kinda admire that Nick didn't just do a traditional cmpanion intro for this, essentially, soft-reboot of this incarnation. It's very much not Rose, or RTD. It's nothing you'd have seen as Ep 1 in 2005 but I'm glad Nick gets that the audience know all those tropes and didn't go down that rabbit hole of being too trad. So an OK story with a rip-roaring central performance.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2021 20:07:49 GMT
Well... what can I say about the whole of Ravagers? It was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was the Ninth Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston!
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2021 21:03:35 GMT
Cataclysm Well, I don't like Chris calling the TARDIS "old girl". That's something that doesn't suit his Doctor at all. I know it's Nick's fave line but I'd have skipped that. On more important things, this was a bit of a holding pattern ep, as the middle of boxset arcs tend to be. It felt a bit Moffat-y with the timelines and meeting out of order. I liked The Doctor and Audrey's interactions. They have chemistry. Loved the little scene of the Doctor getting asked out by the Scottish guy and Nova's indignation that the attention wasn't for her. Though speaking of her... Gotta say..not too keen on Nova thus far. She's been given little to do but I don't actually care for Camilla's delivery on a lot of lines. She quite often hits the wrong inflections. Though she's not helped by being given the clunky dialogue parts of the story - describing the planet's plant life out loud to herself just so we know what it's like or describing the robot as "hovering" when, to the Doc standing next to her, the fact that it hovers would be rather obvious! That's quite amateurish audio writing, and the sort of thing we don't tend to get with BF who are normally much more clever with not just having characters speak the obvious for the audience's benefit. Having Nova call it the "TARDIS-box" is very much another Briggsian callback to Molly and the "Tardy box". I'm really hoping she gets fleshed out more in the third story but even then...I'm not finding anything terribly interesting or anything that inspires empathy in her longing to leave her crappy life. It's only been 2 eps but I'm getting strong Bliss vibes from her. Just pretty standard exposition-asking companion, nothing very fresh here so far. I'm still intrigued at the resolution of this with the various timelines and the rather quirky setup but I'm not 100% convinced there's enough story, original story, to get over 3 eps here. It is nice that this is SO different to the TV show era but it doesn't feel too far off something we could easily see with McGann either in the Ravenous or Time War ranges. It's structurially and tonally quite similar to those. So, sorry to Nick bash a bit but I think there may have been better stories to go with here from writers who aren't quite as easy to second guess...but I doubt he was ever going to give up writing this set. Chris is carrying this like Atlas holding the world up.
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Post by pawntake on May 13, 2021 21:03:52 GMT
Well... what can I say about the whole of Ravagers? It was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was the Ninth Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston! I can only agree! Fabulous performance from Chris and well-supported by the rest of the cast! Great script from Nic Briggs! All this and much more to come! A real Galactic timey-wimey madcap romp from start to finish!
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Post by sherlock on May 13, 2021 21:48:28 GMT
Sphere of Freedom
Confident.
Eccleston’s performance needs no warming up, Briggs’ script is willingly to jump around and trust the listener to catch-up and the ending leaves so much unanswered for the rest of the set.
I actually think this take on the Ninth Doctor sits quite well pre-Rose. This is the Doctor in his dashing around saving people and then “swanning off” as soon he can. He’s not opening up to people at all, and when they do try to question him he’s flippant or grumpy. It’s a front, which Rose will later cut through, but that’s what the Doctor wants to be now.
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melkur
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Post by melkur on May 13, 2021 21:50:07 GMT
Well, that was certainly a welcome return! As a whole, I'd say that this box-set was just about right for the return of 9 - Big end of the universe event, but not too 'dark and broody'. A fun two and a quarter hours, and certainly something that I wouldn't mind listening to again in the lead up to the release of the fourth set next year. IIRC, I know it's all episodic from here and not arc-based, but I am certainly interested to see how this continues on!
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Post by themeddlingmonk on May 13, 2021 22:21:54 GMT
Well, that was certainly a welcome return! As a whole, I'd say that this box-set was just about right for the return of 9 - Big end of the universe event, but not too 'dark and broody'. A fun two and a quarter hours, and certainly something that I wouldn't mind listening to again in the lead up to the release of the fourth set next year. IIRC, I know it's all episodic from here and not arc-based, but I am certainly interested to see how this continues on! In the extras, David Richardson mentioned that volume 4 was in production at the time he was recording the extras. He also mentioned that volumes 2 and 3 both contain three standalone episodes each. But he didn’t say the same for volume 4, which makes me wonder if that one will have an arc like Ravagers.
