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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 10, 2021 19:13:10 GMT
back in time to 28 March 2003 & the 42 release, The Dark Flame. Another boring forgettable story that I will never listen to again.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 11, 2021 10:10:06 GMT
Time for the 43rd release Doctor Who and the Pirates, or The Lass that Lost a Sailor. After a few bad releases nice to revisit this one, a Doctor Who musical! Great fun but also with a serious reason behind the tale. It has the best ever cliffhanger in Doctor Who & Colin Baker seems to be enjoying himself immensely. {Spoiler} Minor quibble, if they are travelling back in time to stop Sally commit suicide because she caused an accidental death wouldn't Sally ask them to go back in time to prevent the accidental death?
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 11, 2021 13:06:50 GMT
On 24 May 2003 Creatures of Beauty was released, the 44th story. There's an interesting story here but it's overlong & gets bogged down in a needless non-linear format which results in it being over talky with lots of exposition. It just makes it hard to engage with the characters & feels like a needless gimmick with a final sting in the tail that seems to have been added just for the sake of it. Then again it is a Briggs script.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 12, 2021 11:15:27 GMT
This is a big thing to take on, but irresistable. I don't have every single Monthly Range release, but I have most of them. Might be best to tackle these in groups of four.
Sirens of Time.
It's hard to recall how Who-starved we were back in 1999, so the joy of this is hearing Doctors 5, 6 and 7 together. Of the three, The Fifth Doctor's segment comes off best because it is the most satisfying story in its own right. The others, I'm afraid, are pretty poorly served with a fairly incomprehensible plot-line and over-use of modulated voices. It's not even fair to say that Big Finish were 'finding their way' - a good story is a good story, and 'Sirens' indicates the writer was so pleased to be writing new Doctor Who, the playful dialogue came first, and any tangible tale came a distant second. Ruthley is great fun though.
Phantasmagoria.
This is more like it. The sound design is 'bigger', it is possible to follow the enjoyable story and there aren't vast chunks of exposition spoken with synthesised voices. Also, the cliffhangers are great. Peter Davison's breathless energy from his television tenure is replaced with a more relaxed, in control, more mature playing of the Doctor, which I love. Perfect for audio. Mark Strickson doesn't quite recapture Turlough, but the cast list is amazing: Nicholas Briggs, Mark Gatiss, Jonathan Rigby, David Ryall and David Walliams. Lovely traditional stuff, this made me eager for more Big Finish.
Whispers of Terror.
My most anticipated release at the time, because I wanted to see how the Sixth Doctor would be written for away from JNT's control. He's still spiky, he's still a smartass, but his conflicts with Peri are more playful and in line with the actual story, rather than just 'banter', and there's a very real connection between the two leads. The story is ingenious - an audio monster, a character who is the perfect red herring, and again a lovely cast including Peter Miles. Also, more excellent cliffhangers, designed to sound as creepy as possible.
Land of the Dead.
Maligned at the time, and ever since unfortunately, I really like this release. Again, Davison is on great form, handling vast swathes of dialogue with ease, and it is good to hear Nyssa again. The sound design is convincing, and I find the character of Monica to be somewhat Tegan-esque (I wish she'd joined the TARDIS team at the time). Perhaps some obvious audio ideas are relied upon to convey events (telephone conversations describing what's going on for example), but for me, that's all part of the charm.
Out of the first four releases, I love three of them, which is pretty good going.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 12, 2021 16:00:55 GMT
The Fearmonger.
Sylvester's first complete Big Finish story, and its an interesting one, which ultimately emerges as something quite traditional. A contemporary setting and vaguley political, the strongest elements for me are Jacqueline Pearce and Hugh Walters as a delightful double act, beautifully played by these two very much missed actors. Alistair Lock's music and sound design continue to impress, and it is so good to hear The Seventh Doctor and Ace once more - they seem virtually unchanged in their transition to audio. Not my favourite story, but nice to hear again.
The Marian Conspiracy.
As a way of softening the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe is introduced, nicely played by Maggie Stables. The idea is a neat one, and was the beginning of a new audio 'phase' of this Doctor, something Colin was very enthusiastic about. Evelyn's a good character, but I didn't instantly fall in love with her as others did. It took a few stories to get to that level. Revisiting this, I still find it all just a little too cosy, although the story has its moments. A gentle tale that lacks a little bite for me. I tnink this team works better in a truly hostile, dangerous environment, as would manifest later. As it is, an interesting first outing for Evelyn and The Doctor, rather than anything remarkable.
It's good to go back to the beginning again.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 13, 2021 11:20:29 GMT
The Genocide Machine.
