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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 6, 2021 8:58:29 GMT
Time to visit Neverland, release number 33 on 12 July 2002. This is epic, maybe too epic as it does go on a bit but there's some good stuff here & a great cliffhanger. The performances are all good & it is atmospheric, I usually find stories set on Gallifrey or with a lot of Timelord council stuff quite dull but this is pretty good & as I said has an epic quality like an end of season story, but I can't see myself returning to this one now I've heard it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2021 9:09:37 GMT
Time to visit Neverland, release number 33 on 12 July 2002. This is epic, maybe too epic as it does go on a bit but there's some good stuff here & a great cliffhanger. The performances are all good & it is atmospheric, I usually find stories set on Gallifrey or with a lot of Timelord council stuff quite dull but this is pretty good & as I said has an epic quality like an end of season story, but I can't see myself returning to this one now I've heard it. I adored it and couldn't wait for the resolution. I didn't know it'd be 17 releases away and end up being...Zagreus but hey. The resolution isn't the fault of the setup.
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Post by elkawho on Aug 6, 2021 11:18:46 GMT
96) Valhalla: Strange story. But once you get past the oddness of it, it's quite good. I like Seven on his own, and his contemplation of retirement is somewhat amusing. But the best thing in this story is Michelle Gomez. She'd make a great companion except for one thing, she makes a better Master. 8/10 (I was going to give it a 7/10, but Gomez takes up a point all by herself.)
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 6, 2021 13:55:02 GMT
Here we go, Spare Parts the 34th release from 31 July 2002. What can be said that hasn't already been said? This attempt to do a Genesis of the Daleks for the Cybermen is not only a success but superior to that story. Grounding events in a believable world from the point of view of a normal relatable family gives it an emotional heft. Plus both Davison & Sutton are brilliant in this. Not only one of the best Big Finish stories but one of the best stories across all of Doctor Who media.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2021 14:41:10 GMT
Time to visit Neverland, release number 33 on 12 July 2002. This is epic, maybe too epic as it does go on a bit but there's some good stuff here & a great cliffhanger. I really loved Neverland ... it was very epic and very brilliant. Back then that Charley arc had us all on the edge of our seats and that ending !!! Definitely one of the best MR releases.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 6, 2021 16:08:13 GMT
35th release from almost 19 years ago, 29 August 2002, ...ish. There are some stories from BF that are great & then there are some that are great also because they work perfectly on audio & ...ish is one of those. This word based mystery perfectly suits the 6th doc with a really intriguing central idea. I wonder why Phil Pascoe didn't write any more for BF?
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Post by sherlock on Aug 21, 2021 23:15:48 GMT
13. The Shadow of the Scourge
Aside from the awful cover, this is very well done story. I did like the NA style characterisation of Seven & Ace here and hearing Benny in her capacity as a companion.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2021 10:41:04 GMT
13. The Shadow of the ScourgeAside from the awful cover, this is very well done story. I did like the NA style characterisation of Seven & Ace here and hearing Benny in her capacity as a companion. The Shadow of the Scourge being more of a Virgin NA type story was the point of it, hence it was catalogued as a 'side-step' release back in the day. I enjoyed this story as Seven Ace & Benny were a good team from the Virgin novels and it was great to hear Benny with the Seventh Doctor on audio after Lisa Bowerman had brought Bernice Summerfield to life in her own solo adventures for Big Finish. It's probably not a classic Doctor Who story but it is very good.
Yeah, the cover was very poorly Photoshopped. It was early days for Big Finish so we'll let them off! (I'm sure the person responsible can do a whole lot better now.)