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melkur
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Post by melkur on May 13, 2021 22:32:37 GMT
Well, that was certainly a welcome return! As a whole, I'd say that this box-set was just about right for the return of 9 - Big end of the universe event, but not too 'dark and broody'. A fun two and a quarter hours, and certainly something that I wouldn't mind listening to again in the lead up to the release of the fourth set next year. IIRC, I know it's all episodic from here and not arc-based, but I am certainly interested to see how this continues on! In the extras, David Richardson mentioned that volume 4 was in production at the time he was recording the extras. He also mentioned that volumes 2 and 3 both contain three standalone episodes each. But he didn’t say the same for volume 4, which makes me wonder if that one will have an arc like Ravagers. Sure thing. I can't say I've listened to the extras in full yet (I've listened to a bit of them, but it sometimes takes me a while to listen to the extras, especially boxsets, in full). Whilst I will say that I do really enjoy a decent story-arc if they're done well, given that Chris is (finally) 'back with us', I'd be happy either way if the final set was episodic or had an arc to it... (I love them, but I can sometimes get a little 'drained' with the big 4box arcs, especially when they're done across multiple years)
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Post by Digi on May 14, 2021 0:59:39 GMT
Finished off the stories, got the BTS on now.
Lovely re-introduction for the Ninth Doctor, good characters, solid use of time travel. The stakes maybe didn't feel quite as high as the story demanded, but I had a great time just the same. Chris Eccleston fit right back in as though he'd never left. Toward the end of episode 3, the triumphant "fantastic!" had me grinning from ear to ear with a slight mist in my eyes, and the bit of fireworks and cheers a few minutes later was just so very satisfying.
How long do I have to wait for Volume 2?
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Post by theillusiveman on May 14, 2021 1:33:04 GMT
4 months to go for Vol 2
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Post by kurumais on May 14, 2021 3:27:30 GMT
that was fun. i was pleasantly surprised that it was 1 long story. i find many of the one hours don't get into the story enough. when i started listening i kept thinking BF should do more UNIT dominion type stories and wala they did. or close enough.
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Post by Digi on May 14, 2021 5:12:24 GMT
I meant it more as a 'hurry upppppp' statement than an actual question (If this was a response to me)
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2021 9:04:13 GMT
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Post by shallacatop on May 14, 2021 9:12:37 GMT
Is that edited? Either that or he’s since deleted the tweet.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2021 9:19:41 GMT
Is that edited? Either that or he’s since deleted the tweet. I'm not sure, it was on a friend's Facebook page, so I took it to be real. I'll question it ...
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Post by shallacatop on May 14, 2021 9:25:20 GMT
Is that edited? Either that or he’s since deleted the tweet. I'm not sure, it was on a friend's Facebook page, so I took it to be real. I'll question it ... I'd be inclined to think it's edited at this moment in time. If it is real, then I'm not sure what Nick was expecting. It's Chris's big return that people are interested in and that would be the same regardless of who was writing it. Arguably Nick is better off that this came out in 2021 and not, say, 2007 where less time has passed and therefore different expectations are set. More eyes would be drawn to the story, and, I would go as far to say, on Chris's performance being more like what he was on screen. At the moment, it's such a big coup that just hearing him reprise the role is fantastic.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2021 9:31:29 GMT
I'm not sure, it was on a friend's Facebook page, so I took it to be real. I'll question it ... I'd be inclined to think it's edited at this moment in time. If it is real, then I'm not sure what Nick was expecting. It's Chris's big return that people are interested in and that would be the same regardless of who was writing it. Arguably Nick is better off that this came out in 2021 and not, say, 2007 where less time has passed and therefore different expectations are set. More eyes would be drawn to the story, and, I would go as far to say, on Chris's performance being more like what he was on screen. At the moment, it's such a big coup that just hearing him reprise the role is fantastic. Certainly from the reactions, it seems to be seen as real, and the poster doesn't usually go in for knowingly quoting things that aren't real. I'll let you know if I get a reply.
If it is real, then I'm not sure what Nick expects either. I think people listening to Ravagers are going to say 'isn't is great to hear Chris is back' without degrading any other aspect of the production - either way, it's a positive review, I'd have thought.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2021 9:50:02 GMT
I'm not sure, it was on a friend's Facebook page, so I took it to be real. I'll question it ... I'd be inclined to think it's edited at this moment in time. If it is real, then I'm not sure what Nick was expecting. It's Chris's big return that people are interested in and that would be the same regardless of who was writing it. Arguably Nick is better off that this came out in 2021 and not, say, 2007 where less time has passed and therefore different expectations are set. More eyes would be drawn to the story, and, I would go as far to say, on Chris's performance being more like what he was on screen. At the moment, it's such a big coup that just hearing him reprise the role is fantastic. It is real. You can see it in the responses to the Radio Times article not as one of Nick's, even with tweets and replies. You always go to the first source for the responses. It's still up - comes as first repsonse to this: It's not quite as abrupt as when he called out IndieMac (I think it was them) for their "crappy review" of Charley 2, at a 6/10. I thought that was a bad review too, to be fair. - for different reasons. There's no way Charley 2 deserves as much as 6/10. Half that and I think it's still generous!
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Post by sherlock on May 14, 2021 9:55:06 GMT
The reviewer in question did like Briggs’ tweet, so could just be them joking.
If it is serious, Briggs needs to get a way thicker skin or just never read reviews at all.
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