General Discussion

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Doctor Who: Audios: General Discussion
By ERIC KATZ on Wednesday, August 04, 1999 - 4:21 pm:

I like both of the Pertwee era radio shows. PARADISE OF DEATH was about an amusement park and some violent games that used Experienced (virtual) Reality. This story introduced Sara Jane's photographer, Jeremy Fitzoliver, who reappeared in THE GHOSTS OF N-SPACE, a sad sequel to this story.

THE PESCATONS, with Sara and Tom Baker, is about Zor, the leader of a shark-like race.

SLIPBACK was with the late Valentine Dyall as Captain Slarn, an alien with several chins, a schizophrenic computer, Peri, and Colin Baker.

I really would have liked to have heard more music/sound effects from assorted recent stories, like SHORT TRIPS (anthology with several Doctors), OUT OF THE DARKNESS (Colin Baker), and EARTH AND BEYOND (Paul McGann).

Please read FloorTen's Daniel Whittle's review (http://floorten.fsn.net/sirens.htm) before buying THE SIRENS OF TIME!

Both FloorTen and Back to reality productions have made some great stories about the Daleks! FloorTen also made a very long Cybermen story (Jubilee) and an incomplete story with the Master (Mobius Trap). I've not yet bought any of the cassettes/CD's of any more unofficial stories. If you've bought some of them, please comment.


By Chris Thomas on Saturday, January 29, 2000 - 10:05 pm:

If you think you've got what it takes to write a Doctor Who audio, the writer's guidelines can be found here: http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/guidelin.htm


By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Thursday, March 02, 2000 - 12:15 pm:

Mike- can't we make the BF audios canonical (DW ones, not the Benny's, which can't be for obvious reasons)? The OG timeline team is (looks innocent and unbiased...) and most other canon guides.

For the record, here is a list:

Sirens of Time (5,6,7)
Phantasmagoria (5, Turlough)
Whispers of Terror (6, Peri)
Land of the Dead (5, Nyssa)
The Fearmonger (7, Ace)


By Mike Konczewski on Thursday, March 02, 2000 - 3:59 pm:

Sure, why not? Do you think a lot of the fans on this board will listen to the audio adventures?


By Chris Thomas on Friday, March 03, 2000 - 12:39 am:

I will when I can get hold of one in Australia - when it's easy to get them. I'm surprised BF don't approach the ABC shops to stock them.


By Emily on Friday, March 03, 2000 - 5:45 am:

NOOOO! Please don't make them canon! Then I'll have to listen to them! And after my experience with Paradise of Death (OK, but just NOT Doctor Who) and Ghosts of N-Space (unspeakable) I've decided that audio and the Doctor just don't mix. Quite apart from being unsure whether libraries stock such things...


By Mike Konczewski on Friday, March 03, 2000 - 5:54 am:

Perhaps you can find a website where you can download them.


By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Friday, March 03, 2000 - 10:18 am:

Emily- give it a chance, try Whispers of Terror, it's pretty good. Land of the Dead isn't bad, and the Fearmonger is really good apparently (it's Blum, so you should like it). Doubt libraries will stock them though...

Mike, there's a word for this- piracy....


By Chris Thomas on Friday, March 03, 2000 - 9:02 pm:

What about The Pescatons and Slipback, Emily?


By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Saturday, March 04, 2000 - 3:16 am:

Personally, I'm for anything that can be canonical being canonical- apart from:

1) Any utter drivel like DiT (and you cannot tell me that anyone can think of a *worse* DW story...)
2) Anything that can't be arsed to make the effort, i.e. the early, middle, and erm... later comics. (The DWM NA tie-ins and the Radio Times ones would be though)
3) Comedy Sketchs- CotFD is canon over my dead body.
4)Anything that *clearly* doesn't ft into the Who universe, or would only fit with a bizarre explanation (Cushing movies, any DW adverts, novelisations, any educational stuff (Search out Science and the Doctor Who Dinosaur book))

So that roughly speaking leaves:

The TV series
The books: NAs,MAs,PDAs,EDAs,Bennies
Short stories: Deca123 (4 is debatable, IIRC we decided against it at the timeline...) ST,MST,STSS, Perfect Timing 1+2, (Marvel yearbooks?- just thought of something we missed for the timeline!)
Comic strips- Radio Times Doc8, Certain Doc 7 DWM comic strips (mainly the NA tie-in ones)
Audios: BF(not Benny), Slipback, Pestacons, JP plays.

I'm sure I've missed stuff, but yeah,


By Chris Thomas on Saturday, March 04, 2000 - 8:40 pm:

What about the stage plays?

If you count the Marvel yearbooks, do you count the DW annuals?


By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Sunday, March 05, 2000 - 3:39 am:

Stage plays, unless I' missing something, clearly fit into 4.

Not sure whether I'm counting the yearbooks yet, but the annuals are a definate nono.


By Emily on Sunday, March 05, 2000 - 9:13 am:

Chris, I forgot all about Slipback - what a pile of drivel, plus it contradicted Terminus. (And the audio Genesis of the Daleks I got on the same tape wasn't a patch on the real thing.) I've never seen the Pescatons.

Edje, why not Decalog 4 - isn't that the Re:Generations one, infinitely the best? And if you're allowing Virgin's other post-licence stuff, i.e. the Bennies, what excuse have you got for excluding this? (Apart from its near-total destruction and alien conquest of Earth being a bit hard to reconcile with anything else.)

Hmmm...maybe you'd better just direct me to the timeline team website.


By Chris Thomas on Sunday, March 05, 2000 - 10:51 pm:

Re: "I've never seen the Pescatons" - bit hard, given it's audio.

As for the stage plays, I can see why Seven Keys To Doomsday and The Ultimate Adventure don't fit (the former has an unknown Doctor and the latter different companions with 3rd/6th Doctors) but what about Curse of The Daleks? I'm not aware that contradicts anything.


By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Monday, March 06, 2000 - 11:07 am:

Remind me what Curse of the Daleks is about then.
BTW, we *are* doing Decalog 4.


By PJW on Thursday, June 01, 2000 - 2:55 pm:

Yay! Plenty of rumours that Stephen Fry will appear in the proposed Radio Four Doctor Who adventure. Alas, not as the Doctor. It's a shame he won't be in a Big Finish production, though, as he'd probably be better used and I'd really love a scene or two with him shouting at Daleks. Perhaps the Doctor could do a Master/Tremas and nick Fry's character's body. You would change future history and sidestep Paul McGann...

...which brings me nicely onto the Big Finish coup. Well done Big Finish for getting Paul McGann! Four adventures, one to include the Cybermen. I can't wait!


By goog on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 2:48 am:

FYI (directed to my fellow Americans, who, like me, have probably not heard most or any of the audio adventures): Quite a few available using Napster. My apologies if this is obvious and/or old news.


By Emily on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - 6:28 am:

Have just enjoyed the Gary Russell interview at:

http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/interviews/garyrussell.htm

Hopefully Russell doesn't get there first. That's my biggest fear at the moment - every story I've got, he's going to get there first. Which is another reason why he knows everything I'm doing until the end of 2007 and a bit of 2008, because I thought I've got to get this all put down in stone so that I know what I'm doing and he won't then say, "Oh, that's a great idea, I want to nick it". He won't do that because he's got integrity.

I can think of reasons other than integrity why RUSSELL T GOD wouldn't nick ideas from GARY RUSSELL. (Though having said that, of course, Dalek WAS Jubilee, more-or-less.)


By Kevin on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - 9:54 pm:

Ahhhh. 'Russell' means RTD in that quote. I thought it meant Gary Russell and it confused the heck outta me until I got to your commentary.


By Emily on Wednesday, September 07, 2005 - 11:40 am:

Ah, sorry. I've never had much trouble distinguishing them myself: one of them is God and the other one is the human equivalent of Castellan Kellner.

Incidentally, he also mentioned that each Big Finish audio cost £25,000. £25,000! For THOSE???????????


By Mike Konczewski on Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 3:56 am:

That sounds about right. These actors don't work for free, you know.


By Emily on Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 7:23 am:

Well, Paul McGann doesn't, that's for sure - apparently copious amounts of the Big Finish budget are spent keeping him happy (though a better option might possibly be to supply him with the occasional decent script, hence removing the need for vast amounts of bribery to counteract the severe embarrassment that must be caused by association with such things - frankly I find listening to them shame enough)...anyway...McGann aside, I've got friends who make Who spin-offs for a fraction of that cost (I just can't remember offhand exactly WHAT fraction). With better scripts and better production values, too. (I'm not saying the Kaldor Cities are any GOOD, I'm just saying they're a lot better than your average Big Finish.)


By Daniel OMahony on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - 5:53 pm:

That's not what you were saying when I forced you to listen to 'Storm Mine'.


By Emily on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - 10:07 am:

I was politely not adding 'Except for that one by Daniel - god, avoid Sandminer like the plague'.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 10:57 pm:

So has anybody listened to the new audio readings of the classic novelisations? They have new music and effects, with Daleks and Cybermen voiced by new series actors.

I've been listening to the samples on audible.com. Without changing a word, they almost sound new-seriesized.

I might just get some of the lost stories.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 6:31 am:

Yeah, I've got one or two out of the library - I'm not gonna BUY 'em cos I think they're taking wringing-money-out-of-the-fans to inordinate lengths. I mean, we've GOT all the stories on video. AND DVD. AND in Target novelisation form. AND in audio form too (it was one thing to release CDs of the destroyed episodes, quite another to do so for stories we can actually bloody WATCH). AND now audios of the novelisations...? It's getting ridiculous. What next?

Anyway, listening to Caroline John read The Cave Monsters was rather enjoyable. But then Hulke always wrote the best Targets.


By Mark V Thomas (Frobisher) on Monday, March 15, 2010 - 12:36 am:

Re: Big Finish releases
Apparently the latest news from Big Finish, is that they're starting up a new series of Dalek audios, based on the abandoned U.S Dalek T.V series, that Terry Nation tried to sell to U.S T.V networks in the mid 60's...
Given that Big Finish, has now released Terry Nation's 1970's children's story, Rebecca's World, onto CD/Download, one can assume that Terry Nation's Estate has given them permission to do so...
Reportedly, Jean Marsh will reprise the role of Sara Kingdom, for said audios, but who will play the role of her android sidekick Mark Seven...?


By Graham Nealon (Graham) on Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 3:09 am:

What some people call 'fate ' is more generally known as Sod's Law.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, June 24, 2010 - 3:07 pm:

Talking of fate - I see you now have a Welshwoman running your country. Congratulations! The Welsh should run EVERYTHING, as far as I'm concerned...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, June 25, 2010 - 12:48 am:

Are you talking to Australians there Em? She certainly doesn't SOUND welsh! In fact she sounds like a typical east coast aussie bogan...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, June 25, 2010 - 4:35 pm:

Whatever she sounds like, she's from RTG country so that desert of yours will be TOTALLY sorted...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, June 26, 2010 - 12:49 am:

Judge for yourself Emily


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 27, 2010 - 4:03 am:

Eek! To quote Captain Jack, I am NOT hearing those lovely Welsh vowels...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 4:48 pm:

Well, Nick Briggs has been in the Big Finish executive producer's job since 2006, we've got enough material to properly weigh him against Gary Russell's tenure, and, amazingly, he isn't any better. If only he'd just stuck with the Supreme Achievement any mere human could hope for - viz, voicing Daleks, Nestene Consciousnesses et al for the new series.

Not only has the general quality of Big Finish remained abysmal, but I can't, offhand, think of a single gem of the standard of Flip-Flop, Jubilee, Spare Parts, etc that Gary Russell's tenure occasionally accidentally managed to throw up, like a blind pig finding an acorn.

Even worse, whenever one finally staggers, battered and broken, to the end of yet another pile of ****, Briggs has amassed a hideous half-hour (at least!) of inane interviews in which (often the same) actors are forced to tell us, over and over again, what a marvellous script THAT was and how much they love working for Big Finish.

The proliferation of Big Finish spin-off series also seems to have spun out of all control, as if some idiot has fired an energy-weapon at an anti-matter monster or something...

Oh, and the innovation of releasing stories in trilogies instead of at random, whilst not bad in itself, tends to lead to pointless, unable-to-stand-alone middle sections. And is pretty rough on those of us who would die a lingering death before paying full-price for an audio, and who therefore get their second-hand CDs in completely the wrong order.

The one thing you CAN say in Briggs' favour is that he tossed out Gary Russell's insane rule that you couldn't drastically increase the number of characters in each audio by allowing the actors to double up (which bit of 'ACTOR' was he somehow not getting...?).


By Amanda Gordon (Mandy) on Friday, January 28, 2011 - 3:35 pm:

Shouldn't this section be under Audios? They are, after all.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, January 28, 2011 - 4:03 pm:

Hmm. Of course, the audio section used to be called Big Finish Audio Adventures or something, so they didn't fit then...and in the Bad Old Days we were desperately trying to regard the audios and books as canon (ha ha ha ha ha! As if!) whereas these radio nonsenses were OBVIOUSLY apocrypha...but now you mention it, there's no reason they should be separated from their fellow aural abominations for a moment longer...


By Amanda Gordon (Mandy) on Friday, January 28, 2011 - 4:09 pm:

Wow, that was quick!


By Andrew Gilbertson (Zarm_rkeeg) on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 1:19 pm:

For any interested parties, No Line Cinema's podcast, the Oblivion Continuum, just released it's season finale. The show follows a loose narrative premise (The Daleks and Cybermen allying to invade the Star Wars universe, where the podcast we replaced took place, and allowing the former host to live in exchange for using the show as a propagandic distraction for the invasion). The 'drama' segments of the show (not exactly Big Finish, admttedly) are our tribute to the Troughton era.

Presuming that no one here's especially interested in the 2.5 hours in between where we waffle on about the Expendables, Star Trek, and the nature of the Weeping Angels, here's the intro and outro in condensed format... :-)
http://www.nolinecinemas.com/ocdrama.mp3


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 20, 2011 - 4:52 am:

Well, kudos to Big Finish - I had no idea until reading an ancient DWM that they'd actually planned a MUCH longer Divergent story-line - 'three or four seasons', may the gods have mercy on our souls. So at least they LISTENED to the screaming horror of fans, though come to think of it they didn't have a lot of choice - wouldn't take many buyers voting with their feet to bankrupt the company.

They still seem at a loss to know WHY fans hated a universally-rubbish (give or take Faith Stealer) series that introduced the Worst Companion Since Mel and claimed to be set in a Timeless Universe that CLEARLY HAD TIME, however, but I suppose one can't have EVERYTHING.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, January 15, 2012 - 10:51 am:

From Gallifrey Base:

'A long-lost radio script for an episode of a proposed Doctor Who radio series, to be made in the late sixties, and starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor, has been discovered in the BBC archives.

Journey into Time was written by Malcolm Hulke...In the radio play, a pilot of which was recorded but never broadcast, the Doctor, accompanied by his granddaughter, ends up in the midst of the American Revolution. The recording has been lost for many years.

The series was proposed as a collaboration between independent company Stanmark Productions and Watermill Productions, who put forward plans for 52 episodes to be made for Australia and other overseas territories...

The series was rejected by the BBC with Martin Esslin, head of sound drama, saying: "As a typical commercial production for unsophisticated listeners in Australia or even some parts of the United States, it stands up quite well. As a piece of science fiction, however, it strikes me as extremely feeble."'

I had NO IDEA how close we came (OK, not VERY close by the sound of it) to FIFTY-TWO EPISODES of Cushingy abominations...

For god's sake why didn't they think of doing a PROPER radio series with a PROPER Doctor?

(Of course, it's just as well they didn't, what with Who apparently being unable to successfully transfer to the audio medium, but that's not the POINT.)

I wonder how long it'll take Big Finish to record this 'extremely feeble' piece of work, flog it to us at vast expense, AND start writing its 51 sequels...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 5:37 am:

What the hell happened to those 2-in-1 releases Big Finish used to do? I loved them. Well, I say 'loved'...I obviously MEAN 'hated a bit less than the four-episode releases'. If I loathed the main story, and let's face it, I usually did, at least it only went on for three episodes, and surprisingly enough I don't think I ever hated BOTH stories in one release. Some of the one-parters were actually rather...fun. And now they've just quietly disappeared.

On the plus side, at least the interminable extras at the end have been drastically cut down.


By John F. Kennedy (John_f_kennedy) on Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 6:32 am:

About the only one that'd appeal to me would be Scarlioni and Company. The Count and Countess Scarlioni getting up to all sorts of hilarious hijnks and comical capers in the name of funding Kerensky's experiments, while good old Duggan tries in vain to catch them out.

Glover, Schell, Graham and Chadbon are still with us, you know. It could be done. And you could even say that one of Kerensky's time experiments went wrong, and that would explain why all of them sound so much older now...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 7:46 am:

Oh god. Yes PLEASE. Duggan is, even more than Amelia Rumford, the temporary Companion I YEARNED to be made permanent. And the only reason I didn't yearn for Count and Countess Scarlioni to join the TARDIS crew was because they were...y'know...DEAD. ANY more of ANY of them would be a joy. And oddly enough Big Finish's attempts at out-and-out comedy usually actually work.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, September 05, 2012 - 3:00 pm:

KEVIN in Original Series: Season Two: Planet of Giants thread:

Gotta say: the guy who does Hartnell's voice is amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if they got him to do some Big Finish recordings.


Agreed. Big Finish SHOULD get whoever-that-is on-board AT ONCE. I'm tired of just having Companion Chronicles and Lost Stories for the early Doctors. Most of the era's Companions are still alive, we could have PROPER full-cast audios. (Though obviously I tend to dislike the proper full-cast audios as much as the Companion Chroicles. That's not the POINT.)

It's not as if they'd let good taste stop 'em, not after those vague mumblings of dead-Pertwee they shoehorned into Zagreus. Plus Troughton's son played the Second Doctor (well, it turned out to be a Second Doctor clone) in the Serpent Crest audios.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, December 30, 2012 - 1:44 pm:

'I'm a great believer in stories being allowed to occupy a timespan which is suitable for them' says Nick Briggs in DWM. The guy responsible for putting a distinct end to Big Finishes being allowed to meander on for as long (or, in the case of Scaredy Cat, as short) as they wish...

'"My belief is that there is a tipping point somewhere in terms of pricing where we could get the price low enough to attract many more listeners"...If that happens, a wider, permanent change would be introduced' - true enough. I wouldn't HAVE to buy 'em second-hand if they were reasonably-priced in the first place.

Though if they were ANY BLOODY GOOD I'd be prepared to pay a BIT more...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - 1:19 pm:

DWM: Gary Russell on wrapping up the Divergent Universe arc years early: '"With the new TV series on the horizon we thought it was a bit of a no-no for potential new listeners to join a continuity-heavy run of stories mid-way through." In retrospect, then, was the arc a bad idea? "No, it was good. I thought it'd be interesting to put the Doctor in a place where the old standbys of Earth, Daleks, Cybermen, et cetera, couldn't happen and would guarantee a few stories 100 per cent free of continuity"' - so the whole 'Divergent Universe is free of continuity' stuff didn't work out for you too well, then?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, January 04, 2013 - 2:06 pm:

DWM just KNOW I'm counting the millennia until they FINALLY run out of Old Who stories, and therefore Archives, so they DELIBERATELY AND MALICIOUSLY introduce the Archive Extra. (Is there ANYONE IN THE UNIVERSE who wants to read all the dialogue snipped from Ghosts of N-Space? SERIOUSLY?) However, Doctor Who on Radio, Part Two, does reveal the odd piece of interesting information.

Thank the gods Nuclear Kiss never got made. (Even if the idea of poor Doris getting drowned was later nicked for Shadows of Avalon.) What sort of freak would make the Brig 'take the submarine with its primed warheads down to the seabed to explode them harmlessly in an act of self-sacrifice'? Wouldn't there be FALLOUT and stuff? And as for the Celestial Intervention Agency firing Ace off to Earth 'as part of a plan to get the Doctor involved in Earth's affairs'...words fail.

And as for Whatever Happneed to Susan?/Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?/Whatever Happened to Doctor Who's Granddaughter Susan Foreman of Class 5B?...or whatever they're calling it this week...'None of the original Doctor Who actors were approached as the crew did not want their show to fit in with the television series' - sorry, WHAT! If you don't want anything to do with the TV series, DON'T WRITE SEQUELS TO IT! Though the fact that Jane Asher is playing Susan certainly adds a new dimension to SJA's Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane...

Ghosts of N-Space: 'The BBC embargo left Virgin no option but to publish in advance of transmissions, which Clarke felt was a shame' - Sunshine, I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that ANY fans were sobbing their heads off that the godawful MA spoilered their godawful radio play for them...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 01, 2013 - 6:12 am:

There's an unprecedented 10% sale across the whole of Big Finish today, if anyone's crazy enough to want to...y'know...buy some Who audios. I'm actually thinking of taking out a subscription. There are fewer and fewer of the things on eBay and they're going for higher and higher prices and I have to wait MONTHS to get my hands on 'em. (Not that it's worth it when I DO get my hands on 'em, obviously, and not that anyone on Nitcentral is feeling DEPRIVED by the lateness of the reviews, but still...)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, May 01, 2013 - 3:42 pm:

but by your definition "lateness" equals "more than 24 hours after the release date".


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, August 23, 2013 - 2:54 pm:

Look! FREE Big Finishes! (I'm assuming...LEGAL free Big Finishes.) For all you Nitcentrallers too mean and/or sane to waste MONEY on such godawful piles of :

http://soundcloud.com/big-finish/sets/complete-free-big-finish/

Start picking those nits!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, August 30, 2013 - 12:05 am:

So Waterhouse finally caved and is doing an audio.

Nice picture, good to see Janet seems to be doing well, considering her recent cancer battle.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, August 30, 2013 - 3:38 am:

I dunno about it being a matter of Waterhouse caving in. Maybe they just didn't ASK him before. Cos they didn't WANT him. Davison in particular seemed EXTREMELY happy when Andrew Sachs turned up to play Adric in The Boy That Time Forgot.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, August 30, 2013 - 5:03 am:

Apparently they did, but he turned them down. He felt it was silly him going back to a role he last played when he was 18, since he was now in his 50's.

Looks like he changed his mind.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, August 30, 2013 - 5:53 am:

Ah! Well, I'm glad to know they didn't snub him. He's gonna be working with Five/Nyssa/Tegan, isn't he? What we REALLY need to do is get Adric and the Fourth Doctor together for some audios. And film the resultant fireworks, which will be SO much more entertaining than the actual audio adventures.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, September 13, 2013 - 6:11 am:

I wonder if the Audios will redeem Adders in the eyes of fans like they've redeemed Mel.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, September 13, 2013 - 2:15 pm:

Mel and, even more extraordinarily, Colin Baker. So Adders has a very good chance of rehabilitation, especially as I for one am sick to death of all the other regular voices. (Plus, whatever happens it's GOT to be better than The Boy Who Time Forgot.)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 1:53 pm:

OK, so I'm seriously perverse. (Guess we all knew that already.) Big Finish were talking in DWM about what they FINALLY considered a spin-off too far - a Lucie Miller and the Meddling Monk series - and I instantly found myself thinking I wouldn't mind listening to that...

'We learned that the three-plus-one-episode format didn't necessarily work, mainly because most of the writers didn't seem to be able to get a handle on doing a single-episode story' - funny, the one-episode ones were usually a vast improvement on their three-episode disc-mates. Not to mention that BF has produced a few four-single-episodes releases.

Oh god, they've got MORE plans for CHARLEY? I was kinda hoping she was dead.


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 6:08 pm:

Oh god, they've got MORE plans for CHARLEY? I was kinda hoping she was dead.

Even if she was, why would the be a problem in the Whoniverse?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, October 21, 2013 - 9:26 am:

The audios aren't the NEW SERIES, y'know. They don't kill off and then resurrect a member of the TARDIS crew EVERY SINGLE WEEK...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, December 12, 2013 - 12:39 pm:

'Tom Baker & Lalla Ward are reunited on audio!' proclaims the DWM headline. I'm genuinely happy (especially as they'll be doing the Gareth Roberts MAs instead of ORIGINAL Fourth Doctor adventues (that'll almost invariably be a) by Nick Briggs and b) ) but - not to burst anyone's balloon - I DID hear they were recording things IN SEPARATE BOOTHS so would NEVER have to actually...y'know...MEET.

...Oh. 'And that's not all. Tom, Lalla, and John [Leeson] have already started recording Season Five of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, which will be released in 2016...' Ah well, never mind. (And why are they recording 'em so far in advance? Who are they expecting to DIE?)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, December 12, 2013 - 4:39 pm:

Who are they expecting to DIE?

They're expecting Tom to die at any moment given he's positively ancient....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, December 14, 2013 - 5:23 pm:

Sorry I asked.

Actually my mother says he looks a lot healthier than he used to. (She NOTICES stuff like that.)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - 12:04 pm:

The audios aren't the NEW SERIES, y'know. They don't kill off and then resurrect a member of the TARDIS crew EVERY SINGLE WEEK...

OK, I take it back. Hello again Hex! Fancy meeting YOU here!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, March 28, 2014 - 1:27 pm:

Hmm. The Big Finish survey has just asked how interested I'd be in them doing some New Who and Torchwood audios.

Unfortunately I cannot tell a lie. I ticked the 'Very Interested' box though frankly the thought of having to cough up for MORE substandard BFs on top of the monthly range and the Eighth Doctor range and the Fourth Doctor range and the spin-off ranges (currently Jago & Litefoot and Bernice Summerfield and Vienna and Counter-Measures, and, oh yes, Charlotte Pollard's on her way) made me feel fairly suicidal. But still, undeniably, very interested.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, March 29, 2014 - 5:19 am:

When they get Maisie Williams and Jennifer Lawrence as guest stars, then I'll be impressed...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - 5:07 am:

I need some guidance from our illustrious moderator (and others who are knowledgable about these things)

If I wanted to download some good Big Finish audios which would be your top 5?

Exclude the following ones as I have them already-
Spare Parts
Zagreus
The Sirens Of Time
The Holy Terror
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor
Spaceport Fear
The Scorchies
The Light At The End
The First Sontarans
Doctor Who and the Pirates
Flip Flop
The Church and the Crown


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - 6:35 am:

The Kingmaker (Fifth Doctor - hilarious)

Sympathy for the Devil (Unbound. BRILLIANT and believable what-if scenario AND has Tennant AND the Brig AND the Master)

The One Doctor (Sixth Doctor - very funny)

Jubilee (Sixth Doctor - by about the fourth time round it stops feeling funny and fascinating and grueseome and actually starts getting on my nerves, but so does The Holy Terror and you love THAT. And hey - the origin of Dalek!)

