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Post by newt5996 on Feb 12, 2016 13:08:17 GMT
The early years of Big Finish are a bit of a mixed bag for me as they really didn't find their footing until release 5. So what are everyone's thoughts on the early stuff?
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bobod
Chancellery Guard
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Post by bobod on Feb 12, 2016 13:18:59 GMT
The best of that first five is Whispers of Terror.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Feb 12, 2016 13:28:23 GMT
The best of that first five is Whispers of Terror. I'll agree with that closely followed by Phantasmagoria The first 15 have some fantastic stories and also we were introduced to the great Evelyn Smythe
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Post by mark687 on Feb 12, 2016 13:45:00 GMT
Favourites of the 1st 15 for me are:
Marian Conspiracy A Brilliant intro to a companion and also it just seems like this is how CB SHOULD be playing the Doctor, luckily he's kept up that quality of performance ever since.
The Spectre of Layon Moore
6 and the Brig with Excellent support
The Fearmonger
My favourite TARDIS Team doing what I think mid-late 90s would've done on TV
Regards
mark687
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bobod
Chancellery Guard
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Post by bobod on Feb 12, 2016 14:09:44 GMT
I love Spectre of Lanyon Moor too. The Fearmonger was nicely NAy. And The Holy Terror is *of course* magnificent.
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Feb 12, 2016 15:24:34 GMT
Not big on "Phantasmagoria" or "Land of the Dead", but the rest are pretty solid. And ofcourse "The Holy Terror" is one of the all-time greats.
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Post by randomjc on Feb 12, 2016 16:34:27 GMT
Because I'm weird.
Best (Easily the ones I go back to, and it's no surprise that they're all Sixth Doctor) Whispers of Terror The Spectre of Lanyon Moor The Holy Terror
Good (These I enjoyed, not the top of my list, but I won't skip on a marathon re-listen) Phantasmagoria The Fearmonger Winter for the Adept The Fires of Vulcan The Marian Conspiracy
Ok (Daleks, Oh My. Even Six and Evelyn can't get me excited for them. These are enjoyable enough, but I just have no passion for them.) The Land of the Dead The Genocide Machine The Apocalypse Element The Mutant Phase Red Dawn
The Weird: The Sirens of Time (On Paper great. I remember liking it well enough my first time, but lord, it's almost impossible re-listen to me, I get so bored in the first story.) The Shadow of the Scourge (It's Benny, and it's not bad, but it's that weird, not quite BF canon that doesn't quite fit anywhere.)
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Post by agentten on Feb 12, 2016 17:01:08 GMT
The Fearmonger is my favorite of those releases. I also like Phantasmagoria, Whispers of Terror, The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, and The Apocalypse Element. The early releases are definitely a mixed bag, some of it works and some just doesn't, but the stuff that works shows that even in its early days Big Finish was onto something.
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Post by barnabaslives on Feb 12, 2016 20:51:03 GMT
I'm rather fond of all of 6-12 - possibly excepting Red Dawn but I really should give that another listen as I remember so little of it that I probably picked a terrible time to hear it like after I was already half asleep. I think The Genocide Machine might have been my very first Doctor Who audio... It really made a good impression on me and is still a favorite. I might be in the minority being keen on Winter for the Adept but I rather enjoyed the story and it felt very much to me like a TV story, as with the Lost Stories by Andrew Cartmel. I think Phantasmagoria at least deserves honorable mention, too.
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Post by omega on Feb 12, 2016 22:51:20 GMT
Some stories may not stack up compared to later more innovative releases, but they must have been a godsend at the time they were released. The first time old Doctors and companions actually returned to their roles, you didn't just have to read them, you could hear them! It's easy to judge them in a harsher light since we've gotten hundreds more stories since 1999/2000, but many of them have their own merits. The Sixth Doctor material with Evelyn still stands up today. Some things can take you out of it, like the shorter episodes, the simpler plots and the recurring actors (at that point they were mainly hiring their actor friends for the guest cast), but they still stand up as a product of their time.
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Post by anothermanicmondas on Feb 13, 2016 21:50:15 GMT
As a late arrival to Big Finish I listened to them in a semi-random order over the last 2 years mixed in with the more recent releases I felt the first 2 had decent ideas but didn't gel enough for my tastes Whispers of Terror was a significant improvement. Land of the Dead was a decent "base-under siege" story The FearMonger stands out as one of the best of the first 15 The Marion Conspiracy was good (though I wonder if I missed something regarding the cause of Evelyn's abrupt temporal problem)
The Holy Terror was the first from 1-15 I listened to, and probably the best I only listened to Fires of Vulcan last month and that was a good historic adventure
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Post by christmastrenzalore on Feb 13, 2016 22:40:53 GMT
The Marion Conspiracy was good (though I wonder if I missed something regarding the cause of Evelyn's abrupt temporal problem) If memory serves, the Doctor made a device that would stop her from disappearing, but she left it behind in her handbag at the pub. Luckily the high priest brought it to her just in time (ironically intending to frame her for treason and get her killed.)
