How did you like it?
Absolutely! I feel happy I finally managed to listen Eight’s audios!
Great to have you in the Eight audio fanclub! ![]()
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Thank you! ![]()
As part of me gradually going through the first 50 Main Range audios, I’ve come to where I started: with Eight.
Storm Warning hooked me when I first listened to it and this relisten worked as a wonder. The setting is cool, Eight and Charley are lovely practically instantly and all… or okay more like most, of the characters are enjoyable. Tamworth especially stood out to me on this listen, I just really love his arc and how he goes from a bit of an archetypal grumpy old war veteran character to a flawed but well-meaning man who knows the horrors of war all too well. Rathbone is a good slimy old villain who you just want to see… or rather hear, get his teeth kicked in. The Steward is also an enjoyable guy, even if he doesn’t feature that much. Frayling is the one weak link, he does matter to the plot but really doesn’t do much other than an out of nowhere heel turn by the climax.
The Triskele are an interesting species that gets a fine enough deep-dive that also serves as interesting commentary on free will. Unfortunately, the Uncreators seem a little one-dimensional and clearly the “evil” subgroup of the species that I wish were a bit more nuanced. Overall though, a really enjoyable and quite tragic story that is a great opening for McGann on audio. 8/10.
I listened to “Storm Warning” (my first Classic audio, my first main range audio, but not my first audio with 8 since I already listened to his appearance in The Paternoster Gang). I’m not used to audio dramas being 2 hours long, so that was different. Paul McGann’s voice is always fun to listen to and I love Charley so far.
95 years (& 9 days) ago the R101 sadly crashed in France during its maiden overseas voyage. 71 years later the 8th Doctor took his maiden voyage with Big Finish in Storm Warning. I listened to it a few years later when it was broadcast on BBC Radio 7. I think a lot of us started there, didn’t we doll.
It’s so much fun to hear a more joyful 8th Doctor, & Charley is such an immediate presence here. It feels like they spent a lot of time creating her character. So full of life & personality from the off, helped immensely by India Fisher’s performance. She imbues her with a real authenticity as a young woman of her era ready for adventure, well she thinks she is. I think when Charley touches the alien 8 sees her compassion & curiosity in that moment & decides there & then to take her with him. There are a few moments that feel a bit clunky now & part 3 is a bit overstuffed with sci-fi technobabble but these are minor quibbles. What a great start to the 8th Doctor’s era.
Another one that flew by. I really love the plot of good vs evil and the servant that attempts to keep the balance for better and/or worse.
This was my first BF I finished in full, and I really liked it!!! I thought 8 and Charlie’s dynamic worked really well, and the aesthetic of the whole thing was great. I was a Little Lost on the alien bit at first but it got really interesting near the end. Paul is delightful.
He’s back… again… and it’s about time… again! With Five, Six, and Seven alone, Big Finish would’ve been great, but the addition of Eight made them amazing, as if honey had been added to a bowl of warm oatmeal. Though his stories weren’t always the best, they were a chance to hear the incumbent Doctor in brand-new adventures, and are arguably part of why the TV series were revived. “Storm Warning” earns a point for that. (And another for featuring my favourite Doctor, because I’m that kind of bastard.)
As for the story itself… it’s fine. Your typical “companion introduction” story, in the vein of “Rose”, “Smith and Jones”, “The Pilot”, and “The Robot Revolution”. The Doctor is unmemorable—in hindsight, I think he was carried by the novelty of having Paul McGann back—but Charley immediately makes an impression, for being “Doctor Who does Lara Croft”, for India Fisher’s endearing performance, and for the plot thread of her paradoxically surviving the crash. She was my favourite companion before I got to Series 10, and still holds a treasured place in my heart.[1]
As does Bill, for she was replaced by Lucie once I listened to Series 2 of the 8DAs. ↩︎
Ok audio club let’s do this, been wanting to get into the big finish main range for a while.
I chose to start here cuz I still need to get through doctors 5-7 of my classic series run before I mess with them. But I’ve seen and love the tv movie.
So the first 8th doctor story, I had a lot of fun visualizing the episodes in my head. I grew up on Vancouver based 90s tv productions so it was a lot of fun taking that mixed with classic who serial formatting. Love that David Arnold theme, also perfect 90s move just thinking of his work on James Bond and stargate from the period. McGann is wonderful in his first non regeneration story, love Charlie being from the 30s. Everything about this feels like a true season opener to the series we never got and can’t wait to listen to more.
I relistened to this a couple of weeks ago but I’ll throw my two cents. It’s a very a good audio but like many have said already it does falter some what around the third part.
I listened to the Mary Shelley stuff before Storm Warning and as a result I really loved the opening of this with The Doctor being alone again talking to himself and reflecting on those adventures briefly.
Charley’s introduction is great and she is an awesome companion.
This one is really great and one of the quintessential BF audios. I do the think the villain is a tad weak but again this one isn’t about the monster it’s about getting 8 and Charley together which it does amazingly
Eight, moreso than any other doctor, really needed a strong start on audio, and boy does he get it.
The overall plot is solid, not neccessarily anything to write home about on it’s own, but it’s not on its own. The setting and general vibes of the story are just brilliant, the side cast are all really fun, and then there’s Eight and Charley. You immidiately fall in love again with Eight, and Charley’s sense of wonder and hunger to explore sets her up as a great companion. She feels more like a modern companion than a classic companion (if that makes sense?), but coming before all of them you can see how she paved the way, and not being your basic contemporary companion makes her stand out a lot already.
The only 8 audios I’ve listened to are this, Stranded, and Stuff of Legend, so really looking forward to hearing more with him.
An 8/10, and a great start to the era
I have heard a few audios with Charlie before so I’m glad to finally get her introduction. This story was interesting, starting with the Doctor getting separated from the TARDIS and going from being focused on getting his ship back to dealing with the chaos on board, and Charlie was a nice addition. I enjoyed this one a lot.
I loved Storm Warning when I first listened to it. A new audio with a new audio Doctor and new companion! I also have a fascination with airships, so that just adds to it for me. I also like it uses an historical event to build the story around. In the end it’s not the aliens that casue the disaster, but the Doctor, and, of course, a bad human, who do.
just finished this one today, it was a lot of fun!! had a great time and i’m loving charley so far :D
Decided to revisit Monthly Range Eight stories to introduce my partner to Eight more properly, and as an excuse to pick up the re-release bundle with the documentary.
I remembered this story as near-perfect, and it doesn’t quite hold up to those expectations with a little more BigFinish under my belt. Still absolutely loved it, though. Loved Tamworth, thought the R101 setting is fantastic and well-used, and I loved the structure of the Triskele. The final part is a bit of a miss as it suddenly feels like all the best parts of the audio are sucked from it, but between Eight, Charley and eventually Ramsey, this audio remains a real joy for me. Review enjoyers may enjoy the below.
A really fun story that is, as others have said, a quintessential Big Finish listen as the start of their Eighth Doctor audios and the introduction of Charley. I quite enjoyed it but don’t think it’s the best of the early Big Finish audios. The first run of Eighth Doctor audios in general are not my favourites but it still feels like an important story to have listened to.
