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Post by wonkothesane on Jul 3, 2024 13:11:24 GMT
I don't know what else I can add that hasn't already been said. Terrible. I expect a lot more from Big Finish, I really do. Guy Adams and Matt Fitton, what were you thinking? You are both so much better than this. Hey guys! I made an account here just to let you all know that I’m trying to make a deal with the dark citizens of the dark universe to stop this travesty of a release from ever happening. If I don’t succeed and turn evil, you have permission to throw a drink over me.
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Post by Chakoteya on Jul 12, 2024 8:10:44 GMT
It was always going to be a tricky ask, to do a 7th Doctor lead-up to picking up the Master and then getting shot. Maybe the scope was too big? Maybe trying to fit in all his most prominent companions was always going to lead to a scattergun approach. A lot of it worked so some extent.
And that final 'calling the Doctor, any Doctor' from Narvin. Now that was icing and chocolate sprinkles on the sponge cake.
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Post by timleschild on Jul 12, 2024 10:22:50 GMT
It was always going to be a tricky ask, to do a 7th Doctor lead-up to picking up the Master and then getting shot. Maybe the scope was too big? Maybe trying to fit in all his most prominent companions was always going to lead to a scattergun approach. A lot of it worked so some extent. But it's not a tricky ask. It was BF's approach that made it tricky.
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Post by shallacatop on Jul 12, 2024 15:27:26 GMT
I thought the first set was an incomprehensible mess that I couldn't stop listening to, fascinated about how much more the whole thing could fall apart. Part 2 is more of the same, yet somehow it manages to be even worse!
It achieves nothing it sets out to do, except for its shopping list of characters. If it wasn't for Joe Kraemer's repetitive and intrusive soundtrack (if I hear his March of the Resistance rip-off Paternoster Gang interlude one more time...!) I think I'd just about make out the back slapping and laughter from Fitton, Adams & Richardson.
Not sure where to start. In fact, I don't think I will; it'd mean I'd spend more effort on the release than the production team did. Embarrassingly bad; it's releases like this which justify the wider fandom's view on Big Finish.
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Post by elkawho on Jul 12, 2024 19:10:05 GMT
I thought the first set was an incomprehensible mess that I couldn't stop listening to, fascinated about how much more the whole thing could fall apart. Part 2 is more of the same, yet somehow it manages to be even worse! It achieves nothing it sets out to do, except for its shopping list of characters. If it wasn't for Joe Kraemer's repetitive and intrusive soundtrack (if I hear his March of the Resistance rip-off Paternoster Gang interlude one more time...!) I think I'd just about make out the back slapping and laughter from Fitton, Adams & Richardson. Not sure where to start. In fact, I don't think I will; it'd mean I'd spend more effort on the release than the production team did. Embarrassingly bad; it's releases like this which justify the wider fandom's view on Big Finish.The wider fandom's view on Big Finish? ![:think](//storage.proboards.com/6343532/images/B9PvwZegdZsfiTNAG5Ij.gif) I don't know, I see a lot of fandom love for the company. I mean, the vast majority of their output is pretty much high quality storytelling, so I'm not sure what you are saying.
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Post by shallacatop on Jul 12, 2024 19:35:38 GMT
I thought the first set was an incomprehensible mess that I couldn't stop listening to, fascinated about how much more the whole thing could fall apart. Part 2 is more of the same, yet somehow it manages to be even worse! It achieves nothing it sets out to do, except for its shopping list of characters. If it wasn't for Joe Kraemer's repetitive and intrusive soundtrack (if I hear his March of the Resistance rip-off Paternoster Gang interlude one more time...!) I think I'd just about make out the back slapping and laughter from Fitton, Adams & Richardson. Not sure where to start. In fact, I don't think I will; it'd mean I'd spend more effort on the release than the production team did. Embarrassingly bad; it's releases like this which justify the wider fandom's view on Big Finish.The wider fandom's view on Big Finish? ![:think](//storage.proboards.com/6343532/images/B9PvwZegdZsfiTNAG5Ij.gif) I don't know, I see a lot of fandom love for the company. I mean, the vast majority of their output is pretty much high quality storytelling, so I'm not sure what you are saying. They're favourably viewed by the people who purchase them, sure, but that’s a small subset of the overall fanbase. It’s common for them to be mocked for throwing the kitchen sink in their releases and meaningless deep cuts; The Last Day in a nutshell. You get it at conventions, you hear it on podcasts, etc. and all they’ve done is see the cover. We purchase it, we know what they’re capable of. This release ain’t it and brought to mind why some do laugh at what Big Finish do. When you hear something as terrible as The Last Day, I can’t say I blame them.