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Post by elkawho on Aug 23, 2021 3:54:06 GMT
97) The Wishing Beast: Not as bad as I remember it. Which isn't as good as it sounds, because I remember it being awful. The best thing I can say about it is that Jean Marsh does a great crazy villain with a death vacuum. 3/10 This mess of a story is paired with The Vanity Box, which basically just prolongs the mess. 4/10
98) Frozen Time. A basic, solid BF story. An enjoyable listen, if not anything special. Another pompous idiot underestimating a villain. Maryam D'Abo is excellent here, and I do like Seven travelling alone. 6/10
99) Son of the Dragon: One of the best stories. I love this. James Purefoy as Vlad is a delight. He is menacing and you can feel his charisma seeping through the speakers. Erimem is used wonderfully here. In my mind this is the best story for her entire run. 10/10
100) A fun release, even if these stories are a little of a mixed bag. None are bad, it's just that they vary in how enjoyable they are. My personal favorite of the 4 stories is My Own Privat Wolfgang. It's a crazy little story with terrific performances by Colin. Maggie Stables and John Sessions. Not as good an anthology as their first one, but enjoyable. 7/10
101) Absolution: I was never a fan of C'rizz, but I believe he deserved a better last story than this one. It's quite a mess. There is a lot of scenery chewing, but very little in the way of story. And for a final outing, C'Rizz isn't actually in the story as much as he should be. 5/10
102) The Mind's Eye: I really like this one. It gives some interesting insight into our companions as well as being pretty creepy. Good performances all around, and I love that we have Thomas Brodie-Sangster on board in a BF story. I love seeing Peri all in as the only person in this kid's life that seems to give a damn, even if it is a dream. It's too bad that she will never have this kind of life. 7/10
103) The Girl That Never Was: As bad as a last story was for C'Rizz, this was an excellent "last" story for Charlie (and Eight). Upon first listen, I really did believe that old Charlie was really old Charlie for a while. The end is fun and frustrating, knowing that both Charlie and Eight think the other is out of reach. I'm still waiting for them to find each other again. 9/10
104) The Bride of Peladon: What a great way to bring back the world of Peladon and give Erimem a worthy final story. It seemed like they were prepping us for Erimem leaving the Tardis for a number of stories prior to this one, and everyone knew she had to leave sooner rather than later, so that The Doctor and Peri could end up on Androzani Minor. Her choice to stay on Peladon works with her character. The cast is top notch as well. 8/10
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
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Post by ljwilson on Aug 23, 2021 18:22:02 GMT
Keep the reviews coming, not only are they good to read but also inspire me to relisten.
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Post by elkawho on Aug 24, 2021 4:09:30 GMT
105) The Condemned: This is a great story to start the Six and Charlie arc. If it was only for the introduction of the wonderful D.I. Menzes, it would have been enough to make it worthwhile. But it's a creepy, atmospheric story with a unique twist. It has a handful of wonderful characters, not just our intrepid detective although she is the one who really shines. Charlie is quite different here than she is while travelling with Eight. More confident and a much better liar. (One of the character traits I always loved about her is that she is not a good liar when she is with Eight.) It really makes you want to see how this relationship plays out. 9/10
106) The Dark Husband: So now I finally get to the only story in this range which I had never heard before this listen through. But my rule for this is that I can't skip any. I had put this one off for years due to the terrible things I have heard from you forumites over all that time. I mean, it's put up there with Nekromanteia as the worst of the range so I approached this one with trepidation and....it wasn't as bad as I expected. I mean, it's not good, don't get me wrong. Yeah, it's a load of nonsense with terrible characterization of both Ace and (especially) Hex. But it doesn't reach the level of offensiveness as Minuet in Hell or Nekromanteia, it was just tedious. Boring. The aliens are kind of ridiculous. Yes, I can't believe this got past the script editor, however it's pretty benign and easily forgotten. 2/10
107) The Haunting of Thomas Brewster: I really like this story. I find it extremely well done and the character of Brewster in this story is fallible but completely relatable. This is a person that can't believe in and trust the Doctor due to the circumstances of his life. I love the idea of The Doctor hanging around Victorian London growing a mustache and passing himself off as a Londoner of that time. And Nyssa trying to relate to the plight of another orphan and utterly failing. If only the rest of the Brewster stories were as good as this one. 8/10
108) Assassin in the Limelight: Meh. I'm not a fan of Robert Ross at all. I don't particularly like any of his three stories. I find this one passable, but not just barely. And Knox really fails to wow us with his last turn as villain. The assassination of Lincoln is actually incredibly fascinating, and he has succeeded in taking everything that's interesting out of it for the sake of a below average story. As I said earlier, meh. 4/10
109) The Death Collectors: I had absolutely no memory of this story, but I don't understand why. I enjoyed it. Interesting characters, compelling villains, and McCoy on fine form. I'll be listening to this one again. 7/10
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 24, 2021 8:13:20 GMT
036. Doctor Who: The Rapture. Absolutely terrible. Totally the wrong choice of Doctor (6 in Ibiza would have been fun) bad acting/corny characters & like a lot of fiction about club culture it fails to capture the atmosphere, very poor sound design. Felt like it was written by an old man trying to understand yoof but ultimately patronising them. Plus a really odd epilogue. Also is this the first example of BF using a curse word?