Farewell, Great Macedon (First Doctor box set Lost Stories - even if we get back every destroyed black-and-white ever you'll still be grinding your teeth you'll never get to SEE this)

If any of those are rejected for some spurious Rodney-reason, there's also:

Bang Bang a Boom (Seventh Doctor - good fun plus you obviously like the musical ones (alright, stictly speaking the Intergalactic Song Contest doesn't actually HAVE any music in it, but that's beside the point))

Davros (Sixth Doctor - enjoyable and interesting)

Circular Time (Fifth Doctor - with four separate stories you're BOUND to like SOME of 'em (well, in theory, admittedly this doesn't always work with BF's subsequent four-story releases))

Protect and Survive (Seventh Doctor - if you're a sucker for post-nuclear-holocaust stories, this is the one for you)

Chimes of Midnight (Eighth Doctor - I loathe it with a fiery passion but most people who love Holy Terror love THIS even MORE)

Faith Stealer (Eighth Doctor - undoubtedly the best Eighth Doctor audio ever, which unfortunately still doesn't make it particularly special)

The Game (Fifth Doctor - like Faith Stealer, it doesn't blow your brains out, it's just that rarest of BFs, solidly enjoyable (and when you consider it's ALL ABOUT SPORT, that's quite an achievement))

Omega (Fifth Doctor - funny and clever)

The Auntie Matter (Fourth Doctor - obviously you'll want to listen to Tom's dulcet tones, and equally obviously this is the least bad of his audios so far)

The Burning Prince (Fifth Doctor - highly enjoyable in an action-adventury kind of way)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, March 30, 2014 - 2:27 pm:

thnaks Em! I should point out that just because I own them doesn't mean I love them. Church and the Crown being an obvious example. Flip Flop another one. Zagreus (apart from one line I'm sure CB directed at Emily) yet another one....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 31, 2014 - 5:57 am:

Our audio tastes aren't too disparate then. I don't love Zagreus (unholy mess) or Church and Crown (probably above average for a BF, which doesn't mean it's any GOOD) either.

On the other hand, Flip-Flop is an all-time classic and you're a philistine.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, May 25, 2014 - 5:15 pm:

Gary Russell in DWM on Who's Glorious Return: 'If I was a punter and I knew that Doctor Who was going to be on telly in 2005, I wouldn't need Big Finish audios, BBC Books, Doctor Who comics or whatever...What's more, I wouldn't wait until Easter 2005. I'm going to stop a week after the announcement. Everyone else disagreed with me. They thought our sales were going to rocket because there would be loads of people interested in Doctor Who again...I was...absolutely on the nose...only a third of those who usually subscribed paid up.' - why didn't BF die then and there, WHY?

Especially as it was obviously an embarrassment to Russell T God. Who nevertheless pledged to 'protect us ever step of the way.' (Why! WHY!! How many hundreds of pounds and weeks of my life I could have saved if only RTG hadn't been so infuriatingly...GENEROUS. So DECENT.) 'This was brand new Doctor Who. The last thing they wanted was people running around venerating 1963 to 1996...Years later Russell told me about a big meeting at BBC Worldwide. They were going through what few licencees Doctor Who had. Big Finish was mentioned and Russell could immediately see that Mal Young was about to say "shut it down"...Russell apparently leant across to Mal and said, "Don't worry about Big Finish, I'll deal with them, it's fine."...Big Finish owes Russell its existence from that point on.' GRRRRRRRR!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 10:00 am:

Why has there been no announcement of Twelfth Doctor audios for me to grumble about?


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 - 10:36 am:

why didn't BF die then and there, WHY?

You have to remove the head or destroy the brain.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, July 21, 2014 - 6:00 pm:

Fifteen years since Sirens of Time.

And still going strong.

What did we do to deserve this...?


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Friday, July 25, 2014 - 11:28 am:

Fifteen years since Sirens of Time.

It feels more like fifteen thousand...


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Friday, July 25, 2014 - 12:26 pm:

Here's a little question that's been nagging me. Why is it called Big Finish?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, July 25, 2014 - 1:10 pm:

Hmm. Am gradually making my way through Big Finish: The Inside Story. If they reveal this little secret I'll certainly share...

Still, at least it's better than calling yourself Audio Visuals WHEN YOU ONLY DO AUDIO.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, July 26, 2014 - 2:51 am:

Oh, and don't forget there are a series of 48-hour offers to 'celebrate' the Glorious Anniversary:

News Page

Lots of BF for a pound each! Come on, you know you want to! Why should I be the only one to suffer?


By Graham Nealon (Graham) on Saturday, July 26, 2014 - 9:15 am:

Due to the above link I've just bought 10 stories. And downloaded three free ones as well.

Emily - not me - is to be blamed for any resulting comments about them that I post on here.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, July 26, 2014 - 12:04 pm:

Bwahaha! Nozzing in ze vorld -

- Oh god, you didn't get Land of the Dead did you?

Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

Look, I'd do ALMOST anything to get more posts in the Audios section but even I draw the line at Land of the Dead.

You ARE still safely in Australia and can't beat me up, right?


By Graham Nealon (Graham) on Sunday, July 27, 2014 - 2:18 am:

I already had 'Land of the Dead' - purchased on CD when it was first released. I still blame you for giving it back to me :-)

Bought numbers 31-40 so just need to get through 26 hours of podcasts and 15 of other audio before I can start listening to them. With luck that may buy me a few months grace.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, July 27, 2014 - 5:22 am:

I already had 'Land of the Dead' - purchased on CD when it was first released. I still blame you for giving it back to me :-)

Not my fault. I was SO SURE you'd 'accidentally' manage to lose it during all these years and all those thousands of miles...

Bought numbers 31-40 so just need to get through 26 hours of podcasts and 15 of other audio before I can start listening to them. With luck that may buy me a few months grace.

WHAT! They've got DOCTOR WHO on the cover! Just because they're godawful piles of is no excuse for listening to PODCASTS and LESSER PROGRAMMES first!

Actually *hastily checks* you've got three ALL-TIME CLASSICS (well, as close as BF GET to all-time classics) in that bunch! Listen IMMEDIATELY!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, November 01, 2014 - 4:19 pm:

Big Finish DWM interview (2002): 'We try not to contradict the novels or comic strips' - the HELL you do!

'The crossover between the people who buy the novels and those who buy the audios doesn't seem to be that great' - SERIOUSLY? Surely only insane hardcore We buy either - and would HAVE to buy both?

'During the first few months of the range, we were inundated with people asking: "When are you going to bring back old monsters?" Then, when we brought some back, people grumbled that we never try anything new!' - yeah, that sounds like Fans, alright...

'I would love to work with Pip and Jane. I'm a huge fan. Their understanding of how to structure a four-part Doctor Who story is second-to-none' - well, doesn't THAT attitude explain a lot about Gary Russell. (And why DIDN'T he work with Pip and Jane, then? I don't imagine they were playing hard to get.)


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Sunday, November 02, 2014 - 5:38 am:

'We try not to contradict the novels or comic strips' - the HELL you do!

They said they TRY. They never said the SUCCEED.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 02, 2014 - 4:17 pm:

Bah, humbug. They were deliberately spitting on the NAs' lovingly-worked-out history of Mars by their eighth audio, and then they just got worse. An entire Companion called Samson was invented, just to deny that Novel Companion Sam Jones existed after an audio accidentally referred to her...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, November 05, 2014 - 5:38 am:

What's this I hear about the Fifth Doctor and Co. headed back to E-Space. Are they going to drop in on the Starliner?

Login: Who are you?

Doctor: It's me, the Doctor.

Login: You're not the Doctor, he's tall and has lots of teeth.

Doctor: Ah, yes, well. Explains regeneration.

Login: So, it is you.

Doctor: Yes.

Login: You have any idea what happened to Adric?

Doctor: Heh Heh! Well...


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Wednesday, November 05, 2014 - 8:44 am:

I doubt Login will be heard in any future Big Finish story on account of George Baker being a) far too expensive for them and b) dead.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, November 05, 2014 - 11:59 am:

What's this I hear about the Fifth Doctor and Co. headed back to E-Space.

Blimey.

Who are the 'Co'? Bear in mind dear Adders recently joined the Big Finish Family...

Login: You're not the Doctor, he's tall and has lots of teeth.

Doctor: Ah, yes, well. Explains regeneration.


When does he ever explain regeneration when he doesn't absolutely HAVE to?

(Remember that amusing scene in Blood Harvest when the villagers are duly horrified that darling Tom has tragically shrunk into McCoy?)

I doubt Login will be heard in any future Big Finish story on account of George Baker being a) far too expensive for them and b) dead.

Excuses, excuses...


By Finn Clark (Finnclark) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 4:59 am:

Kate and Tim's posts made me think. I wonder what would happen if Login and Inspector Wexford ever met? WI Scaroth from City of Death met Walter Donovan from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 5:57 am:

Or if the Fifth Doctor met Tristan Farnon.


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 6:33 am:

it's sad that "Tristan" is used a lot on girls in the USA these days. and, no, using Rose, Kate or Grace as a middle name does not "soften" the masculine first name.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 6:58 am:

Why would the Doctor bother meeting any of these fictional characters?

(OK, so there's precedent after that stupid comment about Arthur Dent...)

Now if Nyder met Dr Lawrence and Professor Whitaker, or the Twelfth Doctor met Frobisher (the civil servant not the penguin) and Caecilius, THAT might be worth watching.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 9:56 am:

Or if Sgt Zbrigniev met Frobisher (the penguin not the civil servant)...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, November 06, 2014 - 10:22 am:

Don't be silly.

The penguin is NOT Eastern European.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, November 07, 2014 - 2:12 am:

I believe the TARDIS crew making this trip are the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, November 07, 2014 - 2:09 pm:

Why the hell would THEY go to E-Space?

Davison was extremely reluctant to go anywhere near the place even when the pill was sweetened with a 'get rid of Adric' offer.

Mind you, it's about time SOMEONE remembered poor old Romana is stuck there...


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Thursday, December 18, 2014 - 11:23 pm:

Why aren't the audios in Apocrypha?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, December 19, 2014 - 4:25 am:

Because when they finally joined Nitcental so long, long, ago they MIGHT have been canon. (The Big Finish ones, obviously. The radio adventures were in Apocrypha and we didn't have a Miscellaneous thread for the likes of the Audio-Visuals.)

And it would make the Apocrypha rather stuffed, to have 314 audio threads plus of course 396 novel threads plus K9: The Australian Abomination, plus Torchwood: Miracle Day etc etc...

...Besides, don't be so fast to judge the uncanonicity of the audios after Night of the Doctor...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, December 24, 2014 - 5:13 pm:

Not quite sure how this works, but I get the impression that for $15 you can get HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS of misery Big Finishy goodness...

Dalek Empire! Lost Stories! $15!


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, January 03, 2015 - 4:50 am:

Do you think Troughton would have done Big Finish (or even BBC Radio like The Paradise of Death)?

He was paranoid about UK typecasting until he died, although he was happy to be the Doctor for America, where few knew who he was.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 03, 2015 - 5:05 am:

EVERYONE does Big Finish.

However much they vow NEVER NEVER NEVER (Tegan), however much they let the scripts slide gently off their lap into the bin where they belong (Tom), however many decades Big Finish refuse to ASK them (Adric), everyone who lives ends up doing Big Finish.

Except Jackie Lane.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, January 03, 2015 - 2:30 pm:

And Ecclestraitor.....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 03, 2015 - 3:09 pm:

Ah yes, if and when Big Finish ever get the licence to do New Who, OF COURSE Ecclestraitor will turn them down forever and ever whilst bwahaha-ing and kicking a few puppies...unless he's starving in the gutter of course, she adds hopefully.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, February 05, 2015 - 3:41 am:

Seeing as I'm here now, I would like to ask Em (or anyone else that has listened a lot of these things) what their top 10 Big Finish Audios are. I would be very curious to know.

I couldn't really do a list like this justice but for my sins I'll give you my top 3-

3) The First Sontarans
2) The Church and the Crown
1) Spare Parts


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, February 05, 2015 - 6:58 am:

You're kidding me!

The First Sontarans is a complete waste of time and money and WHY haven't you been in the Lost Stories: Season Three section defending it!

Church and Crown is a...perfectly adequate, if thin, attempt at a romp.

Yeah, Spare Parts is brilliant, aside from the fact it's obviously inspired Big Finish to commission Platt over and over and over again in the hope he'll repeat this triumph despite the fact all his other audios are godawful piles of .

Top Ten Big Finish Audios (in no particular order):

Lost Stories: Farewell Great Macedon. PAINFULLY good. I'd kill to see it on TV. Well, the BBC would only have burnt it anyway.

Fifth Doctor: Spare Parts. Even New Who couldn't manage a Cyber-genesis story half as good.

Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil. The Master. The Brigadier. The Warner Doctor. The Evil Tennant UNIT guy. And the question we've all been wanting to fling in the Doctor's face all along: 'Pol Pot killed every doctor he could find and none of them was you!' (OK, plus the creature from Mind of Evil but hey, one can't have everything.)

Seventh Doctor: Flip Flop. Hilarious. Mind-blowing. Almost certainly deeply racist but hey, I've SAID one can't have everything, right?

Fifth Doctor: The Kingmaker. Brilliant. Adorable. About as implausible as Kill the Moon and In The Forest Of The Night put together, but it's got a Richard III who sounds just like Eccy so WHO CARES.

Bernice Summerfield: The Winning Side. Heart-breaking.

...OK, so I can't quite scrape together a Top Ten. Those six are the only ones at whose non-existent feet I feel like grovelling at the present time. However, there are a lot of others I can wholeheartedly recommend as good fun:

The One Doctor, Bang-Bang-A-Boom, Doctor Who and the Pirates, Omega, Jubilee, Davros, Faith Stealer, The Game, Circular Time, Protect and Survive,* The Burning Prince, The Foe From the Future, Timeless Passages.

*OK, so FUN is perhaps the wrong word for a post-nuclear-holocaust story...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, March 27, 2015 - 8:57 am:

Big Finish licence renewed till 2020.

Let the joy be unconfined.


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 5:53 am:

still no sign of NuWho being added to their output?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 6:08 am:

Their forthcoming UNIT box sets are gonna star Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the first New Who character to cross over...

(Plus I think the Destiny of the Doctor thing - one CD per Doctor including the New ones - was a joint venture between Big Finish and AudioGo, or something, but that was a special fiftieth-anniversary thing and isn't so much of a precedent.)


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Monday, April 06, 2015 - 3:10 pm:

Doctor Who: 10 Big Finish Companions Who Deserve To Be On TV

What do you think of their choices?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 07, 2015 - 5:39 am:

I can't believe they claim that Leela is 'barely one-dimensional on TV'. She isn't (admittedly mainly due to the actress rather than the actual WRITING) and even if she had been, BF's attempts to flesh her out a bit by, for example, pretending she gives a about getting daddy killed were, frankly, embarrassing flops.

Raine - no. Unconvincing, superfluous, the most overused actress in Who history, and, to top it all, sounds exactly like Mel.

Brewster - a million times worse than Raine. Seedy little git whose continued existence in the Doctor's life after he nicked the TARDIS and sold off bits of it was far more inexplicable than him travelling with Turlough or even that Nazi.

Erimem - wildly inconsistent character (one minute giving up her rightful Pharoah-ship for the sake of the Web of Time, the next disrupting history for the sake of the Arian heresy, not to mention they kept changing their mind about whether she was black or white) but on the whole A Good Thing- it's spot-on about her giving Peri something to do other than whine.

Molly - no. She, her retrogenitor particles and her repetition of the words 'Tardy-box' approximately fifty billion times were a DISASTER.

Hex - started off great, really adding another dimension to the tired old Seventh-Doctor-and-Ace team. Unfortunately he had nowhere to go but down, becoming Ace's would-be lover, AND a pawn of Fenric/Wayland (or something), AND dead, AND an Elder God, AND a northern gangster AND an amnesiac copy of himself AND a settled-down husband and father…(making this article's claim that he's 'one of the Doctor's most realistic friends' rather…odd.)

Klein - interesting (at least before they totally rewrote her history to stop her being a Nazi) but the Doctor deciding to travel with her was one of the least convincing things EVER.

Charley - excellent at first (if only to stop McGann talking to himself) she'd run her course by the time her being-a-hole-in-the-Web-of-Time thing was resolved, and her (unrequited whatever this stupid article says) love for the Doctor was even less amusing than Martha's. Her time in that godawful Divergent Universe and afterwards was a waste of space, her reasons for leaving (the Doc didn't care enough about murderous Lizard-Boy getting killed!) unconvincing. Her travels with the Sixth Doctor breathed new life into her at first but several years of her being suspicious and him putting up with it never made much sense, and she's not really up to maintaining her OWN series.

Evelyn - yes of COURSE. Not as wonderful as Amelia Rumford would have been as a Companion, but a perfectly satisfactory imitation. Give or take the bizarre decision to give her a heart condition she mysteriously never mentioned to the Doctor, and the fact she always felt at least twenty years older than she was supposed to be. Oh, and then there was her mysterious plan to rewrite history in an embarrassing feminist manner via Julia Caesar...

Benny - well, DUH. But she's first and foremost a novel Companion so BF can't possibly take credit for her.

Lucie - good fun until she got all angsty about the Zgyon auntie and being half-blinded and crippled in the Dalek invasion and suchlike.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, May 09, 2015 - 1:54 am:

Tom Baker has asked them to record as many stories with him as possible before, you know...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, May 09, 2015 - 2:38 am:

NO I DON'T KNOW!

TOM WILL LIVE FOREVER!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, May 10, 2015 - 4:26 am:

If only that were true...


By Judibug (Judibug) on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 10:27 am:

They already have Michael Troughton, why not a Sir Piers Fletcher-Dervish audio series?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 1:24 pm:

A WHAT?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Wednesday, July 01, 2015 - 5:47 am:

Michael Troughton's character in the 1980s sitcom The New Statesman


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, July 02, 2015 - 5:13 am:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Statesman


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, July 05, 2015 - 5:01 am:

will Big Finish have Captain Jack meet River Song?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, July 05, 2015 - 2:09 pm:

As far as I can see, their two series are completely separate, but SURELY no one can resist the temptation to have everyone's favourite pair of Doctor-loving omnisexual square-gun-owning fifty-first-century resurrected time travellers getting together...?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Friday, September 11, 2015 - 7:48 am:

If only they had started the BBC Radio plays in the early eighties. We could have had some Troughton ones then.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, September 11, 2015 - 11:48 am:

Whereas I'm inexpressibly relieved that poor Troughton died before being DEGRADED like Pertwee with the likes of Paradise of Death and Ghosts of N-Space. (Yes, I realise that theoretically speaking the BBC must be capable of producing a good Who radio play, but...)

And Fraser Hines does a MARVELLOUS Troughton in the audios.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, October 19, 2015 - 5:21 am:

Blood of the Daleks
The Vengeance of Morbius
Terror Firma
Sisterhood of the Flame
Renaissance Man
The Light at the End
Storm Warning
Sword of Orion
Neverland
Invaders from Mars
Cobwebs
The Juggernauts
Bang Bang Bang a Boom
Master
Dust Breeding
just to list some Ive heard and enjoyed.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, October 20, 2015 - 4:05 am:

Some of those are OK.

The Lidsters, not so much.


By Frances Folsom Cleveland (Frances_folsom_cleveland) on Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 4:43 am:

My fantasy casting for BF is Yee Jee Tso as Mao Tse-Tung in a story set during his rule of the People's Republic. I was listening to radio news broadcasts of Mao's death and the western newsreader charmingly thinks the "weeping in the streets of Peking" is genuine, rather than the desire to avoid execution it actually was.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 5:28 am:

My fantasy casting for BF is Yee Jee Tso as Mao Tse-Tung in a story set during his rule of the People's Republic.

I don't want Who doing Mao's China any more than I want Who doing Stalin's Russia, Pol Pot's Cambodia or Hitler's Germany. Cos the Doctor would deliberately be leaving millions of human beings to be slaughtered.

(Of course, you might just about get away with Hitler's Germany if you used it as comic backdrop. And shut Hitler in the cupboard...)


By Frances Folsom Cleveland (Frances_folsom_cleveland) on Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 5:44 am:

what about covering the Doctor going on the Long March as he referred to in The Mind of Evil? Barry Letts didn't see anything wrong with that...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 5:51 am:

Barry Letts didn't see anything wrong with writing The Ghosts of N-Space either. For the LIVING GOD who gave us Tom Baker, he could be a gibbering cretin sometimes.

By the way, Mind of Evil DIDN'T claim the Doctor met Mao on the Long March - it just said they were dear old chums. For all we know, they could have been having a two-man-wine-and-cheese-party at the VERY TIME Mao was starving forty-three million Chinese to death on the grounds that they didn't need to grow food.

It was one of the (definitely uncanonical these days) novels that tried to patch things up by claiming they'd bumped into each other on the Long March 'before Mao turned evil'.


By Frances Folsom Cleveland (Frances_folsom_cleveland) on Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 5:59 am:

I visited Beijing not that long ago. Chang Kai-Shek is being rehabilitated on the mainland now that he's safely dead and the Lesser Maos are switching their regime's legitimacy from communism to Chinese nationalism. Yet, Mao's face still stares down on Tienanmen Square.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Wednesday, November 04, 2015 - 6:59 am:

You could do a dark story set in Mao's China... just keep to the Doctor's mantra of being unable to go back and cut tragedy off at the root.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 08, 2015 - 7:53 am:

But why would you WANT to? The pure historicals died for a REASON. The reason being (once you're rid of Hartnell, anyway) the Doctor is a hero.


By V117 (V117) on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - 6:21 pm:

(haven't managed to get hold of either of 'em cheap enough secondhand yet, which rather surprisingly suggests they might be quite good).

Their bearable and I'm sure you'd enjoy nitpicking them. What computer or laptop do you have? Unless it's running XP, (didn't the government get a support extention for that?) it should be able to handle torrents.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 1:58 am:

I don't want to do anything illegal. Or immoral.

Frankly if I was ever going to steal anything it would probably be something a lot better than a Big Finish.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, November 21, 2015 - 4:03 am:

OK. Big Finish is to be unleashed on an unsuspected German public. In English, which is pretty weird - surely any German, English-speaking Who Fans would have ordered any audios they wanted direct from the Big Finish website DECADES ago - it's not rocket-science. Also rather odd is the selction they've chosen:

The Light at the End - OK, it's the fiftieth anniversary story with lots of Doctors but frankly (judging by the number of people I know who switched off Day of the Doctor after five minutes) even a GOOD fiftieth anniversary story isn't the best way to introduce Not We to the Joy Of Our Lives...and this is NOT a good fiftieth anniversary story.

Blood of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 - aside from the poor value of having to buy two separate discs for one story...this is actually the most reasonable choice. Not an all-time classic by any stretch of the imagination, but mildly enjoyable and, more importantly, designed to introduce audio Who to an unsuspecting radio audience.

The Juggernauts - WHY? It's perfectly OK but as THE ONLY example of the monthly range it's bizarre. Have Big Finish forgotten they DO have some GENUINE CLASSICS in there somewhere?

Destination Nerva - Maybe they figured that, as ALL BF's Fourth Doctor audios are a bit rubbish, they might as well pick the first one instead of wasting any time trying to choose the least awful. But they're not all as uninspirinng as THIS. That Morris Wodehouse pastiche is almost fun.

Short Trips - Volume 1 - Germans like having short stories read out to them? Can't think why else they'd forgo a PROPER full-cast adventure in favour of THIS.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Saturday, November 21, 2015 - 4:19 am:

Big Finish is to be unleashed on an unsuspected German public. In English, which is pretty weird

Given that these are audios, a German-language version would have to be a completely new production.

That would probably involve contracting different actors as well as not everyone in the original casts will be German speakers and there'd be nothing more off-putting than hearing someone who's not familiar with the language stuttering through a phonetically-rendered translation.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, November 21, 2015 - 4:54 am:

Oh yes, I wasn't meaning to imply they'd be worth the hassle of translating, I just wondered what was the point of doing this AT ALL.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - 6:22 pm:

Free download of Doctor Who: All-Consuming Fire Part 1 with the code 221b:
http://www.bigfinish.com/offers/v/allconsumingfire

This is an adaptation of the New Adventures novel of the same name in which the Seventh Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes.

Although Holmes and Watson are portrayed by Nick Briggs and Richard Earl respectively who also played them in Big Finish's own Sherlock Holmes range, the adaptation of All-Consuming Fire is not design as a crossover between Big Finish's Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes ranges.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - 3:40 am:

Nick Briggs is...?

Oh, OK. Let's face it, Nick Briggs is EVERYTHING.


By V117 (V117) on Saturday, January 16, 2016 - 10:20 pm:

Nick Briggs is...? Oh, OK. Let's face it, Nick Briggs is EVERYTHING.
He's trying to be at least regardless of how insulting it is to the fandoms of the cult classics he..., "produces" new content for, (I'm suprised he resisted being a No.2 in his crappy Prisoner reboot and the less said about his Holmes the better). I shudder to think what he'll try to be when .B.F. inevietably get their hands on the better/well known Gerry Anderson series.


Although Holmes and Watson are portrayed by Nick Briggs and Richard Earl respectively who also played them in Big Finish's own Sherlock Holmes range, the adaptation of All-Consuming Fire is not design as a crossover between Big Finish's Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes ranges.
It might not be a crossover officially at the moment but I doubt they'll resist making such a distinction in future.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, January 17, 2016 - 8:44 am:

Let's face it, Nick Briggs is EVERYTHING.
He's trying to be at least regardless of how insulting it is to the fandoms of the cult classics he..., "produces" new content for


Hey! The sad losers of lesser fandoms should be HONOURED to have a REAL LIVE Dalek/Cybermen/Nestene/Judoon playing their inferior characters!


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, January 17, 2016 - 10:41 pm:

Be glad he hasn't done Roald Dahl with himself as Matilda...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, January 18, 2016 - 8:02 am:

Better Nick Briggs than Beth Chalmers as Matilda or anything else, trust me...


By V117 (V117) on Monday, January 25, 2016 - 5:12 pm:

Though it's way too early to tell if BF HAVE raised their game due to the unparalleled honour of being permitted to play in the New Who sandpit.
RTG: 'but now I think it's finally coming home, to the brilliance of Big Finish.'
Maybe but I'm not holding out any hope, (especially given .R.T.G.'s arrogant statement above) though regarding Torchwood I don't care all that much.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, January 25, 2016 - 5:38 pm:

It's hardly ARROGANT of RTG to praise Big Finish, it's not as if HE has anything to do with their output (other than saving their necks when Who came back and the BBC wanted to axe them. If the man wasn't my personal Lord and Saviour I might be QUITE ANNOYED at Him).


By V117 (V117) on Monday, January 25, 2016 - 6:48 pm:

Where will these new Lethbridge Stewart audios be classified under?
http://www.kasterborous.com/2016/01/lethbridge-stewart-audiobooks-coming/


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 - 4:33 am:

Novels: Miscellaneous: Companions: Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. They ARE just the novels that happen to be read aloud, after all.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 3:50 am:

Is it too late to suggest a The Nixon Years boxset with everyone's favourite 37th Prez?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 4:27 am:

Now THAT'S a good idea. Nixon and Canton - reunited!


By Judibug (Judibug) on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 10:14 am:

Possible scene: (NIXON plays back tape recording): "Let Canton take the rap..."