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Post by timleschild on Jul 12, 2024 19:35:48 GMT
I thought the first set was an incomprehensible mess that I couldn't stop listening to, fascinated about how much more the whole thing could fall apart. Part 2 is more of the same, yet somehow it manages to be even worse! It achieves nothing it sets out to do, except for its shopping list of characters. If it wasn't for Joe Kraemer's repetitive and intrusive soundtrack (if I hear his March of the Resistance rip-off Paternoster Gang interlude one more time...!) I think I'd just about make out the back slapping and laughter from Fitton, Adams & Richardson. Not sure where to start. In fact, I don't think I will; it'd mean I'd spend more effort on the release than the production team did. Embarrassingly bad; it's releases like this which justify the wider fandom's view on Big Finish.The wider fandom's view on Big Finish? ![:think](//storage.proboards.com/6343532/images/B9PvwZegdZsfiTNAG5Ij.gif) I don't know, I see a lot of fandom love for the company. I mean, the vast majority of their output is pretty much high quality storytelling, so I'm not sure what you are saying. Honestly, I didn't think wider fandom knows much about BF.
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Kestrel
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 2,693
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Post by Kestrel on Jul 15, 2024 12:42:45 GMT
Honestly, I didn't think wider fandom knows much about BF. Pretty much. This is a fandom that, generally speaking, doesn't even have much awareness of the Classic series -- or the various TV spinoffs like Torchwood, SJA and Class. You can say that Big Finish has a "reputation" in the fandom, but I honestly can't even imagine what that reputation would be. I think Big Finish only really has a reputation with people who buy and listen to Big Finish audios.
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Post by noneofyourbusiness on Jul 15, 2024 14:36:16 GMT
The wider fandom's view on Big Finish? ![:think](//storage.proboards.com/6343532/images/B9PvwZegdZsfiTNAG5Ij.gif) I don't know, I see a lot of fandom love for the company. I mean, the vast majority of their output is pretty much high quality storytelling, so I'm not sure what you are saying. Honestly, I didn't think wider fandom knows much about BF. Which is a shame, because I'm sure there are several fans out there wishing for spinoffs showing what happened to their favorite characters in known but unseen parts of their timelines like The Diary of River Song, The Lone Centurion, The Year of Martha Jones, Jenny - The Doctor's Daughter, Lady Christina, UNIT, Missy, The War Master, The War Doctor or The Paternoster Gang, without knowing they are out there. And it was the plethora of Big Finish content, exploring these many corners of the Whoniverse and having Doctor Who monthly releases that were often more serious than the TV show, that kept me engaged as a fan during the Chibnall era (given the gaps between seasons as well as the writing quality) when I was otherwise seriously considering abandoning Doctor Who.
I haven't listened to this release and would like to know if anyone have positive things to say about it that can be listed.
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Kestrel
Chancellery Guard
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Post by Kestrel on Jul 15, 2024 16:33:32 GMT
True. But between how incredibly, profoundly disorganized the Big Finish library is, and their prices, it's not exactly the easiest thing out there to recommend to most fans.
Gotta keep in mind the majority of fans aren't spending *any* money directly on Doctor Who media, and for those that are, there's an enormous difference between buying a full season of TV episodes on blu-ray versus spending the same amount on a 2-hour audio boxset.
And that last thing is the biggest impediment, I think. If Big Finish were to adjust their prices by the age of the release, making older audios progressively and progressively cheaper, I think they could probably greatly expand their audience.
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Post by enofa on Jul 15, 2024 19:33:45 GMT
Oh, BF have a reputation. I think it partially comes from a general wariness of tie-in material which is so frequently poor quality (Who is an outlier in that regard), but it seems to have increased since they got the new series license and had to resort to spin-offs to make it pay. A few places online I’ve seen Big Finish as short-hand for ludicrous spin-offs; whenever the suggestion of a Red Dwarf BF comes up, Dwarf fans seem to immediately jump to the conclusion that it would be entirely dredging up obscure one-off characters. On a comedy forum I post on, someone posted about the Thirteenth Doctor audios recently and people were immediately saying it’s just going to be Thirteen and Nyssa vs the Quarks, Thirteen and Leela vs the Daleks etc, and people already decided that it’s going to be crap.
They aren’t lone examples, either. To be honest, if I was listening to other people rather than very eager to get more live action Who, I wouldn’t have touched Big Finish with a barge pole. The ‘scraping the barrel’ thing is the most common opinion I come across outside people who’ve listened to a lot of them.
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Post by enofa on Jul 15, 2024 19:35:20 GMT
I haven't listened to this release and would like to know if anyone have positive things to say about it that can be listed. [/div] [/quote] The Last Day? Benny and Mel make a great team. I enjoyed their scenes together. Can’t think of anything else.