Thoroughly enjoyed this eventful story and, although it took a couple of episodes to get the Dalek voices completely 'right', they are well written for here. The cliffhangers are all great, but my favourite moment remains the first time we hear that 'heartbeat' Dalek machinery filling the speakers indicating that somewhere, the metal creatures are watching. I'd forgotten that all Daleks aren't voiced by Nicholas Briggs, and it is good to have Alistair Lock providing some variety. Shame he didn't carry on beyond The Mutant Phase. I love the idea of voices in the rain, poor Cataloguer Prink and the Daleks storming the library. A really good story.
Red Dawn.
To echo a point made previously, it's refreshing to hear the Ice Warriors voiced by other actors than Nicholas Briggs. I say this in retrospect: at the time of release, he hadn't become quite so ubiquitous. I'm not slating the guy, but Matthew Brenher does such a good job here, it's a shame he didn't get to continue, and Nick is often so reognisable.
This story just misses the mark for me. All the talk of Ice Warrior 'honour' gets a bit much, and the pace is slow. Still, there's a great deal to enjoy - The Fifth Doctor and Peri, a very young Georgia Moffett, and Stephen Fewell, once a Big Finish staple, is very good here. Russell Stone's music also deserves a mention - his scores are always very rich and atmospheric.
Not a favourite, but a nice outing for the Ice Warriors.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 13, 2021 18:24:15 GMT
The Forge arc continues in the 45th release Project: Lazarus. This was very good, a really compelling story with some horror overtones but the tone is just right & not unpalatably grim & out of place like some other attempts at horror from BF have been. It takes a turn midway through, this could so easily have been 2 separate stories with each being spread out to 4 episodes but I am glad that did't happen. What we get is a great story & its sequel in the same release. Evelyn get's some interesting character stuff & plays a strong part in the story, Colin is brilliant as always playing the Doctor across both halves of story. Even the 7th Doc's appearance isn't too off-putting. The ending is a little weak would be my only criticism.
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 14, 2021 13:36:38 GMT
Number 46, Flip Flop. I'm quite speechless after listening to this vile story, I almost gave up but thought it best to listen to the whole thing before commenting. Never thought I'd hear Doctor Who pander to bigots, racists & the alt-right with blatant anti-immigration & anti-PC (or woke I guess now) subtexts, cancelling christmas, 'positive discrimination', use of phrases like 'community leader' for the refugees representative, so-called hate crimes, poor humans oppressed by an immigrant population making demands for their rights & portraying refugees as really an insidious manipulative invading army. These alien refugees are a sluglike race – a deliberate attempt to portray them as 'other', as physically unpleasant (although the cover art is worse as it depicts them as anti-Semitic caricatures). An indefensible story with a backdrop that panders to xenophobic rhetoric that was prevalent then in the right wing press & has only got worse in recent years. The gimmick of two stories that can be listened to in any order makes for a very dull & repetitive story which ultimately doesn't have any kind of resolution. It's full of unlikeable characters, & the dialogue from the Doctor & Mel is full of clunky exposition. But even without those flaws this is a repugnant sci-fi version of Great Replacement theory.
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Post by sherlock on Nov 14, 2021 13:49:53 GMT
18. The Stones of Venice
I’m a bit of a sucker for Magrs’ somewhat out there take on Who and this is a nice example. Amphibian gondoleers, crystals that can level cities and the most TV Movie-like take on the Eighth Doctor’s character. Quite an enchanting mix all in all.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2021 20:32:17 GMT
Number 46, Flip Flop. I'm quite speechless after listening to this vile story, That's how good the Main Range was back then, we got Doctor Who stories that actually were different! I'm not too sure what Jonathan Morris was aiming for in his script mind you, but it's safe to say that Flip-Flop wouldn't get made by Big Finish today!
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,063
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Post by ljwilson on Nov 15, 2021 9:33:37 GMT
Number 46, Flip Flop. I'm quite speechless after listening to this vile story, That's how good the Main Range was back then, we got Doctor Who stories that actually were different! I'm not too sure what Jonathan Morris was aiming for in his script mind you, but it's safe to say that Flip-Flop wouldn't get made by Big Finish today!
I've never really liked it, and not one for the PC brigade me thinks.
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Post by theillusiveman on Nov 15, 2021 9:51:41 GMT
Number 46, Flip Flop. I'm quite speechless after listening to this vile story, That's how good the Main Range was back then, we got Doctor Who stories that actually were different! I'm not too sure what Jonathan Morris was aiming for in his script mind you, but it's safe to say that Flip-Flop wouldn't get made by Big Finish today!
Yeah its cool that back then Doctor Who & Big Finish could do anything and the storytelling possibilities were limitless
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Post by johnhurtdoctor on Nov 15, 2021 17:12:59 GMT
Omega (release 47) is a breath of fresh air after the disgusting last story but is still flawed, it just goes on for far to long with no real sense of urgency. Enjoyable but nothing amazing.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 16, 2021 16:06:41 GMT
Doctor Who: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor.