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, January 28, 2016 - 5:24 am:

On the one hand, framing a bloke campaigning to marry his black boyfriend would be like shooting fish in a barrel. On the other hand, Nixon was actually extraordinarily faithful to his friends - it was doing exactly what the Doctor told him ('Trust no one. Record everything.') that got him impeached, after all...


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Monday, February 15, 2016 - 1:40 am:

I still wonder how there can be adventures for 5 and Turlough in a non-existent gap between Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, February 15, 2016 - 5:10 am:

One can only assume that at the absolute end of this string of novels, short stories, audios (and comics, for all I know or care) set in the non-existent gap, SOMETHING will happen that painfully reminds the Doctor and Turlough both of Daleks and of Tegan. Hence their comments at the beginning of Planet of Fire.

No, that still wouldn't work, would it. 'You're going to miss Tegan' 'Well we were together a long time' makes zero sense if he's already been missing Tegan for months.

Ah well, I suppose our old friend amnesia will have to come to the rescue. I find it heartbreaking to think of Eight forgetting Alien Bodies or Twelve sort-of forgetting Flatline, but Singularity and Imperial Moon slipping Five's mind...no great loss.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 1:00 am:

I don't want to give Big Finish any ideas, but maybe they're reunited with Tegan for a one-off adventure just before 'Planet of Fire'?

And this is far from the only non-existent gap to have been prised open for books, audios and sweet wrappers in the past quarter of a century.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 1:04 am:

Indeed. Like Smugglers and Tenth Planet. Or Season 12.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 3:34 am:

maybe they're reunited with Tegan for a one-off adventure just before 'Planet of Fire'?

But then why would she leave? She obviously regretted it the moment the Doctor took her at her word and zoomed off in Resurrection instead of trying to seduce her with the Fifteenth Broken Moon of the Medusa Cascade like any self-respecting New Who Doctor.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 5:53 am:

Big Finish Licence Extended To 2025.

I just...don't know what to say.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 2:41 pm:

By then you'll probably be the only one listening to them, out of a feverish mix of completism and desire to keep Nitcentral stocked with threads...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 3:31 pm:

By then I'll probably be CRUSHED TO DEATH underneath my collapsed shelves...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, May 07, 2016 - 3:28 pm:

Then download them and save your shelf space. There's even an app for your phone to play them.


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Saturday, May 07, 2016 - 3:44 pm:

Me almost 2 years ago: Here's a little question that's been nagging me. Why is it called Big Finish?

Emily's reply: Hmm. Am gradually making my way through Big Finish: The Inside Story. If they reveal this little secret I'll certainly share...


So, anything to share?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, May 07, 2016 - 4:36 pm:

Then download them and save your shelf space.

I'm seriously thinking about it, and have just-about managed to master the technology, but downloads are more expensive than buying on eBay.

So, anything to share?

I...ah...got a little sidetracked when it comes to finishing my Big Finish book.


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Saturday, May 07, 2016 - 8:24 pm:

Well it's ok, it took me two years to inquire, so it can't have been nagging me all that much.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 5:20 am:

Plus in 2025 the show will have been back twenty years at that point, and the movie will nearly have been thirty years old. The RTD era could be considered Classic Who by that point.
Now there's a thought...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 - 5:32 am:

Plus in 2025 the show will have been back twenty years at that point

Only if it survives Chibnall.


By V117 (V117) on Friday, May 20, 2016 - 6:33 pm:

Big Finish Licence Extended To 2025.
I just...don't know what to say.

Join the club.
They are always going to get extensions because it's a guaranteed way for the .B.B.C. to make money from the franchise through the lisencing fees regardless of how well the .t.v. show is doing.


I'm seriously thinking about it, and have just-about managed to master the technology, but downloads are more expensive than buying on eBay.
There are regularly updated torrents.


Only if it survives Chibnall.
Or Moffat.


Some of the Big Finish 10.D.A. promotional images uses the latest version of Sherman's Gallifreyan, does this mean it is canon now? 2 years ago an earlier version was used in the doctorwho.tv website header two years ago: See here. I hope not.


The new War Doctor box set, "Agents of Chaos" features the, "Dalek Time Strategist" which seems to redundantly serve the same function as the Time Controller both inuniverse and narratively, (devaluing what in my opinion is of the few new good and interesting concepts .B.F. added to the Whoverse). Going by the cover images it's an ugly mix of the .R.T.D. Supreme Dalek and the Dalek Time Controller. Maybe they thought they needed a new type of Dalek to help boost sales?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 4:28 am:

They are always going to get extensions because it's a guaranteed way for the .B.B.C. to make money from the franchise

But BF was SO AGONISINGLY CLOSE to getting its licence withdrawn when Who came back. The BBC was taking this 'franchise' thing REALLY seriously and didn't want any complications like past Doctors cluttering up its message. Russell T God swept in on his white charger and saved it, Him/worship Him (delete as appropriate).

There are regularly updated torrents.

Yeah, but that's stealing and unfortunately I don't approve of stealing.

Though gods know WHY, I mean, I get my morality from Doctor Who and he's always robbing cashpoints and time machines.

Only if it survives Chibnall.
Or Moffat.


We KNOW Who will survive Moffat, we've been PROMISED a Chibnall season in 2018. Whether we like it or not.

Some of the Big Finish 10.D.A. promotional images uses the latest version of Sherman's Gallifreyan, does this mean it is canon now?

Isn't that just the swirly writing from the scanner in the Eccleston era?

The new War Doctor box set, "Agents of Chaos" features the, "Dalek Time Strategist" which seems to redundantly serve the same function as the Time Controller both inuniverse and narratively, (devaluing what in my opinion is of the few new good and interesting concepts .B.F. added to the Whoverse).

I never took to the Time Controller, myself.

Maybe they thought they needed a new type of Dalek to help boost sales?

Quite possibly. I get the impression that Daleks DO tend to boost sales, despite the fact everyone groans in horror at the sight of yet another Big Finish Dalek story. BF would no doubt think that inventing new types of metal meanie would help deal with Dalek-fatigue, not that Spider Daleks did John Peel any good...


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 4:14 pm:

They are always going to get extensions because it's a guaranteed way for the .B.B.C. to make money from the franchise through the lisencing fees regardless of how well the .t.v. show is doing.

Which is why the BBC has never inexplicably withdrawn a merchandise licence from a successful company, except for the dozens of times when it's done exactly that.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 4:28 pm:

Ah yes, I remember having a chat with David Howe at Tavern, long ago. He was so desolate at Telos inexplicably losing its Who licence that I didn't even have the heart to correct 'fifteen' to 'one, actually' when he said that at least they'd produced fifteen wonderful novellas.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 5:32 am:

So the latest issue of "Vortex" (the monthly BF newsletter for those of you that aren't Emily) has listed the "Essential 21" audios from BF for beginners...

The Sirens of Time
The Apocalypse Element
Storm Warning
Invaders From Mars
The Chimes of Midnight
Jubilee
Dalek Empire III
Blood of the Daleks
The First Sontarans
Energy Of The Daleks
Dark Eyes
The Light At The End
The Romance Of Crime
Damaged Goods
Doom Coalition
The Last Adventure
Jago & Litefoot & Strax
UNIT: Extinction
The War Doctor: Only the monstrous
The Diary of River Song

Discuss....


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 6:02 am:

Well actually to save Emily time here are her original thoughts...

Sirens of Time- "Yet another invasion of Gallifrey – is there any race out there who ISN’T capable of conquering it?"

The Apocalypse Element- "Oh God, Steve Cole’s done it again. He just can’t help himself, can he?"

Storm Warning- "on the whole it's not as bad as I thought. " (Stop the presses! A compliment from Emily!)

Invaders From Mars- "Boring, stupid, unconvincing, and, worst of all, trying and failing to be funny" (It's ok- the universe has righted itself)

The Chimes of Midnight- "This bears a suspicious resemblance to Shearman's last audio - except, of course, that The Holy Terror was GOOD."

Spare Parts (missing, ironically enough from the original list I posted)- "nonetheless this is a not unworthy Cyber-genesis story, with CyberYvonne's cries of 'Dad' and 'Am I horrible?' genuinely moving." (I actually agree with Emily here- Spare Parts is a crowning jewel)

Jubilee- " Hilarious (the movie trailer, the Dalek song), heart-rending (the mutilated Doctor, and – unbelievably – the mutilated Dalek) horrific (the entire political set-up), and with a twist a minute, this is that rarest of things, a really good audio"

Dalek Empire III- " Not as good as I remembered. Probably because ALL I remembered was TENNANT VOICE! TENNANT VOICE!! And there was precious little of it in this episode."

Blood of the Daleks- "God, I can't remember the last time I actually ENJOYED a Big Finish. ......this is actually fresh and fun rather than convoluted and tedious."

The First Sontarans- "If you can't think of a more original Sontaran origin story...DON'T WRITE A SONTARAN ORIGIN STORY."

Energy of the Daleks- "A perfectly adequate piece of pointless unoriginal fluff."

Dark Eyes- " Not a lot happens, other than McGann irritatingly talking to himself, coughing to himself, and mumbling to himself."

The Light At The End- "yup, our fiftieth anniversary audio is based on the most fundamental misreading of the Doctor's character since Hartnell tried to smash a wounded caveman's head in with a rock. "

The Romance of Crime- Not sure where Emily shoved this one but it ain't with the fourth doctor audios...

Damaged Goods- ...or this one (which isn't with the seventh Doctor)

Doom Coalition- "Mercifully not as tediously convoluted as most Platts"

The Last Adventure- There's a lot she says but never a general summation. I think she only liked part three..

Jago & Litefoot & Strax- "What took them so long?"

UNIT: Extinction- "What, that's IT? I mean, it's a perfectly nice slice of ultra-trad Spearhead-regurgitation, but... "

The War Doctor: Only the monstrous- "Starts off enjoyably enough, in its action-adventurery way, but soon gets drearily bogged down with the Doctor barking 'Don't call me the Doctor!' at some drip whose mission in life is to tell him what a lovely guy he is."

The Diary of River Song: "Part Three was great! Very moving and a lot more original than Part One's running round a tomb."


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 7:44 am:

The Romance of Crime- Not sure where Emily shoved this one but it ain't with the fourth doctor audios...

Damaged Goods- ...or this one (which isn't with the seventh Doctor)


They're reviewed under the relevant novels, the adaptations don't really rate audio threads of their own (well, except for the Benny ones - I did review 'em under their novels first but when I split the Bernice Summerfield section into separate seasons I couldn't really omit a Season One...)

That's a bizarre list. Sure, I can see why SOME of them made it (first audio; first Eighth Doctor audio; fiftieth anniversary audio) but unfortunately they're rubbish and surely the criteria should be to shower newbies with GOOD audios (I think BF can just about scrape together twenty-one)? Of course, SOME of them are on the list cos someone at BF thinks they're good but unfortunately they have no taste. Where the hell is The Kingmaker? Sympathy for the Devil? Flip Flop? Not to mention the Companion Chronicles and Benny audios, I've nothing against writing MOST of said series out of history but I could name a couple apiece that are better than anything on that list. You could get a LOT of enjoyable stuff for the price of SIXTEEN HOURS-worth of Dark Eyes, you know.

I actually agree with Emily here- Spare Parts is a crowning jewel

Sadly I don't really feel that way any more. It's merely a good audio with some marvellous moments.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 10:15 am:

Last year, Big Finish announced that they had got the rights to use some elements from NuWho in their stories. I've managed to listen to some of the resulting dramas, and here are my thoughts:


Jago & Lightfoot & Strax

A fun romp as Strax joins the Victorian detective duo. Strax adds useful technical and military skills to the team and while his confusing of Jago and Litefoot for Vastra and Jenny is a bit contrived, it works well enough. A good story if you're already enjoyed at least some of the Jago and Litefoot series. ***


Torchwood

I wasn't a particular fan of the TV series, but I do like these audio dramas. The stories are based around one (or occasionally two) characters from the TV Series, which gives minor characters (including Sgt Andy) a chance for a day in the limelight. They've also gone back in time to have stories featuring Suzie Costello and Yvonne Hartman as well as an adventure with Captain Jack and Queen Victoria. ****


Classic Doctors, New Monsters

Just what it says on the tin - the four Doctors from Big Finish's Main Series meet up with monsters created for NuWho - well, almost. So the Fifth Doctor fights against the Fallen Angels in 17th Century Rome, the Sixth Doctor acts as a defense attorney for a Judoon in 19th Century Reigate and the Seventh Doctor makes things difficult for the Sycorax (a much better story than The Christmas Invasion). The Eighth Doctor's story is a little different as, rather than deal with a new monster, he instead tries to help people caught in the cross-fire of the Great Time War - something that Big Finish have been edging towards with Dark Eyes and the Doom Coalition. ****


UNIT - Extinction

Osgood and Autons and 3-D Printers, Oh My ! I'm not so impressed with this one, sadly. It's a good story, but Kate Stewart is a bit over-dramatic for my tastes while Osgood's character doesn't come over very strongly on the audio. **


10th Doctor Adventures

It's good to hear the Tenth Doctor and Donna back together again and these are three good stories. They may be trying to imitate the NuWho style a bit too closely, down to the three stories matching the Present, Future, Past pattern of the first three stories of the NuWho seasons. ****


The Diary of River Song

Another disappointment for me as I don't think that River Song really works as the main character in a story - her appearance in the Doom Coalition was a lot better. They also try a bit too hard to keep River from introducing herself to the Eighth Doctor as she helps him - strange as Big Finish have something of a running joke about the Eighth Doctor losing his memories and forgetting previous companions. *


The War Doctor

This is the real jewel in the crown. Good stories and great performances by John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce. Hurt in particular plays a different sort of Doctor - some-one who is willing to throw the innocent under a bus in order to defeat the Daleks but hates himself for it. Special mention to the story The Neverwhen, which does a great job of portraying the confusion of a battle fought with time weapons. *****


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 11:43 am:

....and while his confusing of Jago and Litefoot for Vastra and Jenny is a bit contrived, it works well enough.

Oh come on! How could the Sontarans be such fearsome warriors if they can't even make the difference between a human male and a silurian female?

strange as Big Finish have something of a running joke about the Eighth Doctor losing his memories and forgetting previous companions.

Well, she may not be aware of that aspect of his life. Borrowing one of her lines, she has limits.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 4:02 pm:

the Seventh Doctor makes things difficult for the Sycorax (a much better story than The Christmas Invasion)

The HELL it is!

he instead tries to help people caught in the cross-fire of the Great Time War - something that Big Finish have been edging towards with Dark Eyes and the Doom Coalition.

And, er, with the War Doctor audios, of course...

Osgood and Autons and 3-D Printers, Oh My ! I'm not so impressed with this one, sadly

Unfortunately, in comparison with the NEXT UNIT box set, that Auton run-around is positively Shakespearian. (I'd say RussellTGodian but that isn't a word. Yet.)

Osgood's character doesn't come over very strongly on the audio

Osgood REALLY needs the cosplay gear to make her mark.

I don't think that River Song really works as the main character in a story

I don't think River-as-main-character is the problem - she'd be JUST FINE as it if only the actual stories were a little bit better.

This is the real jewel in the crown

Big Finish doesn't HAVE a crown to get jewels IN.

Good stories and great performances by John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce.

Well Jacqueline Pearce has had ENOUGH BLOODY PRACTICE playing Servalan-type characters by now...

Hurt in particular plays a different sort of Doctor - some-one who is willing to throw the innocent under a bus in order to defeat the Daleks but hates himself for it.

A new kinda Doctor would be someone willing to throw the innocent under a bus in order to defeat the Daleks and NOT hating himself for it.

How could the Sontarans be such fearsome warriors if they can't even make the difference between a human male and a silurian female?

Darling Strax has always had certain...problems...in that regard. And honestly, when your enemies are shape-shifters, how useful IS it to have facial recognition software anyway?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, August 29, 2016 - 3:16 am:

There is a very real chance that I will be reviewing BF audios for a website soon.

Yes, I will post links to all reviews for them to be brick-batted and bouquet-ed as you see fit...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, August 29, 2016 - 3:48 am:

Ah, good, I've always SAID there's no POINT in listening to 'em if you don't review 'em...We're not in it for the FUN, y'know...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, October 02, 2016 - 4:58 pm:

Tons of Big Finish free and legal on Spotify!

Come on, people! Why should I be the only one to suffer!


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, October 15, 2016 - 5:04 am:

BF doing a "New Who companion with a Classic Who Doctor" doesn't really work with Amy and Rory, but that's because the Doctor clearly doesn't know them when he meets them in The Eleventh Hour.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, October 15, 2016 - 1:25 pm:

Oh, just stick a Psychic Wimple over their heads and trust me, you can get away with ANYTHING...


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Monday, October 31, 2016 - 4:32 pm:

Big finish may be a bit hit and miss but they are growing on me, let's face it they've taken a lot of the stupider bits from the show and made it work.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, November 01, 2016 - 7:56 am:

they've taken a lot of the stupider bits from the show and made it work

Ooh, WHERE?

Big Finish haven't made the War Doctor or the Nucleus of the Swarm work, I can tell you...


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Tuesday, November 01, 2016 - 8:29 am:

Ooh, WHERE?

The Sixth Doctor?

(Mind you, I would have cast Colin Firth as the War Doctor if he hadn't been out of both TV and BF's price range)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, November 01, 2016 - 9:08 am:

The Sixth Doctor?

THAT is ABSOLUTELY true. (Who knew that all you had to do to redeem his miserable existence is just not SEE him or, more importantly, HIS COAT?)


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 5:02 pm:

The sixth doctor Mel, even the Cybermen were made scary again by them.

Jubilee also showed how you can feel sorry for a Dalek without any stupid DNA plot, people shouting NOOOO or any cringeworthy behaviour.

Whoever thought they could conceive me of the brilliance of the cloth faced Cybermen.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 5:38 pm:

The sixth doctor Mel, even the Cybermen were made scary again by them.

Mel was ALWAYS scary. Have you HEARD that screeching noise she makes...

Jubilee also showed how you can feel sorry for a Dalek without any stupid DNA plot, people shouting NOOOO or any cringeworthy behaviour.

I found Miriam complaining that her husband didn't hit her hard enough fairly cringeworthy.

Plus, say what you like about Jubilee (and I have to concede that proposing to a Dalek is more original than all that running down corridors/up stairs that Dalek entailed) but IT DIDN'T HAVE CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON IN IT. Ergo, it loses.

Anyone object if I move the last few posts to the Audios section?


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 11:07 am:

I found Miriam's comment that her husband didn't hit her hard enough as suitably shocking a demonstrated just how messed up their society was.

Proposing to the Daley was a real ??!!! Moment.

No objections at all move away


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 12:30 pm:

I found Miriam's comment that her husband didn't hit her hard enough as suitably shocking a demonstrated just how messed up their society was.

I might have done too...if a woman in The Holy Terror hadn't been complaining about the exact same thing. At which point it starts to look more like hideous misogyny on Rob Shearman's part than a brilliant portrayal of a truly alien society. (Admittedly I didn't notice any misogyny in Chimes of Midnight, but then I was too busy attempting not to go insane as the words 'Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without your plum pudding' were relentlessly repeated for several hours. And I'm not sure about Deadline owing to it being too boring to remember and apparently none of it happened anyway, though I get the FEELING the main character was a raving sexist and I also seem to remember he murdered a gerbil/guinea-pig/something of the sort to fake his dead wife's ashes or something, probably not the sort of thing you'd do if you DIDN'T hate women.)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 - 1:57 am:

Gallifrey Base:

Three Big Finish Audio plays have been nominated as Best Online/non Broadcast drama in the 2017 BBC Radio Drama Awards.

Absent Friends, the first part of the Eighth Doctor play Doom Coalition 3, Death and the Queen. the third story in the Tenth Doctor range and Torchwood: More Than This are all nominated


I was about to have a good sneer at the gullibility of BBC Radio Drama Awards when I remembered that Doom Coalition 3, Death and the Queen AND all that season of Torchwoods had been a REALLY pleasant surprise.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Friday, January 06, 2017 - 7:58 pm:

Whoever's in charge of Big Finish social media said they'd pass on my suggestion of setting a Davison BF in Adelaide (the state capital of South Australia), maybe even involving the fifth Doctor with the famous cricket ground, the Adelaide Oval.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 07, 2017 - 5:38 am:

Well, I suppose listening to cricket can't be any worse than watching it, and I coped with Black Orchid...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, January 07, 2017 - 6:51 pm:

As an Adelaidian I support this suggestion (about setting a BF audio there).

Doctor: Oh look- two giant metal balls!
Emily: At least SOMETHING around here has them....


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, January 08, 2017 - 7:45 am:

the thought of the fifth Doctor dealing with whoever took the Beaumont children... he'd probably get Turlough to do it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, January 08, 2017 - 4:57 pm:

Fat lot of use Turlough would be. He'd either ally with the bad guy or run away from him.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 2:48 pm:

Other Australian places the Doctor could visit: Uluru ("Ayers Rock") and a dingo attacks, thinking it'll find another baby.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 2:59 pm:

NOT ULURU.

A strong contender for Worst Doctor Who Story Not Written By Mick Lewis was that awful Seventh Doctor audio Dreamtime, set on Uluru (albeit an Uluru that had magically blasted itself off into space for, um, some reason or other).

And it's not as if Who would have the guts to let a dingo have a tasty rug-rat-snack ANYWAY. Just look how Capaldi of all Doctors has gone from 'Shoot the little girl first!' to 'Ooh I'm dying to change some nappies!' in two minutes (seasons. Whatever.) flat.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 3:27 pm:

Sorry. "A dingo's got my baby" has been back in the news today with the death of Azaria Chamberlain's father.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 6:42 pm:

I'd like to see the sixth Doctor go to Nimbin. He'd blend right in with that coat (nobody would care, they'd all be stoned out of their brains...)


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 7:32 pm:

Explanation for Emily: Nimbin is a hippy colony


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 7:56 pm:

That's putting it mildly....


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, January 09, 2017 - 8:33 pm:

"You can't *own* property, man!". "Yes i can, because I'm not a penniless hippy!".


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 12:39 pm:

He'd blend right in with that coat (nobody would care, they'd all be stoned out of their brains...)

Actually That Coat is enough to produce psychotic episodes in perfectly sane non-stoned-out-of-their-brains people, are you quite sure it wouldn't do drugged-up hippies some PERMANENT DAMAGE?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 3:11 am:

Be nice if it was possible for the Beaumonts and other historical murdered and missing children to be able to return from the Undiscovered Country to Earth and see our time. Though i think there'd be a lot of culture shock for the Beaumont girls upon arriving... for starters, a little girl in 1966 Adelaide still had to wear dresses to school, even in the coldest weather.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 3:26 am:

Um, no it wouldn't be nice if Earth was overrun by murdered children and what has this got to do with the audios?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 3:32 am:

Well we were talking about my suggestion to Big Finish that they feature Adelaide in a future audio and i suggested to their social media guy that the audio could reference the Beaumont Children Mystery, either using Tegan's Australian background or mentioning that although the Doctor was unable to save the Beaumonts, the killer was used as target practice for Strax etc.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, March 05, 2017 - 10:51 pm:

Here's a template of every behind-the-scenes interview/doco for Big Finish

Doctor: Hello I'm an ageing actor who used to play Doctor Who on TV.

Scene: Studio
Doctor: dialogue dialogue dialogue
Companion: dialogue dialogue
Director: That was great, let's move on.

Writer: Hello I'm a writer nobody cares to remember. I wrote this thing you've just been listening to.

Director: Hello, I'm the director nobody cares to remember and I directed this thing you've just been listening to.

Writer: Well when Big Finish approached me after the last one I did for them I decided to turn things around by borrowing from a different story than the I used last time.

Companion: Hello I'm a wrinkly old actor who used to play a young, cute companion on Doctor Who

Doctor: Yes, this story is very exciting and I think whathisname who wrote it did a great job

Companion: Well I'm going to chuckle and make a joke about how much better my character is being written for now (howls of laughter from everyone in the room)

Doctor: It's just a shame your acting hasn't improved! (more howls of laughter)

Director: I was so excited when they told me that they had gotten this particular actor to play the villain

Guest Actor 1: Hello, I'm a no-name British actor and I'm playing the villain.

Scene: Studio
Director: Ok, noname actor, can we go from the top scene 32. Take 1
Guest Actor 1: IIIII'MMM EVIIIIILLL
Doctor: I'LL STOP YOU!!!
Director: That was great, let's move on.

Guest Actor 1: Well my agent rang me and said "do you fancy doing a a Doctor Who" and I was so excited. Then I realised I was only doing a Big Finish and I was like "Sod it, I need the money"

Nick Briggs: Hello I'm Nick Briggs. I have nothing to do with this production but I'm contractually bound to appear in every one of these so people think we have some link to the current tv production team. Oh, I'm also the boss around here.

Doctor: Yes, I think this particular story is going to run for about four episodes and feature me and my companions battling something or rather with the help of another guest actor.

Guest Actor 2: Hello I'm the cutesy female guest actor and I play the nice character who helps save the day. I'm going to state the bleeding obvious about what my character does and says throughout the whole show. I might mention that when I first encounter the Doctor, I make fun of him.

Scene: Studio
Director: Ok scene 6, take 1
Guest Actor 2: You look funny Doctor!
Doctor: How rude.
Director: That was great, let's move on.

Director: This is such an amazing cast. in fact of all the casts I've used in Big Finish this has definitely been one of them.

Doctor: Yes, I really loved this cast. I mean, I'm not really going to trash them here am I? Actually which show am I talking about now? (howls of laughter)

Writer: I thought I might try and turn things a bit differently for the Doctor this time around and put him in a situation he's only been 500 times before.

Scene: Studio
Doctor: Oh no, I can't remember the last time this happened to me!
Companion: Doctor, does this mean....?
Doctor: Yes, I'm afraid I'm going to have to...IMPROVISE!

Director: That was great, let's move on...

Writer: I think you'll enjoy this production
Companion: I enjoyed this production.
Director: It's a great production
Nick Briggs: It's a really, stonking good production
Guest Actor 1: I'm so proud to be a part of this great production
Guest Actor 2: It's so awesome to be a part of this production.

Scene: Studio
Doctor: Come on, companion, let's go..
Director: That was great, let's move on...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 06, 2017 - 7:51 am:

YOU FORGOT THE LUNCHES!

How could you forget the lunches!

At SOME point during EACH AND EVERY ONE of these endless, tedious, repetitious and embarrassing-cos-you-have-to-listen-to-the-likes-of-Tom-Baker-degrading-himself-pretending-to-love-the-script abominations, someone (or, more usually, several someones) will start drooling over the legendary Big Finish lunches. Usually just when I'm miserably sticking some broccoli through the juicer.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 4:11 am:

I'm at a loose end and would like to listen to another Big Finish audio. I would love some suggestions.....

Is Doom Coalition worth the trouble?

Are the First to Third Doctor stories any good given that the real actors are kind of geriatric or dead?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 5:00 am:

Is Doom Coalition worth the trouble?

Well, um, SET THREE of Doom Coalition is worth the trouble...

Are the First to Third Doctor stories any good given that the real actors are kind of geriatric or dead?

In a word: No.

