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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 8, 2024 13:08:51 GMT
McGann 9th Review
The Teeth of Ice - Miscellaneous
The Audio Originals were a series of narrated audiobooks released by BBC Audio.
Well not really audiobooks as there's no physical book to go with the audio. Rather the series is like something between a short trip and full audio story. Kind of like how the Telos novellas were in-between a short story and a full novel.
It follows the format of a Short Trip in that there's just one person narrating the story and you get some sound effects and music, but at an hour long the story is about the length of a new series episode. Also the stories can be interconnected like a series.
The Eighth Doctor audios for instance focuses on a reoccurring character, a reporter called James MacFarlane, and his various run ins with the Doctor.
Teeth of Ice is the second story in this range. MacFarlane is writing a story on Antarctica exploration and the Doctor is pretending to be an actual medical Doctor stationed on the base. Unfortunately everyone is on edge as there are rumors of werewolves attacking the various bases.
At only an hour long the mystery is pretty simple but it hangs together well enough, and Dan Starkey is an excellent narrator. My only issue is the forced moral dilemma at the end. The Doctor has a chance to fend off the villain using a missile but bemoans the fact that there are innocent men aboard the villain's ship, except earlier he explained that villain's henchmen were planted mercenaries not real scientists, so no they aren't innocent and they didn't have to board that ship.
It's only there to create drama between him and MacFarlane in later installments.
But other than that this was enjoyable way to spend an hour.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 9, 2024 21:36:31 GMT
McGann 10th Review
The Ghost of Christmas Past - Short Story
Well looky there. I actually got a Christmas story on Christmas.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is the Eighth Doctor entry in the anthology Twelve Doctors of Christmas. Published by the BBC in 2016 during, of course, the Twelfth Doctor's era.
However, while it's a BBC book, it references the Big Finish trilogy featuring Eight and Susan. So while not necessary to understand the story it does give the nuance to the tale if you've heard those first.
During a battle in the Time War the Doctor's Tardis get stuck in a time loop right above Earth, one minute until Christmas Day. Alone and trapped the Doctor fears he may never get out until he receives some mail.
This was bittersweet and wholesome and an immense joy to read. I highly recommend it for the holiday. Merry Christmas.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 10, 2024 16:49:35 GMT
McGann 11th Review
Doom of the Daleks - Video Game
Okay not a "video" game as such but still the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game is prominent enough to warrant an entry and it's still a game.
Doom of the Daleks was a special campaign included in the Eighth Doctor Sourcebook to flesh out his era as he only has one filmed appearance to work with. As such, while the campaign is written in such a way where you don't have to include Eight in the game play if you don't want to it's heavily implied that the events that kick off the adventure happen to Eight since it takes place during the Time War.
The story follows as thus, The Doctor gets hit by a special Dalek weapon that unravels his timeline from both ends erasing him from existence. In order to stop the process the team have to stop the device which is hidden inside a Dalek stronghold. To find the stronghold the players must trace down the trail by finding objects that they Doctor has interacted with through out his lifetimes that hold traces of his unique energy signature.
So what follows is a quest like arc where the search for each macguffin is a mini-episode in of itself.
It's a fairly long and detailed campaign with multiple ways to play or approach situations. They lay out scenarios for teams with a Doctor or no Doctor, established companions or original characters, and even take into account if your OC or companion is time sensitive, like say if you want to play as an incarnation of Romana.
Now I sadly had no one to play with but I read through the entire campaign with my own tardis team in mind, and if I had the time I would love to write a fanfiction using the story as a base. I think that would be fun.
My idea was to feature all of the main Doctors in a de-regeneration type situation, starting with Gatawa in the prologue and ending with Hartnell in the epilogue, with each doctor going backwards to the eras presented in the campaign, so like Thirteen would face the Sea Devils in the historical episode meant for One while Three would go against the Weeping Angels in the episode meant to showcase Eleven's era and so forth.
The rest of the team would be a companion from each decade of the show, Jamie for the 60s, Romana the Second for the 70s, Ace for the 80s, Chang Lee for the 90s, Rory for the 00s, and Diane for the 2010s... (The Doctor was going to pick up Dan but Diane put a stop to it only to get swept up in the adventure herself and is not happy about it.)
Of course I would use dice same as you would in the game as a type of writing exercise.