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 24, 2021 15:35:17 GMT
The Sandman, back with 6 & Evelyn for this story (number 37) released on 24 October 2002. An interesting idea squandered by bad storytelling.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 25, 2021 15:34:03 GMT
A return to the adventures of the 5th Doc with Peri & new companion Erimem, last seen in release number 24 The Eye of the Scorpion. I've always enjoyed historicals with the 5th Doctor, there's something about his character that works well in period settings, & The Church and the Crown (number 38 released on 28 November 2002) is a really entertaining swashbuckling yarn. It uses elements of Alexander Dumas' work (musketeers, a royal double) with nice sound design & a cast on fine form throwing themselves into the adventure. I really like Erimem as a character, helped by a spirited performance from Caroline Morris who for me has one of the pleasantest voices on audio. This is a delightful story.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 26, 2021 10:04:40 GMT
The final release of 2002, Bang-Bang-a-Boom! (number 39 released 19/12/02) & I was dreading this one, I HATE Eurovision, I HATE Sylvester McCoy but it was even worse than I could imagine. This is one of the most pathetic unfunny cringe-inducing things I have ever had the displeasure to listen to EVER. The writing is just appalling, both the Doctor & Mel are written in an attempt to be funny but it feels like an incompetent parody of the show written by someone who has only seen a couple episodes, or juveniles fan fic by Star Trek fans. The attempts at humour are embarrassing, everything falls flat there's zero sense of comic timing or pace to the thing & its full of silly annoying voices. The actor trying to be a pastiche of Terry Wogan is just one example of a bad actor who can't inhabit the role at all, might have been better if the material was competent in any way. Broad humour can work if well written but this is like 70s sitcoms or an am dram version of an old panto. The sound design is also very flat with occasional musical cues another humourless attempt to parody murder mystery. & worst of all...it goes on for 2 hours 22 minutes & 3 seconds! This may have been excusable as a misfiring comedy sketch but my god it just goes on and on and on*. When its not desperately trying & failing to be funny it is just boring, if someone is going to satirise Eurovision or use it as a backdrop surely it shouldn't be this boring, you'd expect some spoofing of the camp songs etc but none of that here. This is one of the worst audio experiences in my entire life. No matter what I listen to going forward I cannot imagine experiencing anything as unlistenable as this vomit inducing garbage. If I had a physical copy I would have smashed it to pieces. *& of course {Spoiler}when you think it's over there's a fake ending & another 15 minutes to go!
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Post by grinch on Aug 26, 2021 10:07:11 GMT
The final release of 2002, Bang-Bang-a-Boom! (number 39 released 19/12/02) & I was dreading this one, I HATE Eurovision, I HATE Sylvester McCoy but it was even worse than I could imagine. This is one of the most pathetic unfunny cringe-inducing things I have ever had the displeasure to listen to EVER. The writing is just appalling, both the Doctor & Mel are written in an attempt to be funny but it feels like an incompetent parody of the show written by someone who has only seen a couple episodes, or juveniles fan fic by Star Trek fans. The attempts at humour are embarrassing, everything falls flat there's zero sense of comic timing or pace to the thing & its full of silly annoying voices. The actor trying to be a pastiche of Terry Wogan is just one example of a bad actor who can't inhabit the role at all, might have been better if the material was competent in any way. Broad humour can work if well written but this is like 70s sitcoms or an am dram version of an old panto. The sound design is also very flat with occasional musical cues another humourless attempt to parody murder mystery. & worst of all...it goes on for 2 hours 22 minutes & 3 seconds! This may have been excusable as a misfiring comedy sketch but my god it just goes on and on and on*. When its not desperately trying & failing to be funny it is just boring, in someone is going to satirise Eurovision or use it as a backdrop surely it shouldn't be this boring, you'd expect some spoofing of the camp songs etc but none of that here. This is one of the worst audio experiences in my entire life. No matter what I listen to going forward I cannot imagine experiencing anything as unlistenable as this vomit inducing garbage. If I had a physical copy I would have smashed it to pieces. *& of course {Spoiler}when you think it's over there's a fake ending & another 15 minutes to go! .....So, not a fan then?