Well, actually Havoc of Empires is quite fun but it comes in a box with Prisoners of the Lake and I wouldn't inflict THAT on you.

And the first half of The Black Hole is rather good.

And I suppose An Ordinary Life isn't bad.

Hmm. The only thing I can wholeheartedly recommend from the last few years is Death and the Queen, and you've already heard it.

OK, so if one does a bit of barrel-scraping...:

Twelve: the first half of The Gods of Winter is quite good.

War: Well, they're...OK. And nicely...sorry, I mean tragically...limited, you wouldn't be licensing BF to drain your bank-account FOREVER.

Seven: You Are the Doctor tries a choose-your-own-adventure in audio form, which is at least something brave(ish) and new(ish). Plus there are three other stories, you're bound to like ONE of 'em.

Six: Breaking Bubbles - again, four stories, and one of 'em is actually rather good.

Five: Oh gods, have to go back years to find anything I can even half-heartedly recommend...um...1963: Fanfare for the Common Man or The Burning Prince.

Four: Ditto. The Auntie Matter. Or the Fourth Doctor Lost Stories box set.

Multiple: Classic Doctors, New Monsters.

Spin-Offs: Weirdly enough, BF's Torchwood seasons are the best thing they're doing at the moment.

I'd cautiously recommend the River stuff but you've already heard it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 25, 2017 - 2:32 pm:

Gary Russell in DWM on the happy day when Big Finish's Who licence was announced - 'We must do our very best to provide a service which people want now and will continue to want in the future' - credit where it's due, the following millennium and BF are still doing nicely, giving people what they want (shiny discs with 'Doctor Who' written on 'em) rather than, say, trying to produce a really good product.

'One of the things we are keen to do should we work with Paul [McGann] is tie the plays in with the BBC's range of novels - it would be a foolhardy waste of the existing market to ignore them' - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Sunday, March 26, 2017 - 2:13 pm:

Emily can you Rex one any good audios, my own judgements have been a little lacklustre and the recommendations of the internet aren't really accurate. Do Who and the Pirates was billed as an hilariously laugh out loud musical comedy, not a bittersweet very special episode.

Can you recommend any good ones, fun or exciting or good stories, no tearjerkers. Dalek or cybermen episodes too please.

Thanks


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 26, 2017 - 3:17 pm:

Ten:

Death and the Queen - Tennant and Donna having a blast together.

Eight:

Faith Stealer - the closest you'll get to lighthearted fun in a McGann audio, which admittedly isn't very close but it's a good solid story.

Seven:

Bang-Bang-A-Boom! - I've never seen any of the stuff it's taking the mickey out of and I STILL thoroughly enjoyed it.

Flip-Flop: exciting, in fact fairly mind-blowing.

Protect and Survive: very exciting but, what with the nuclear holocaust and all, probably doesn't met your 'no tearjerkers' criteria.

Six:

The One Doctor: a successful comedy.

Jubilee: dark and twisted but there's some very funny stuff in there. Plus Daleks.

Davros: There is - obviously - quite a bit of comedy to be had from Davros and the Doctor working for a corporation together.

Five:

Spare Parts is the best of the bunch but it definitely falls into 'tearjerker' territory. Still, you want a Cyberman story and frankly I can't recommend any of the others...

The Kingmaker. Best. Big. Finish EVER. Also fits your requirements by being bloody hilarious. And exciting. No Daleks or Cybermen but weirdly enough you'll come away from it really feeling that it had Tom Baker AND Christopher Eccleston in it. As long as you don't care too much about stuff like continuity and plausibility.

Unusually enjoyable for BF, if nothing to write home about: Fanfare for the Common Men, The Game, The Burning Prince, Heroes of Sontar.

Four:

The Auntie Matter: well, it's trying very hard to be a P G Wodehouse comedy and it's the best of an incredibly bad bunch.

Unbound:

Sympathy for the Devil: funny in a very tragic way.

Lost Stories:

Farewell, Great Macedon: doesn't meet any of your criteria (except good, obviously) but DAMMIT you wish they'd made it on TV.

The Fourth Doctor box set isn't bad (if, y'know, you're a millionaire) and neither is The Elite.

Companion Chronicles:

Peri and the Piscon Paradox: as long as you like your comedy silly.

The Last Post: just really good.

The Scorchies: come on, you've GOT to, it's a comedy alien invasion musical.

Torchwood:

Fall to Earth: exciting. And welcome back darling Ianto!

Bernice Summerfield:

Venus Mantrap: Benny pretending to be a robot prostitute - what's not to love?

The Winning Side: Look, it's possible that, what with the collapse of civilisation and all, there's some tearjerkiness going on, but...it's SO SO GOOD.

Faction Paradox:

Both series. Much excitement and epic goodness and humour but, it has to be admitted, quite a lot of tragedy too.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Monday, March 27, 2017 - 3:44 pm:

Thanks very much, I have jubilee and spare parts both are good and despite their tearjerkerness well worth a re listen. DALEKS DO NOT SING!! possibly the best line in all of Big Finish :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 27, 2017 - 5:09 pm:

I have jubilee and spare parts

.

I mean, excellent choices but this means I can't in all honesty heartily recommend you get a single Dalek or Cyberman audio. There are a horde of mediocre-to-epicly-bad monthly releases getting BF's moneys-worth out of our Top Two Monsters - recently they've got so obsessed doing sequels to Tomb of the Cybermen that I am seriously worried for their sanity. Oddly enough the Cybermen and Dalek spin-off series are better than the proper Who series in an action-adventure (Dalek Empire) or conspiracy-thriller (Cyberman)-type way, but certainly not good enough to suggest you squander your time and money on them.

OK, Daleks...Daleks...Well...I like The Neverwhen but it's the third story in the War Doctor Infernal Devices box set and getting involved with THEM isn't exactly gonna give you a laugh a minute...hmm, actually Blood of the Daleks is mildly enjoyable (BF having made it for a BBC radio audience rather than the usual suspects)...er, if you really really love The Dalek Invasion of Earth you might enjoy listening to Lucie Miller/To the Death regurgitate the entire thing twenty years later...hey, why don't you just gaze adoringly at the Order of the Daleks COVER without bothering with any of the actual discs...oh gods...I think I'll give up rather than come up with a similarly uninspiring bit of barrel-scraping for the Cybermen...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, April 07, 2017 - 3:50 am:

The Fourth Doctor box set isn't bad (if, y'know, you're a millionaire)

60% off on the BF website this weekend, for all the Lost Stories! (Plus, rather oddly, for the Philip Hinchcliffe Presents box set...well, I suppose any suckers prepared to pay £55 for a couple of audios had already done so years earlier.)


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Saturday, April 22, 2017 - 8:52 am:

Thanks for the heads up, I just bought the King Maker, fingers crossed I like it


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 22, 2017 - 9:06 am:

Just remember, if you don't totally love and adore it there's something wrong with YOU, not with IT.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Sunday, April 23, 2017 - 11:21 am:

I did love and adore it, excellent recommendation.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - 1:24 pm:

From an unpleasantly Big-Finish-heavy DWM from 2014:

Colin Baker re Big Finish: 'We've kind of championed each other. Right from the very beginning I saw it for what it was' - me too, Sunshine, me too - 'and I think they've responded to that. The standard of the scripts is unfailingly a cut above' - a cut above WHAT, for heaven's sake? - 'I would say that the majority of Big Finish stories are better stories than the ones I had on television' - oh, right, THAT. Yeah, if you're comparing ANYTHING to the Colin Baker Era on TV it'll probably be an improvement, though let's be honest, I'd rather endure Timelash than Pier Pressure any day.

Louise Jameson: 'It's such a shame that Gallifrey has finished now' - you actually BELIEVED 'em when they claimed that they were actually killing off one of their series? Bless!

'For Lalla, working on Gallifrey has been one of her Big Finish highlights' - well, it would HAVE to be, wouldn't it. At the time she'd only worked on Gallifrey, the Companion Chronicles, and a couple of awful main range stories that I can recall.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, May 28, 2017 - 8:45 pm:

As Disney own Star Wars and Marvel there's tons of stuff that would be cool for BF to adapt, in theory. But if fans mean Disney Disney: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto ... No thanks, siree Bob!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, May 29, 2017 - 6:01 pm:

No indeed, we don't want Minnie back pinching the Doctor's bottom, though of course Mickey-the-Idiot would be most welcome and I've always wondered how those post-Company torturers got on, ruling Pluto...

...Oh, right, Disney characters.

Actually I'd take it as a personal favour if BF would concentrate on doing a few million Disney series and JUST GIVE WHO A BREAK.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, May 29, 2017 - 6:40 pm:

The Simpsons had the best solution to Disney:

Blue-Haired Lawyer: Principal Skinner, "The Happiest Place on Earth" is a registered Disneyland copyright.
Principal Skinner: Oh now, gentlemen, it's just a small school carnival.
Blue-Haired Lawyer: And it's heading for a great big lawsuit. You made a big mistake, Skinner.
Principal Skinner: Well, so did you. You got an ex-Green Beret mad.
[he finger-thrusts the first goon in the Adam's Apple, then kicks the lawyer in the chest; they both go down groaning; as the second goon runs away, Skinner picks up the lawyer's briefcase and flings it into the air; in the distance, it knocks down the goon]
Principal Skinner: Copyright expired.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Saturday, June 24, 2017 - 3:31 pm:

How many non-existent gaps have BF used?

Time Flight-Arc of Infinity must be one, unless you want to believe that Nyssa stayed looking like a teenage girl for years...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, June 24, 2017 - 4:20 pm:

That's what Tim is hoping for.....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 7:38 am:

How many non-existent gaps have BF used?

Time Flight-Arc of Infinity must be one, unless you want to believe that Nyssa stayed looking like a teenage girl for years...


I don't think there have been YEARS-worth of Five/Nyssa audios, and anyway, there's no reason a Trakenite should age at the same rate as us humans. (Plus the TARDIS/artron energy might have something to do with slowing the ageing process (the immortal Professors Chesterton, Sarah Jane's ridiculous youthfulness into her 60s, Leela living for hundreds of years apparently because of the presence of Time Lords and THEIR artron energy...).)

Anyway, that's about the only REAL gap in the entire Davison era (the guy lived for about A WEEK on-screen, poor hapless wimp), it's all the audios that AREN'T set in that gap you should be worried about.

I think the Hartnell and Troughton episodes almost all ran into each other, too. Whereas with Pertwee you could pretty much fit in anything anywhere, EXCEPT between The Time Warrior and The Dinosaur Invasion, which makes it all the more insane that OF COURSE that's what The Paradise of Death did.

I wonder if - now that Matthew Waterhouse has finally returned to us, crawling back to the fold as everyone-bar-Dodo does, sooner or later - we haven't had any Four/Adric adventures because of respect for the lack-of-a-gap, or for some other reason, like Tom absolutely refusing?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 1:54 pm:

Speaking of Dodo, do you think BF would accept my story where One, Steven and Dodo visit the Crimean War?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 2:17 pm:

Well, there are a few problems, like One being dead and Dodo refusing to have anything to do with BF and them already having a Seventh Doctor audio set during the Crimean War, but hey, Steven's still going strong and as long as no one meets Florence Nightingale...


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 2:29 pm:

I meant as a Companion Chronicle. I also wrote a fanfiction set in the bunker in 1945 where Two finds out that the Delgado Master was Hitler.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 2:35 pm:

But the Delgado Master WASN'T Hitler.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 2:41 pm:

I wrote it before the new series and "in the cupboard, Hitler!"


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 3:00 pm:

Yeah, but even BEFORE he got himself locked in a cupboard it was fairly obvious that the Delgado Master wasn't Hitler.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, July 28, 2017 - 9:15 am:

I also hoped, for one brief moment, that T. Baker was going to make a guest appearance with Bow Tie Boy.

Ah bless, look what Mike was saying back in 2009!

*Forcibly has to remind self that no less an authority than River Song Herself has stated that there are no gods watching over us*


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - 2:07 am:

I honestly can't remember where I put the links to my non-Who reviews (so Emily can feel free to weave her magic moving spell).

This is my review of Big Finish's brilliant adaptation of The Prisoner


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - 1:54 pm:

Why don't we just ASSUME you're constantly updating your site with Not We filler and you just tell us whenever you review a PROPER story?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 3:19 am:

Because maybe other posters here might like to READ my other reviews.

Shocking as it may sound....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 3:41 am:

OF COURSE they might have nothing better to do, but I'm sure Nitcentrallers are capable of making their way to your site on a regular basis without this sort of hand-holding.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, September 09, 2017 - 9:34 am:

Too Fanwanky Even For Big Finish:


UNIT are caught in a timeslip, and keep bouncing between the 1970s and 1980s because the Second Doctor (during Season 6b) and Drax (just because) put the Metebelis III crystal AND the Kronos crystal together (which Drax got his hands on, somehow), causing a massive rupture in space and time because at that moment the two Brigadiers were touching one another on Mawdryn's ship, meaning that the Brigadier is at the heart of the UNIT timeslips. The shockwave (timewave?) from this explosion causes the Great Intelligence to be knocked off course, to smack into Earth and start the 'abominable snowmen incident', and Nyssa is drawn to visit this location after receiving a telepathic spike from said Mawdryn explosion. Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor land in Det-Sen Monastary, and meet Travers (surely it's only a matter of time before the Doctor meets him again?) and Nyssa and Thomni get it on and Kronos - flying about madly through time and space in pursuit of plot purpose - sends the two lovers back through time a few hundred years, where they start a family and eventually their progeny results in Professor Brett in 1960s London.

Oh, and there are some Cybermen hiding in sewers wanting to change things. As is their wont. But one Dalek faction won't let them. And neither will Professor Brett, who has decided to get help from the Cryons. Who have - as if this needs explaining - decided to leave Telos in Cyberships to go back in time to stop the Cybermen from invading their planet. They've decided to hide Bellboy and Flowerchild's DNA at the end of a time corridor in the London Docklands area, which they plan to inject into the earliest Cybermen. Theodore Maxtible (who didn't die on Skaro, but survived and lived as a space-faring wildman), has normalised sufficiently enough to be a force for good and the Time Lords (hurrah!) use him to go to Mondas in the LIZ-79 (adapted for time travel thanks to Kartz and Reimer and Humker and Gharman and the Twin Dilemma twins and old Ma Tyler pooling their skills), but is thwarted after the cast of Warriors' Gate walk through, that guy with the big navigational unit (I can't remember what it is) on his chest using that big grey box of his to bat all the characters mentioned so far left and right, out of the story, until it's only the guy with the navigational unit on his chest left. Time tries to readjust itself, the guy with the boxy navigational unit thing on his chest suddenly finds himself in the white void, and not sure what to do, walks off-screen whistling the harp tune from The Five Doctors. Fin.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Friday, September 15, 2017 - 3:22 am:

I'd like BF to do an AU with Young Amelia Pond as the companion. A seven year old girl kicking tail thoroughly and consistently!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - 4:20 am:

To update my recommendation list: Time in Office (the Fifth Doctor is forced to become Gallifreyan President) is actually good fun. Alright, not all-time-classic only-for-this-have-the-generations-of-my-fathers-lived kinda fun, but I literally can't remember the last time I finished a Big Finish and wished there'd been MORE of it. Tegan and Leela are surprisingly wonderful together.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, October 21, 2017 - 11:26 am:

10% off all Big Finish audios (pre-orders included) today!

Come on Nitcentrallers, you just KNOW you've been yearning for that fourth Vienna box set...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, October 30, 2017 - 5:07 am:

River is to be blessed with at least five series!! AND MEET TOM!!!

Alright, so this is REALLY taking the out of THAT scene in Silence in the Library but what the hell, I can't wait to see how Tom copes with his 'wife'...

(Also, they had BETTER not get her playing opposite fake-BF-Third-Doctor Tim Treloar, even if it WOULD explain her lack of horror at being confronted with so wrinkly a husband in Husbands Of...)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 2:48 am:

But of course they will, and then Frazer Hines' second doc and David Bradley's first.....


By Kevin (Kevin) on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 4:52 pm:

Was that the mock Pertwee in Light at the End? The first three Doctors were all appallingly bad--so much so that I assumed it was intentional deference.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 5:08 pm:

But of course they will, and then Frazer Hines' second doc and David Bradley's first.....

Oh gods of course you're right, and probably the Morbius Faces after them...

Was that the mock Pertwee in Light at the End?

Yup, that's the one.

He's since been wheeled out for several Third Doctor Early Adventures box sets.

Still, say what you like about Treloar, he beats mining Pertwee's corpse for Zagreus...

The first three Doctors were all appallingly bad--so much so that I assumed it was intentional deference.

You're SO SWEET!

Sadly...not.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 6:37 pm:

Didn't BF once say they wouldn't use soundalikes?

Not sure whether to say, 'Obviously that's changed' or 'They're still honouring that.'


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 6:48 pm:

:-) :-) :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 12:01 pm:

I don't suppose anyone's interested in 99p Big Finish downloads...

99 titles at 99p

...nope, didn't think so.

And no, I don't get what 'redballoons' is all about.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 3:42 pm:

99 Luftballons.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 4:09 pm:

...??


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 4:51 pm:

A pop song in the mid-80s, known in both its English (99 Red Balloons) and German (99 Luftballons) versions. Non-Who related. You're not missing anything.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 5:03 pm:

Big Finish SERIOUSLY expected Who Fans to think of some thirty-year-old German pop song instead of, say, DAUGHTER OF MINE?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 - 6:10 pm:

Where are the Third Doctor Adventure sets? They ain't in the Third Doctor Section....


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 - 6:22 pm:

Oh wait, I see what you've done (for no apparent reason). Why not have the title of "Third Doctor Adventures vol.1" or whatever and then when you click on that you can have the individual stories as separate links. Might make it easier to find...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 - 6:33 pm:

You want a reason, you take a look in the Audios: First Doctor: Men of War thread.

I was There Should Be Another Way-ing like I was Davison-in-Warriors-of-the-Deep but did any of you people offer a better solution...?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Sunday, January 14, 2018 - 1:42 pm:

I’ve just finished listening to the Big Finish First Doctor Adventures starring David Bradley. It’s an excellent recreation of the early Doctor Who episodes, with some extra touches, such as the inclusion of the Master in the first story. I think they missed a trick by not having the Master appear as the Doctor’s friend to begin with, but James Dreyfus gives a credible performance as (possibly) the First Master.

Claudia Grant didn’t quite sound like Susan to me - possibly because her character has been brought a bit more up to date. Jamie Glover and Jemma Powell were spot on as Ian and Barbara.

The second story is a great example of a pure historical story. There’s a nice touch that it’s Barbara’s knowledge of history that reveals the nature of the danger they face. It’s an event that I was only vaguely aware of though to someone more familiar with it, the title The Great White Hurricane would probably have given it away.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, January 14, 2018 - 1:59 pm:

The First Doctor recently acquired a thrilling* new section for EVERY Early (and Lost) Adventure, would you mind reposting these comments under The Destination Wars and The Great White Hurricane?

*I may be exaggerating slightly.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, January 19, 2018 - 11:08 pm:

FIrstly, why the sudden need to ASK SOMEONE TO MOVE SOMETHING when you were quite happy to do it for YEARS without telling anyone?

Secondly (and completely unrelated) here is my review of a rather lacklustre B7 audio. I'll also put it up in the B7 section...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 20, 2018 - 2:38 am:

why the sudden need to ASK SOMEONE TO MOVE SOMETHING when you were quite happy to do it for YEARS without telling anyone?

Because I could move the entire post into the Destination section or the Hurricane section, I can't split it in half and move it into BOTH.


By Judi (Judi) on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 1:05 pm:

Shame Claudette and Jemima the little girl Zygons got killed. A BF with them would be like Alyson Croft's character in the sci-fi movie Trancers: "I had to sneak past the parents and everything!"


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 1:34 pm:

Shame Claudette and Jemima the little girl Zygons got killed

Blimey, did they? I don't even remember.

Even more of a shame that their brutal murderer is now having the time of her life eating ice-cream and being an Osgood. (Some of us have this craaaazy belief in this thing called JUSTICE. The Twelfth Doctor obviously isn't such a person. Still, at least we don't have to cough up to listen endlessly to a couple of squeaky little girls...oh who am I kidding, like being DEAD will stop BF bringing 'em back...)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, February 15, 2018 - 4:36 pm:

Mark Gatiss in DWM: 'Gary Russell summoned us. Us - the High Council! All these people, including Steven Moffat. They told us they had the licence to do Doctor Who and Steven said, "Is it new? Is it the Eighth Doctor?" They said no and Steven walked out! He's very embarrassed about that now...' - he shouldn't be. Though come to think of it it might have come in handy, having a few Big Finishes he could have plundered in an emergency, a la What I Did In My Summer Holidays By Sally Sparrow.


By Graham Nealon (Graham) on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - 3:41 am:

There's another sale on the BF main range for the next day or so. Weirdly £5 each in the UK but only $5 in Australia for any of the first 150 Doctor 5/6/7/8 stories. No idea of the cost for those who live outside civilisation but I suspect it involve a 5.

If Emily hasn't totally turned you off them through her reviews not a bad price to get started.

(I've just bought another lot to get me up to release 150 despite having only listened to number 51 so far).


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - 4:32 am:

We were just discussing this in the Feast of Axos section (for some reason) and I accidentally seem to have persuaded a couple of people to buy a few of 'em and now I'm feeling really really guilty...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 2:55 am:

the Feast of Axos section (for some reason)
Well it was the title that intrigued me (also the cover image of Colin as an Axon) so I asked the question there, but then we veered into a more general discussion....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 3:21 am:

There's a cover image of Colin as a Axon?!

- Oh.

How disappointing.

He's just got glowing eyes, I was rather hoping for a lot of orange tentacles in That Coat. (I was actually wondering if a lot of orange tentacles would have been an improvement on The Real Thing but I guess we'll never know...)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 - 2:35 am:

In case anyone cares, here is my review of the final HG Wells adaptation. You should seriously give this one a listen....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 - 3:40 am:

Certainly not.

I'm still furious about Doctor Who Weekly foisting several H G Wells comic strips on its unsuspecting victims, sorry, readers...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 18, 2018 - 5:28 pm:

Wow, the Audio section has been getting a lot of activity lately.

Admit it, folks, you're just listening to these to pass the time until JODIE.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, March 19, 2018 - 1:22 am:

No, I'm adding to it because I'm reviewing them for another site, posting the links here and letting Emily cut sick on them.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 19, 2018 - 3:29 am:

'Cut sick' is an expression I've never heard before.

Also, lots of Lost and Early Stories have just got their own threads so need relistening to and reviewing and somehow even the audios that remain grouped in Seasons have demanded their own synopsis-and-thoughts so boy am I doing a lot of extra work at the moment.

The other major factor is Daniel, when he listens to an audio he well gets his moneys-worth out of it...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 5:10 am:

'Cut sick' is an expression I've never heard before.

It probably means rip to shreds, as you tend to do with these things, Emily.

Well, it will keep you busy until JODIE.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, March 23, 2018 - 8:50 pm:

big Finish have a sale on some of their new who boxsets.

Of the ones listed I recommend the first volume of the Tenth Doctor Adventures and Volume 1 of the Diary of River Song. The others I leave to our esteemed moderator to judge...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 4:08 am:

Hmm. None of 'em are bad (except maybe UNIT: Extinction and New Earth, and even they're not bad so much as a bit of a let-down) but I can't say any of 'em are worth twenty quid either, if Ten n'Donna's Death and the Queen or River Song's 1.3: Signs were being sold separately I'd definitely recommend going for 'em, but as it is...Well, maybe try a bit of War Doctor, in the circumstances you're not gonna be committing yourself to a LIFETIME of buying endless War Doc CDs...

Trouble is, New Who is so utterly the best thing in the history of the universe that when Big Finish try and do New Who it's by definition more of a let-down than when they wheel out Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy for their umpteen thousandth bog-standard adventure.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 4:17 am:

New Who is so utterly the best thing in the history of the universe

*starts laughing uproariously*


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 6:35 am:

Ah, an Old Who Fan.

Nothing wrong with that.

You have City of Death, after all.

Even if it doesn't have as many kittens as Gridlock.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 6:43 am:

the Scottish Gnome and the Cosmic Hobo wipe the floor with Hair Gel and There's a Horror Movie Called Alien.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 1:47 pm:

That is objectively not the case.

Tennant is the Most Popular Doctor Ever whether we like it or not. (NB: I do.)

Troughton, I grant you, was a better Doctor than Capaldi though I believe his viewing figures fell off a similar cliff...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 25, 2018 - 1:18 am:

You have City of Death, after all.

Not to mention Davros and Nyder, Pyramids Of Mars, the Black Guardian, Vince Hawkins, Nyssa of Traken, Ace, and many other things...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 25, 2018 - 4:30 am:

And very fine things some of those are too, but perhaps not quite as fine as Donna and Rose and Captain Jack and Eccy 'Fantastic!'-ing in front of the London Eye and Tennant clutching a beribboned kitten and Capaldi punching a diamond wall and the Curator and the Weeping Angels and many many MANY other things...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 25, 2018 - 6:08 am:

Still, I guess I don't have to say which one I would choose.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 25, 2018 - 6:26 am:

You'd change your tune fast enough if Nyssa popped up in New Who. And it's never too late for a Glorious Return, as Alpha Centuri proved...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, March 26, 2018 - 12:06 am:

Aside from Sarah Jane, how many Classic Who Companions have they had on? And the only reason they had Sarah Jane on was because they were planning to launch her on her own show.

Ironically, it was on Sarah Jane's show that they did have Classic Companions on. They had Jo Grant and the Brig, and, if Lis Sladen had lived, they were planning to have Ace show up.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 26, 2018 - 5:38 am:

Aside from Sarah Jane, how many Classic Who Companions have they had on?

Well, there's the Brig...sort of...

And Alpha Centuri practically counts as a Companion, it's been in TWO stories which is enough for SOME people when it comes to Katarina or Adam...

And the only reason they had Sarah Jane on was because they were planning to launch her on her own show.

Are you sure it was that way round, and they didn't promptly give her her own show because she walked onto the Who set and just mesmerised them all?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, March 31, 2018 - 4:55 pm:

Big Finish are having their 99 titles for 99p sale and there's a fair few early Doctor Who adventures (and a number of non-Who related stuff).

As always, I'll leave it to our moderator to tell you which ones to get....(and let's just assume that none of the non-Who stuff is recommended)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 01, 2018 - 12:47 am:

I'd recommend Davros, Omega, Flip Flop, Doctor Who and the Pirates, Jubilee, Bang-Bang-a-Boom, Spare Parts, Seasons of Fear, The One Doctor, Eye of the Scorpion, The Holy Terror, The Fires of Vulcan, The Marian Conspiracy, I, Davros 1.1-1.4, Eighth Doctor 1.1-1.8...that's a REALLY good sale.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 08, 2018 - 2:18 am:

Someone on Gallifrey Base was summarising the latest Big Finish podcast and I was struck by the immortal line: 'No intention to adapt the Wheetabix board games.'

