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Post by elkawho on May 10, 2023 13:50:46 GMT
We all know that in the last few years BF have moved away from narrated stories to pretty much solely releasing full cast audios. The only exception to this lately are the Short Trips, which are release pretty rarely these days. This has led to quite a lot of recasting, and whether that is a good thing or not is up to the individual customer. I've been listening to some Companion Chronicles lately and have come to the conclusion that I really do miss the narrated stories.
The Early Adventures, the above mentioned CCs, and a few other ranges have some of the best stories that BF have ever produced. I feel like the narrated stories had a much more nostalgic feel to them. They could also invoke settings and atmosphere that is harder to do in full cast stories. I also liked having the narrator's internal dialogue, thoughts and feelings as part of the story, which is much harder to do in full cast. There are writers who really excelled in the format as well. Simon Guerrier was masterful at it. They also were able to give us such innovative stories, almost too many to mention here. In the CCs alone, we had stories like the Oliver Harper Trilogy, The Sarah Kingdom trilogy, Find and Replace, The Rocketmen, Solitaire, The Time Museum, The Jigsaw War and so many others. The Early Adventures were pretty great at that as well. And I may have been the only one that liked the narration in the first 3rd Doctor set.
I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the full cast stories being released. I love them. The Eleventh Doctor and Valarie stories have been some of my favorite releases this year. And I'm not really bothered by the recasting. But I do believe that there is a place for both kinds of stories, and the move away from narration has been a mistake, and has decreased the variety in BF stories, and thereby has lessened some of the excitement I used to have for them.
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Post by bonehead on May 10, 2023 14:14:31 GMT
Oh, I miss the narrations too. Not just Doctor Who, but the Blake's 7 Liberator Chronicles, and various Dark Shadows (remember that?) readings. Absolutely loved them then, and absolutely love revisiting them now. Perhaps the audio novels have become the new 'chronicles' series. I have to be pretty invested in the subject matter to commit my ears to 300+ minutes of listening, but find the novels I've purchased very rewarding. My favourite so far has been Matthew Waterhouse's Watchers (I'm eagerly awaiting his next one).
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Post by elkawho on May 10, 2023 16:37:07 GMT
Oh, I miss the narrations too. Not just Doctor Who, but the Blake's 7 Liberator Chronicles, and various Dark Shadows (remember that?) readings. Absolutely loved them then, and absolutely love revisiting them now. Perhaps the audio novels have become the new 'chronicles' series. I have to be pretty invested in the subject matter to commit my ears to 300+ minutes of listening, but find the novels I've purchased very rewarding. My favourite so far has been Matthew Waterhouse's Watchers (I'm eagerly awaiting his next one). I completely agree with you regarding The Liberator Chronicles and Dark Shadows. I'm a big fan of those ranges as well. As much as I'm enjoying the Worlds of Blake 7 audios, I really wish they would do some more Liberator Chronicles. It would be a way to give us more stories with the characters that we no longer have available to us without recasting them. And as much as I enjoy the audio novels, it is not really a replacement for those stories. I don't believe that longer format lends to the innovations that the narrated audio stories were able to provide. |
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Stevo
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 5,953 
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Post by Stevo on May 10, 2023 17:33:06 GMT
I don't miss narration, overall I much prefer an audio drama with people playing parts than an out and out reading. The 'chronicles' style stories were never up my street, but that doesn't mean that they were bad. The EA's with their mix of the two styles worked very well so there's always room for a bit of variety. I suppose Big Finish will produce what they think will sell more.
As for the recasting angle, I was always against it for no other reason than I was against it, but a good interpretation in a full cast story actually works better for my minds eye. So give me that over a narrated story any day.
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Post by timleschild on May 10, 2023 19:15:58 GMT
I never really got into narration. It wasn't what drew me to BF as I don't listen to audiobooks.
