Post by Kestrel on Aug 14, 2021 2:29:34 GMT
And so concludes the Sixth Doctor/Charlotte Pollard arc.
Imthink it's easy to see why this arc doesn't get mich discussion, despite the fun hook of its premise and the fact that it revolves around two fan-favorite characters. The core conflict between Charlie and the Sixth Doctor is never really dealt with head-on--they keep teasing a reveal/discussion, but never follow through. And then, here, at the end... all of that lackluster build-up culminates in a rather anticlimactic TARDIS exit.
So much wasted potential.
Anyway, ignoring the arc stuff, Blue Forgotten Planet is an interesting story and the Virans make for unique villains, even if perhaps their cover story about "charity videos" is a bit too silly for the tone they're striking here. And that's probably the best part of this story--the tone, I mean. It's often very somber and melancholy, with some fantastically subtle sound mixing. Give it a feel very different to the usual Big Finish fare.
Anyway, some disaccharide notes in bullet-point-form as per my usual habit:
Well, such are my thoughts. For now, anyway. What did y'all think of this conclusion to the Wild and wacky adventures of the Sixth Doctor and Charlie?
Imthink it's easy to see why this arc doesn't get mich discussion, despite the fun hook of its premise and the fact that it revolves around two fan-favorite characters. The core conflict between Charlie and the Sixth Doctor is never really dealt with head-on--they keep teasing a reveal/discussion, but never follow through. And then, here, at the end... all of that lackluster build-up culminates in a rather anticlimactic TARDIS exit.
So much wasted potential.
Anyway, ignoring the arc stuff, Blue Forgotten Planet is an interesting story and the Virans make for unique villains, even if perhaps their cover story about "charity videos" is a bit too silly for the tone they're striking here. And that's probably the best part of this story--the tone, I mean. It's often very somber and melancholy, with some fantastically subtle sound mixing. Give it a feel very different to the usual Big Finish fare.
Anyway, some disaccharide notes in bullet-point-form as per my usual habit:
- Charlie working for the Virans for thousands of years really strains credulity. How? Why? If the script simply needs her to "know" the Virans surely a few months would have sufficed.
- The Virans visiting Earth retcons the remoteness of the preceding arc story, which is a shame because that was one of its best aspects.
- Speaking of the Virans, it's pretty disappointing how they're depicted here as just another generic race of omnicidal aliens.
- A post-apocalyptic Earth where civilization is contained to a single city, while the wilderness is overrun by feral, insane humans? Very reminiscent of Utopia, isn't it?
- At least there's a good moral here: people who don't get vaccines are literal lunatics.
- Seems out-oc-character for the Doctor to never notice that he's traveling with a body-snatched Charlie, even is she is playing to Six's inflated ego. The Doctor shouldn't be that easy to fool.
- If the Doctor's spent centuries traveling with Charlie comatose in the TARDIS, looking for a cure while often getting sidetracked, does that imply that Charlie was on-board during prior adventures with other companions? Perhaps even during some TV stories?
- I dunno, the ultimate reveal that the virus is harmless really undermines the story's premise here, reducing the moral quandary to disappointingly simplistic black-and-white.
- "Everyone dies, Charlie. Even me." Goddamn does Colin Baker deliver that line perfectly. He completely sells it, even though we all know that in this franchise--and Big Finish in particular--no one EVER dies.
Well, such are my thoughts. For now, anyway. What did y'all think of this conclusion to the Wild and wacky adventures of the Sixth Doctor and Charlie?
