Once and Future The Artist at the End of Time Now Out SOK

I take your point; this is indeed fan service, as was the last instalment (the Fourth Doctor meeting the 'new' UNIT and The Meddling Monk). But for a celebration of the sixtieth anniversary, I think it's excusable, and will probably be quite a lot of fun. I think there's an over-use of A meets B and faces C generally, but for these releases, I think it's justified. As for those who steer clear of Big Finish, I think it would take a lot to sway them anyway.

David Richardson in the announcement of Past Lives: “One of the joys of this anniversary release is being able to savour things that could otherwise never happen.”

Things that could otherwise never happen…like the exact same crossover of characters they did at the last big anniversary release! I’m just not sure what Five meeting Jenny will accomplish that the last time Five met Jenny didn’t. It’s not like the degenerating Doctor will know who she is, because the degeneration is starting mid-Time War so still long before The Doctor’s Daughter. 

Also in a storyline all about degeneration bringing old incarnations back…what do you need the Curator for? His entire gimmick is irrelevant here surely.

I do think the artist at the end of time angle has promise though.

When it comes to anniversary stories, no one has topped what Steven Moffat did for The Day of The Doctor. It was as much a celebration of the past as it was about moving things forward.

Premise sounds fun

Jenny and the 5th doctor feels like a repeat of legacy of time
Especially as the Doctor won’t remember Jenny as he didn’t meet/ create her until his 10th incarnation

I guess in a way this is a multi Doctor story with Colin’s curator (though why they didn’t get Tom is kinda weird)

Cover art for me looks alright just seeing people getting angry that big finish is using A.I artwork is kinda amusing

I am not excited about this, either.
Although I have to say I agree with the notion that this is exactly what these anniversary releases are expected to do- fan service.
We have seen this can work wonderfully and perfectly in Picard season 3.
But we have also seen it fail time and again in more BF releases than I can even begin to count. I am pretty tired of the X meets Y only to run into Z.
So we will have to see how they do this time.
Not the biggest fan of Jenny.
Colin as the Curator was okay in Stranded, he always is value for money.
I have paid for the bundle anyways, so I am now stuck with it anyways and will just see.

Nick recently announced the BBC were keeping 'more of an eye' on Big Finish, which makes me worry a bit. However, Once and Future has apparently been in the works for a long time, since before Nick's comments.

I was hoping that Once and Future might have turned out to be that rare thing : a 'Road less travelled' for Big Finish, but with the details we do know at the moment I'm starting to suspect that the opposite will be true.

I'm still clinging on to that hope for a bit longer though.

But for now at least, the wallet stays closed. I will wait and see.

I really think Doctor Who is at the point where it needs a break. 20+ years of audio Who and I don’t even know what an inventive story would sound like. Yeah, BF probably had more freedom in its earlier, pre-Who revival days and while conditions imposed by the license holder may limit the use of some characters or situations due to overlap, they aren’t going impose restrictions on good or fresh storytelling. I just think we’ve hit the point where things are by and large played out. Steven Moffat said a few times that writing for one Doctor is much like writing for any other Doctor. In a TV landscape where you are dealing with one Doctor Who at a time one can tend to forget that we are usually seeing variations on things we’ve seen before. It strikes me as something different when you are releasing audio adventures of multiple Doctors every month. This wasn’t a problem when it was one Doctor a month in the Main Range, with the odd smattering of 8th Doctor releases, because you were essentially dealing with the same solo aspect as the TV Who. Now with box set after box set, its harder to avoid that feeling that we’ve heard it all before…like a couple of months ago with a different Doctor. As David notes, with the box set age, everything has to be a gimmick, so a series like this that is built on a gimmick ends up feeling old hat even before we hear it. I’ll really admit I’ve become overwhelmed by my backlog of BF but every time I try to catch up I can’t help feeling that it is all too much and I’m constantly listening to the same story. Anyway, even with all that I hope this is a fun series. 

The really annoying exceptions are the ones that look like they'll be more disposable X meets Y chaff, but for whatever reason spin off in wildly different directions. My go-to example for that would be A Quiet Night In.

Also -- and Ive probably said this before -- I think the perception that Big Finish is less ambitious/taking fewer risks now than before is largely illusory. It only makes sense for people to remember the stories that left the bigger impression, and forget those that didn't. Eventually all that's left is the very good -- or the very bad.

And as someone who's only been in this hobby for a couple of years now, and has spent most of that time consuming very old stories simultaneously with brand-new stories... I see a lot of generic chaff and impressive standouts at both-ends. Certainly the early MR had its share of stinkers, but also its not like that was the only range Big Finish was releasing back then, and few of the other ranges are as well-regarded or as well-remembered.

Consider also that Big Finish is releasing a greater quantity of content now than ever before -- and that means more of everything, good and bad.

I think a lot of our collective frustration stems from the XDAs being... not great. And rightly so -- they ain't great and they're (supposed to be) flagship products. But at the same time we've been getting some truly spectacular new releases in other ranges, from Peladon and Susan's War to Stranded and Friend of the Family.

I'm typically a very cynical person, though I do try to obfuscate that as best I can, and I'm definitely far from optimistic about the current state and trajectory of the new XDAs... but when it comes to Big Finish and their output as a whole? Yeah... I just don't see the decline that some fans do.