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Post by fitzoliverj on May 10, 2023 20:10:44 GMT
Sometimes it works, but sometimes (particularly with the early full-cast 1960s-era stories) it did just feel like narration was being written because narration was expected and not because that was a good way to tell the story.
I wish they'd bring in Tom Baker to record a pastiche of Eric Saward's missing stories' narrations. "One fat and one thin, they looked like a psychotic Laurel and Hardy" may be the fourth Doctor's greatest line.
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Post by shallacatop on May 10, 2023 20:44:53 GMT
I do think there’s absolutely a place for both of them. Full cast is great, but is obviously limited by the cast available. Whilst recasting has become prevalent, there are still limitations with it. I think the Doctor Chronicles are notable for this; whilst they’ve got a replacement in for the Doctor, albeit one who has now taken a step back, they’ve not touched the companions. This means there are large gaps that full cast cannot touch, but narration can take the place of. This could be Short Trips performed by era authentic readers, or Companion Chronicle-esque sets using the many Big Finish regulars that do reprise their characters; River, Paternoster, UNIT, Missy, etc.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on May 11, 2023 0:44:08 GMT
I personally just can't get into audiobook/narration ( just 1 person reading out loud).. Needs to be full cast, some of the Dark Shadows stories are 2 people and that works as well as having 5-10 people in a big story. Having said that, I would never begrudge someone from having the option of audio/narration.  |
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 11, 2023 14:10:13 GMT
For me, the narration in the EAs never gelled - I get the argument of trying to recreate the lost story reconstructions, but it just didn't do it for me and often took away from the atmosphere and ambience (like The Forsaken). All the other Doctors got to have straight episodes, making me feel like I was getting 'new' classic episodes, and it did irk me that 1 and 2, for a time, couldn't. For me, audio dramas and audiobooks are different entities and I go into them with different mindsets - make both types, but mixing them together in one story just dilutes the best of both formats.
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Post by elkawho on May 12, 2023 1:05:53 GMT
Maybe it's because of how much I love Farewell Great Macedon that I recognize how powerful narration can be. It's one of the best things Big Finish has every done. It's a masterpiece.
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Post by jacobz40 on May 12, 2023 17:39:36 GMT
I think both can have their place. I much preferred the Companion Chronicles style with the characters sharing their thoughts and memories over the reconstruction-y vibe of the Early Adventures and 1st-2nd Doctor Lost Stories. It was a great window into the minds of the characters.
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Post by grinch on May 12, 2023 19:17:22 GMT
Personally, I think there’s a place for both of them.
In fact, even though it apparently wasn’t popular and didn’t last I was rather fond of the narration in the first volume of the Third Doctor Adventures.
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Post by Ela on May 30, 2023 19:24:13 GMT
I greatly prefer full cast audios. Most of the Early Adventures with narration just don't do it for me.
I do enjoy many of the Companion Chronicles and I enjoyed the older Short Trips and Subscriber Short Trips.
Haven't gotten the more recent Short Trips after seeing Jacob Dudman in the cast list. I know a lot of folks love him, but I'm not a fan of his Doctor impersonations, they take me right out of the story in most cases. I haven't gotten into The Doctor Chronicles for the same reason.
I mostly avoid releases that are narrations unless it's a story/character/reader I find compelling.
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enofa
Full Member
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Post by enofa on Jun 20, 2023 14:23:05 GMT
The problem I had with the Early Adventures was that they started out in Companion Chronicles territory, with, for example, Peter Purves reading the Doctor’s lines as if it was Steven doing an impression of the Doctor, but that swiftly changed to the narrator basically becoming a recast Doctor, and then I started to struggle, because basically it wasn’t the Doctor talking but I was expected to believe it was him. I’m very much not into recasting in general, so this put me off a bit.
The narration in the Companion Chronicles and First Doctor Lost Stories never bothered me at all, though. I just adjusted to it straight away. For myself, I wish they’d carried them on rather than doing the recast boxsets, as I’m basically at a point now where there are no more stories for three of my favourite Doctors, while some I like less are going strong.
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