Honestly, it's not like it's still TSLABYOD (well, it'd be The Twenty-Nine Long And Barren Years Of Despair by now, I suppose), when you'd EXPECT to hear a sentence like that...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 - 4:09 pm:

Well I have three new audios to review (not sure when my last two are getting published)

- The Death of Jack Harkness
- The Tenth Doctor Chronicles
- ATA Girl


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 - 4:47 pm:

Well, leave ATA Girl till last, if it's half as bad as Louise Jameson's Fourth Doctor audio you'll probably want to top yourself afterwards.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - 5:52 am:

Brave heart.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - 5:34 pm:

Well I’ve started with ATA Girl just to get it out of the way...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 2:30 am:

So...assuming you're still alive...how bad IS it?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 7:57 pm:

Ill let you know when I get to the end of it.

Pray for me.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, April 20, 2018 - 1:49 am:

It's a statistical fact that prayer doesn't work.

I'll be THINKING of you.

And maybe cackling, just a bit.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 2:19 am:

Actually, it's not too bad- not brilliant but far gutsier than most Big Finish productions (there's an abortion scene that is quite chilling).

It's a shame the scripts vary wildly and it can get bogged down in melodrama a lot. Still if you want a change from Who then it might be of interest.

Oh who am I kidding.....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 4:07 am:

Actually, it's not too bad

*Nods sympathetically*

You just keep telling yourself that...AND the people supplying you with the free audios...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 4:32 am:

No it actually isn’t that bad. I actually tweeted my congrats to one of the cast members for her superb work in it.


By Judi (Judi) on Sunday, June 03, 2018 - 9:28 am:

I feel that Big Finish have mined the virtually non-existent gap between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani beyond all credibility. Peri clearly arrives on Androzani wearing the same clothes she wore in Planet of Fire...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, June 03, 2018 - 9:38 am:

I don't remember many Five/Peri audios, bar the occasional freebie? It's the novels you should be worried about, i.e. all those months she spends as the Scourge of Sylvana, famed guerrilla leader, after Morbius tries to rape her and she gets her arm bitten off and before trying to seduce the Supremo, aka the Fifth Doctor...


By Alan Haigh (Brayken) on Monday, June 04, 2018 - 9:11 am:

"I feel that Big Finish have mined the virtually non-existent gap between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani beyond all credibility. Peri clearly arrives on Androzani wearing the same clothes she wore in Planet of Fire..."

Maybe she misplaced them in the TARDIS laundry room just before landing on the Eknuri orgy planetoid and only found them again a few minutes before landing on Androzani Minor?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, June 04, 2018 - 4:04 pm:

Judi- don't quite vortex magazine and claim it for your own. Pretty certainEmily has told you not to do that....


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, June 04, 2018 - 4:05 pm:

*quote


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, June 04, 2018 - 4:51 pm:

Well, she's certainly got smarter about it, obviously realising that I google any suspicious-looking chunk of text she posts but just can't face reading Vortex Magazine...


By Judi (Judi) on Monday, June 04, 2018 - 6:46 pm:

It was worth a try. And Nick Briggs is so much more eloquent than me.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, June 05, 2018 - 5:42 am:

Natalie, as I have explained before, if you quote someone, you must cite the source of said quote.

It's just common decency.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, June 07, 2018 - 1:07 am:

Well anyway, my editor has finally found time to start putting up my reviews so here is the first one (of about 6 I think).


By Judi (Judi) on Saturday, June 09, 2018 - 8:14 pm:

Rodney has an editor? He makes things pretty fun around here. He reminds us constantly of the blood that's on the Fourth Doctor's hands at Fang Rock.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, June 09, 2018 - 10:35 pm:

Shame YOU don't have an editor around here Natalie...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 5:37 am:

Big Finish have a Sixth Doctor sale on for about the next 24 hours or so (I'm useless with time differences between AUstralia and England).
Here's what's been discounted...

1963: The Space Race
Antidote to Oblivion
The Brood of Erys
Scavenger
Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories
The Widow's Assassin
Masters of Earth
The Rani Elite
Last of the Cybermen
Criss-Cross
Planet of the Rani
Shield of the Jotunn
The Sixth Doctor - The Last Adventure

I've actually heard a number of these. I quite like the two Rani stories (I was sure I read somewhere there was a third one).
Last of the Cybermen is ok and the Last Adventure is a very tedious affair...

I'll leave the rest to our esteemed moderator...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 9:50 am:

DON'T DO IT PEOPLE!

Though if you ARE doing it, The Space Race is mildly amusing, Breaking Bubbles has four different stories of which I'm sure SOME are fine, and the Antidote-Erys-Scavenger trilogy is utterly worthless.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, July 03, 2018 - 5:07 am:

Has Anne Travers been in any Audios.

Christina Packer, who played Anne, is still alive.

Anne has been in some of the novels, but I wonder if she's been in any Audios?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, July 03, 2018 - 1:21 pm:

No, and now you mention it that's a bit weird, what with all the Counter-Measures (1960s and 70s) and UNIT (1970s-2010s) audios that could really do with her help...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, July 05, 2018 - 5:31 am:

I wonder if Ms. Packer has even been asked.

She is one the dwindling surviving actors from that era, after all.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 3:53 pm:

Well it seems that Big Finish are just hedging their bets that a certain scarf wearing, lighthouse inhabitant murdering, suicide assisting Doctor (or the rather the actor who played him) by announcing seasons 9 AND 10 of the Fourth Doctor adventures will be released in 2020 and 2021 and feature Adric, Romana and K-9.

50+ year-old Matthew Waterhouse playing 15-year old Adric. Judi's head will explode.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 4:22 pm:

Ooh, which lighthouse inhabitants did he murder?


By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 5:55 pm:

The Rutan, wasn't it? ;-)


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 6:41 pm:

Judi's head will explode.. Oh, Fartin', you crack me up!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 - 5:21 am:

Rodney has clearing been holding out on us.

I mean this Tom Baker story he keeps going on about, the one where the Fourth Doctor murders a bunch of people in a lighthouse.

The only Fourth Doctor story, set in a lighthouse, that I know of, is Horror Of Fang Rock. However, the Fourth Doctor murders no one in that story (unless you count the Rutan), so clearly that can't be the story that Rodney is talking about.

So, clearly there is a lost Tom Baker story out there that only Rodney has seen!

Hey, Rodney, how about letting the rest of us in on this secret story :-)


By Judibug (Judibug) on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 - 5:51 am:

Ol' Fartin' Hrvatin probably believes that the blonde neighbour at the end of "Survival" is a young Jackie Tyler :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 - 11:07 am:

OK, you can stop calling him that now, Judi.

However, the Fourth Doctor murders no one in that story (unless you count the Rutan)

Actually, an entire shipful of Rutans but they're genocidal invading maniacs so who the hell cares (luckily Tennant isn't around to destroy his former self's LIFE or anything).


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 - 2:55 pm:

Well he may not have "pulled the trigger" but he certainly, through his actions, led them all to their various deaths.

OK, you can stop calling him that now, Judi.
Thank you. That's pretty much what my 4th grade teacher had to say when the kids there called me that....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 - 3:15 pm:

Well he may not have "pulled the trigger" but he certainly, through his actions, led them all to their various deaths.

You could say that about EVERY death in Doctor Who.

OK, maybe not Cordo's Dad...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, August 08, 2018 - 5:31 am:

Well he may not have "pulled the trigger" but he certainly, through his actions, led them all to their various deaths.

Yes, but that can hardly be defined as "murder".

Now, if the Fourth Doctor had walked into that lighthouse and opened up on them with a machine gun, then yes, that would be murder.

However, that was not the case here.


OK, you can stop calling him that now, Judi.

I agree. Name calling is a clear violation of Phil's rules. And while Phil is considerably less involved with this site than he was years ago, as far as I know, those rules remain in effect.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, August 09, 2018 - 5:47 pm:

Following on from Jake Dudman's revelationary Eleventh Doctor, it's time for an assessment of Big Finish's blasphemous replacements for our late lamented (or, in the case of Nine-to-Eleven, our can't-be-arsed) heroes:

Eleventh Doctor - fantastic, absolutely fantastic.

Ben Jackson - excellent.

Second Doctor - usually adorably good.

Tenth Doctor - pretty good, on the whole.

Ninth Doctor - variable, but certainly has its moments.

Third Doctor - a valiant attempt that's improving all the time.

First Doctor - OK, I s'pose.

Ian Chesterton - weirdly captures Ian's spirit if not his actual voice.

Susan Foreman - shockingly bad.

Barbara Wright - an abomination unto the Lord, make it stop make it stop make it stoooooooop...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, August 10, 2018 - 5:16 am:

Well, some of the original actors are now dead, so bringing them back would have been kind of hard (unless you've got a Ouija board handy).

I guess the living ones just weren't available. You'd have to haul Eccy back, kicking and screaming, before he'd do Doctor Who again.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, August 10, 2018 - 5:29 am:

Well, some of the original actors are now dead, so bringing them back would have been kind of hard (unless you've got a Ouija board handy).

Excuses, excuses...

Of course, IAN AND SUSAN are (surprisingly!) alive and well and at Big Finish's disposal so replacing THEM with some Adventure-in-Space-and-Time FAKES (who were obviously cast for their similarity in APPEARANCE NOT VOICES!!) is just RUDE.

You'd have to haul Eccy back, kicking and screaming, before he'd do Doctor Who again.

And when I kidnap Eccy and torture him into returning it'll obviously be to PROPER Who, not the sodding audios. (Though come to think of it, some of said torture could entail forcing him to read out a few Big Finish scripts...obviously the torment has to be psychological as well as physical, can't damage him too much or he won't be able to cope with all that running-down-corridors...)


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 - 8:07 am:

I wonder if Big Finish has ever thought of a Krynoid versus Vervoid audio?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 - 10:03 am:

They've done a Krynoid story (Eighth Doctor: Hothouse) but surely even BF would draw the line at Vervoids...

...Oh what am I talking about, OF COURSE they'll do a Vervoid story sooner or later, but putting two dumb plants together might not be the best idea on audio...mind you, they've done the odd Weeping Angel story and THEY'RE even more quiet than vegetable matter...


By Kevin (Kevin) on Monday, August 20, 2018 - 7:07 am:

So Big Finish reaches its Five Doctors stage.

Twenty years...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, August 20, 2018 - 11:29 am:

Ridiculous. Insane.

God I'm old.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, August 24, 2018 - 2:02 am:

Tom Baker adventures are on sale at Big Finish. I'm sure our esteemed moderator can guide you correctly as to which ones to purchase and which ones to avoid like a radio tower attached to a giant satellite dish....


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, August 24, 2018 - 2:12 am:

For the record- I purchased the second season of the Fourth Doctor adventures. According to Emily one story is mildly decent and the others are rubbish. I'm sure I will enjoy them then.

RIP Mary Tamm (my favourite Romana)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, August 24, 2018 - 3:42 am:

The Foe From the Future is very good but alas not one of the '2.99 on download' stories. People who like pure historicals might take to Wrath of the Iceni, I suppose. If you're a PG Wodehouse fan then go for The Auntie Matter. The first half of Babblesphere is quite good. The audios of the three Gareth Roberts Fourth Doctor Missing Adventures make a valiant attempt to capture whatever-the-hell-it-was-that-people-who-weren't-me-found-so-great about them. If you have an Abigail's Party fixation (i.e. if you're of our parents generation) then try Suburban Hell. If by any remote chance you're already missing Moffat's timey-wimey fixations, then you'd almost certainly enjoy The Paradox Planet/Legacy of Death. If you're an enormous fan of Sutekh or Sontarans or Daleks or Kraals or whatever then maybe that'll enable you to cope with the audios with Sukkeh or Sontarans or Daleks or Kraals (NB: This does not apply to the Cybermen! On no account purchase that Krelos/Telos abomination!). The Skin of the Sleek is Platt's best since Spare Parts but alas that's not saying much as everything he's done since Spare Parts has been a festering pile of and anyway, it's only the first half of a story.

You know I WANTED to love Tom's audios, right? I really, really did.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, September 07, 2018 - 5:56 am:

RIP Mary Tamm (my favourite Romana)

Of the Tom Baker era Companions, only Louise Jamison and Lalla Ward are left alive. So I guess one can see why most of them are the Fourth Doctor and Leela.

Considering that Lalla still hates Tom, even through their marriage ended nearly FORTY YEARS AGO! Lalla, get over it!

Anyway, I can't see her agreeing to do any Audios with Tom, because of this.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, September 07, 2018 - 7:41 am:

Of the Tom Baker era Companions, only Louise Jamison and Lalla Ward are left alive.

Nonsense! John Leeson, the One True K9, is alive and kicking!

Oh, and I suppose Adric, Nyssa and Tegan are all Tom's Companions, technically speaking...

Considering that Lalla still hates Tom, even through their marriage ended nearly FORTY YEARS AGO! Lalla, get over it!

Anyway, I can't see her agreeing to do any Audios with Tom, because of this.


I certainly didn't get the impression she HATED him when he just got bored of marriage and wandered off. And I'm sure I read somewhere that she said she'd be happy to meet Tom. Though admittedly I'm getting rather suspicious about why they've never managed to meet up in said almost-forty-years...

Anyway, she manages to record BFs perfectly well in a different location from Tom, you wouldn't know they weren't in the same studio together. Except, come to think of it, that she plays Romana as the brittle from the Gallifrey audios rather than as the joyous young Time Lord from Season Seventeen, DAMMIT she and Tom should be carefully reintroduced to each other (like zoo-keepers sticking lions in the same cage and hoping they'll mate), maybe THEN we'd get our PROPER Romana II back...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, September 08, 2018 - 5:08 am:

I suppose Adric, Nyssa and Tegan are all Tom's Companions, technically speaking...

That's true. I tend to think of them as Davison Companions, because they were introduced when Tom was going out and Peter was coming in.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, September 08, 2018 - 2:21 pm:

Also because Tom would have chucked the squabbling brats out the nearest airlock after five minutes of their company if he hadn't been busy DYING and WIPING OUT THE UNIVERSE and stuff...


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Saturday, September 08, 2018 - 5:46 pm:

Wonder how Tom would have dealt with Nyssa long-term - or Tegan: no Terror of the Zygons-style hypnotism to save her if the air was running out - he'd just "accidentally forget" to do that.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, September 09, 2018 - 4:48 am:

Hmm, Tom's not the 'accidentally forgot' or the 'Can't go back to save Adders, honest, er, Laws of Time!' type - if he wants you dead he'll have the decency to actually hand you the revolver...


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, September 10, 2018 - 12:48 am:

Tom: Here's Heathrow, Tegan, if you want to get off...

Tegan: *rushes out* *falls* AAARGH!

Tom:... as i was about to say, the TARDIS has materialised several feet above the runway, so you might want to stay inside...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, September 10, 2018 - 5:07 am:

WIPING OUT THE UNIVERSE

Well, if he hadn't taken the Master to Logopolis.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, October 04, 2018 - 5:34 am:

Has the Doctor visited the city of Adelaide since i suggested the idea to Big Finish?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 04, 2018 - 6:11 am:

Nope but if you're absolutely desperate, Twelfth Doctor novel Big Bang Generation was set in Sydney...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 4:16 am:

More Tennanty/Tate-y goodness with some added Sylvia and WILF!!!!!

May 2019

Let's hope it's better than vol. 2


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 7:17 am:

Well, QUITE.

If they snag WILF and then make him run round a sodding freezer-shop being chased by Ice Warriors I will be VERY ANNOYED INDEED.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Thursday, October 11, 2018 - 1:28 am:

I wish Big Finish Productions could do something with the universe of the 1960s Peter Cushing Dalek films.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 11, 2018 - 1:33 am:

BF didn't even do Cushing when they did all those Unbound Doctors.

Was he dead or something?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, October 15, 2018 - 3:51 am:

Ah bless, Kamelion is to return to us, courtesy of Jon Culshaw. It's just what the fans haven't been crying out for.

One must just be grateful that he's appearing in Davison stories and not getting his own box sets...


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, October 15, 2018 - 4:21 am:

*kicks floor*

How's it going down there, Gerald Flood?


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 12:59 pm:

My library has a pretty large selection of Doctor Who audios now. Any suggestions about which I should start with, should I head down that path again?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 1:36 pm:

SHOULD you head down that path again?!

Get started IMMEDIATELY!

ANYWHERE!

I could ask you for a list of what you've got and give you the least-awful to start off with so you wouldn't immediately think better of this act of self-harming insanity Sacred Duty but, let's face it, you'll be listening to the stuff soon enough so just tuck in! As Ecclestraitor once put it, you can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers!


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 2:02 pm:

There are enough that a list would be too long. I'll make it easier: if I do this, which Doctor should I start with?

As for inevitably listening to the bad ones...probably not. I skipped about a 3rd of the Season 9 shows, remember?

Though I might listen to more if you try some Blake's 7 audios. That section is lonely.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 5:52 pm:

No Doctor's audios stand out above any other Doctor's (though Torchwood (till you get to Dollhouse) and River Song (till you get to Season Four) do). But the best from each Doctor, if you have 'em:

1. Farewell Great Macedon, Invention of Death, Barbarians and Samurai
2. The Black Hole
3. Havoc of Empires, Rise of the New Humans
4. The Foe From the Future, The Well-Mannered War, The Auntie Matter
5. Kingmaker, Time in Office, Spare Parts, The Game, Circular Time, Alien Heart/Dalek Soul, The Burning Prince
6. The One Doctor, Davros, Pirates, Jubilee
7. Flip-Flop, Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, Protect and Survive
8. Faith Stealer, Seasons of Fear, Blood of the Daleks...and all Eight's box sets have SOMETHING going for 'em right up until last week's Ravenous 2.
War. Well, if you've got 'em you might as well listen, nothing blows your mind but hey, WAR DOCTOR!!
9. Um, there's only one candidate really, and most of the stories are...perfectly listenable.
10. Death and the Queen, Wild Pastures, Forever Trap
11. Chronicles aren't much cop but their fake-Eleventh-Doctor is riveting. Art/Darkstar/Cockroach are all OK, I s'pose.
12. Gods and Sins of Winter...will do.

As for inevitably listening to the bad ones...probably not. I skipped about a 3rd of the Season 9 shows, remember?

This fact DOES NOT COMPUTE ergo I DO NOT REMEMBER IT.

Though I might listen to more if you try some Blake's 7 audios.

That's BLACKMAIL.

If you can find a legal way for me to listen and not pay I'll do it...


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 9:53 pm:

If my library here in the US has them, surely yours does.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, October 19, 2018 - 8:22 am:

Nope, just did a catalogue search of numerous London library catalogues and there's zilch in the Blake's 7 audio department. Ten years into Tory Austerity I can hardly blame Councils for not squandering taxpayers' money on such things.

There's a free extract from some B7 audio or other up on the Big Finish website, I'll give that a go...


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Friday, October 19, 2018 - 11:07 am:

Wow. That is unexpected. I am tempted to ask you to watch an episode of Deep Space Nine, but the universe might implode or something, so I won't.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, October 19, 2018 - 1:50 pm:

I and the universe thank you for your beneficent mercy.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Friday, October 19, 2018 - 4:18 pm:

You may want to distinguish between the various B7 audios so you're on the same page. There were some early audio adventures, then the radio reboot and later the Big Finish audio instalments, and I'm not sure how complete that list is.


I haven't heard all the BF ones, and, as usual, have more than I've actually listened to, but what I've heard weren't bad at all. They televised far worse B7 episodes.


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Friday, October 19, 2018 - 11:07 pm:

If only saving the universe was always that easy.

@Kevin yes, if we were going to do this it probably would be a good idea to decide whether to go with in universe or alternate universe stories, but Emily cannot get hold of them without paying anyway, so I think we'll leave things as they are.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 5:12 am:

I had to wonder why you were all bothering with these silly things, when JODIE's season was in full swing.

If it had been me, I'd have saved these for a rainy day. And, after New Year's Day, we're in for a LOT of rainy days!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 5:57 am:

Well, it's not like you can have JODIE! on in the background while you do the housework. That would be blasphemy.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, December 28, 2018 - 5:27 am:

You know, my concept of a Fan Fiction series build around Vince Hawkins doesn't seem so odd now, considering that they've made Audios about almost every character, who had a speaking part, that appeared on Doctor Who (and if the actor that played said character is still living, although that hasn't stopped them from still using characters who's actor is now dead, such as the Rani).

Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if, one day, the Audios got around to Vince!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, January 27, 2019 - 5:25 am:

The Doctor and Romana II land on Atrios, and run into Princess Astra.

Hilarity ensues!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, January 27, 2019 - 7:41 am:

Fifth Doctor audio The Chaos Pool starred Astra and Romana II. Tragically not much hilarity ensued.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, February 08, 2019 - 5:26 am:

Has Harry Sullivan been in any Audio?

Ian Marter has been dead for nearly 33 years, yes, but they're recast other dead Companion actors for these things, so it wouldn't surprise me if they did it for Harry as well.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, February 08, 2019 - 5:52 am:

Nope, he hasn't been recast and I don't even remember any Companion Chronicles narrating any adventure with him in it. Those godawful Sarah Jane Smith audios, however, talked about him a lot and had a stepbrother of his pop up for some reason.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 5:45 am:

Kind of odd, considering that Big Finish has no problem recasting other dead Companions, or even dead Doctors.

Does the Marter estate have a veto over whether the character can be used again?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 11:29 am:

I don't think so, I suspect it was more that by the time Tom Baker succumbed to the Big Finish lure, Elisabeth Sladen was dead so there really wasn't much point in attempting to recreate the glorious era of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry with two-thirds of it gonners.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 2:30 pm:

Well that's not stopping them doing a Third Doctor adventure with fake Liz Shaw, fake Brigadier AND fake Doctor....

Oh, and let's not forget the Bradley "First Doctor" adventures.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 3:17 pm:

Well that's not stopping them doing a Third Doctor adventure with fake Liz Shaw, fake Brigadier AND fake Doctor....

To be fair, it's taken Big Finish twenty years to work themselves up to THAT abomination.

(Well, I say 'abomination'. Maybe we'll love it. Stranger things have happened.)

I think the thing about Tom is, there are plenty of other options - HE'S alive, as are Romana II and Leela (and Adric, if they get desperate). And they got quite a few audios out of Romana I before she...regenerated into being Unalive. Plus, with a REAL Doctor you can get away with inventing new Companions like Ann Kelso.

Oh, and let's not forget the Bradley "First Doctor" adventures.

Fat chance of forgetting THAT.

But poor old Hartnell lost his First Doctor Exclusivity back in NINETEEN EIGHTY-THREE, there's PRECEDENT.

(Though frankly recasting Ian and Susan WHEN THEY'RE STILL ALIVE should be against the law. And recasting Barbara WITH SOMEONE THAT GODAWFUL, likewise.)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 3:25 pm:

HE'S alive, as are Romana II and Leela (and Adric, if they get desperate)
Ah... I believe season 9 is set in E-space with Adric and Romana. I'm not kidding.

(Though frankly recasting Ian and Susan WHEN THEY'RE STILL ALIVE should be against the law. And recasting Barbara WITH SOMEONE THAT GODAWFUL, likewise.)
Look, I can't disagree with you entirely but I'm not that against them as you are- although the last volume has dented that feeling somewhat.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, February 10, 2019 - 3:51 pm:

Ah... I believe season 9 is set in E-space with Adric and Romana. I'm not kidding.

Ah.

That's...quite funny.

I believe Tom and Lalla record separately, I wonder if they had to find a THIRD location for Matthew Waterhouse...?

Well at least there ARE actually usable gaps in E-Space, Tom seemed to have dropped his get-Adders-back-home determination at the end of State of Decay by the start of Warriors' Gate...

Look, I can't disagree with you entirely but I'm not that against them as you are- although the last volume has dented that feeling somewhat.

Tee hee. For me it was an instant, visceral reaction to GHASTLY-FAKE-Susan and GHASTLY-FAKE-Barbara that has been very very slightly dampened down with familiarity. For you the true hideous horror is only gradually drip-feeding its way into your consciousness...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 5:38 am:

So I imagine they'll get around to a fake Sarah Jane and a fake Harry Sullivan before long.

I'm guessing that the Sarah Jane audios ended once her show started.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 1:35 pm:

I'm guessing that the Sarah Jane audios ended once her show started.

There were two series, in 2002 and 2006 - I don't honestly know if they died due to the advent of PROPER Sarah Jane Adventures or due to the weight of their own rubbishness.


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 1:16 pm:

Hey, Big Finish. I'm pitching Liz Shaw vs Tim Shaw. howaboutit?


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 2:35 pm:

No. Just...no.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 3:24 pm:

Big Finish main range sale on this weekend.
Details here.
Em, what are your picks from titles 101-150 for those of us who wish to indulge?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 3:48 pm:

Recorded Time, The Demons of Red Lodge, The Company of Friends, Forty-Five - I always recommend the four-different-stories ones cos there's always something you like and the ones you hate pass quickly enough.

Heroes of Sontar - (very) mildly amusing.

A Death in the Family - BF's greatest ever villain.

Cobwebs - not a bad example of Johnny Morris doing timey-wimey.

Bride of Peladon - good traditional adventure.

Blimey, I can actually recommend eight out fifty, more than I'd've expected, frankly.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, March 18, 2019 - 5:57 am:

A Big Finish spin-off with Susie Who might have been nice. Sadly a horrible incident with a fanzine and a libellious fake obituary means Roberta Tovey wants nothing to do with Who related fandom.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 18, 2019 - 6:10 am:

Good grief.

I mean, approximately the last thing on Earth I want is Susie Who but always sorry to hear about Fans being evil.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, March 18, 2019 - 6:15 am:

There's a Facebook group for the Cushing films and they suggested looking at Susie Who's later life once she's taken up Cushing's role in life.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, March 18, 2019 - 11:29 am:

A recast Katarina?

Now if only Tom & David would do a story together - or Tom & Tim - the two 70s Doctors would be fun, especially when you play with the fact that one is stuck on Earth without the use of his TARDIS.


By Natalie Salat (Nataliesalat) on Saturday, March 30, 2019 - 3:49 am:

How about an audio covering the Brotherhood of Logicians, which not only was probably a cult ala the Manson Family and Jim Jones, it likely collapsed with Klieg's death on Telos.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 30, 2019 - 2:22 pm:

With Kaftan's death, you mean, Klieg was very much the weaker partner.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 31, 2019 - 5:30 am:

Kaftan at least woke up and realized that the Cybermen couldn't be bargained with.

Not that it saved her, mind you.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 31, 2019 - 12:32 pm:

Klieg also woke up but Kaftan simply talked him out of it:

KAFTAN: The important thing for us is to control the Cybermen.
KLIEG: Yes, I know but -
KAFTAN: Isn't it, Eric?
KLIEG: You haven't been down there. You haven't seen those vile things.
KAFTAN: You're not scared, are you?
KLIEG: I have completely underestimated their power.
KAFTAN: But this time we have the power, at least you do. The gun, Eric, the gun. You have the Cybermen's own weapon, this laser to turn against them. Now they will have to obey. If they refuse, we shall destroy the opening device and seal them up in their tomb forever. Now do you understand?
KLIEG: Yes. Yes, you're right. I am invulnerable with this. I shall be master.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 - 4:09 am:

Thoughts?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 - 4:41 am:

An insanely over-optimistic take on Big Finish. Pretty much the way things SHOULD be, in an ideal universe, but in unfortunate contradiction of the actual evidence that most of the audios just aren't much good - yes, including the massively-tedious Scherzo and Natural History of Fear, the insultingly-mediocre Fourth Doctor nostalgia-fests, the War Doctor audios that utterly failed to convey the mind-screwing epicness of a Time War.

