Favourite release of the year so far and looking forward to?

Of all the new releases I've listened to thus far (and I do have some notable gaps!) -- I cannot emphasize enough just how much Peladon blows everything else out of the water.

Part of me is desperate to see the set expanded into a full-on range, because there's still so much untapped potential there... but I'm also kind of against that, as this one set is so good it's hard to imagine a sequel living up to it. It just... it sets a very high bar.

....

As for future releases, I'm not sure. I'm not terribly excited by any of the upcoming boxset premises so far, aside from BWG, which I've since cooled a bit on since it seems like it might end up going, "After War Games, the same as Before War Games." In general it feels like last year year or two Big Finish was doin a lot of bold, new and imaginative stuff (Stranded, Dalek Universe, Peladon, Susan's War, Time Lord Victorious, etc.). And even though it didn't always pan out well (like TLV) things felt new and exciting. The MR was over, and that wasn't exactly something to celebrate, but it seemed like Big Finish would only get better.

Now it seems like they're reversing course a bit. The XDAs feel like they're aimed less about taking these characters in new directions that simply aping their respective eras of the show. We've been waiting decades for new stories with Sylvester McCoy, and now Silver and Ice is just around the corner... but it's more of the 7th Doctor with Mel. May as well be Season 24B.

Which isn't to say I think the stories will be bad (I don't) -- just that it's hard to be excited for them.

Meanwhile Big Finish is really doubling down in the cross-media integration stuff... we finally get a new Master range, but instead of standing on its own, it's bonded at the hip to the Vienna range. Some people want a Roberts Master range, some people want a Vienna range, and this marriage doesn't feel like something that would fully satisfy either group.

And then so many upcoming sets seem to rely so heavily on crossover fanservice. 

And maybe this anxiety is unwarranted and Big Finish always shifts between brief periods of ambition and conservatism. I've only been listening since the Pandemic began, so my window of experience is fairly narrow. I certainly hope that's the case.

....

But to answer the question... the one release I'm looking forward to the most is Self-Defence. At least until and unless they decide to give Geoffrey Beevers his own range. The idea of seeing Jacobi opposite Tennant again... to properly put their two characters against each other for the first time... I'd be crazy not to be giddy with anticipation of how this could play out.

And I do see the irony: this is the same crossover fanservice I was moaning about just a few seconds ago.

And honestly I think there's a more than fair chance I'll leave disappointed. So far Jacobi has had two sets focused on crossovers with McGann's Doctor, and I found both encounters fairly underwhelming. And then TLV's crossover with 8 and 10 was an exceptional disappointment.

But at the same time... there's no rule saying that these crossover stories have to be pure fanservice vehicles or geekbait. Just last year we had a similarly fanservice-themed War Master boxset, and I'd argue that the second story, A Quiet Night In, was the most powerful story Big Finish told that year. I'm still somewhat reeling from its final scene. Katy Manning's performance there is, by far, the best I've ever seen (or heard) her. You typically don't expect anyone to upstage someone like Jacobi in a story... but her performance was masterful. Easily among the most emotional and affecting performances in the entire franchise.

Which is all a tedious and overlong way of saying I'm prepared for disappointment but still very keen on the possibility of being blown over.