To think, we complained when King Peladon got his own Companion Chronicle...

Oh my. Four new Peladon stories. Presumably Doctorless ones at that.

So who will be in these? Queen Thalira? Alpha Centauri?

Presumably Doctorless ones at that.

Not necessarily, Big Finish do occasionally give us a surprise cameo from a Real Doctor. End of Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter, for example...

So who will be in these? Queen Thalira? Alpha Centauri?

Blimey, they'd better hurry if they want the real Alpha Centauri back...

There's also another (sadly wimpish) Pel King who starred in Fifth Doctor audio Bride of Peladon and married the Doctor's Companion Erimem for some unfathomable reason. I'm hoping - without expectation - that one of the episodes will involve her ditching him and WIPING HER MEMORY of him (as the Erimem novels set on Earth that totally never mention him imply).

Audios just can't get enough of Peladon

The books too (kudos to Legacy for basically foreseeing that Britain would crash out of the European Union despite no one else foreseeing this EVEN ON THE DAY OF THE SODDING REFERENDUM). Of course, televisual Who started it all with that shameless Monster of Peladon...

Presumably Doctorless ones at that.

Not necessarily, Big Finish do occasionally give us a surprise cameo from a Real Doctor.

You were more right than I was. ​And more than just a cameo.

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-peladon-2501

Blimey. They really are wheeling out the big guns to convince us to listen to this thing...

I actually find it oddly comforting that the Doctor has taken a keen interest in a planet other than Earth. Now he needs to start talking like he knows everything about the planet, and they need to give us an invasion of Peladon story. They got a lot of catching up to do.

they need to give us an invasion of Peladon story

Wasn't that what Monster of Peladon was?

So who will be in these? Queen Thalira? Alpha Centauri?

Yeah, but...they've been recast.

Edited.
they need to give us a halfway decent invasion of Peladon story

oooooohhhh buuuuuuuurrrrrnnnnnn

The Ordeal of Peladon:

How does the Federation hold together if their spaceships are so •••• they have to rotate their crew through cryo-sleep in order to just get to Peladon? And how did the Ice-Warriors-appearing-two-minutes-after-Alpha-Centuri-sent-a-summons thing in Monster WORK, in those circumstances? (Yes, I KNOW they were already on Peladon but how come no one instantly REALISED this given that they literally COULDN'T have arrived that fast?)

The point about people who control absolute monarchs is they don't make it so bloody OBVIOUS by saying things like 'Oh, that old fool' in public or 'I could not possibly allow that, Your Majesty' to the king's face.

'There's a technique, you see, that was taught to me by an old friend' - um, when did Pertwee teach King Peladon Venusian Aikido? Admittedly I don't remember much about the Prisoner of Peladon Companion Chronicle...though the one thing I DO remember is that Peladon (king not planet) didn't regard the Doctor as his FRIEND afterwards...

Harfair tells the King that Skarn has taught her to 'treat all people as our equals, none as our betters, and none as our inferiors' - which is fair enough until you start considering that she calls herself Skarn's disciple...

Peladon doesn't know about the brigands swarming his kingdom? He doesn't reproach Harfair for exposing him to said brigands?

Peladon has horses? They're not a lost human colony or anything, are they?!

'This backwater' - they're a day's-walk-for-an-old-man away from the planet's capital city! (Er, citadel. Whatever.)

'Behold! A miracle sent by the universe!' - well the god-bothering lunatic murderer got SOMETHING right. This is ALWAYS the way the Doctor and the TARDIS should be greeted.

'It's my second-favourite planet...maybe fifth...top ten' - DARLING Tennant!

This is a Fixed Point in time? I bloody doubt it. It IS, obviously, a point in time the Doc's read about in the history books so really feels he can't try to change, but I doubt it's the kinda Fixed Point that would destroy the universe if River decided to screw with it...

'Doctor - was it really you?' - King Peladon fails to ask any of the witnesses for a DESCRIPTION?

Well, I rather enjoyed that.

It's a minor thing, but I kinda wish BF didn't feel they needed to follow the syntactic pattern of the only-two televised Peladon story titles, which is identical to many Dalek stories. It feels like a very 60s/70s naming convention, and conveys a message of 'It's more important that we establish ties with the original show than try to be original.'

Just got mine. Haven't listened yet. Minor complaint aside, I'm looking forward to it.

Ugh! Centauri is far more "girly" in episode 2 than I would have liked. For an alien that is non-gender specific they are certainly displaying a lot of feminine traits. Also, they seem to enjoy violence a lot more than they used to.....

The abomination-of-a-fake-Alpha-Centauri is the reason I haven't managed to FINISH episode 2 yet, but it didn't occur to me that being an inane sex-mad incessantly-giggling half-wit are particularly FEMININE traits...?!

Your words, not mine….

The Poison of Peladon:

Where is a High Priest to defend sacred Aggedor from the false gods?

I have but to ask and SHE IS HERE! (Though weirdly the false gods have all been forgotten about.)

Since when does River call the Doctor 'A dear friend of mine' instead of MY HUSBAND?