Occasionally has a point - like the fascinatingly-disappearing/altering Companions of the Eighth Doctor War audios - but even that missed the punchline, which is that we ended up with Bliss, the most bland, pointless Companion imaginable, jeez, if you thought NYSSA didn't show enough reaction when they destroyed her homeworld in front of her...


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, April 18, 2019 - 10:49 pm:

They are planning to create Four/Adric audios - I think there is already a published short story from years back in the Traken/Logopolis gap.

At the end of State of Decay, the Doctor is telling Adric in no uncertain terms that he will be returned to the Starliner, but by Warrior's Gate, they seem like old mates. So there are other planets in E-Space, just from evidence in the TV show.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, April 19, 2019 - 2:41 pm:

Though surely, logically speaking, the more time the Doc (or, y'know, ANYONE EVER) spends with Adric the more desperate he (or ANYONE EVER) would be to return dear old Adders to the Starliner (or ANYWHERE EVER)...?


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Friday, April 19, 2019 - 5:35 pm:

Adric never struck me as particularly unlikeable. Bland, yes. Unlikeable, no.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 20, 2019 - 7:01 am:

I too was fond enough of the little git for decades, the fact that Fandom Was Right about him took quite a while to creep up on me (OH the tragedy of the silent credits and broken Badge For Mathematical Excellence). Watching Four to Doomsday helps immeasurably if you want to join the club...


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, April 22, 2019 - 2:41 am:

Gary Russell has said that he would have loved to have worked with Troughton and Pertwee on BF, but I'm intrigued by what BF could have done with actors like Richard Hurndall or Gerald Flood.

Dead guest cast too:

Simon Gipps-Kent if he hadn't died of drugs would have been an asset for a BF sequel to The Horns of Nimon, exploring Seth's later life.

Denis Carey would have been interesting, too. Explore the earlier years of Traken's Keeper or a Chronotis series.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 22, 2019 - 4:27 am:

Seth was on drugs? That would explain a LOT. Presumably all the other Anethans were too.

The Keeper of Traken was CHRONOTIS?


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, April 22, 2019 - 5:13 am:

There was a warmth to Lalla's interactions with Gipps-Kent that wasn't especially apparent between Waterhouse and his co-stars.

In general though Adric may have been among the JNT era's first real big mistakes.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 22, 2019 - 12:46 pm:

Adric may have been among the JNT era's first real big mistakes.

Wasn't EVERYTHING THAT JNT DID his first real big mistakes?

Changing the time-tunnel to a starscape.

Sacking Who's composer.

Opening his era with several hours of panning-along-beach-huts.

Putting the Doctor in burgundy.

Commissioning The Leisure Hive and Meglos.

Pissing Tom off so much he proffered his resignation AND THEN ACCEPTING SAID RESIGNATION.

Getting rid of K9 and Romana.

Casting Peter Davison.

Casting Adric is fairly low down the list though it's sure as hell ON said list...


By Kevin (Kevin) on Monday, April 22, 2019 - 5:11 pm:

I agree with Emily, plus I don't think it's the casting of Adric that's the biggest problem (though I'm not about to defend Waterhouse's acting skills). It's the chemistry between him and Davison that really became the problem. In his first few stories with Baker, he was, while far from anyone's favourite companion, much better. Nyssa, close in age but not in maturity, may have been a bit of an enabler as well as he felt he had company and could be immature. With Doc4 and Romana, he felt pressure to act more grown-up--not that he always did, but with Doc5 and Nyssa around him, he lacked that guidance.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 2:34 pm:

with Doc5 and Nyssa around him, he lacked that guidance.

Tegan should have been prepared to beat him into shape. I s'pose she was just too obsessed with getting to Heathrow to bother...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 5:30 am:

Changing the time-tunnel to a starscape.

The opening sequence changed a few times before that, Emily. What made this time any different.


Sacking Who's composer.

Something most fans would not even notice, or care about.


Opening his era with several hours of panning-along-beach-huts.

Oh come on, hours!?


Putting the Doctor in burgundy.

This one is just silly.


Commissioning The Leisure Hive and Meglos.

I'll give you The Leisure Hive, but I like Meglos.


Pissing Tom off so much he proffered his resignation AND THEN ACCEPTING SAID RESIGNATION.

Tom did this every year (probably to extort more money, as many actors use this tactic to do so). The only difference is that JNT didn't cave in to Tom's demands like Graham Williams always did.

This is just as much Tom Baker's fault as it is JNT's.


Getting rid of K9 and Romana.

So?

Philip Hinchcliffe got rid of Sarah Jane, Graham Williams got rid of Leela. JNT was not the first Producer to get rid of the Companions his predecessor introduced.

And JNT brought Nyssa in, so he aces okay in my book!


Casting Peter Davison

I don't understand this hatred for Peter Davison you have, Emily. Seems he's right behind Colin Baker as the Doctor you hate the most.

However, his Doctor did have many fans, one being a young Scottish boy who, upon seeing Mr. Davison as the Doctor thought "One day, I'm going to play the Doctor myself."

Do I have to tell you who that Scottish boy grew up to become?


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 6:03 am:

Do I have to tell you who that Scottish boy grew up to become?

Alex Salmond? ;)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 4:56 pm:

Changing the time-tunnel to a starscape.

The opening sequence changed a few times before that, Emily. What made this time any different.


To be honest, the starscape is a cherished part of my childhood - and also the last time the credits were bearable before Colin and winky-Sylvester ruined them for twenty years - but I did once read an excellent explanation of how diminished and ordinary-sci-fi they were compared to our glorious time-tunnel...

Sacking Who's composer.

Something most fans would not even notice, or care about.


Yeah, but the composer in question swears that's why Season Eighteen had half Season Seventeen's viewers.

Opening his era with several hours of panning-along-beach-huts.

Oh come on, hours!?


Sure FELT like hours.

Putting the Doctor in burgundy.

This one is just silly.


It WAS silly. Colour-coding the Doctor like he's wearing a stupid COSTUME - it's the beginning of the end I tell you!

Commissioning The Leisure Hive and Meglos.

I'll give you The Leisure Hive, but I like Meglos.


Yeah, and you're THE ONLY ONE.

Pissing Tom off so much he proffered his resignation AND THEN ACCEPTING SAID RESIGNATION.

Tom did this every year (probably to extort more money, as many actors use this tactic to do so). The only difference is that JNT didn't cave in to Tom's demands like Graham Williams always did.


Exactly! FATAL mistake!

This is just as much Tom Baker's fault as it is JNT's.

Yeah, Tom was a monster at the time, he's said so himself and apologised to anyone affected (well, anyone he's bumped into in the last thirty years so not his ex-wife) but that's no reason to rob Who of its Crowning Glory, the one thing that could have inoculated us against The Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair...

Getting rid of K9 and Romana.

So?


So DON'T get rid of the Two Greatest Companions In Old Who History and replace 'em with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan FFS.

Philip Hinchcliffe got rid of Sarah Jane, Graham Williams got rid of Leela. JNT was not the first Producer to get rid of the Companions his predecessor introduced.

Actually both women made their own - stupid - decisions, the Producers wanted to keep 'em. Didn't Leela get that godawful exit because the Production Team were fighting so desperately to keep her and didn't believe they'd lose?

JNT did, to his credit, beg both Sarah and Leelato come back but he wouldn't have HAD to do that unsuccessful grovelling if he hadn't kicked every kid on the PLANET'S favourite pet dog off the show...

And JNT brought Nyssa in, so he aces okay in my book!

As with your Meglos-love, your bizarre niche tastes don't counterbalance the slow dismantling of everything that made Who a success.

Casting Peter Davison

I don't understand this hatred for Peter Davison you have, Emily. Seems he's right behind Colin Baker as the Doctor you hate the most.


I don't hate him, I just...despise him a bit.

First and foremost a Doctor needs CHARACTER and he was the only one without a character, just with a bland blond humourless (and THAT'S JNT's fault as well, it turns out *gazes adoringly in the direction of The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot* that Davison has a fantastic sense of humour, pity he spent THREE YEARS NOT BEING ABLE TO EXERCISE IT) dullness in place of laughter and eccentricity and the scent of danger...

However, his Doctor did have many fans, one being a young Scottish boy who, upon seeing Mr. Davison as the Doctor thought "One day, I'm going to play the Doctor myself."

Do I have to tell you who that Scottish boy grew up to become?


Tennant was BORN to be our Tenth Doctor (just look at the name, for starters!), he didn't NEED Davison to give him that little nudge, I mean which of us DIDN'T think 'Christ, even I'd make a better Doctor than him'? (And admittedly then repent of our evil ways when he died and turned into you-know-Who...)


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 9:37 pm:

Putting the Doctor in burgundy.

This one is just silly.

It WAS silly. Colour-coding the Doctor like he's wearing a stupid COSTUME - it's the beginning of the end I tell you!


You could have went for the question marks...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 2:30 am:

I SHOULD have done - what kind of soulless moron looks at our naturally-mysterious nameless adventurer-in-time-and-space and decides s/he NEEDS to advertise his mysteriousness WITH QUESTION-MARKS? Trouble is, I accepted 'em unquestioningly as a child and some of that attitude has stuck with me, hell, even McCoy's question-mark pullover was a blessed relief after what I'd suffered from Colin...it probably took Capaldi deadpanning 'I've got question mark underpants' to really bring the stupidity home to me...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 5:28 am:

Something most fans would not even notice, or care about.

Yeah, but the composer in question swears that's why Season Eighteen had half Season Seventeen's viewers.


One person's opinion, not fact.


I'll give you The Leisure Hive, but I like Meglos.

Yeah, and you're THE ONLY ONE.


Unless you've talked to every other Who fan on the planet, that's hardly a factual statement.

Once again, one person's opinion, in this case, yours.


This is just as much Tom Baker's fault as it is JNT's.

Yeah, Tom was a monster at the time, he's said so himself and apologised to anyone affected (well, anyone he's bumped into in the last thirty years so not his ex-wife) but that's no reason to rob Who of its Crowning Glory, the one thing that could have inoculated us against The Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair...


The truth is, we don't know, and never WILL know, what affect Tom Baker staying would have had on the fate of Classic Who.

Unless we can visit a parallel universe, where Tom Baker never left the show.


So DON'T get rid of the Two Greatest Companions In Old Who History and replace 'em with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan FFS.

Romana and K9 were hardly the "Two Greatest Companions In Old Who History". I can think of many more deserving of the title, Sarah Jane Smith, for example.

And are you dissing my Nyssa here!?


As with your Meglos-love, your bizarre niche tastes don't counterbalance the slow dismantling of everything that made Who a success.

Emily, you sound like those crybabies who bleated that casting JODIE would mean "the slow dismantling of everything that made Who a success"

Just saying.


Tennant was BORN to be our Tenth Doctor (just look at the name, for starters!), he didn't NEED Davison to give him that little nudge

We've both seen Time Crash, there is no way you're gonna convince me that whole "You were my Doctor" thing wasn't fanboy Tennant talking to his childhood hero (who ended up becoming his father-in-law).


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 5:36 am:

Unless we can visit a parallel universe, where Tom Baker never left the show.

I'll get right on that. Might take a while though.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 5:55 am:

Those Francophones, they can do anything! :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 3:01 pm:

the composer in question swears that's why Season Eighteen had half Season Seventeen's viewers.

One person's opinion, not fact.


Agreed, but an extremely interesting opinion. SOMETHING lost Season Eighteen a helluvalot of viewers, and, alright, so it was probably whatever-was-on-ITV (was that the Buck Rogers era?) but music does have a massive, if often subconscious, effect, as one doesn't quite realise until one is desperately missing Murray Gold telling one how to FEEL all the time, dammit.

I'll give you The Leisure Hive, but I like Meglos.

Yeah, and you're THE ONLY ONE.

Unless you've talked to every other Who fan on the planet, that's hardly a factual statement.


Obviously I was exaggerating slightly for comic effect - I'm sure EVERY Who story is cherished by AT LEAST two people - but it's a blindingly obvious fact that Meglos was not a success.

The truth is, we don't know, and never WILL know, what affect Tom Baker staying would have had on the fate of Classic Who.

Well, we know there'd be no Colin Baker (well, no Colin Baker calling himself the Doctor, I've no objections if Maxil wants to hang around shooting the Doc every now and then). And no Colin Baker's Coat (cos there's no power on Earth that would get Tom into THAT thing if JNT presented it to HIM). And however bad the scripts would still have been, they'd've been infinitely more watchable after Tom Baker screamed 'Whippet****', ripped 'em up and ad-libbed for a few hours.

Romana and K9 were hardly the "Two Greatest Companions In Old Who History". I can think of many more deserving of the title, Sarah Jane Smith, for example.

Sarah is great, but it took the Sarah Jane Adventures to make me realise HOW great. It's always been Romana II and K9 for me. Two Time Lords and a computer should be a recipe for disaster but they just WORKED so well together, anyone in ze universe who wasn't JNT could see that.

And are you dissing my Nyssa here!?

I'm sure she'd've been a decent Companion if she'd been given half a chance.

I'd've been fine with her and Tom roaming the universe together for many happy years.

Emily, you sound like those crybabies who bleated that casting JODIE would mean "the slow dismantling of everything that made Who a success"

Er, no I don't cos they were male chauvinist pigs talking out of their arses whereas I'm just listing, in a fair and balanced way, a few of JNTs initial hideous mistakes. Haven't even got to the BIG ones like, y'know, COLIN BAKER AND COLIN BAKER'S COAT yet. Who WAS destroyed on JNT's watch, as a direct result of many of JNT's terrible decisions, I thought that was just a well-known FACT.

We've both seen Time Crash, there is no way you're gonna convince me that whole "You were my Doctor" thing wasn't fanboy Tennant talking to his childhood hero (who ended up becoming his father-in-law).

Yeah, well, I suppose we mustn't blame Tennant TOO much if he has a rubbish childhood memory or maybe over-responsible parents or SOMETHING that deprived him of the Supreme Joy of having Tom as HIS Doctor.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 4:02 pm:

I sense a Meglos-to-500-posts campaign coming, coupled with Vince/Lexa/Barbara fanfic.


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 4:44 pm:

How about a Hartnell/Barbara/Lexa fic ;)


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 5:37 am:

SOMETHING lost Season Eighteen a helluvalot of viewers, and, alright, so it was probably whatever-was-on-ITV (was that the Buck Rogers era?)

Yes, viewers had defected to ITV to watch Buck Rogers (and I can hear you screaming BURN THE BLASHPHEMERS).


but it's a blindingly obvious fact that Meglos was not a success.

Never said it was, I just said that I enjoyed it, but surely I'm not the only one.

I mean JNT could have commissioned something really stupid, like the Moon being an egg, or magic trees (I enjoy waving The Abomination With The Trees in the face of those NuWho fans who laugh at Meglos, as I said, that shuts them right up)!


Sarah is great, but it took the Sarah Jane Adventures to make me realise HOW great. It's always been Romana II and K9 for me. Two Time Lords and a computer should be a recipe for disaster but they just WORKED so •••• well together, anyone in ze universe who wasn't JNT could see that.

And yet RTD chose Sarah Jane for a spin-off.

And considering how you feel about the K9 one, perhaps it's just as well that didn't happen.


Er, no I don't cos they were male chauvinist pigs talking out of their arses

Emily, if you think that it was only men that hated the casting of JODIE, then I have this bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

There were female fans that didn't like it too, they felt it changed the premise WAY too much for their liking.


I suppose we mustn't blame Tennant TOO much if he has a rubbish childhood memory

I know this may be hard for you to grasp, Emily, but Tom Baker is not the only Doctor to have fans. Peter Davison has them too, and young David Tennant was one of them.

Heck, even Colin Baker has his fans.

Just because YOU don't like a particular Doctor, doesn't mean that others don't.


Vince/Lexa/Barbara

Vince is dating Sally Sparrow, and Barbara is married to Ian.

I suppose one could hook Romana and Lexa up though :-)


By Judi Jeffreys (Rubyandgarnet) on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 5:52 am:

About Dodo Chaplet audios:

Lane was Baker Major's agent, wasn't she? How about the Fourth Doctor lands during the War Machines and takes Dodo away with him? She gets to work with someone she knows and we get a new Doctor/companion combo.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 4:31 am:

Yes, viewers had defected to ITV to watch Buck Rogers (and I can hear you screaming BURN THE BLASHPHEMERS).

You hear QUITE CORRECTLY.

I mean JNT could have commissioned something really stupid, like the Moon being an egg, or magic trees (I enjoy waving The Abomination With The Trees in the face of those NuWho fans who laugh at Meglos, as I said, that shuts them right up)!

Absolutely fair enough, at least Meglos had Cactus-Tom, but no one's claiming that Kill the Moon or That Abomination With The Trees were successes any more than Meglos was, there are just a few people with perverted tastes who actually LIKE some of the above.

And yet RTD chose Sarah Jane for a spin-off.

He chose K9 for a spin-off and only pretended it would be all about Sarah. Her autobiography makes it clear how miffed she was about this, and also how happy when RTG announced that 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' was a great name for HIS Sarah-n-K9 spin-off...

And considering how you feel about the K9 one, perhaps it's just as well that didn't happen.

It's not just me, it's EVERYONE (including Elisabeth Sladen who's delightfully...frank in the DVD commentary).

Of course, we ended up getting a K9 series a few decades later, some things are obviously just DESTINED to be inflicted on an innocent universe...

Emily, if you think that it was only men that hated the casting of JODIE, then I have this bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Women can be male chauvinist pigs, just as men can be feminists.

(When The Glorious Announcement was made, professional troll Katie Hopkins was whinging on Twitter about how JODIE! would be taking time off saving the universe for maternity leave and it was a man who responded, with sublime perfection, 'She's got two more hearts than you have, .')

There were female fans that didn't like it too, they felt it changed the premise WAY too much for their liking.

Yeah, total gibberish. In what was was the premise - a personality-and-body-transforming alien travelling through time and space in a bigger-on-the-inside police box saving planets - IN ANY WAY affected by the gender of said traveller?

I know this may be hard for you to grasp, Emily, but Tom Baker is not the only Doctor to have fans. Peter Davison has them too, and young David Tennant was one of them.

It IS hard for me to grasp, I'm sure I could if I made a concerted effort but, frankly, why should I BOTHER?

Heck, even Colin Baker has his fans.

Stockholm Syndrome?

Lane was Baker Major's agent, wasn't she? How about the Fourth Doctor lands during the War Machines and takes Dodo away with him? She gets to work with someone she knows and we get a new Doctor/companion combo.

Oh, why not? Big Finish are flailing around a bit for Fourth Doctor Companions, as recently evidenced by Ann, Margaret and ADRIC.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 5:23 am:

Big Finish are flailing around a bit for Fourth Doctor Companions

Well, most of the actors who played the Companions of the fourth Doctor, are now dead.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 9:31 am:

Yeah, I'm not saying it's BF's FAULT, but there's definitely a problem. I thought they'd solved it with Ann Kelso, who got on with Tom like a house on fire, but for various reasons like SPOILERS FOR THE FOURTH DOCTOR SEASON EIGHT AUDIOS her being a fake cover for a ruthless Time Agent END OF SPOILERS Ann's not gonna be travelling with the Doctor again any time soon...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 5:31 am:

Why hasn't Dodo been in any Audios? Jackie Lane is still living, and, if he voice still sounds the same, why not cast her.

Did they ask and she said no. Well, keep at it, Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse both initially said no the Audios, but both eventually caved and did them. I'm sure Ms. Lane will do the same.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 4:45 pm:

Why hasn't Dodo been in any Audios? Jackie Lane is still living, and, if he voice still sounds the same, why not cast her.

Doesn't matter WHAT her voice sounds like, given that it sounds different in every story anyway...

Did they ask and she said no

Yeah, I seem to remember it's been decades since she acted and she just doesn't want to do it any more.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, May 13, 2019 - 5:06 pm:

Looks like something got nuked, the date doesn't match.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, May 13, 2019 - 5:09 pm:

Judi revealed the glorious(ish) news of The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles so I naturally created a thread and moved the posts over there.

Long Live Fake-Capaldi!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, May 13, 2019 - 5:10 pm:

Ah, okay then.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, May 13, 2019 - 5:25 pm:

Well it's okay for you, you're not gonna have to listen to 'em...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, May 13, 2019 - 5:32 pm:

Well, nobody is pointing a gun at your head, Emily, and making you listen to them...


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 1:39 am:

Can't wait for The Thirteenth Doctor Chronicles with fake-JODIE! and the worst attempt at a Yorkshire accent this side of t'pit...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 4:11 pm:

Well, nobody is pointing a gun at your head, Emily, and making you listen to them...

But...but...they MUST be! DON'T TELL ME I'M DOING THIS TO MYSELF!

Can't wait for The Thirteenth Doctor Chronicles with fake-JODIE! and the worst attempt at a Yorkshire accent this side of t'pit...

Maybe, unlike all those men, JODIE! will actually do her Doctorly duty without being dragged to it kicking and screaming a few years/decades late...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 4:37 pm:

Maybe, unlike all those men, JODIE! will actually do her Doctorly duty without being dragged to it kicking and screaming a few years/decades late...
Both Smith and Capaldi will do them eventually I'm sure. Right now, they are extremely busy (heck even Tennant who probably is just as busy has only managed to squeeze in three box sets). The only hold-out is Eccles-traitor and even then I'm thinking it won't be beyond the realms of possibility that he'll do a couple boxsets at some point.

When JODIE! gets the arse at the end of the next season it will still take a number of years before she will do anything for BF I am reckoning.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 5:00 pm:

JODIE!'s not gonna be betraying n'abandoning us after a measly two seasons! She has her Feminist Duty!

Just because previous Docs chose to depart with their showrunners doesn't mean JODIE! will, I mean we're talking CHIBNALL not Russell T God or The Moff, here.

That's assuming the rumours of Chibnall's departure aren't just totally dreamt up by some poor Fan while watching The Tsuranga Conundrum...


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Sunday, May 19, 2019 - 2:57 pm:

So any other good ones you can recommend? Any other good comedies made recently or good nostalgia trips?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, May 19, 2019 - 3:52 pm:

Fake-First-Doctor: The Invention of Death (comes in a box set with some Samurai story but that's not half-bad either).

Fake-Third-Doctor: Primord is a great nostalgia-trip, unfortunately it comes in a box set with The Scream of Ghosts, which takes its nostalgia-duties seriously to the point of tedium.

Fourth Doctor: The Iron Legion feels authentically Fourth-Doctorish as well as true to its crazy 70s comic-book roots. Yet again it comes in a box set - Star Beast is perfectly OK if not what you'd call great.

Fifth Doctor: Ghost Walk is pretty good if you're desperate for a Davison.

Eighth Doctor: Planet of the Ogrons is adorable. Sure, you've got the rest of the Time War 2 box set to cope with as well but it's surprisingly palatable.

Ninth Doctor: Retail Therapy is great but you'd have to get your moneys-worth out of the bloody box set (gods, hadn't quite realised how OBSESSED BF are by the things these days) which would mean listening to Window on the Moor and nothing's worth THAT, not even Jackie Tyler accidentally launching an alien invasion from her living room...

Tenth Doctor: You want nostalgia, No Place has the Doc back with our beloved Noble-Mott family...

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us and God Among Us have their ups and downs but DAMMIT you can sense Russell T God's hand in there so it's all worthwhile. Also, Goodbye Piccadilly is rather fun.

Missy: Divorced Beheaded Regenerated...adding any comments to THAT title is superfluous. Obviously the rest of the box set doesn't quite measure up but they're definitely a bit...different.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, May 19, 2019 - 4:30 pm:

Oh no Emily....

I'm almost entirely agreeing with you here! (except for the ones I haven't heard).

For Fifth Doctor I'd also add Time In Office and Serpent In The Silver Mask- the latter may not be the most sparkling BF audio ever but gosh it just about makes it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, May 19, 2019 - 5:10 pm:

Daniel's already heard Time in Office or OF COURSE it would have been top of my list.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 4:22 pm:

Thanks, I thought the Primords one looked interesting. So no comedies since time in office? What is up with BF? Lol


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 5:07 pm:

So no comedies since time in office?

I forgot to mention McGann's Companion Piece - rather good comedy, and, uniquely, rather good comedy about Doctor Who continuity arguments. The drawback being you'd have to listen to the rest of the Ravenous 3 box set and it doesn't exactly set the world on fire.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - 5:09 pm:

Thanks, is it worth holding fire a few months until they split the box set? Or do they not do that?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - 5:13 pm:

They don't bloody do that.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Thursday, May 23, 2019 - 3:10 pm:

Typical. Thanks for the tips :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 2:18 am:

So no comedies since time in office?

I forgot to mention McGann's Companion Piece


Aaaaaand forgot to mention The Diary of River Song Season Five's The Bekdel Test. An hour of Missy and River (rather ironically, given the title) talking about the Doctor. Very funny indeed though, you've guessed it, comes complete with three other less-comedic stories (though given they star three other Masters, you do get your money's-worth...).


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 8:36 pm:

That set is quite good as whole (certainly better than vol. 4 which can't even be saved by Tom Baker swanning in). But yes. Missy'n'River is an EXCELLENT combination!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 3:55 am:

That set is quite good as whole

Yeah, none of the other three are remotely bad but I'm left with no particularly clear memories of them, just a vague feeling that they didn't quite fulfil their potential.

Admittedly by Big Finish standards, 'not quite fulfilling your potential' is pretty good.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, June 14, 2019 - 1:56 pm:

Daniel, The Lives of Captain Jack Series Two: Piece of Mind BLISSFULLY fulfils your comedy criteria as Captain Jack fakes being the Sixth Doctor and the Sixth Doctor fakes being Captain Jack and much hilarity is had by all.

However it'll cost you £25, I'm not claiming that it's TWENTY-FIVE-QUID'S worth of hilarity and I've no idea if the other two stories in the box set are any good, I just want to take a few hours to bask in that rare BLIMEY, A REALLY GOOD BIG FINISH feeling before I risk ruining it...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, June 22, 2019 - 7:30 am:

On second thoughts, NOTHING is worth sitting through What Have I Done? for, not even cries of 'WHO wears the yellow striped trousers!'


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 4:22 am:

Go on Emily, have a crack

I got 15 out of 20 in 113 seconds


By Norman Buchwald (Norm) on Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 12:07 pm:

Big Finish's YouTube channel is playing various episodes in honor of its 20th anniversary. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QLQ_uqnWIs


By Norman Buchwald (Norm) on Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 12:08 pm:

Their schedule is located here for both days. https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=big-finish-twenty-hour-livestream-schedule#_


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 12:35 pm:

I got 15 out of 20 in 113 seconds

*Engages smug mode*

19 out of 20 in 106 seconds.