Anyways, even if I never put pen to paper it was a fun read, with the Nowhere episode for the Fourth Doctor's era being the most interesting IMO.
Pick it up to play with your friends or write out your own adventure by yourself, either way you'll have a good time.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 11, 2024 17:15:53 GMT
McGann 12th Review
Susan's War - Spin Off
I don't have much to say about this one other than that it's good and that I enjoyed it.
As fun as it is hear Ian and Susan team up again or to have her and the Doctor finally talk about Alex after what happened in To the Death, the strongest stories were actually the ones in the middle just focusing on Susan as a character, her growth, and the wider world-building of the Time War and Gallifryen culture.
Also while I still hate that Alex was killed off I do appreciate that its being used as a motivator for Susan getting involved in the Time War more directly and gives her a good counter argument towards Eight's pacifist stance.
Rumor has it that we might get sequel to this series and if so I'll gladly pick it up. Susan is one of my favorite companions and I'm glad that randomizer manged to slot some proper stories with her after passing over most her era with One earlier.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 12, 2024 16:24:42 GMT
McGann 13th Review
The Night of the Doctor - Minisode
Watching this short again just made me angry. Because McGann is soooo, so, so good in it and it just reminded me of how much we were robbed!
Look no offense to those that enjoy Hurt's Doctor, but McGann deserved a to be in the 50th proper. And if the BBC were that worried of audiences not recognizing him, then they should have forked out the cash to the give him a mini-series leading up to the anniversary. Even if it was nothing more than a series of shorts like this that accumulated into the events of the special.
It's nothing short of mismanagement that lead to the entire War Doctor can of worms in the first place.
But ignoring what should have been, how does the minisode stand as is?
Well it's good.
As I said above, McGann sells the entire thing perfectly. It's perhaps a bit too lore heavy with the Sisterhood and adding in an extra Doctor, but for an anniversary looking back is to be expected. It's also well directed with good production values.
I guess we should be grateful that we got this much. I don't know. It still feels like a mistake was made somewhere though in the planning of the 50th.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 13, 2024 18:00:24 GMT
McGann Ranking Favorite Story: Doom of the Daleks - It really got my creative juices flowing and made me want to write more fanfiction and play the game for myself. Least Favorite Story: The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Overlong, gimmicky, and tactless. Not to mention, as a woman, I did not appreciate the way the female characters were treated in this story. 1. Doom of the Daleks - Video Game 2. Susan's War - Spin Off 3. The Ghost of Christmas Past - Short Story 4. The Company of Thieves - Comic 5. The Teeth of Ice - Miscellaneous 6. The Enemy Within: Doctor Who the TV Movie - Novelization 7. Shada - Webcast 8. Pieces of Eighth: S1E2 (A Matter of Life and Death) - Fan Work 9. The Man Who Wasn't There - Short Audio 10. The Stones of Venice - Full Audio
11. The Night of the Doctor - Minisode
12. Special Report (50 Essential Questions): Doctor Who Magazine #312 - Behind The Scenes 13. The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Novel
So that was the Eighth Doctor 'era'. I enjoyed it more often than not, but it's still not enough to motivate me to follow all of the various spin off media involving McGann outside of a marathon like this or on the rare occasion there's a Susan appearance. Sorry Eight fans, and yes, McGann did/does deserve better.
So we're all caught up to where I had first started re-posting these reviews. The marathon will continue, and in fact I've already started on the War Doctor's 'era', but reviews will be posted less frequently than they have been.
Thank you to everyone who has been following along and reading/liking/commenting and here's hoping you'll stick around for the second half.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 13, 2024 21:10:41 GMT
Hurt 1st Review
Scream of the Shalka - Novelization
Yeah, I know, 'Grant's not Hurt!'
Listen, regardless of whatever our personal headcannons are for Grant's doctor, alternate Nine, younger War, pre-Hartnell, future doctor, ect, and despite whatever nonsense RTD has planned for the finale, putting Shalka here in this era just gives me more material to work with. Otherwise War's era would be far shorter than the others, okay?
Now that that's out of the way, on to the review proper.
So I'll give the novelization this, the story probably works better in novel format than it does animated. You can get more detail and more nuance across than you can with limited flash animation. The Doctor has more noticeable layers to him on the page than what could be conveyed through a 2D puppet and Grant's inexperienced voice acting. The action is also better presented, the Shalka are better realized, and the various side characters get more development.