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Post by shallacatop on Jul 15, 2024 21:45:26 GMT
Oh, BF have a reputation. I think it partially comes from a general wariness of tie-in material which is so frequently poor quality (Who is an outlier in that regard), but it seems to have increased since they got the new series license and had to resort to spin-offs to make it pay. A few places online I’ve seen Big Finish as short-hand for ludicrous spin-offs; whenever the suggestion of a Red Dwarf BF comes up, Dwarf fans seem to immediately jump to the conclusion that it would be entirely dredging up obscure one-off characters. On a comedy forum I post on, someone posted about the Thirteenth Doctor audios recently and people were immediately saying it’s just going to be Thirteen and Nyssa vs the Quarks, Thirteen and Leela vs the Daleks etc, and people already decided that it’s going to be crap. They aren’t lone examples, either. To be honest, if I was listening to other people rather than very eager to get more live action Who, I wouldn’t have touched Big Finish with a barge pole. The ‘scraping the barrel’ thing is the most common opinion I come across outside people who’ve listened to a lot of them. Spot on and exactly what I was getting at. It’s not to say they don’t produce cracking stuff, we all know they do by the very fact we’re on this forum, but the stuff that sticks in the heads of non-listers, and therefore the wider fandom, is the stuff they see in announcements. It’s throwing Jackie Tyler into things, it’s bringing back the Quarks, it’s doing a spin-off for Lady Christina, etc. Sometimes when you listen the results are pretty good. Sometimes the end product is worthy of the ridicule they get; The Last Day is very much one of those and reiterates the reputation the fandom do give BF. That’s essentially the point I was making. Of course, it doesn’t help when ideas don’t go further beyond commissioning a shopping list of characters.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2024 23:44:31 GMT
Anyone could see when the Main Range and Companion Chronicles ended, that box sets would have to be "sexy" to get sales. The days of paying years in advance for "TBA" were over for most. So instead of a flow of 2 discers arriving, they had to sell standalone sets - and a lot of different ones. So control seemed to go out the window and the "dartboard" came out.
Very, very early on we had a Churchill boxset - a bad enough idea to deflect "they'll release anything.." claims but BF also put the young Kazran from A Christmas Carol and the daughter from The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe. That was alarm bells. Then River seemed to meet McGann more than she'd ever met Matt. They were in 3 sets together in a year. We ended up with River and Jackie Vs. Quarks...
Can these still be good? Yep, absolutely. But do they more often feel like crossovers in need of a story instead of the other way around? 100%.
BF have used ANYTHING they can and it's been catch 22. They needed to plug the gap lost with the MR and CC..but they've cried wolf and hotshotted everything. Nothing is too surprising now, and the model has been built on these surprise crossovers FAR more than "For The Love Of Stories". Of course, some ranges with no crossovers have still been poor - the Colin era with Mel and Hebe? Awful.
Just too much product overall. Even when there IS a great story, it's one of 20 released that month not 2 or 3 so there's so little time to sink in before everything moves on. It's not a coincidence that people's favourites are from the first 5-10 years of BF by and large.
This is true of all media. Look how Star Wars and Marvel are struggling since diluting their brands with all sorts of shows and spinoffs of spinoffs.
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lidar2
Castellan
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_blue.png)
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 6,002
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Post by lidar2 on Jul 16, 2024 7:53:36 GMT
SO far I have listened to 8 episodes and am enjoying it OK. So far there is nothing leading to the TV movie and I suspect this is just a 12 part epic mashup involving the proverbial kitchen sink, with a 5 minute lead into the TV movie tacked on at the end.
To my mind, what the TV movie lead in required was an episode or two primarily about the Master and the Daleks with the Doctor a secondary character.
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Post by noneofyourbusiness on Jul 16, 2024 15:19:19 GMT
I haven't listened to this release and would like to know if anyone have positive things to say about it that can be listed. [/div] [/quote] The Last Day? Benny and Mel make a great team. I enjoyed their scenes together. Can’t think of anything else. [/quote][/div]
Yes, The Last Day. It's been disappointing to read how negative the response has been and I'd like to know what if anything people actually liked about it.
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Post by noneofyourbusiness on Jul 16, 2024 15:21:07 GMT
To my mind, what the TV movie lead in required was an episode or two primarily about the Master and the Daleks with the Doctor a secondary character. Very disappointing. Leading into the situation at the beginning of the movie should be a major point of the story. Not necessarily the only aspect, but a significant one. Don't they know that's what people are curious about?
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Post by noneofyourbusiness on Jul 16, 2024 15:24:24 GMT
We ended up with River and Jackie Vs. Quarks... I don't understand the mindset to which that doesn't sound like an awesome premise.
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Post by timleschild on Jul 16, 2024 16:04:06 GMT
We ended up with River and Jackie Vs. Quarks... I don't understand the mindset to which that doesn't sound like an awesome premise. It sounds like an awful premise.
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Post by smith11 on Jul 16, 2024 16:25:33 GMT
I don't understand the mindset to which that doesn't sound like an awesome premise. It sounds like an awful premise. To you
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