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Post by sherlock on Jun 3, 2024 9:00:19 GMT
Oh no it’s the return of the real villain of Once and Future; the producer’s shopping list of random characters. But it gets us a final outing with Warner’s Doctor and Benny, so worth it regardless.
Literally ^
"Producer Scott Handcock said: “David Richardson asked me to do a Dark Gallifrey box set with the War Master, and there were certain other characters he wanted in the mix. So I turned to James, with a Terrance Dicks-style Five Doctors shopping list, and asked, can you work up a story featuring the War Master, Captain John Hart, Bernice Summerfield, and the David Warner Doctor, and even a little cameo from the young War Doctor? Very quickly, he came up with a storyline that accommodated everyone, that made sense and celebrated those combinations of characters.” "
Rather puts paid to the notion this series is “writer-led” as we were led to believe before but maybe that was only true of Morbius.
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Post by ollychops on Jun 3, 2024 9:01:27 GMT
This announcement is a nice little birthday present for me.
And that explains why there was such a gap between James telling me about recording for BF again and the announcement! It does seem a bit “shopping list” like OAF but it sounds promising so I’ll wait to listen before judging.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2024 9:06:05 GMT
I know I've been vocal in the past at times about my frustrations with the War Master range, in particular about how when I buy a product about the War Master featuring Derek Jacobi, I want it to actually have Derek Jacobi playing the Master in it. There have been a number of box sets in the range (not so much in recent times, I'll admit) where this was a serious problem for me. Derek Jacobi isn't even credited as being in the first episode of this "War Master trilogy". I'm sorry, but how can this be a trilogy about the War Master if he isn't even in one of the episodes? It's named after him! Scott Handcock straight up says in the news article that it was originally a box set, and stuff like this a perfect example for why they should have stayed box sets, as we now have this weird release that doesn't even feature the titular character in it... And much as I enjoy having Captain John around occasionally, this feels like a really weird place to use him. On top of that, I feel like this news piece has spoiled the whole "Dark Gallifrey" idea. As far as I was aware, we were under the impression the series was called that because it was centring on the darker characters from Gallifrey, not that it was a literal place/thing. If that's introduced in Morbius - Part 3, they've really mistimed this announcement. I'm a bit - first world issues - War Mastered out. The formula of "he's nice this time, character trusts him and BLEAK ENDING" is more than overdone. While, sorry to say, even Jacobi has become one-note with the "Uhh-ohhh" noise he makes more than Stephen Noonan does Hartnell's giggle. They really are making more cash out of this splitting of boxsets that were obviously costed and recorded as such, it's baffling more people haven't kicked off at being charged more. While "Benny and Captain John = War Master" is one of the worst examples of BF's kitchen sink crossovers since Jackie and River Vs The Krotons. And yes, if the existence of Dark Gallifrey as a place and not just a theme was blown by this newspiece? Even for them that'd be a howler. Morbius has felt fresh - to me - by taking place in a time before all the usual suspects. Who generally just tells stories from The Doctor's relative time in Shoreditch on. To delve way before that was fun and fresh. Even the galleons in space felt suitable as....it's "the past". But the more familiar elements are in it? I'm expecting more Last Day or Once And Future subpar dog's dinner stories where "but you've never heard Churchill and Brax together before!" is the supposed selling point. Frankly even announcing Morbius for The War Doctor so soon seems to normalise him too, which is sad.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2024 9:11:49 GMT
WWWWWAAAAAAARRRRRNNNNNNNEEEERRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! yeessss!!!! I'd like to be excited but he sounded so ill on Once And Future I don't think many would have known it was him out of context. Made me sad more than happy to have something left from him.