'You learned from the best' - River's reaction when Thalira mentions who told her about Women's Lab. BLESS!

Peladon has a plague! No it doesn't! Peladon has a republican uprising! No it doesn't! Gods, this is all a bit...desperate.

Dunno how this fits in with the Legacy NA (Thalira has a son not daughter before getting blown to bits in a Federation ship).

'An impossible feat!' - PROFESSOR RIVER SONG must have seen a lot weirder than a couple of wild animals acting moderately tame in a cage. Also weird that NO ONE is mentioning the religious significance of a couple of supposedly-extinct furry gods popping up.

Jeez, could King Peladon have HAD a longer or more pointless flashback-deathbed-scene?

'How many deathbeds must I kneel at' - Thalira weirdly doesn't mention any HUSBAND croaking on her list?

'Alpha's not a she, she's a them' says River...BEFORE bothering to demand medical help for the (apparently) dying Alpha. She's never struck me as the type to put political correctness first. Especially as she's later suddenly referring to Alpha as 'she' a lot.

Dunno how this fits in with the Legacy NA

It doesn't.

You really need to give up on this silly idea that the Audios and novels take place in the same reality.

I HAVE given up on the idea, I just...can't help myself when I see a nit...

Just accept that the novels and Audios take place in separate realities, Emily.

You'll sleep better.

But every time I THINK I've accepted that, bloody Big Finish does stuff like stealing the novels' Fitz for one of their audios...I CAN'T STAND THE CONFUSION IN MY MIND!

If there is an ARN (Alternate Reality Nyssa), then why not a ARF (Alternate Reality Fitz).

Of course, there doesn't seem to be a Fitz Prime, as no such character appeared on the show.

Well, the Fitz situation is rather complicated by there being two of the buggers... (The original - who ended up collecting the severed heads of Time Lords - and his biomass copy - who ended up...actually, come to think of it we'll never know, the EDAs ended rather abruptly, not that I'm complaining in the circumstances, said circumstances being IT'S BACK IT'S BACK OH GODS IT'S BACK ON TV WHERE IT BELONGS...)

Oi slacker! Hurry up and finish this set!

Oi slacker! Hurry up and finish this set!

Sorry, but I NEED a few days between each endurance test of having Pel ingredients vomited all over me...

The Death of Peladon:

This planet is REALLY starting to depress me.

'No, I will not weep for you Grandma, not yet' - too late! You've been snivelling for hours.

'I'll see what I can do for this poor man' - er...you do realise he's DEAD, Mel?

Oh. She gives him her jacket because 'it might give you some dignity'? Well not if it comes from the TARDIS wardrobe it won't.

'We leave together or not at all' - Mel heroically refusing the Doctor's instructions to get into the TARDIS while he defuses the bomb. Has she forgotten she's not a NEW WHO Companion obsessively-devoted to her Doctor? And has she somehow not noticed that her current Doctor is COLIN BAKER?

If she despises her people and is planning on flogging the planet off to Arcturus and scarpering, why does the Princess bother demanding reparation for the Pels for their generations of service from the Federation? Just to be annoying?

Speaking of annoying, it's MIND-BOGGLING that Alpha Centuri - the most unbelievably irritating character in BF if not Who history last episode, I wanted to rip its arms off and force-feed them to its giggling gob - is literally the LEAST annoying character in THIS episode.

'I had no idea' says the Doctor, vis-a-vis the mines running out. Yeah, who could possibly have foreseen that there WASN'T an inexhaustible supply of trisilicate!

'You are speaking to a Princess of the Royal House of Peladon' 'And you're speaking to a computer programmer from Pease Pottage. What's your point?' - Mel's best line ever? Not, admittedly, that there's much competition...

'Um...' - Has Peladon somehow managed to produce a monarch more wimpish than Peladon, Thalira and Pelleas PUT TOGETHER?

'You haven't changed a day, old friend' - well that's funny cos in a mere fifty years Pertwee accused Alpha of having a touch of grey around the tentacles...

Hepesh REPRODUCED? And his descendants know why he died even though Peladon ordered it hushed up?

'You must embrace our spiritual heritage and begin the healing process' - sure, because worshipping Aggedor will TOTALLY restore your jobs and food and water.

The Queen doesn't ask for Federation medicine for her ailments?

'May Aggedor have mercy on all our souls' - DOCTOR! You TRAITOR to atheism!

'If you want to shoot the Queen, you shoot me first' - what a grovelling monarchist that Doctor is. (Well, not JODIE! with James I. Is it a male thing?)

'I saw my father wither and die on that throne. I will not see you destroyed the same way. The Arcturans can give us freedom' - that's a terrible excuse for Isabelda's motivation even BEFORE she's threatening to kill Mummy moments later.

'The sight of that blue box never fills my hearts with anything less than joy' says the RAGING HYPOCRITE who turned Sexy into a sodding ORGAN.

'I endorse this decision' - who the hell does Alpha Centuri think they ARE! Now I'm joining the campaign to chuck that interfering Federation off Peladon!

So *sigh* Aggys are extinct? AGAIN? Bet they aren't.

