Well, that's boxset #4 down. Absolutely wild to realize that, now, the majority of 9th Doctor stories I've seen are outside of the TV series. But -- and this is the chief thought I'm left with after concluding this set -- none of these stories left anywhere nearly so strong of an impression as that brief but brilliant on-screen run.
I think
Fond Farewell wound up being the most interesting story of the lot. I really liked how there wasn't really any villain to speak of -- just some interpersonal drama and some fun "big idea" science fiction ideas. This is the kind of thing needs more of -- or, at least, it handily demonstrates just how unnecessary the perfunctory monsters are.
Quote of the set: "The dead are dead. We must exercise a little respect for the living, too."Hell, it wasn't just lacking a villain -- there wasn't really even an antagonist here, either. A great big sinister-seeming company profaning the dead for profit, and they're not evil? Well, if nothing else, it's certainly refreshing.
Which also highlights how
Way of the Burryman wound up being a tad disappointing. I was really enjoying it up to the end -- a nice, slow-burn mystery that seemed to be oriented around just a weird phenomena, no more and no less. That would've been cool, huh? But, no, it's another alien invasion story. This time with Cybermen. It's fine. It's fine. Not quite as interesting as
Monsters in Metropolis, but serviceable.
And I don't really think it benefits much from being a two-parter with
The Forth Generation. A pun which I can only imagine sounds much, more more clever to y'all in the U.K., 'cause from where I'm sitting it ain't even worth a groan.
Again, it's fine. Just fine. Don't really have much more to say than that. Making the Mondasian Cyberman sick was a nice touch, presumably inspired by what's-his-name (the "lone cyberman" from the Chibnall episodes -- arguably the best thing to come out of that era -- but the story just doesn't really do much with the idea. The Mondasian Cyberman being damaged is apparently only in the story so that the newer cybermen can kill him, but once he's gone we just get more generic Cyber-grunts instead. Not quite an even trade.
I do think -- in what is becoming a pattern, I think -- that the 3-story format continues to be a problem. Just feels like we're getting less bang for our buck.
Ah well.
Eccleston is great and -- as always -- a joy to listen to, but his (rumored?) refusal to do any properly dramatic roles are handicapping the 9DAs right out of the gate. The 9th Doctor, moreso than any other incarnation (except maybe John Hurt's) is defined by a very specific character and plot arc. It's just... bizarre to have this Doctor, of all Doctors, be so consistently light-hearted. All we get in this set to hint at the darker edges to the character that made RTD1 so compelling is a brief line from the Brigadier asking if something happened. Like these stories can only ever have secondary characters vaguely allude to the 9th Doctor having some sort of character depth, because Chris just ain't interested in acting it out. And, as was the case when this exact same thing happened in prior sets, drawing attention to this absence does nothing but remind us that we
could be listening to better stories. And it's especially hard to swallow here, because if anyone could identify that something had changed the Doctor, that he was different to his prewar incarnations -- and if anyone could
empathize with that -- it'd be the Brigadier.
What this set really needed to be great was a scene like the one between the 10th Doctor and Martha at the end of
Gridlock, where they sit down and have a bit of a heart-to-heart.
So, at the risk of repeating myself, I can only chuck
Old Friends in the same bin as all the other 9DAs: good, but not great. This whole range is consistently better than average, but really only moves a bit between a 6/10 at worst and an 8/10 at best.
I'm hoping that the next run of 9DAs improve things, but I'm not counting on it. I think part of what helped Big Finish course-correct the 10DAs (which began in a very similar manner) was that they had of time to rethink things between the first run of boxsets and the second. With the 9DAs, I think the pace of production may be too fast to accommodate much reflection or revision.