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Post by sherlock on Jun 3, 2024 9:11:56 GMT
I know I've been vocal in the past at times about my frustrations with the War Master range, in particular about how when I buy a product about the War Master featuring Derek Jacobi, I want it to actually have Derek Jacobi playing the Master in it. There have been a number of box sets in the range (not so much in recent times, I'll admit) where this was a serious problem for me. Derek Jacobi isn't even credited as being in the first episode of this "War Master trilogy". I'm sorry, but how can this be a trilogy about the War Master if he isn't even in one of the episodes? It's named after him! Scott Handcock straight up says in the news article that it was originally a box set, and stuff like this a perfect example for why they should have stayed box sets, as we now have this weird release that doesn't even feature the titular character in it... And much as I enjoy having Captain John around occasionally, this feels like a really weird place to use him. On top of that, I feel like this news piece has spoiled the whole "Dark Gallifrey" idea. As far as I was aware, we were under the impression the series was called that because it was centring on the darker characters from Gallifrey, not that it was a literal place/thing. If that's introduced in Morbius - Part 3, they've really mistimed this announcement. The synopsis for Part 3 does seem to hint Dark Gallifrey is an actual thing but yeah it does feel a bit like they’ve blown a twist. If they’d released Part 3 at same time of month as previous parts maybe they could have coincided this announcement, but for some reason they’re not.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
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Post by dorney on Jun 3, 2024 9:45:56 GMT
Literally ^
"Producer Scott Handcock said: “David Richardson asked me to do a Dark Gallifrey box set with the War Master, and there were certain other characters he wanted in the mix. So I turned to James, with a Terrance Dicks-style Five Doctors shopping list, and asked, can you work up a story featuring the War Master, Captain John Hart, Bernice Summerfield, and the David Warner Doctor, and even a little cameo from the young War Doctor? Very quickly, he came up with a storyline that accommodated everyone, that made sense and celebrated those combinations of characters.” "
Rather puts paid to the notion this series is “writer-led” as we were led to believe before but maybe that was only true of Morbius. Oh the series is 100% writer led, believe me.
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Post by nardolespinoffwhen on Jun 3, 2024 9:47:36 GMT
I definitely agree that the idea of throwing characters together for the hell of it is getting a bit boring BUT for some reason I don't feel like that with this.
I think it's the fact that it's being told by one writer (Goss, who is usually pretty decent) over 3 hours.
If it had been an hour and you had those five regulars featuring I would definitely be apprehensive as you don't have time to give them all something meaningful to do but with that long runtime I have hope that they will all feel relevant to the plot.
I'm also just excited to hear Captain John interact with Benny and the Master, how crazy is that! Imagine watching Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang back in the day and thinking that guys going to be flirting with Benny...
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Post by jacobz40 on Jun 3, 2024 9:58:59 GMT
I honestly got a little teary seeing that we get one more outing with Mr. Warner. I got the chance to tell him that he was my favorite Doctor shortly before he passed and he was utterly lovely. Once more unto the breach, dear friends!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2024 10:06:23 GMT
Rather puts paid to the notion this series is “writer-led” as we were led to believe before but maybe that was only true of Morbius. Oh the series is 100% writer led, believe me. I'd hate to see what a producer led story sounded like then. The story says David had a list of things he wanted in it and then Scott had even more and he asked "can you work up a story featuring the War Master, Captain John Hart, Bernice Summerfield, and the David Warner Doctor, and even a little cameo from the young War Doctor?" How can that be the writer leading, in any sense?
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Post by timleschild on Jun 3, 2024 10:07:44 GMT
Cover Art War Master !
Oh dear, so just more throw characters together stuff from BF. I guess this is what most fans want. To me it seems interminable. & what's all this about Dark Gallifrey being "a legendary alternative version of the Time Lords’ home planet." I assumed it was just a setting for different stories but we are getting neither...again.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
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Post by dorney on Jun 3, 2024 10:10:15 GMT
Oh the series is 100% writer led, believe me. I'd hate to see what a producer led story sounded like then. The story says David had a list of things he wanted in it and then Scott had even more and he asked "can you work up a story featuring the War Master, Captain John Hart, Bernice Summerfield, and the David Warner Doctor, and even a little cameo from the young War Doctor?" How can that be the writer leading, in any sense? It’s kind of hard to explain without going into production detail I’m not sure I’m entirely at liberty to discuss. But hopefully you’ll get a good sense of that when you see how idiosyncratic this one is.
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Post by timleschild on Jun 3, 2024 10:12:37 GMT
Oh the series is 100% writer led, believe me. I'd hate to see what a producer led story sounded like then. The story says David had a list of things he wanted in it and then Scott had even more and he asked "can you work up a story featuring the War Master, Captain John Hart, Bernice Summerfield, and the David Warner Doctor, and even a little cameo from the young War Doctor?" How can that be the writer leading, in any sense? I agree. Doesn't sound writer led at all. Sounds awful & the usual, 'aren't these people nice to work with so lets put them all together' crap from BF. Especially compared to Morbius.