I don't know if that makes the story more enjoyable however.
In fact the novel, unrestrained by the limits of the medium and budget veers too far in the other direction. While the cartoon is boring but ultimately inoffensive the book is way too dark and uncomfortable to make for family friendly broadcasting. And not in any way that makes it more entertaining.
The Shalka are still dull monsters despite being made more cruel. The tension of the climax is almost too over the top to be believable as it becomes an all out biblical apocalypse. And the ending is far too neat and tidy to now fit the new body count.
Still at least I wasn't falling asleep with it as I did with the webcast.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 13, 2024 23:18:56 GMT
I'm reading the 'making of' in the back of the book and this is what Paul wrote of Alison when describing her
"ALISON has always wanted to see the past: her heroes include Napoleon and Churchill, and she really wants to meet them."
What!?
Why?
Why would her heroes be a dictator and an authoritarian arsehole? Especially if she's a history major and black!
What?
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 13, 2024 23:47:50 GMT
Also apparently they got a theater director instead of an actual voice director and that explains a lot about the flat acting. There's some crossover between the stage and voice acting but two aren't the same thing.
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Post by number13 on Jun 13, 2024 23:57:47 GMT
I'm reading the 'making of' in the back of the book and this is what Paul wrote of Alison when describing her "ALISON has always wanted to see the past: her heroes include Napoleon and Churchill, and she really wants to meet them." What!? Why? Why would her heroes be a dictator and an authoritarian arsehole? Especially if she's a history major and black! What? Oui, he was - but no, he wasn't.
Many people admire Napoleon and I don't get it at all. Up to the 20thC he'd invaded more of Europe and caused more deaths than anyone else in European history.
As for the second... Churchill was for decades a Liberal and by the standards of his time, he really was small-l liberal in many ways. And had many British domestic polices which show that. His obvious imperialism lets him down by the standards of our time, but back then the Empire was not only accepted, but supported by most British people. However, he undoubtedly saved not only the UK but Europe from Nazi domination. Without him as Prime Minister in 1940, we would very probably have negotiated a disgraceful "peace" as did France - and without their reasons of Nazi invasion and occupation.
No Churchill, no alliance with the U.S., no launchpad for D-Day, no liberation from the West. The Soviets would still have won WWII by sheer weight of numbers and because Stalin (an actual authoritarian) didn't give a damn how many Soviet lives he lost in the process. Then they would have rolled on to 'liberate' western Europe just like they 'liberated' Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain (Churchill's name for it) for 50 years. While Churchill straight after the war supported the setting up of the EU (as it would become) and the speedy reintegration of free (West) Germany into the european family of nations.
It's worth remembering that Attlee, Bevin, Morrison, Dalton and the other Labour members of the wartime government, true socialists to a man, all spoke and wrote warmly of Churchill in the years after the war and said how proud they were to have served with him. Despite finding him infuriating to work with on occasion! Also, when he lost the vote of the people in 1945, Churchill accepted the result at once and went into loyal Opposition. Then won power again six years later - and it was his government which finally abolished the wartime regulations on identity papers, rationing etc.
He was not an authoritarian, he was a democrat who fought and won and lost elections democratically for many, many decades and a very great man indeed. In the opinion of Roy Jenkins (one of his best biographers and a top-flight Labour politician of the 1960s/70s - a reforming Home Secretary and a liberal if ever there was one) Churchill was the greatest Prime Minister and the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing St. I highly recommend his biography of Churchill, an extraordinary life and a great book.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 14, 2024 0:03:29 GMT
I'm reading the 'making of' in the back of the book and this is what Paul wrote of Alison when describing her "ALISON has always wanted to see the past: her heroes include Napoleon and Churchill, and she really wants to meet them." What!? Why? Why would her heroes be a dictator and an authoritarian arsehole? Especially if she's a history major and black! What? Oui, he was - but no, he wasn't.
Many people admire Napoleon and I don't get it at all. Up to the 20thC he'd invaded more of Europe and caused more deaths than anyone else in European history.