It doesn't bloody tell me which one I got wrong though.

Big Finish's YouTube channel is playing various episodes in honor of its 20th anniversary.

I was tempted to mention that but figured that no one would actually LISTEN.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, September 07, 2019 - 7:41 am:

Big Finish are releasing twenty-three Doctor Who stories this month.

2 x Monthly Range, 4 x Rose, 4 x River, 4 x Benny, 4 x Companion Chronicles, 4 x Torchwood, plus a Short Trip.

Is it just me or is this perhaps a trifle...excessive?


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Saturday, September 07, 2019 - 7:44 am:

They heard you bemoan the lack of New Who tv episodes this year, and it's their way of helping the fans get through it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, September 07, 2019 - 1:48 pm:

*Look of incredulous impotent fury*

My heroes.


By Judi the Talking Doll (Judithetalkingdoll) on Sunday, September 08, 2019 - 8:05 am:

I can see a whole box set of Young Amelia and Eleven stories with Matt and Caitlin.

On parental attitudes with a little child in the TARDIS, i can see:

"Eleven asked "Whose little girl are you?"

"Yours, Daddy" came the aggrieved reply"

Autre temps, autre moeurs...


By Judibug (Judibug) on Friday, September 13, 2019 - 10:17 pm:

Before The Screaming Begins is now on BBC Radio 4 Extra:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06p4tyk/episodes/player
Featuring Patrick Troughton as the Prime Minister.
First aired in 1978 this was written by Wally K. Daly who later wrote the unmade for TV Sixth Doctor story The Ultimate Evil.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - 11:09 pm:

Volumes Four and Five of the First Doctor Adventures have been announced. (Or as Emily calls them "THOSE HORRIBLE WOMEN PRETENDING TO BE SUSAN AND BARBARA THE PHILISTINES!!!!!"

Also, Volume 7 of River Song is upcoming as well!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 2:55 am:

Well, we knew it, didn't we.

Not even a thermonuclear strike on Big Finish HQ would stop them, they're like cockroaches.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 4:23 am:

On a completely different tangent- what has been the best of the DW monthly range in the last 12 months?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 4:39 am:

I s'pose if you absolutely have to listen to some (as of course you do, you have your duty to Nitcentral!) then Emissary of the Daleks and Memories of a Tyrant have...some worthwhile bits.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, October 19, 2019 - 12:53 pm:

Big Finish are having a sale on at the moment. Are recommendations from this list, Em?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, October 19, 2019 - 1:22 pm:

Davros is good fun.

The Harvest is...worth £1.49. Hex was a very welcome addition to the Ace/Seven team before Big Finish dragged the misfortunate guy out long past his sell-by date.

You probably ought to buy all the other £1.49 stories to encourage BF's generosity, and of course to do your Nitcentrally duty by them.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 3:10 am:

Matthew, I moved your review of Shadows of Serenity into Novels: Short Stories: Big Finish Short Stories - where I keep the audio Short Trips on the grounds that they ARE just short stories that just happen to be on audio due to copyright reasons - but if people think it would be better to create a Short Trips section in the Audios (bringing the Audios up to fifty sections, by the way, FIFTY!!! No one saw THAT coming when they recorded Sirens of Time thinking it was a bit of a joke) just let me know.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 5:49 am:

Ok.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 5:50 am:

Yeah, they've been making these things for twenty years now.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - 1:53 am:

No one saw THAT coming when they recorded Sirens of Time thinking it was a bit of a joke

Or when they listened to Sirens of Time thinking it was a bit of a joke.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - 7:35 am:

Yeah, but it was still a bit of a shock when Peter Davison confessed that 'We all thought that it'd be a novelty product. The first one I did....was just a bit of [a] giggle.'


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - 12:12 pm:

It's good to know someone enjoyed it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - 12:41 pm:

And they PAID him for it too!

SO not fair!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, December 26, 2019 - 2:35 pm:

"The Veiled Leopard" is a free download at Big Finish for the next 24 hours or so. Not sure where it is in the grand scheme of Emily's nitpicking library or whether it is worth the listen either but I'm getting my copy.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, December 26, 2019 - 6:00 pm:

Only for readers of Doctor Who Magazine. Not something I can pick up at my local newstand.

Mind you: I have several unlistened-to BFs so I don't really need another one, let alone a Doctorless one.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, January 05, 2020 - 5:37 am:

Got an idea for a Fourth Doctor Audio.


The Rise Of Xoannon

Still recovering from his regeneration, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), during the events of Robot, sneaks off in the TARDIS one night.

He arrives sometime in the future, and meets the Mordee Expedition, a group of colonists from Earth who have just arrived on their new planet.

However, it seems that the Expedition is having problems with their new AI, Xoannon. A computer programmer called Layla* (Louise Jamison) tells the Doctor that Xoannon just wont' start, despite all the boards showing that it should be functioning (of course, the reason is because Xoannon is becoming self-aware, but no one know that).

To solve the problem, the Fourth Doctor hooks himself up to Xoannon, hoping the computer will scan his brain. It works, however due to two factors, the Doctor's still regenerated scrambled brain, and Xoannon's emerging sentience, the computer slowly begins to malfunction (leading us to the world we see in Face Of Evil).

Unaware of what he's done, the Fourth Doctor returns to 20th Century Earth, arriving just seconds after he left. He goes to sleep and, due to ongoing post-regeneration effects, he forgets this adventure.



*yes, Layla is the great-great-many times over grandmother of Leela.


By Natalie Granada Television (Natalie_granada_tv) on Sunday, January 05, 2020 - 8:38 am:

Layla is an oldies song, I'm pretty sure. :-)


By Natalie Granada Television (Natalie_granada_tv) on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 7:24 pm:

I know that they have the rights to use everything Doctor Who related up to the Twelfth Doctor, and of course Tom Baker is working with them now.

Still I’m not sure about having the Curator appear in an Eighth Doctor story. No doubt the Doctor will end up suffering from amnesia. Again.


By Natalie_granada_tv (Natalie_granada_tv) on Monday, February 24, 2020 - 6:18 am:

I submitted an idea to Big Finish that Dodo Chaplet was abused as a young child and her bright innocent personality is just a facade to hide the pain. Remember that in "The Massacre" she's meant to be about 18 and, given her working class background, left school before ever reaching sixth form/Year 12.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, February 24, 2020 - 7:27 am:

That's a slightly odd thing to do since Dodo's the only living regular who Big Finish haven't got their claws into.

She was orphaned at a young age and reared by an aunt who didn't give a about her (The Massacre). A god tried to rape her (Salvation). She acquired a sexually-transmitted disease involving brain-eating maggots (Man in the Velvet Mask). She was insane and homeless and got her brains blown out while pregnant (Who Killed Kennedy). You can't give the poor girl a BREAK?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, February 24, 2020 - 12:08 pm:

A waste of time Natalie. They don't accept ideas from unsolicited sources like most publishing houses.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 - 5:28 am:

Didn't they ask Jackie Lane to do some Audios, and she said no.

Well, I'm sure they'll roll out a Fake Dodo before long.


By Natalie_granada_tv (Natalie_granada_tv) on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 - 5:50 am:

There's, once again, rumours of a BF Unbound version of Matt Smith's first season being in the works. I.e. "What-if Eleven had been able to travel the universe with seven year old Amelia?". I feel that things which work with an adult companion - or even a teenage-coded one like Nyssa - would not work with a young child companion.


By Judibug (Judibug) on Friday, February 28, 2020 - 10:12 pm:

Are the audios canon? (yes, i know DW doesn't have an official one but so what?)


By Natalie_granada_tv (Natalie_granada_tv) on Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 6:51 pm:

It's a shame that Roberta Tovey has mostly soured on DW fandom as Big Finish exploring more stories in the universe of the Cushing Films would be really intriguing. Those "Doctor Who fans" who defamed Bobbie with a fake obituary are no different to that Liverpool DWAS Local Group that told Colin Baker that his young son's death from SIDS was a punishment from the Almighty for Colin's acting as the Doctor.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 1:59 am:

I can't cope with the fake-First-Doctor-team from An Adventure in Space and Time that Big Finish are already inflicting on us, I really REALLY couldn't cope with ANOTHER one.


By Natalie_granada_tv (Natalie_granada_tv) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 3:41 am:

Oh, i dunno... an audio where Susie Who acts like Norman Bates with her grandfather would be an interesting curio ;)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 5:05 am:

How does Norman Bates act?


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 5:07 am:

Did you ever see the movie "Psycho"? I think the title gives you a fairly good idea.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 5:13 am:

No, but I've seen clips of someone being stabbed in a shower that I have the feeling was from Psycho.

Look, Judi, I desperately want the Cushing Doctor NEVER TO HAVE EXISTED, but I don't think, however much of an unspeakable-and-really-confusing-abomination he is, that having him knifed to death by his granddaughter in a shower would IMPROVE the situation.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 5:34 am:

I've seen clips of someone being stabbed in a shower that I have the feeling was from Psycho

If it was accompanied by REEK! REEK! REEK! music, then yes.

It's one of the most iconic movie scenes ever.


By Natalie_granada_tv (Natalie_granada_tv) on Sunday, March 01, 2020 - 4:15 pm:

I was thinking more of how Norman keeps his mother's body and has a split Norman/Mother personality. (the "Mother" personality kills the woman).


By Judibug (Judibug) on Monday, March 16, 2020 - 8:59 am:

A Scorby audio prequel with a post-Tom Doctor battling an earlier Scorby (during his work in the Middle East and Africa)?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 16, 2020 - 9:47 am:

Getting his arse kicked by JODIE!Doc would certainly explain why he ended up such a male chauvinist pig.

Of course, men like that don't actually NEED a reason to end up male chauvinist pigs.


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - 3:43 am:

A Saddam Hussein audio with Chairman Mao's friend the Troughton Doctor might be interesting ("You see, Doctor? I *hate* the American people because they always rhyme my name with Sodom!") ;)


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, March 19, 2020 - 1:11 pm:

Recasts are a way for Classic Doctor Who to SURVIVE IMO. And i really dislike the "cult" that has grown up around Sladen. She was neither sacred nor holy. my sister (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145777727/jacqueline-louise_vanessa-melville) died of cancer at ten months old. Sladen got 65 years.

www . bigfinish . com / releases / v / doctor-who-return-of-the-cybermen-2216

www . bigfinish . com / releases / v / doctor-who-the-doomsday-contract-2217


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 19, 2020 - 3:11 pm:

Are we sure they've recast Sarah Jane for those...things? Personally I feel she EARNED her cult and Big Finish should just let SOME people Rest In Peace. They're not the survival of Classic Who they're shameless piles of dross to extort huge amounts of cash from Fans too fanatical to be able to help themselves.

(Having said that, the knee-jerk reaction of DESTROYING The Sarah Jane Adventures to pay homage to Lis's cult status was a hideous, hideous mistake, as I said at the time and as RTG is finally admitting.)


By Jjeffreys_mod (Jjeffreys_mod) on Thursday, March 19, 2020 - 5:07 pm:

I for one wouldn't mind a Fauxgado appearing in Masterful, rather than all the other Masters eating up runtime having to work or talk around his absence from that mash-up.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, March 21, 2020 - 5:46 am:

Are we sure they've recast Sarah Jane for those...things? Personally I feel she EARNED her cult and Big Finish should just let SOME people Rest In Peace.

They have other fake Companions. Why should Sarah Jane be off limits?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, March 21, 2020 - 9:16 am:

Never mind the Companions, it's been done with DOCTORS (One, Two, Three, Four, Nine, Ten, Eleven and Twelve, to be precise). But just because something HAS been done doesn't mean it should have been, let alone that it should be done again.

Obviously I have mixed feelings, on the one hand a) BURN THE BLASPHEMERS!! and b) some of the voices are rubbish (Fake-Susan, Fake-Barbara) on the other hand a) there's precedent (I was too young/face-blind to care with Five Docs, frankly) b) there are some good stories (Primord, Invention of Death) and c) there are some good voices (Ben, Dudman-as-Eleven, if not Dudman-as-Twelve).

So...confused but not wildly enthusiastic about dragging in a Fake-Sarah. (NB: they used Caroline John's daughter as Liz but Elisabeth Sladen's daughter sounded nothing like her when being Nat in the Sarah Jane Smith audios.) Especially as it would mean *sigh* more expense, more shelving, more moaning-on-Nitcentral, more hours of my life I'd never get back...and all for what, the glorious take-over of our planet by Big Finish?


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Saturday, March 21, 2020 - 6:41 pm:

the gap between Revenge of the Cybermen and Terror of the Zygons has already been greatly exploited across all mediums.

It’ll be a case of “oops this isn’t Scotland”.

It was a time machine after all. They did not have to go straight back, just a particular time and place when they did choose to eventually do so. The Doctor went shopping for some Tartan gear on the way too, maybe in Edinburgh?


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, March 22, 2020 - 6:11 am:

They could have dippy bopped around the universe for ten years, and still made it to Scotland in time.


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Sunday, March 22, 2020 - 6:26 am:

They could have dippy bopped around the universe for ten years, and still made it to Scotland in time.

Yep. I hated Bill and Ted's "San Dimas Time" trope.

There is a definite gap between Revenge and Terror. Already expoited in a Missing Adventure or Past Doctor Adventure book. Enough room to explore Harry as a long-term member of Team TARDIS.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, March 23, 2020 - 5:52 am:

Just like the gap between Time Flight and Arc Of Infinity.

As I said, some say that the Doctor and Nyssa had ten years of adventures, before they got Tegan back.

On the other hand, only a few months passed for Tegan between the time she left the TARDIS at Heathrow and retuned in Amsterdam.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 23, 2020 - 5:58 am:

Just like the gap between Time Flight and Arc Of Infinity.

Actually that's a much more convincing gap - Nyssa being an alien, she wouldn't necessarily age at the same rate as us humans, also it would be nice if Davison lasted more than the ONE WEEK his on-screen adventures imply. (It's not that I LIKE the guy it's just that it's such a waste for ANY Doctor to live a mayfly lifespan, though obviously it's a waste I could have lived with in Old Sixie's case.)

But a gap between Revenge and Terror? The Brig clicked his fingers (Space-Time Telegraph. Whatever.) and the Doc came running. This is, oddly, both blasphemy (s/he's THE DOCTOR!) and absolutely right and proper (he's THE BRIGADIER!).


By Judi Jeffreys (Jjeffreys_mod) on Monday, March 23, 2020 - 6:08 am:

There's already a MA or PDA or short story set in between Revenge and Zygons (There's also Terror of the Vervoids so I use "Zygons"). and on screen they seem world weary and tired of travel when clomping around the moors in Zygons, but in transmat reception in Revenge they seem fresh faced.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, March 23, 2020 - 7:52 am:

There's already a MA or PDA or short story set in between Revenge and Zygons

Yeah, but there's a novel/audio set between EVERYTHING. Think Planet of Fire followed straight on from Resurrection of the Daleks because Davison was ranting about Daleks and unconvincingly implying he'd miss Tegan? Think again! Say 'Hi!' to two novels (Lords of the Storm and Imperial Moon), three audios (Phantasmagoria, Loups-Garoux and Singularity) and innumerable short stories!

Think Five and Peri had pitifully little time together before he had the grotesque lack of consideration to turn into Colin Baker? How COULD you be so pig-ignorant of their year as the Scourge of Sylvana and the Supremo, not to mention that Egyptian Pharaoh they travelled with for ages! Etc etc...

and on screen they seem world weary and tired of travel when clomping around the moors in Zygons, but in transmat reception in Revenge they seem fresh faced.

Ah, I'm sure that's a good point, am not really in a position to argue as Terror of the Zygons is such a non-entity of a story I can hardly ever be bothered to a) watch and b) remember it.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, April 02, 2020 - 5:41 am:

Emily, why do you listen to these? I get the impression that you absolutely hate them.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, April 04, 2020 - 3:51 am:

If you have a smartphone I suggest you download the Big Finish app as they are delivering free audios from tomorrow. (you'll need to create an account but it's all free).


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, April 04, 2020 - 4:26 am:

"The Maltese Penguin" is available for FREE by clicking here. Only for the next 24 hours or so....


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 04, 2020 - 4:35 am:

I admire your optimism that any Nitcentraller will do their duty...


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Monday, April 06, 2020 - 3:16 pm:

Speaking of Free, Big Finish is releasing one audio story from its back catalog per week for free right now: https://www.bigfinish.com/collections/v/weekly-deals

Rodney, they're asking for a code for the Maltese Penguin.


By Judi Jeffreys (Judibug) on Monday, April 06, 2020 - 7:28 pm:

I would absolutely love a tongue-in-cheek "What
If Doctor Who Was Remade In America" one-off.
The 'Doctor dies and regenerates before he did
in the show' etc. might be a difficult one to
get enough actors around to do it, but as I
type this I think:


"DOCTOR WHO UNBOUND: REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS

"Starring Colin Baker"


An idea I had was that the Watcher is not their
to ease the transition from Four to Five,
leading to a much more painful death and a very
different Fifth Doctor.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, April 06, 2020 - 9:08 pm:

Emily's idea:
The Watcher helps Four skip a number of awful regenerations until he becomes someone with a black leather jacket and big ears. Then, after some time he regenerates into a sandshoe wearing young man ("THE TRIAL OF A TIMELORD" starring David Tennant). Finally deciding that he only likes those three he just keeps changing between them with no regard for any past or future selves that may have occured...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 07, 2020 - 5:29 am:

No, no, Tennant must not be degraded by any association with Trial of a Time Lord and you forgot to include JODIE!

But definitely the basis of a rather wonderful idea we should be working on...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, April 07, 2020 - 5:45 am:

Not even Tennant could have saved Trial.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 07, 2020 - 6:53 am:

Yeah, seeing Tennant in Trial would have hurt a million times worse than seeing Colin in Trial.

Especially as I wouldn't have been able to switch off...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, April 07, 2020 - 9:16 pm:

Personally seeing Tennant scream Knacker's yard and Graveyard all the time and that wonderful speech about all the monsters being in the nursery compared to timelords might make it slightly more digestable....

you forgot to include JODIE!
You only like Jodie's Doctor because she's a woman. That doesn't count at all.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, April 08, 2020 - 4:26 am:

You only like Jodie's Doctor because she's a woman. That doesn't count at all.

The HELL I do!

Of course I was exceedingly favourably inclined towards our latest Living God due to her gender but she well EARNED her place as my Joint Fourth-Favourite Doctor the hard way. There were even times, faithfully recorded on Nitcentral, when I had hideous fears that she may resemble Davison's blond blandness more than Tennant's quick-firing adorability.

I mean, Ruth!-Doc is also a woman and SHE'S only reached the mid-point of my Favourite Doctors list, only a whisker above Sylvester McCoy for heaven's sake so how can you accuse me of sexist discrimination!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, April 09, 2020 - 1:29 am:

There's a very good chance I will interviewing Mr. Nicholas Briggs from Big Finish (and, of course "Doctor Who"). I'd ask if there were questions you might want me to put to him but I fear our moderator will upload me a 4Gb word document with every nit from every audio and ask me to get him to explain them all....


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Thursday, April 09, 2020 - 4:50 am:


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, April 09, 2020 - 2:17 pm:

Nah, feel free to raid all my reviews of his audios (and don't forget that Dalek Generation book) but I really can't be bothered to list 'em all in loving detail. Hell, I've exchanged a couple of emails with him myself - gods, must be fifteen years ago now - and took the opportunity to express my adoration for his New Who work without even THINKING about addressing my Big Finish views...of course, that was when New Who was new and glorious and Big Finish was only a fraction of its current size...

(Anyone else read that Magic Porridge-Pot story as a kid? Cos THAT'S what springs to mind every time I think about Big Finish.)

Well, maybe you could ask for assurances that he'll wait for JODIE! to arrive in person instead of providing us with a Jake Dudman Thirteenth Doctor.

Also that he'll bear in mind people's finances and shelving-space and NOT start an infinite series of Timeless Children box sets...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, April 09, 2020 - 7:24 pm:

Only an email? He was lucky. Poor Steven Moffat got bailed up by you in a pub and raked over hot coals for some minor discrepancy in the Poopydoor episode.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, April 10, 2020 - 2:33 am:

Nonsense, we had a delightfully lively debate. He was hardly traumatised for life, even if I DID win said debate very decisively.


By Bookwyrme (Ibookwyrme) on Friday, April 17, 2020 - 4:23 pm:

This week's free Doctor Who download is Doctor Who The Companion Chronicles The Beginning starring Carole Ann Ford and Terry Molloy
https://www.bigfinish.com/


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 18, 2020 - 4:53 am:

Excellent! I'm sure you'll be listening even if *look of sad reproach* no one else will.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 25, 2020 - 5:29 pm:

Fifty Big Finishes for £1.49 each!

Come on guys, increase relieve your lockdown sufferings with some Who-y goodness!

Faith Stealer, Circular Time The Game are actually rather good. The Kingmaker is...sublime perfection.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Saturday, April 25, 2020 - 10:14 pm:

Listening to Circular Time now.

But I have a habit of buying these things and never listening to them, or at least not finishing them.

Bought Faith Stealer and The Game too.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 3:24 am:

My god, since when has anyone taken any NOTICE of me telling 'em to listen/watch/read something! Gods, now I feel terrible, what if you don't LIKE them?

Why did you go for the three quite-good ones instead of the fantastically brilliant one?


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 4:31 am:

Since they're £1.49.

And because I already have it.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 5:12 am:

You've already got The Kingmaker and you haven't discussed it on Nitcentral?!


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 5:24 am:

Okay, I'll restart it when I'm done with this one.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 5:38 am:

RESTART?

You...GAVE UP?

On...THE KINGMAKER?!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 6:38 pm:

Well he's one up on me- you recommended it the last time thy had a sale, I dutifully got it and never bothered to listen to it......


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - 1:15 pm:

#PlumPudding

The Chimes of Midnight is Big Finish’s first listening party on Friday May 1 7pm UK time:

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doctor-who-the-chimes-of-midnight-listening-party?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=chimes_listening_party&utm_content=news


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - 5:30 pm:

They have GOT to be kidding me.

Over my dead body.

Seriously, isn't lockdown bad enough without one's brain being put on a permanent loop of 'Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without your plum pudding'?


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Saturday, May 02, 2020 - 2:16 am:

From the Doctor Who facebook page:
"HUMANS! You will be able to listen to the first episode of The Paternoster Gang audio drama adventures [The Cars That Ate London!] for FREE at 6PM(BST) Monday 4th May on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel 🥔🦎

Put the date in your 500-year diaries and tune in!"


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 8:43 pm:

I'm entering the Paul Spragg Memorial Short Story contest for Big Finish this year. I'm not holding out much hope, but I'm going to give it a chance anyway.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 10:33 pm:

Good luck.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, May 09, 2020 - 1:48 am:

VERY good luck!

Which Doctor/Companion are you going for?


By Judibug (Judibug) on Saturday, May 09, 2020 - 3:44 am:

What we really need is an Anastasia Romanova II: The Further Adventures of My Darling Dumpling.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Sunday, May 24, 2020 - 8:48 am:

Big Finish in lockdown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ8L6zv-7vM&feature=emb_title

A chance to see the new Harry, Christopher Naylor.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, June 01, 2020 - 5:37 am:

Amazing that there are so many Hartnell and Troughton audios.

Both actors were long dead when Big Finish started all this.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, June 01, 2020 - 6:00 am:

Big Finish: We Like Stories Dead People.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, June 01, 2020 - 4:26 pm:

Big Finish: We love torturing Emily with Beth Chalmers....


By Natalie Granada Television (Natalie_granada_tv) on Monday, June 01, 2020 - 5:19 pm:

I really wish BF had run with my proposal for an Adelaide-set story. Beaumont Children and other serial killers is Adelaide's legacy. The script writes itself!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, June 02, 2020 - 5:17 am:

Rodney explained to you, a few months ago, that they don't take unsolicited scripts.

Besides, if you want to do stuff on serial killers, you've got the wrong franchise. This is Doctor Who, not CSI.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, June 03, 2020 - 4:28 am:

You could try the Paul Spragg Competition...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, June 03, 2020 - 5:07 am:

Except serial killers is more of a CSI thing.

Do they do CSI audios?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, June 13, 2020 - 5:16 am:

KEVIN in Apocrypha: Internet Sites: Yesterday I saw a thread filled with people going gaga over an announcement of Rory's Lone Centurion box set.

Of WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!

OK, going gaga's fair enough, our DARLING Rory!

(Also, should've seen that coming a mile off, if Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are too busy, it's the obvious solution.)

The issue of BF as producers of continuity porn is something I only see at Nitcentral, and I honestly can't fathom why we're the only ones complaining about it.

I hadn't quite thought if it in those terms.

But that's BF in a nutshell, I may nick it for my intro to the audios section. It's nicer than 'unworthy parasites latching onto Who', right...?

We do have an anti-BF sentiment here. Perhaps we're too hard on them, but I don't think it's completely unwarranted either.

It may be a hang-over from The Sixteen Long And Barren Years Of Despair. I was too hard on the novels and now I'm too hard on the audios? And dammit I'm ENTITLED to be because Who on TV is humanity's greatest achievement and the shameless cash-ins...aren't.

RODNEY in Apocrypha: Internet Sites: to be as consistently and relentlessly negative towards BF like Emily takes a special kind of masochism.

I'm beginning to think you might be right. I mean, I was only buying 'em all so no Nitcentral thread would be empty but I'm dropping a few months behind and it's not just a blessed relief to me and my budget, I also haven't noticed any Nitcentrallers sobbing in the empty threads that their lives are over...

(I mean, obviously I'll end up buying 'em all eventually cos - hello! - fanatical completest here but...no hurry, eh?)


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, June 13, 2020 - 5:20 am:

I'm largely indifferent, since I don't have any of these, nor am I likely to in the near future (as I don't have the time, money, of the inclination to seek them out).


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, June 15, 2020 - 5:28 am:

Something got moved or nuked. The date doesn't match.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, June 15, 2020 - 5:51 am:

The Lone Centurion stuff was moved into the brand-new Lone Centurion section.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, June 15, 2020 - 5:53 am:

That was quick!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, June 27, 2020 - 5:29 am:

Again, something got moved or nuked in this thread.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, June 27, 2020 - 5:37 am:

I created a brand-new Gallifrey: Time War 4 section for it.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Saturday, June 27, 2020 - 5:38 am:

Gotcha :-)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 12:58 am:

Big Finish are having a sale of 1-50 in the main range. Less than $2 per volume. Which ones does our esteemed moderator recommend?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 2:48 am:

The Marian Conspiracy isn't bad, and introduces BF's Best Ever Companion.

The Fires of Vulcan is fine.

The Holy Terror is great if you're in the mood. If you're not in the mood its a confusing interminable chauvinistic mess but still has some VERY good moments. All hail the big talking bird!

Eye of the Scorpion is a pleasant little adventure.

The One Doctor and Bang Bang a Boom are fun, fun, fun!

Seasons of Fear is perfectly enjoyable.

Spare Parts isn't the all-time classic we initially thought but it's well worth listening to.