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Post by timleschild on Jun 3, 2024 10:25:29 GMT
I know I've been vocal in the past at times about my frustrations with the War Master range, in particular about how when I buy a product about the War Master featuring Derek Jacobi, I want it to actually have Derek Jacobi playing the Master in it. There have been a number of box sets in the range (not so much in recent times, I'll admit) where this was a serious problem for me. Derek Jacobi isn't even credited as being in the first episode of this "War Master trilogy". I'm sorry, but how can this be a trilogy about the War Master if he isn't even in one of the episodes? It's named after him! Scott Handcock straight up says in the news article that it was originally a box set, and stuff like this a perfect example for why they should have stayed box sets, as we now have this weird release that doesn't even feature the titular character in it... And much as I enjoy having Captain John around occasionally, this feels like a really weird place to use him. On top of that, I feel like this news piece has spoiled the whole "Dark Gallifrey" idea. As far as I was aware, we were under the impression the series was called that because it was centring on the darker characters from Gallifrey, not that it was a literal place/thing. If that's introduced in Morbius - Part 3, they've really mistimed this announcement.That's what I'm thinking now, Morbius 3 will introduce a new alternate Gallifrey ruled by him. Just when I thought BF were doing something new & interesting it becomes the usual epic quest with random characters thrown together because they're nice to work with.
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Kestrel
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Post by Kestrel on Jun 3, 2024 10:42:25 GMT
So... I'm a bit confused on this range. Is it all one big arc, or is each set/miniseries more standalone? From what some of y'all have been saying, it sounds like it may be the former... I'm definitely game for most anything with a Master in it, but those other renegade Time Lords kind of bore me.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
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Post by dorney on Jun 3, 2024 10:48:57 GMT
So... I'm a bit confused on this range. Is it all one big arc, or is each set/miniseries more standalone? From what some of y'all have been saying, it sounds like it may be the former... I'm definitely game for most anything with a Master in it, but those other renegade Time Lords kind of bore me. Largely standalone.
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Post by shallacatop on Jun 3, 2024 11:08:13 GMT
Not a news article that excites me greatly in all honesty. I love Jacobi's Master, and I consider him to be one of my favourites, but do admit that his range has hit a cul-de-sac for quite some time now and I was hoping this would bring some variety to proceedings. Having him not appear or lead one episode of his own trilogy is very off and is reminiscient of some of his earlier sets and plagued the Roberts Master range too. To do it routinely in a set is bad enough, but to then try and turn sets into individual releases and do it is unforgivable.
Throw in the Warner Doctor, Benny, Captain John and a War Doctor appearance and it's just a shopping list requirement; what's worse is they very openly admit that. It does make the notion that this is writer led hard to believe, but I suppose we'll see. For me, James Goss at best is someone who does a decent story and fumbles it at the end or produces a script that is full of continuity and references with little substance, so seeing his name attached regardless of the contents isn't exciting to me.
The Dark Gallifrey reveal in the article is a bit of a clanger too. Guessing that was meant to be revealed in Morbius 3, but for some reason that's not being released for another 3 weeks. That's the other downside to splitting stes into monthly releases; when it's very much one story it's not unreasonable to expect a regular release. It's going to be closer to 2 months between parts than it is 4 weeks.
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Post by sherlock on Jun 3, 2024 11:25:41 GMT
Vortex has a load of details on this. Seems it’s something of a coda to the whole storyline despite being released second, and the initial request from Richardson was the Master with a character from Torchwood, which became Captain John, along with Benny.
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Post by antartiks on Jun 3, 2024 11:56:26 GMT
What a great birthday present it is to know that David Warner still has one final adventure left to be released.
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Post by timleschild on Jun 3, 2024 12:45:21 GMT
So... I'm a bit confused on this range. Is it all one big arc, or is each set/miniseries more standalone? From what some of y'all have been saying, it sounds like it may be the former... I'm definitely game for most anything with a Master in it, but those other renegade Time Lords kind of bore me. Largely standalone. In fairness, how many times have BF said that
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Post by timleschild on Jun 3, 2024 12:46:53 GMT
Vortex has a load of details on this. Seems it’s something of a coda to the whole storyline despite being released second, and the initial request from Richardson was the Master with a character from Torchwood, which became Captain John, along with Benny. Why? God BF Why?
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