As for the second... Churchill was for decades a Liberal and by the standards of his time, he really was small-l liberal in many ways. And had many British domestic polices which show that. His obvious imperialism lets him down by the standards of our time, but back then the Empire was not only accepted, but supported by most British people. However, he undoubtedly saved not only the UK but Europe from Nazi domination. Without him as Prime Minister in 1940, we would very probably have negotiated a disgraceful "peace" as did France - and without their reasons of Nazi invasion and occupation.
No Churchill, no alliance with the U.S., no launchpad for D-Day, no liberation from the West. The Soviets would still have won WWII by sheer weight of numbers and because Stalin (an actual authoritarian) didn't give a damn how many Soviet lives he lost in the process. Then they would have rolled on to 'liberate' western Europe just like they 'liberated' Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain (Churchill's name for it) for 50 years. While Churchill straight after the war supported the setting up of the EU (as it would become) and the speedy reintegration of free (West) Germany into the european family of nations.
It's worth remembering that Attlee, Bevin, Morrison, Dalton and the other Labour members of the wartime government, true socialists to a man, all spoke and wrote warmly of Churchill in the years after the war and said how proud they were to have served with him. Despite finding him infuriating to work with on occasion! Also, when he lost the vote of the people in 1945, Churchill accepted the result at once and went into loyal Opposition. Then won power again six years later - and it was his government which finally abolished the wartime regulations on identity papers, rationing etc.
He was not an authoritarian, he was a democrat who fought and won and lost elections democratically for many, many decades and a very great man indeed. In the opinion of Roy Jenkins (one of his best biographers and a top-flight Labour politician of the 1960s/70s - a reforming Home Secretary and a liberal if ever there was one) Churchill was the greatest Prime Minister and the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing St. I highly recommend his biography of Churchill, an extraordinary life and a great book.
Churchill was all pro-Hitler's 'finale solution' until he invaded Poland. The man wasn't progressive at all. Like maybe Cornell is old enough to have bought the propaganda but Alison, a young black history major would know the truth. And there's no excuse for the Napoleon thing. Just one of the many, many reasons why there needs to be more diversity behind the scenes on just on the screen.
Look my point isn't whether or not Churchill was a good person, my point is that a young black woman would have a far different perspective from the middle aged white man who is writing for her.
You and I already have very different points of view about the man just because of our known age difference. That's why different experiences and views are needed when representing different people.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2024 3:02:06 GMT
Oui, he was - but no, he wasn't.
Many people admire Napoleon and I don't get it at all. Up to the 20thC he'd invaded more of Europe and caused more deaths than anyone else in European history.
As for the second... Churchill was for decades a Liberal and by the standards of his time, he really was small-l liberal in many ways. And had many British domestic polices which show that. His obvious imperialism lets him down by the standards of our time, but back then the Empire was not only accepted, but supported by most British people. However, he undoubtedly saved not only the UK but Europe from Nazi domination. Without him as Prime Minister in 1940, we would very probably have negotiated a disgraceful "peace" as did France - and without their reasons of Nazi invasion and occupation.
No Churchill, no alliance with the U.S., no launchpad for D-Day, no liberation from the West. The Soviets would still have won WWII by sheer weight of numbers and because Stalin (an actual authoritarian) didn't give a damn how many Soviet lives he lost in the process. Then they would have rolled on to 'liberate' western Europe just like they 'liberated' Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain (Churchill's name for it) for 50 years. While Churchill straight after the war supported the setting up of the EU (as it would become) and the speedy reintegration of free (West) Germany into the european family of nations.
It's worth remembering that Attlee, Bevin, Morrison, Dalton and the other Labour members of the wartime government, true socialists to a man, all spoke and wrote warmly of Churchill in the years after the war and said how proud they were to have served with him. Despite finding him infuriating to work with on occasion! Also, when he lost the vote of the people in 1945, Churchill accepted the result at once and went into loyal Opposition. Then won power again six years later - and it was his government which finally abolished the wartime regulations on identity papers, rationing etc.
He was not an authoritarian, he was a democrat who fought and won and lost elections democratically for many, many decades and a very great man indeed. In the opinion of Roy Jenkins (one of his best biographers and a top-flight Labour politician of the 1960s/70s - a reforming Home Secretary and a liberal if ever there was one) Churchill was the greatest Prime Minister and the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing St. I highly recommend his biography of Churchill, an extraordinary life and a great book.