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
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Post by ljwilson on Aug 26, 2021 10:45:28 GMT
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.......etc (sic)
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Post by elkawho on Aug 28, 2021 15:19:40 GMT
109 A) Spider's Shadow: I was premature when posting On The Death Collectors, because I hadn't listened to the one-parter yet. I thought this one was terrific. While it's no Urgent Calls it is up there with the best the Main Range has to offer, at least for me. I so love non-linear stories. Give me one that works, and you've already made it better in my view. And this one works. The performances are excellent all around, especially Katarina Olsen and Carol Fitzpatrick as the doomed sisters. (I personally became a big fan of Katarina Olsen during the EDAs and I find that I love her in everything she does for BF.) 9/10
110) The Boy That Time Forgot: Ok, controversial one here, and I stand on the side of no, not a fan. There are some good story elements here, and the idea of another reality where Adric lived isn't even a bad one. But there are a few things I can't get over, the biggest one is the characterization of Adric. Yes, he was a nuisance at times, and acted like the annoying teen that he was. However, he was intelligent, loyal and brave. Yes, I get he is lonely in this one, but to turn him into a lecherous old man ready to force Nyssa to his will, that is just some hateful characterization. His bitterness toward the Doctor, yes, I can see that growing over time. But his willingness to kill him, throw him to the scorpions is more of the same. And I really don't like Andrew Sachs performance. It grates on me. So while there are some good things in this one, they aren't enough to overcome the spitefulness that is at the core of it. (I really hope Matthew Waterhouse never listens to this one, now that he's part of the BF family.) So 4/10 for me.
111) The Doomwood Curse: What a fun release! India is quite good at chewing the scenery, so to speak. This is a great listen, and it allows for some good team building for this Tardis team. Before this release, Six really doesn't know what to make of Charley and you get the sense that he's holding her at arm's length. By the end of this one he seems to acknowledge that while he still has questions, he does value her as his companion. And Hayley Atwell joins the fun as well! 8/10
112) Kingdom of Silver: I do enjoy Seven on his own. This is a nice tie in to the Cybermen series, as well as a good story on it's own. I do like Temeter and Sara, and the idea of a society doomed for forgetting it's past is a nice idea. Terry Malloy is terrific in everything he does, and this story is better for his addition to it. 8/10 Keepsake: a fascinating look at android society, and heartbreaking for our two brave androids. 7/10
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Aug 28, 2021 22:25:59 GMT
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Post by elkawho on Sept 4, 2021 15:30:44 GMT
113) Time Reef: A complete mess. The first inkling that they didn't know what to do with Brewster once they had him. I dislike this one immensely. It is confusing, and at times completely incoherent. I have a hard time with the imagery, I just can't wrap my brain around what the reef is supposed to look like. I dislike every character introduced and don't really care about any of them. The idea that Brewster started selling off pieces of the Tardis isn't a bad one, but it should have led to a much better story. 2/10
114) Brotherhood of the Daleks: An insane romp of a story. Who would have expected we would ever hear Daleks singing communist propaganda? It's confusing at times, but just delightful at others. I'll never forget the first time I heard this, my computer downloaded the tracks on shuffle. I thought I was going a bit crazy trying to make sense of it. LOL. 7/10, of you like this sort of thing. 4/10 if you are completely lost.
115) Forty-five: A terrific anthology for the show's 45th Anniversary. The stories are all fantastic and Benedict Cumberbatch is great as Howard Carter, but the Word Lord takes the top spot. I wish we had more stories with Nobody No One, but I guess it's hard to keep doing the same shtick over again. Because I would hate to lose what makes this villain so good. 9/10
116) The Raincloud Man: Another excellent Six and Charley story. Not quite as crazy as the last, but I have noticed that all of their stories are somewhat mad, and a lot of fun. I really feel for The Raincloud Man, he's such an empathetic character. And any story with DI Menzies is a plus for me! 8/10
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