This story could have been plucked straight from between Series 14 and 15, and is a real love letter to the Hinchcliffe era - and there's nothing wrong with that. Perhaps things drag a tiny bit in the middle, but the performances and characters are so good it really doesn't matter. James Bolam and Susan Jameson were, I thought, a real, casting coup in Big Finish's early days, and they really get into the story. If Doctor Who was to be audio only, I thought at the time, then this kind of tale won't leave me disappointed. A tiny mention of the Doctor's 'cold'. Colin clearly had the sniffles at the time of recording, and for some reason, I love that that was waorked into the dialogue. Rather like when Tom Baker cut his lip during The Pirate Planet, it proves that even The Doctor is not immune to human frailties.
Winter for the Adept.
After a carefully crafted, traditional story, there is this wonderfully titled piece. Written by television script editor Andre Cartmel too. I always found this a little disappointing. Very weird and curious, but never really that engaging, despite the best efforts of the cast (including India Fisher). It's a curio, but without much that is memorable or, I'm sorry to say, particularly effective. It's never something I rush back to listen to, which is a shame, because I really liked what Cartmel did with the television show.
The Apocalypse Element.
The Daleks have invaded Gallifrey! Not such a novelty since the Time War, but this was a fairly big thing back in 2000. It's realised particularly well, with loads of Daleks and Nicholas Briggs' bombastic sound design. Michael Wade plays the wettest President Gallifrey ever had, and Anthony Keetch plays Coordinator Vansell, giving the Doctor someone to be horrible too. Evelyn is again a little too chirpy considering the weight of the situation, and even the Doctor is frustrated by this during his final, crashingly impassioned speech. I did worry a little for Colin's blood pressure during that. It is, of course, wonderful to hear Lalla Ward back as Romana, and nice that she had such a large slice of the story. Nice and gruesome and perhaps just a little too long, this nevertheless remains powerful stuff.
The Fires of Vulcan.
Big Finish turns to wave its magic on the character of Mel, for so long derided as nothing but a screamer on television. Bonnie Langford proves how terrific she is with a story that is more respectful of her character - and a really good story too, featuring an uncharacteristically downbeat Seventh Doctor. Steve Lyons proves that he is the master of big, complex and emotive epics that don't always need an alien synthesised voice to sell themselves to the listener. Strangely, despite the visuals being far too expensive for the television show, I can actually picture events in this tale more clearly than with some of the others.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 17, 2021 13:58:50 GMT
The Shadow of the Scourge.
I like the idea of the Scourge, I like the idea of setting this story in a hotel, and I very much like Sylvester's 'transformation' acting. Other than that, I didn't really enjoy this story at all. At the time of release, Doctor Who was a pretty niche interest - perhaps it still is - but to take a group of characters with another niche interest - in this case, a cross-stitching convention - and then marginalise and ridicule them is a pretty mean spirited thing to do. Also, the team of The Doctor, Benny and Ace are written to be so unendearingly smug is something that makes them unrecignisable to me. Ace is a character who has to be written carefully to prevent her becoming irritating and often, Sophie's playing of her makes her more sympathetic than the writing would otherwise dictate. Here, she isn't pleasant, with little character except a series of catchphrases and sound-bites. Problem is, the same can be said for the Doctor and Benny. My least favourite story so far by a long way.
The Holy Terror.
This is it. This is the one. Not that I should really compare, but the sensitivity and charm of the writing is so very much better and more polished than the previous audio that the complexities of the story demand the attention. Frobisher, who might have translated badly from comic-strip to audio, is a lovely addition to the cast - so much more than a comedy cypher. The Doctor begins in flippant tone, and then with the passing experiences the tale has to offer, becomes genuinely moved and horrified by what is going on. The story itself a truly beautiful piece of work, traveling from Douglas Adams-style humour to grisly horror, to tragedy with such ease, the listener is hard pressed to spot the joins. Everything about this is brilliant. I love it. The best Big Finish so far for me.
The Mutant Phase.
Like the above, this story also takes the listener on a kind of journey. Sadly, this one starts well and becomes messier and less involving as time goes by. The idea, and realisation of the 'mutant phase' itself is glorious. I can imagine a huge, horse-like virus towering hough over the crushed and crippled dalek casing, and all the ideas about genetics in the earlier episodes are very interesting. By the story's end though, the writer's lack of resolution causes the Doctor to admit, as part of the story, that it makes no sene. Roll end music. Such a blatant and cheerful cop-out not only fails to serve the production, but - to my mind - takes the mickey out of the audiece for investing time in a tale that, by the end, the writer seems to have lost interest in. A shame, because the first half is really good.
I'm tending to group these reviews into segments of roughly four, but I'll stop here for now, because the next four tales all feature The Eighth Doctor.