Churchill was all pro-Hitler's 'finale solution' until he invaded Poland. The man wasn't progressive at all. Like maybe Cornell is old enough to have bought the propaganda but Alison, a young black history major would know the truth. And there's no excuse for the Napoleon thing. Just one of the many, many reasons why there needs to be more diversity behind the scenes on just on the screen.
Look my point isn't whether or not Churchill was a good person, my point is that a young black woman would have a far different perspective from the middle aged white man who is writing for her.
You and I already have very different points of view about the man just because of our known age difference. That's why different experiences and views are needed when representing different people.
Paul Cornell was in his early 30s when he wrote Shalka, not a middle aged man. And was/is very left wing. Hardly the type to have Churchill teatowels in the cupboard.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 14, 2024 16:50:12 GMT
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 14, 2024 17:49:48 GMT
Hurt 2nd Review
Servants of the Shalakor - Behind the Scenes
So at the end of the Scream of the Shalka novelization there's a brief look at the making of the webcast by Paul Cornell, all about his experience working on the project, and the original outline for the story. I read both but I think the outline is more interesting/unique so that's what I'll be covering here for the marathon.
The plot isn't that much different from the final version we got, in that it hits a lot of the same story beats, but there's three big differences that kind of change the entire tone of the serial.
The first difference is that Alison's boyfriend dies in the first act and his corpse is possessed by the aliens. He basically fulfills the role that the Prime Shalka does in the actual broadcast, giving the Doctor a foe to exchange exposition with.
This winds up altering the final showdown with Alison needing to re-awaken her boyfriend's memories to fight off the invaders from within. It's a plot that's been done in Who a hundred times, especially since the series' return, but it's still a more interesting fight than what we got just for the added bonus of the Doctor also being brainwashed at the same time.
The second difference is the Shalka, or Shalakor as they're called here, and their motivations. There's no annoying scream here nor any attempt to change the Earth's atmosphere. Rather they're non-carbon based life forms who hate carbon/flesh life forms. The idea of using an explosion to hurl their eggs into the next galaxy is a bit naff and I can see why that was changed, but the plot of using the brainwashed humans to try and set off the Earth's nukes makes way more sense then the aliens changing all the humans' biology somehow and using their screams to pollute the earth... somehow.
The Shalakor are also given more of a culture/identity by giving them a religion and having the basis of that religion explained though their unique biology. I'm actually think it's a shame that part was dropped because it helps them to stand apart from the pantheon of similar monsters in Who.
The last change is that it's a hologram of the Fifth Doctor in the Tardis and not a robotic Master. Cornell talks about it in the 'making of' that later on it was going to be revealed that the Master was really the hologram all along and he had chosen the form of the Fifth Doctor as like a twisted joke, but that's not in the actual outline.
Either way, the Robot Master is a far better idea and one of the few things that make Scream of the Shalka memorable. So I am glad that was changed and we got Jacobi out of the deal instead.
The outline and making of is worth giving a read through if you already have got the Scream of the Shalka novel anyways, but it's not enough to warrant buying the book by itself. It's just a fun extra.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 19, 2024 15:59:51 GMT
Hurt 3rd Review
The Black Archive #10: Scream of the Shalka - Fan Published Non-Fiction
The Black Archive series, as far as I can gather, is a collection of fan published essays focusing on a single Doctor Who story. One part review, one part analysis, and one part history; how much each entry is worth your time and money is going to really depend on how invested you are in the episode discussed.
As far as the analysis and review parts of the book, it's nothing you couldn't read for free on a fan forum for instance. Especially the mussing on cannon and how you could make Grant's Doctor fit. And if you're already a super fan of Shalka then most of the behind the scenes info is stuff you've would have already heard/read from official media.
The real reason to pick up this particular book is apparently for the extras at the end. The novel goes into the various spin-off media and planned sequels that never came to fruition. This includes a never before released outline for the canceled episode, Blood of the Robots.
It's pretty interesting stuff and I say worth picking up a digital copy for. However I wouldn't get a physical version unless you are a super Shalka fan or a completionist.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 20, 2024 16:12:25 GMT
Hurt 4th Review
Ambush - Comic
So we got our first actual War Doctor story and it's only two pages long.
This 'comic' is tucked away in Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe, which is an anthology book kind of in the vain of the 60s Dalek anthologies. Only along with the comics and short stories there's also articles detailing the history of the Daleks. Both their fictional history within the show and their actual behind the scenes history through the decades.