If she despises her people and is planning on flogging the planet off to Arcturus and scarpering, why does the Princess bother demanding reparation for the Pels for their generations of service from the Federation? Just to be annoying?

So she can embezzle the payments.

'The sight of that blue box never fills my hearts with anything less than joy' says the RAGING HYPOCRITE who turned Sexy into a sodding ORGAN.

But he did realize his mistake and let her return to the blue box motif.

So she can embezzle the payments.

That would make sense if Isabelda wasn't planning to flee the planet in the spaceship she's conveniently got stashed away without anyone noticing...(Admittedly there are so few people in the Citadel this is less surprising than it sounds...)

But he did realize his mistake and let her return to the blue box motif.

LET her?!

And I don't recall him ADMITTING his mistake, apologising, changing his OWN appearance to McCoy's to atone for his sin...

That would make sense if Isabelda wasn't planning to flee the planet in the spaceship she's conveniently got stashed away without anyone noticing...

Exactly. She takes the money and then leave to live it up in some fiscal paradise planet for the rest of her life.

But she's planning on leaving RIGHT NOW whilst even if the Federation agreed to her petulant demands the money would take quite a while to arrive and get appropriated...

Well then, maybe she wants to keep up the pretense long enough so she can get to said ship without the people lynching her.

She's DEFINITELY not one for pretence and attempts-to-avoid-being-lynched, when dragged off to see the giant sinkhole that killed hundreds, she very publicly took a 'Ooh it's a hole, what's the big deal' sort of attitude...

I love Francois getting so pent up and trying to prove Emily wrong when he's not even heard the audio....

I must be honest though, I think Em is pretty much on the money here...

Oh and here is my review of this set.

And before Emily jumps down my throat for referring to Alpha Centauri as an "Intersex Hexapod" I wish to state QUITE EMPHATICALLY that I referred to them correctly as a "hermaphrodite hexapod" (indeed, even this set refers to them as such, the PC Gods be damned!)

Not really trying to prove her wrong, just offering possible motivations for what sounds like a strange behavior. Of course, the suggestion that I should listen to the audio first does have some merits.

Btw, referring to a species as hermaphrodite is not PC if this is the normal state of being for that species.

'The planet and its problems have enamoured novel writers for decades' - that's a somewhat exaggerated way of referring to Legacy.

'The queen's daughter' - granddaughter.

'Sadly, Centauri is not very well written (although charmingly played' - nice of you to try to absolve the actor of responsibility for this CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY (though I have to admit given the drastic improvement as soon as Alpha's written by someone else you may have a point. But obviously said actor should be fed to the horda ANYWAY as a matter of principle.)

'Queen Menaris (daughter of Thalira)' - no she isn't! (Plus, it's Minaris.)

'Sara Powell brings some worthy nobility to her role as the Queen' - What! WHERE?!

'The laid-back presence of McGann’s Doctor throughout' - you did notice him STARTING A REVOLUTION...?

Yes but McGann always seems to sound so •••• BORED in all the audios I listened to- even when inciting a revolution.

Mind you- he does have a nice singing voice...

He has a GORGEOUS singing voice! How typical that the hightlight of the set should be...after it's over.

So *sigh* Aggys are extinct? AGAIN? Bet they aren't.

Either I'm a prophetic genius or this is REALLY repetitive and predictable...

The Truth of Peladon:

The Doctor thinks his 'fingers are younger than the rest of me, quirk of physiognomy'?!

Weird that Six of all homicidal maniacs has just chickened out of supporting a Peladonian revolt while that softie Eight STARTS one and then just abandons everyone to their fate.

'The Age of the Chancellors is over, and now I'm done' - because everything's gonna be sunshine and roses after monarchs/the mob takes over...?!

Utterly bizarre that the destruction-of-Peladon-due-to-Skarn's-religious-revolution stuff that was set up BY THE TENTH DOCTOR in the first episode went precisely nowhere.

Really...mean-spirited. Give or take a deeply-unconvincing reference (not least because the novels had her scarpering after a few months/years) to Erimem's Golden Age.

Geez, this planet cannot catch a break.

Why not just have the Peladonian sun go nova and be done with it.

QUITE.

And you feel like this without even LISTENING to the wretched things!

Put the poor planet out of its misery.

Or write a story in which something good happens there, for a change.

Put the poor planet out of its misery.

Seconded.

Admittedly I feel the same way about Earth most days, but it would certainly have been an effective box-set-ender if Peladon's endless suffering had culminated in it going boom.

Or write a story in which something good happens there, for a change.

Yeah, joining the Federation should have made SOME difference for the better, even if only for a few years...instead of totally destroying the environment with trisilicate mining without, apparently, providing so much as an aspirin in return...

He has a GORGEOUS singing voice! How typical that the highlight of the set should be...after it's over.

And here is this little treat for those of you sensible enough not to listen to the box set...

Put the poor planet out of its misery.

Seconded.

Oh. Dear. We should probably have kept our gobs shut, cos...The General to the Doctor in War Doctor: He Who Fights With Monsters: The Mission:

'Frankly, you haven't been the same since Peladon was consumed.'

Big Finish really are GITS aren't they.