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Post by Bazoolium on Feb 13, 2016 23:59:50 GMT
Lots of good ones in the first 15. Everyone has pointed out the obvious ones.
I liked Mutant Phase, an interesting plot and some great interaction between Five and Nyssa.
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Post by mrperson on Feb 14, 2016 0:37:16 GMT
1-15 had so many great stories (and I say that from the perspective who only found out about BF somewhere in the vicinity of 2012). And the Mutant Phase? Loved it. BF pulls off "timey-wimey" in a way that the reboot never quite seems to manage..
An excellent attempt to interpret a time-paradox in as logical a manner as possible; loved the Doc's remark to Nyssa at the end. It can't make complete sense if you think about it as a whole, but they otherwise respected the "rules"
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Post by mrperson on Feb 14, 2016 0:37:40 GMT
The Marion Conspiracy was good (though I wonder if I missed something regarding the cause of Evelyn's abrupt temporal problem) If memory serves, the Doctor made a device that would stop her from disappearing, but she left it behind in her handbag at the pub. Luckily the high priest brought it to her just in time (ironically intending to frame her for treason and get her killed.) Bingo
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Post by anothermanicmondas on Feb 14, 2016 11:52:09 GMT
The Marion Conspiracy was good (though I wonder if I missed something regarding the cause of Evelyn's abrupt temporal problem) If memory serves, the Doctor made a device that would stop her from disappearing, but she left it behind in her handbag at the pub. Luckily the high priest brought it to her just in time (ironically intending to frame her for treason and get her killed.) I had noticed that - it's not what I meant. I was talking about the reason she needed the device in the first place. As far as I remember she was ceasing to have ever existed and so had to go back in time to change the past so that she existed. Why did that suddenly happen to her?
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Post by mark687 on Feb 14, 2016 12:06:38 GMT
If memory serves, the Doctor made a device that would stop her from disappearing, but she left it behind in her handbag at the pub. Luckily the high priest brought it to her just in time (ironically intending to frame her for treason and get her killed.) I had noticed that - it's not what I meant. I was talking about the reason she needed the device in the first place. As far as I remember she was ceasing to have ever existed and so had to go back in time to change the past so that she existed. Why did that suddenly happen to her? Had she not back in time with the Doctor because she was being erased the Queen would've burnt her hand-maiden to death for trying to assassinate her. The hand-maiden was pregnant with Evelyn's ancestor so Evelyn would've been erased. Both futures are possible until the Doctor makes the Queen realize she can't kill an unborn child, so the device is needed to prevent Evelyn's erasure up to that point.
Regards
mark687
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2016 12:47:54 GMT
I had noticed that - it's not what I meant. I was talking about the reason she needed the device in the first place. As far as I remember she was ceasing to have ever existed and so had to go back in time to change the past so that she existed. Why did that suddenly happen to her? Had she not back in time with the Doctor because she was being erased the Queen would've burnt her hand-maiden to death for trying to assassinate her. The handmaiden was pregnant with Evelyn's ancestor so Evelyn would've been erased. Both futures are possible until the Doctor makes the Queen realize she can't kill an unborn child, so the device is needed to prevent Evelyn's erasure up to that point.
Regards
mark687
It's a wonderful little twist on the predestination paradox without it actually being a paradox. The Marian Conspiracy was the moment I think Big Finish managed to step into their own groove and produce stories that weren't trying to emulate the quirks and idiosyncracies of each Doctor's own era. I admire that they weren't afraid to try something different and challenge their audience. I love some of the music from this early period, Red Dawn being a particular highlight with its chilling, almost desperate synthesiser tones that put you right there in the action of this strange Martian world. The Ice Warriors are characterised as real people rather than wafer-thin megalomaniacs and you genuinely care about each of the characters from the Doctor and Peri to the Ice Warriors and the NASA astronauts. It's the kind of intrepid exploration tale that you don't see anymore, everything's so insular and militaristic nowadays. Together with some really high quality stories across the board, I'd actually go so far as to say almost every story from this early period is a winner save four exceptions: The Sirens of Time (which suffered from feeling very amateurish despite some really good ideas), Phantasmagoria (which felt as though it didn't really know what it wanted to be), The Land of the Dead (unusually dull) and The Genocide Machine (very formulaic with Bev an expy for Bernice).
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
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Post by ljwilson on Feb 14, 2016 13:39:20 GMT
Some good thoughts there for Red dawn, a story ive never bought due to mixed reviews and that naff front cover.
I do like a bit of sinister synth though so may give it a go.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2016 0:39:31 GMT
Some good thoughts there for Red dawn, a story ive never bought due to mixed reviews and that naff front cover. I do like a bit of sinister synth though so may give it a go. I'd highly recommend it, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although, nowadays it might almost be a period piece! The criticisms I've seen are that the Ice Warriors take centre stage (deserved, though it hardly drags down the piece) and the main villain Webster being a snotty little brat (again deserved, but I think that was the intention of the author).
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