As such it's kind of hard to form an opinion on it. The whole book feels very scattered and unstructured just from the first glance through. And while I understand that the comics therein are not the focus, but fun extras, they're all too short really to form any sort of narrative.
Taking Ambush as an in example, the Doctor leads a bunch of Time Lords into battle only for them to be ambushed and overwhelmed. So the Doctor decides to retreat back to Gallifrey, and the Daleks plant a tracker on his Tardis as he does so.
One would think that would lead into a longer story, about the Daleks chasing the Doctor or spying on the Time Lords, but no. The story just ends there, and it doesn't connect back to any of the other segments within the anthology. The entire thing reads like a prologue for something bigger, and yet it just short of exists and nothing else.
Which is a shame as there are ideas here that are interesting. There's a new companion named Petrella but we learn nothing about her other than her name. One would assume she's a Time Lord but that's not actually a given. The Daleks have the tech to destroy Tardises, which would be a major game changer in any other story. The Doctor is called the Predator and it's not known if that's just the Daleks nickname for him or his new title that he goes by. And finally the plot point of the Daleks tracking the Doctor's Tardis, which of course goes nowhere.
Yet, as little as we get, it's hard to get upset at it as no one other than myself would be buying the book just for that one singular comic. People picking up this novel are doing so for the Daleks and all the behind the scenes material on them, of which there's plenty. And even I don't regret getting a digital copy as there's enough here that there's a good chance I'll probably come back to it at some point during the marathon.
But the comic itself, on its own, will probably be near the bottom of the ranking this era just because its such a nothing of a story.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 21, 2024 16:55:35 GMT
Hurt 5th Review
Death Will Not Part Us - Short Audio
So this was the only short trip I saw listed for the War Doctor. If there's more out there then they need to be added to the Tardis wiki. Also I don't know how 'short' it is when the audio is the same length of a New Who episode, but it is the best realization of the Time War I've ever come across in Doctor Who.
We follow Viola Wintersmith (love the name btw), one of the few people, who isn't a time lord, who can perceive the time war. She understands that the timeline is in flux. That her planet keeps being destroyed, saved, and erased over and over again.
She blames the Time Lords for this and steals one of their weapons in order to assassinate them and anyone working for them, in the hopes of saving her home. The trick is that while the weapon rapidly ages people it requires sacrificing the past as ammunition. Meaning every time Viola goes back in time to alter the future she also further changes her past timeline, erasing events and even people in an effort to preserve her own future happiness.
One of the problems with the time war is that on the occasions when we see it it's often is just depicted as a conventional war. This is the first official media I've come across that actually uses the temporal nature of the conflict as a central plot point.
It also smartly uses Viola's wedding as a constant returning point to better reflect the changes she's making to her past by showing fewer and fewer guests.
If I have any complaint, it's that using very modern English traditions to depict the wedding, and again using modern English jobs/titles for government officials, kind of undermines that this is supposed to be an alien planet. I suppose you could argue that the planet is a future Earth colony but even then culture would change to reflect that move.
But that's a very minor detail. This is still easily best story I've come across for this 'era' thus far.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 25, 2024 22:58:49 GMT
Hurt 6th Review
The War Master: Beneath the Viscoid - Spin-Off
I mentioned how Derek Jacobi's Master was the best thing to come out of Shalka, and apparently I wasn't the only one with this opinion. RTD brought the actor back to pass on the torch to Simm's Master in the tv show proper, albeit with an altered backstory, and Big Finish eventually were able to bring that version of the character to audio.
Beneath the Viscoid is the first story in the first War Master boxset, and free to listen to on the BF website, so I thought that as good a place to start as anywhere else. Though, hearing from other reviews it seems like the boxsets are out of chronological order anyways so I guess it doesn't matter.
However the story is written like a re-introduction of sorts. It's not like a regeneration tale or anything, nor do we delve in much backstory for the main character, but it's more like, 'here are the dynamics at play and what to expect from the series' sort of deal.
We got the Daleks being Daleks, the innocents fighting them off, and here's the Master being morally ambiguous, helping or hurting others as he sees fit. Like he does actually save the planet from the Daleks, if for no other reason then to save his own skin, but then turns around and murders someone in cold blood just because it's more convenient then returning them home.