Jubilee is brilliant first time round, at least.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Saturday, August 01, 2020 - 4:18 pm:

And now it's the fourth Doctor's chance to get a hitherto unknown companion.

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/a-new-fourth-doctor-team-for-2024


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, August 02, 2020 - 9:20 am:

God, I should never have let those BF Companions get their own threads, they're breeding like RABBITS.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Wednesday, September 02, 2020 - 3:33 pm:

About 5 years ago, for the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds some TV producers who were fans of the show and had some experience with its puppetry style took three audio adventures which were recorded back in 1965, and did the puppetry to go with the audio.

It was done in full compliance with Gerry Anderson’s estate and ITV and released on limited edition DVD, currently on Brit Box, so it was a proper professional production. They said how having the original actors was essential to give their episodes an authentic feel.

It made me wonder if in 50 years time some people will use their super future CGI to do the visuals to go with Big Finish’s episodes.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 11:21 am:

Someone's done it for Spare Parts though I can't honestly say it's got super future CGI...


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 4:00 pm:

Lol yeah not exactly ILM is it. But tbf it’s clips like this and some animated ones on YouTube that helped convince me Big Finish was worth a try.

Still just imagine full length professional quality Big Finish animations available in 2070. Would bulk out the classic era somewhat,


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, September 03, 2020 - 4:04 pm:

it’s clips like this and some animated ones on YouTube that helped convince me Big Finish was worth a try.

Can you SUE them for it?

Still just imagine full length professional quality Big Finish animations available in 2070.

I'd rather imagine PROPER lost Who stories being remade by robots/clones/CGI. Preferably before 2070 when I have every intention of being dead.


By Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Friday, September 04, 2020 - 5:16 pm:

Now then Big Finish has produced more than a few gems that have entertained me on many a long journey.

Yep they’d redo the lost stories. Maybe they’ll invent time travel and can rescue the originals.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, January 02, 2021 - 8:37 am:

Big Finish currently have over 100 Dalek adventures on special offer. I'm not saying this to encourage anyone to actually GET any of 'em, I just wanted to boggle at the concept of...over 100 Big Finish Dalek adventures.

(They're bloody lucky to have Nick Briggs as an executive producer or this would have cost 'em a fortune...)


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 - 11:55 pm:

Journey into Time (2012):
beermatproductions.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/doctor-who-journey-into-time/?fbclid=IwAR2nDOLjjmStiniaU42CnH5PmIih8kEQUsTUIJSlzVj2Mxdo2ofoNCqcdzs

This is the 2012 remake of Journey into Time, the lost pilot of the proposed Dr Who radio series.
Came across this after earlier coming across the 2020 remake.
For the 2012 remake it is made by Bandril Productions and Dr Who is played here by Jim Moon.
Having earlier listened to the 2020 remake, I knew what to expect from the 2012 remake but nevertheless still enjoyed it.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Friday, April 02, 2021 - 12:30 pm:

9 finally meets the Cybermen.
He also meets an old friend. To find out who this is click this article:
https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-ninth-doctor-vs-the-cybermen?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ninth_doctor_adventures&utm_content=news


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 5:45 am:

I'm guessing another version of Hell for Emily would be Satan locking her in a room and making her listen to Beth Chalmers doing all her voice characters at the same time (and no ear plugs allowed).


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 6:06 am:

That's not even hell, that's practically my CURRENT LIFE.

Satan doesn't need to do it to me, I'm doing it to myself.

Gods, this must be the way those guerrillas in Day of the Daleks felt...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 5:30 am:

Yes, but you can stop anytime you like.

Satan wouldn't give you that choice.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 5:37 am:

Yes, but you can stop anytime you like.

If that was true I wouldn't be in the middle of listening to Time Reef, having just reread The King of Terror.

It's patently obvious that no sane human would do such things VOLUNTARILY.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 5:38 am:

A five step program might help you.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 5:43 am:

Don't you have to surrender your life to some higher power?

My ENTIRE PROBLEM is that I HAVE surrendered my life to a higher power, worship her!


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 5:50 am:

We can invent a term just for you: Whoaholic :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, April 26, 2021 - 10:38 am:

Ah, you are too kind but there are *jealous gnashings of teeth* people WAY further gone than me, I've barely even STARTED on the comics and the toys...


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 3:35 am:

Guinness World Records for Big Finish for Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures:
https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/big-finish-receives-a-guinness-world-records-title-for-doctor-who-the-monthly-adventures


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 3:43 am:

Guinness World Records for Big Finish for Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

Well, they earned it.

Big Finish Chairman Jason Haigh-Ellery said: “When we began the monthly audio adventures of Doctor Who in July 1999 we hoped we would make it to three years. If we’d achieved that we would have been more than happy.'

You know who ELSE would have been more than happy in those circumstances?

ME.

As the series regenerates into a new range of box sets for each individual Doctor

Haaang on...did they wait till they'd got the record before regenerating?


By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 4:34 am:

a new range of box sets for each individual Doctor

Does that include all the regenerations from The Timeless Children? ;-)


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 5:21 am:

Ugh, don't remind me.

I loathe the Timeless Children as much as I loathe Mikey Spock.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 4:38 am:

What's a Mikey Spock?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 5:03 am:

Ah jeez don’t get him started.

Basically if Leonard Nimoy isn’t playing Spock then it’s not Spock.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 5:23 am:


quote:

What's a Mikey Spock?




I'm talking about this....thing:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_Burnham


This creature takes a dump on more than fifty years of canon. And we're supposed to just buy this!?

All because of the 21st Century Communism called Woke.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 3:36 pm:

I'm talking about this....thing

Dude, you've accidentally typed "thing" when you mean "woman".

"Thing" is not the preferred the nomenclature.


By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 5:24 pm:

He's probably confused her with a block of wood because of her acting. ;-)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, May 06, 2021 - 1:37 am:

Get voting, Emily!!!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, May 06, 2021 - 1:47 am:

EVERYONE had better get voting, and more to the point voting for The Kingmaker! It's languishing in SIXTH place! And what's even worse, Nekromanteia is in seventh! NEKROMANTEIA! I'm not saying it's the Worst Big Finish Audio Ever, but that's only because of the ferocious amount of competition...

And...123 people voted for Moonflesh as the Best Fifth Doctor Audio? I thought the one thing the whole of Fandom were agreed on what the godawfulness of Moonflesh and, indeed, that entire trilogy.

EVERYTHING just seems weirdly off, aside from Spare Parts maintaining its favoured position, and Axis of Insanity being second-to-bottom...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 12:32 pm:

The Radio Times poll on best Fifth Doctor BF has been announced. I suspect this lists them from five to one….


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 12:42 pm:

Fans are bat**** crazy.

No Kingmaker OR Time in Office?!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 - 12:28 am:

Well now it’s the Sixth Doctor’s time to shine!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 - 2:44 am:

OK, someone's taking the . PIER PRESSURE as Number Three? That's not just impossible, it's fundamentally wrong on a molecular level. It's like the whole universe being stuck at 5.02. Only wronger. The fact that the rest of the poll makes perfect sense just makes the discontinuity-abomination stick out even MORE agonisingly-painfully...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 - 5:05 pm:

You should see what's at the top NOW!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, May 13, 2021 - 3:43 am:

'Stefan! You have abandoned me!'


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - 2:38 pm:

And the winner is….


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - 10:51 pm:

Probably is saying something that four of those top five comes from the early years.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 - 1:15 am:

And the winner is….

Well at least Lanyon Moor doesn't come top. *Sigh* you have to take your pitiful consolations where you can get them...

Probably is saying something that four of those top five comes from the early years.

I wouldn't say BF's early years were any better - quite the reverse - but to be fair, they DID give Colin their best scripts in an attempt to rehabilitate him (and to my shock it actually WORKED).


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 3:08 pm:

and the winner is....


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 3:09 pm:

And now it's Doc 8's turn


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 7:13 am:

Well cr@p. After all the hard work, I mixed this down to stereo, but there are some very noticeable audio artifacts. And stoopid me, I had saved the version WITH THE DEFECTS and couldn't undo the mixdown because I had closed the programme in the meantime.

But it's listenable. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/RAxeU4eAIgw


By Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 7:45 am:

The artifacts actually give it a little extra creepy atmosphere so.... yay serendipity?


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 8:01 am:

I'll take it. Thanks. :-)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 3:26 pm:

OMG!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 4:35 pm:

Love the fact I'm name dropped. Not so hot on the fact that I'm the first one to disappear though....

Also, that theme sounds like something out of Jeff Wayne's "War Of The Worlds"


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 5:50 pm:

Also, that theme sounds like something out of Jeff Wayne's "War Of The Worlds"

Not familiar with that. Was trying to evoke 'Doctor Who' without copying it or spending too much time on it.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 6:56 pm:

I whipped it all together yesterday. Was feeling some stress and dealt with it by immersing myself in this. Was only supposed to be the first scene, but then I had to add a theme, and then another scene, and then had to do sound effects, write the music, etc. Lost track of time in the best way possible.

Anyway, listening to it today with relatively fresh ears, the theme sounds like Doctor Who meets The X-Files.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 5:21 am:

I like it. Was that really your voice we heard, Kevin?

Don't worry, Emily will save us. Right Emily :-)


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 5:32 am:

Was that really your voice we heard, Kevin?
All the voices were mine, except for the cat.


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 5:38 am:

You did a good job.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 6:10 am:

Thanks, Tim.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 10:20 am:

Don't worry, Emily will save us. Right Emily

Hell no. I have no idea what's going on but I'm pretty sure I'd stand no chance against the sinister force so we'll all just have to wait for the Doctor to save us.

And she probably won't.


By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 2:06 pm:

Tim - Don't worry, Emily will save us. Right Emily

Only if we've been turned into cats.

Meow.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 3:20 pm:

Don't worry, Emily will save us.

"Cat Lassie will save me!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q2s8AJbsps


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, May 28, 2021 - 7:53 am:

Supreme. Beings. Of. The. UNIVERSE.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Sunday, August 15, 2021 - 9:09 am:

Big Finish is making original versions of the stories that became The Ark In Space & Genesis of the Daleks:
https://scifibulletin.com/2021/08/09/new-season-12-variants-from-big-finish/?fbclid=IwAR2m5Y7Srm5XYsw3179f4itF0RXbYruOnkIbok4p_kJJsV2dAJVlSQG8KGM


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, August 15, 2021 - 9:27 am:

Ah yes, we were discussing that (not happily) in Audios: Fourth Doctor: Return of the Cybermen...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, August 15, 2021 - 4:28 pm:

"Cat Lassie will save me!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q2s8AJbsps


Actually it turns out your Precious WILL save you when you fall down a ravine.

Is it WRONG to prefer the version where...they just can't be bothered?


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Sunday, August 15, 2021 - 11:22 pm:

Around the World with Big Finish!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNkyAyKL9X0&t=1s


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Sunday, September 26, 2021 - 1:04 am:

Panic Big Finish buying?:
https://imgur.com/a/O7yrUzK

Posted by Big Finish themselves on their facebook page.

Personally I have a lot of Big Finishes to catch up with.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, September 26, 2021 - 3:45 pm:

Sure, you can START with one as long as you promise to go on to two...three...four...a hundred and four...etc etc...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 4:13 pm:

Here's a quick question for our know-all in chief...

...Did BF ever do a Second Doctor story where he firsts takes the Ghanter that he returns to the monks in The Abominable Snowmen?


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 11:55 pm:

No answer from me while we wait, but I think it's more likely that it was the first Doctor. If the second (and I don't think it's decisive either way), it would have had to have been a pre-Jamie story which is a pretty narrow window.

Been a while since I've consumed this one in any form though.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, October 01, 2021 - 12:38 am:

Well, I haven't heard The Secrets of Det-Sen yet but, call me telepathic, I have some suspicions that this might be what you're looking for...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, November 14, 2021 - 5:30 am:

What happened on the Great Vampire's planet after the Three Who Rule were overthrown and a thousand years of tyranny came to an end? What happened to Ivo and the the rest of the lot? What did they do with the surviving Tower guards, for example.

Something for an Audio to explore.*


*I don't count Blood Harvest as a real sequel, as it strays too far from the original material (having all those other towers and villages, when State Of Decay clearly established that there was only ONE Tower and ONE village).


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 14, 2021 - 6:07 am:

I have the feeling that following the keenly-awaited* Peladon box set, Big Finish will start spewing out endless box sets devoted to each and every planet ever mentioned in the Whoniverse. Alas that this one, like Leela's, doesn't even have a NAME which may cause problems but in the end nozzing in ze vorld will stop the Big Finish juggernaut - We Love Money Stories.

*Well, by SOMEONE anyway...presumably...


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Monday, November 15, 2021 - 5:22 am:

Yeah, that could happen.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, December 10, 2021 - 6:33 pm:

Sorry Emily


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, December 11, 2021 - 1:09 am:

It's...not unexpected.

It took a bit of effort but...I'm not curled up in a whimpering ball or anything.

I'm just kinda numb.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Saturday, December 11, 2021 - 12:02 pm:

We must have committed some sort of terrible crime in a past life.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, December 11, 2021 - 1:24 pm:

WE?

WE??????

I haven't noticed YOU suffering your way through every single Big Finish Who-related...THING...for the past TWENTY-TWO AND A HALF YEARS (twenty-three and a bit including the Bennies).

Have you even heard anything since Peterloo? (Which, admittedly, is punishment enough for MOST past-life kinda crimes. But practically ENJOYABLE compared to what I have endured.)


By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Sunday, December 12, 2021 - 5:27 am:

Emily, no one is pointing a gun at you, making you listen to these things.

You can stop anytime you like.


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Sunday, December 12, 2021 - 11:28 am:

I haven't noticed YOU suffering your way through every single ••••••• Big Finish Who-related...THING...for the past TWENTY-TWO AND A HALF YEARS

I know. Great, isn't it?!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, December 12, 2021 - 11:33 am:

I don't think someone who's read all the comic strips is exactly in a position to gleefully rub salt into my gaping wounds...


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Sunday, December 12, 2021 - 2:23 pm:

We have each been spared an epic ordeal.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, December 12, 2021 - 3:56 pm:

I don't suppose...?


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 - 10:52 pm:

The coming year in audio:
https://blog.lovarzi.co.uk/big-finish-doctor-who-2022/

Some of these I knew, but notable ones include a 10+6 team-up, an explicitly season 6b setting, and, most alarming, a seven-parter.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, January 05, 2022 - 3:05 pm:

There's a ton of Fifth Doctor audios for £1.49 at the moment to celebrate his fortieth anniversary, or something...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - 1:12 pm:

Big Finish's 'We Love Stories' slogan has regenerated into 'For The Love Of Stories' which makes me cringe so much more...


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - 5:26 pm:

Oh for the love of…..


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, January 13, 2022 - 12:23 am:

Quite.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Monday, February 14, 2022 - 3:42 am:

Big Finish are having a sale on physical cds of #151-#200 in their main range.

Em- any suggestions from that lot?


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, February 14, 2022 - 4:06 am:

Protect and Survive is really good, albeit depressing. Burning Prince is rather fun. Though I can't honestly say they're worth £6.49 plus postage.


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Tuesday, April 05, 2022 - 8:47 am:

An upcoming Big Finish adventure with the Seventh Doctor and Mel includes The Ribos Inheritance, a sequel to the Fourth Doctor TV story The Ribos Operation and has the return of Garron (now played by (David Rintoul, in place of the late Iain Cuthbertson):
https://scifibulletin.com/2022/04/05/silver-and-ice-danger-for-the-seventh-doctor/?fbclid=IwAR0Zvs1aULqoULpxc01Ca3hc3UEci5eYLsXR74gydtMMwamDZefDnmqDdgw


By Kevin (Kevin) on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 - 5:48 am:

Meanwhile...

https://blog.lovarzi.co.uk/the-thirteenth-doctor-at-big-finish/


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 - 6:48 am:

Nice article - couldn't help but get excited even as my bank balance emitted horrified groaning noises.

But:

'The Doctor tells the Ood at Division how she plans to ‘uncompress’ the universe to undo the damage from the Flux, but never gets a chance to do it. But we also don’t get told if the Ood carried out the plan either. So is the post-Flux universe still a fractured splinter of its former self, or has everyone and everything being restored? This could be the perfect place to find out.' - Actually you know what WOULD actually have been the perfect place to find out? SEASON THIRTEEN: FLUX. ON TV.

'Perhaps it was actually Jo Martin’s Doctor that played that original chess match with Fenric?' - Probably not as Fenric said 'He pulled bones from the desert sands and carved them into chess pieces. He challenged me to solve his puzzle.'

Of course, Fenric might have a Strax-like attitude to gender...?

'The Grand Serpent, the P’Ting and the Dregs are among the others that could return for rematches with the Doctor’s earlier incarnations.'

Um, the PTING never actually, y'know, SAYS ANYTHING, does it. So maybe no the best choice for audio. On the other hand, the Silence and Weeping Angels aren't exactly known for their chattiness but Big Finish got the hell away with using them...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 2:57 am:

The first 100 monthly audio downloads are £1.49 each! Come on everyone, you know you want to!

(Alright, you know you DON'T want to but you have your duty to Nitcentral...)


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 3:18 pm:

How about a top 5 to listen to so we get an idea of what won’t totally rot our brains in horror?


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 3:25 pm:

My opinion FWIW-

Spare Parts
Chimes of Midnight
Church and the Crown
Spectre of Lanyon Moor (Brig meets Ol’ Sixie for the first time in a full adventure!)
The Kingmaker

There are a few that are not mind-glowingly great but tolerable as well.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 3:52 pm:

Kingmaker
Bang-Bang-a-Boom!
The One Doctor
Flip-Flop
Jubilee
Spare Parts

(Yes I know that's six, I didn't want to choose between Jubilee and Spare Parts, they were both good enough to provoke REAL LIVE EPISODES OF WHO ON TV, for heaven's sake.)

Under no circumstances inflict Chimes of Midnight or Spectre of Lanyon Moor on yourselves - just repeat 'Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without your plum pudding' and 'Stefan! You have abandoned me!' ad nauseam and voila! you get all the effects of said audios without having to cough up £1.49 apiece!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 4:08 pm:

Please ignore our moderator who is in the vast minority about “Chimes of Midnight”. Many see it as their regular Christmas album every year.

However her other choices are all good as well.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, June 02, 2022 - 7:29 am:

I like Chimes and Lanyon as well, though the latter is saddled with yet-another alien-sleeping-on-Earth-for-millenia storyline. Other than that it's very enjoyable.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, June 02, 2022 - 1:24 pm:

STEFAN! YOU HAVE ABANDONED MY PLUM PUDDING!


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Saturday, November 05, 2022 - 9:03 am:

Big Finish canonicity in TV Doctor Who:
https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/who-mysteries-is-big-finish-canon-if-doctor-who-references-it-all-the-time-97884.htm?fbclid=IwAR3HyPk4upROg-BEXi3lW5nOV91ZlyF8xQpORyQAu5LBeG3UifujpIa8f7Q


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Sunday, November 06, 2022 - 2:28 am:

'It’s generally accepted that the TV Series comes first, then Big Finish, then either comics or novels.'

NO ONE can be crazy enough to put the comic-strip abominations on a par with the NOVELS, surely?!

'Big Finish has overtaken Doctor Who in terms of quality and quantity'

QUANTITY, certainly, but as for 'quality'...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

'“The Night of the Doctor” is not the only time the television series has made direct reference to Big Finish. It has been happening since 2002.'

Ah yes, who doesn't remember that wonderful series of Doctor Who on television in 2002...

'if ‘Big Finish isn’t canon because it’s never referenced or never affects the television series in any way’ is the only excuse'

Er...it isn't. The fact that TV flatly contradicts so much of BF is the 'excuse' you moron.

'The Eighth Doctor revealed one of the prevailing reasons for why he left Gallifrey. He claimed that it was his belief that ‘good will always prevail over evil’. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. This is the exact same reason the First Doctor gave to ‘Bill’ during the events of “Twice Upon a Time”…sixteen years later.'

*Checks* Actually, sounds more like One had the OPPOSITE view - that evil SHOULD prevail over good, and he just wanted to know why it didn't...

'There is good and there is evil. I left Gallifrey to answer a question of my own. By any analysis, evil should always win. Good is not a practical survival strategy. It requires loyalty, self-sacrifice and er, love. So, why does good prevail? What keeps the balance between good and evil in this appalling universe? Is there some kind of logic? Some mysterious force?'

'K9 was still broken down and Sarah mentioned him being retired to her attic. New Who, either purposely or accidentally, adapted this very specific plot point introduced by Big Finish many years earlier'

Only if you can't tell the difference between an ATTIC and a CAR.

'This ‘friendship’ New Who is so fond of actually originates in Big Finish. The Doctor tells the Master, as well as Death later in [the Master audio] the story, that he wants his old ‘friend’ back. This was the first occurrence in the history of the franchise where these two refer to themselves as once being friends}

*Sigh*

The Sea Devils: 'Well, he used to be a friend of mine once. A very good friend.'

'[A hologram-Doctor] was never present in the Classic era, but shortly after his regeneration from the Sixth Doctor, the Seventh Doctor recorded a non-interactive TARDIS hologram of himself'

What, a decade after he did it in the NOVEL Infinite Requiem, you mean?

And that's before we even get started on how much in every one of the audios listed contradicts a ton of things we've seen on TV. The Master went evil cos the Doctor smashed a bully's head in with a rock and then did a deal with Death to make the Master responsible (Master)? Yeah...no.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Sunday, November 06, 2022 - 12:04 pm:

They’ll publish any old cr@p these days. What a shocking article.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, November 06, 2022 - 4:48 pm:

Surely it's condemning if both media had used, ‘good will always prevail over evil.' It's an outright cliché, and the only connection highlighted here would be poor writing.

Besides, the belief that good prevails over evil rather depends on where you stop the narrative. Evil comes back all the time.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, November 06, 2022 - 7:44 pm:

New Who, either purposely or accidentally, adapted this very specific plot point introduced by Big Finish many years earlier, into their story. How’s that for direct?
First they acknowledge that it could be accidental, then they marvel at how direct it is?

But you don’t have to speculate why [the Ninth Doctor] was there when you know the Eighth Doctor has claimed that he was once accused of the [Kennedy] assassination
Yeah, science-fiction takes on that incident are so incredibly rare it can't possibly be a coincidence. And it's not like the Doctor ever drops passing mentions of historical events that contradict continuity.

In “The Name of the Doctor” we learned from the Eleventh Doctor that TARDISes die when the Time Lord pilot dies.
First of all, I never fully bought the televised version of that. I never got the impression that TARDISes were ever intended to be piloted by one person. That seems to be the case only with the renegades, and in that case, sure, there's some kind of symbiotic bonding that can result in both dying. Otherwise, TARDISes seem more like research tools that are taken for a spin to record historical events and possibly effect minor changes and then returned to the lot. Admittedly, no direct evidence to back that up other than the renegades always stealing them (or vice versa in the Doctor's case) rather than simply taking their own.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, November 06, 2022 - 8:17 pm:

Looking back on some of the older comments, particularly mine, on this page...

Gotta say: the guy who does Hartnell's voice is amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if they got him to do some Big Finish recordings.
Meanwhile, they recast the first Doctor twice since then. Bradley I can accept since he's been onscreen in the role, but while I like his replacement a *little* more than Emily and Rodney do, I still have to wonder why they didn't get the Planet of the Giants guy.

Was that the mock Pertwee in Light at the End? The first three Doctors were all appallingly bad--so much so that I assumed it was intentional deference.
Actually, he's grown on me. A lot. Whenever I hear one of his audios, it's jarringly not Pertwee for a minute or two, but then it starts to gel. At least I can picture Pertwee when I hear him.

But it's listenable. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/RAxeU4eAIgw
Boy, that was an early work. No compression, no de-essing, etc. I got much better.

I think it's more likely that it was the first Doctor. If the second (and I don't think it's decisive either way), it would have had to have been a pre-Jamie story which is a pretty narrow window.
Well on the Abominable Snowmen page, we accepted that it must be Troughton.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Monday, November 07, 2022 - 10:42 am:

Evil comes back all the time.

Yeah, and thanks to Last of the Time Lords we KNOW the good we've done is interred with our bones and it's the sodding TOCLAFANE who triumph at the end of the universe...

I never got the impression that TARDISes were ever intended to be piloted by one person

Whereas I stubbornly believed that OF COURSE they were, right up until Journey's End categorically informed me that 'It's designed to have six pilots'...*sigh*...

Actually, he's grown on me. A lot. Whenever I hear one of his audios, it's jarringly not Pertwee for a minute or two, but then it starts to gel. At least I can picture Pertwee when I hear him.

Yeah, Treloar will do. He'll never be the perfection that, say, Culshaw's Brig or Dudman's Eleven often achieve, but let's keep our fingers crossed BF don't decide to chop n'change Three the way they do poor old One...

Well on the Abominable Snowmen page, we accepted that it must be Troughton.

Aaaand then Big Finish, er, blessed us with The Secrets of Det-Sen. It's the First Doctor. Whoever he is this week...


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Thursday, November 10, 2022 - 6:55 am:

Big Finish seems keen to find any reason for a sale as they now having one for stories written by Scott Handcock due to him having a birthday recently on November 8.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, November 10, 2022 - 3:25 pm:

That DOES...reek of desperation.


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Friday, November 11, 2022 - 2:14 pm:

So does this!


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Friday, November 11, 2022 - 2:23 pm:

'Much-loved'?! The got our Eighth Doctor KILLED!

(I wouldn't have minded - hell, I'd probably have slipped her a fiver - if he'd turned into Eccy but John Hurt...)


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 16, 2023 - 5:34 am:

Just to say there's a pretty generous historical figures sale on at BF at the moment, Kingmaker for £1.49 anyone?!


By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, April 01, 2023 - 2:44 am:

Emily will need oxygen when she reads about this new release


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Saturday, April 01, 2023 - 2:53 am:

Well, it WOULD be a thing of beauty...


By Kate Halprin (Kitten) on Friday, April 07, 2023 - 7:28 am:

Only if it's one for Paris.


By Kevin (Kevin) on Thursday, July 20, 2023 - 6:04 am:

So there's this Beth Chalmers sale at Big Finish...


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, July 20, 2023 - 12:54 pm:

In other words, PRACTICALLY ALL of them?!


By Matthew See (Matthew_see) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 1:57 am:

Nicholas Briggs - My Life in a Mixtape:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001swj6


Part of Radio 2's Doctor Who 60th anniversary celebrations as Nicholas Briggs presents the tracks of his lifetime.


By Norman Buchwald (Norm) on Thursday, March 14, 2024 - 11:19 am:

"Big Finish's 'We Love Stories' slogan has regenerated into 'For The Love Of Stories' which makes me cringe so much more..."


Tell me about it. The music behind it is worse. I was fine with the rather deliberate "You're listening to Big Finish!" in the beginning of each.


By Emily Carter (Emily) on Thursday, March 14, 2024 - 11:41 am:

The music behind it is worse.

I hadn't even NOTICED any music, I'm too busy gawping with horrified disbelief. Every single time.


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