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Post by constonks on Nov 17, 2021 17:19:43 GMT
Doctor Who: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. This story could have been plucked straight from between Series 14 and 15, and is a real love letter to the Hinchcliffe era - and there's nothing wrong with that. Wasn't this one written for Tom Baker and Sarah Jane before he said no? Or is that just a rumour? *goes away and Googles it* Hm - BF's Twitter said "This script was once sent to Tom Baker as an example of what a Big Finish #DoctorWho story looks like, should he decide one day to become involved." So maybe it was just the Six-and-Evelyn version they sent. In any case, you could just swap in Sarah and Four here - though it's a great second outing for Evelyn!
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Post by bonehead on Nov 17, 2021 17:26:57 GMT
Doctor Who: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. This story could have been plucked straight from between Series 14 and 15, and is a real love letter to the Hinchcliffe era - and there's nothing wrong with that. Wasn't this one written for Tom Baker and Sarah Jane before he said no? Or is that just a rumour? *goes away and Googles it* Hm - BF's Twitter said "This script was once sent to Tom Baker as an example of what a Big Finish #DoctorWho story looks like, should he decide one day to become involved." So maybe it was just the Six-and-Evelyn version they sent. In any case, you could just swap in Sarah and Four here - though it's a great second outing for Evelyn! I just about remember that too. I think Stones of Venice might have been another one.
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Post by bonehead on Nov 18, 2021 17:38:50 GMT
016. Doctor Who: Storm Warning
This heralded Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor on audio, of course, and features a first rate cast once more, including Gareth Thomas and India Fisher. As Charley, Fisher is immediately great fun and has a good rapport with McGann. For the most part, this story is a good runaround – before everything grinds to a halt by episode 3 and we spend the entire time doing nothing, very slowly. It’s very odd. I know the third part of a four parter is supposed to be difficult to write, but to abandon the story completely while we marvel at the new aliens stops everything in its tracks. Luckily things ‘get a shift on’ in time for the final episode. It also seems to me the packaging and sound design has taken a step upwards from this release onwards. Things sound bigger, more cinematic. This is also true of the next story.
017. Doctor Who: Sword of Orion
I wasn’t too impressed by this writer’s previous two tales, but found this very enjoyable. A Cyber-by-numbers story it may be, but it’s a good one, features some good characters, some nice dilemmas and a great, spacious sound design. Has a Cyberleader ever threatened to have someone ‘dismembered’ before? I’m not sure he has, but it sounds particularly nasty. This is my favourite of these four stories.
018. Doctor Who: The Stones of Venice
Even Russell Stone’s beautiful score (not credited on the website, strangely enough), Mark Gatiss and the mighty Michael Sheard can’t save this one for me. Setting a story in Venice is a great idea – that is, it would be if there was any story to speak of. Sadly, it’s a very thin effort with characters I couldn’t relate to and were too theatrical to engage with. Sorry about that, because I know a lot of people love this.
019. Doctor Who: Minuet in Hell
One of Big Finish’s most reviled Doctor Who stories. I quite like it. Perhaps if it had a stellar reputation, I’d like it less, but as it is – the accents don’t particularly bother me (perhaps that’s because I’m from the UK), and I love the Brig’s involvement here, almost meeting the Doctor on a number of occasions before they finally do. I like the ‘big red, sweaty’ demon too – he’s convincingly nasty and just a little silly too. This is a little overlong; perhaps some of Charley’s story could have been slimmed down a bit, as could some of the Brig on his mobile. Other than that, I really do enjoy this tale and have gone back to it several times.
A mixed bag for The Eighth Doctor’s firs series, then.
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Post by sherlock on Nov 18, 2021 23:18:25 GMT
19. Minuet in Hell
Dreadful. Some atrocious dialogue and rubbish ideas. Felt charitable enough to stick with it in its entirety for this run, but will never try it again.
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 19, 2021 6:43:07 GMT
The Marian Conspiracy.
As a way of softening the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe is introduced, nicely played by Maggie Stables. The idea is a neat one, and was the beginning of a new audio 'phase' of this Doctor, something Colin was very enthusiastic about. Evelyn's a good character, but I didn't instantly fall in love with her as others did. It took a few stories to get to that level. Revisiting this, I still find it all just a little too cosy, although the story has its moments. A gentle tale that lacks a little bite for me. I tnink this team works better in a truly hostile, dangerous environment, as would manifest later. As it is, an interesting first outing for Evelyn and The Doctor, rather than anything remarkable.
It's good to go back to the beginning again.
It's been a while for me and even on the best of days my memory ain't great, but as i recall I didn't really fall in love with Evelyn as a companion until Doctor Who and the Pirates. I think she was a good companion from her very first scene, but that was the story that really made me sit up and go, "Wow, she's really something special."
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