It's certainly novel to follow a villain around knowing beforehand that there's no hero to stop them. And it works because we know that the Daleks are an even bigger bad; so you find yourself almost rooting for the Master to succeed. And unlike the Daleks, the Master has enough personality to him that he remains entertaining even when being unnecessarily cruel.
With all that said though, it's a novelty that I can see wearing thin fast. If the villain always wins and everyone dies at the end becomes the norm then it becomes too bleak. Despite how wonderful Jacobi is in the role, and genuinely wanting to hear more of him, this is a series that I would have to take piecemeal in between other Who related things. I don't think I would enjoy sitting through an entire boxset in one go like I did with Susan's War.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jun 27, 2024 18:28:43 GMT
Hurt 7th Review
Doctor Who Comes to MINECRAFT! - Video Games
Similar to their collaboration with Fortnight that I covered earlier, the BBC partnered with Minecraft to release a Doctor Who themed pack for the game. Not to be confused with the various fan made Doctor Who Minecraft mods that have existed both before and after; the DLC was created for X-box only and is no longer even supported for newer versions of the game.
As such I was unable to play the expansion myself, and mostly just relied on reviews and promotional showcases at the time to gather information.
While the Doctor Who Island for Fortnight created various environments, reskinning game-play to be Doctor Who themed while you used your in-game avatar to explore; Doctor Who Comes to Minecraft keeps all of the game-play and environments of the core Minecraft game while giving you various avatar skins that allow to play the game as your favorite Doctor Who characters.
And you get a wide selection of skins at that. All of the main tv doctors from Hartnell up to, the then current, Capaldi are present, including War and even the Valeyard. There's a selection of aliens and monsters from both classic and nuwho, including a bucket load of different Dalek and Cybermen variations. And there's at least one to two companions for each Doctor, though how many they get seems to be based more on how current they are/were and also popularity.
Like One gets Susan, and Five only gets Tegan, while Four gets everyone but Romana the First and Adric. Meanwhile Ten gets all of his companions, and Eleven gets all of his companions plus alternative clothing variants for each of them. Then you get weird entries like the Racnoss but not the Yeti... though you do get the Snowmen.
I don't know, seems to me I'd rather have the option to run around as Ian or Nyssa then every rainbow Dalek possible or the Nimon. But then again I'm not on the BBC marketing team. Also, I wished they went with Three's later, more colorful costumes, instead of his first appearance as it would have helped him to stand out from Twelve's model.
As for the game-play, it's just Minecraft. Which means it is what you make of it, literally. I don't have the patience for it myself, but others love it. My nephew loves playing Survival on hard-mode, while my niece is more into the creative building aspects of it. Now, neither of them are Who fans, but it's easy to see where there might be an overlap. Specifically for those that like the builder and adventure modes.
Hence why there are a whole bunch of fan mods and fan animations involving Doctor Who and Minecraft already. Which is why, while I do understand why the BBC went the route they did of selling the skins, I also can't see any fan who plays Minecraft picking it up just because the mods are free, offer more content, are better supported through the versions, and can be gotten on PC.
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Post by bethhigdon on Jul 1, 2024 18:05:46 GMT
Hurt 8th Review
Neverwhen - Full Audio
The Wat Doctor gets tricked into leading a Gallifreyan High Council member into the middle of a 'no-man's land' to recover a super weapon... one that inflects a cruel and unusual punishment upon it's victims.
So like with the previous short trip, this audio also takes advantage of the temporal nature of the time war. The weapon that everyone is after traps it's victims in a fluctuating time-loop. Not only is everyone doomed to fight and die repeatedly, but they also keep altering what time period they're in; from primitive cave man days with stone clubs to the far future and laser guns.
Which means that the enemy goes back and forth from Kaleds to Daleks but always with the desire to kill the 'other'.
However the Gallifreyans aren't much better and the main villain of the piece can said to be the High Council member.
Which leaves the Doctor with a tough moral choice that is supposed to foreshadow his ultimate decision to end the war.
As interesting as all this potentially is though, it's let down by the fact that the War Doctor never really lives up to his premise. He's still basically the Doctor, even to the point where the High Council still calls him by that name. He's not even really all that dark compared to other Doctors either. Which means that, despite Hurt being decent in the role, you're still reminded that there was no real reason to replace Mcgann during the 50th.
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