Oh 100% its so worth it, the Drax story in that is just SO funny. All three are good, but the first and third are huge standouts.
I get what you mean, although as I got into BF around the time of the big boxset boom, its what I’m used to!
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I’m glad you’re seeing the light of the MR! I think, as we’ve been debating back and forth, there are pros and cons to both the MR format and the boxsets. I’ll be interested to see what you think of some of the later stories which are two hour long stories, an hour and an half and a half hour, or four 30mins. There are some very effective used of these formats - Circular Time and Alien Heart/Dalek Soul both come to mind as great uses of that.
I think too it might help if BF themselves made it clearer that the MR can just be dipped into and out of at will because yes, it is intimidating to have 275 stories in a range but really very few are connected in such a way that makes picking a random one to listen to impossible. I suppose it’s wht BF have pivoted away from numbers altogether these days in favour of giving boxsets names, to try and suggest better that you can listen to them whenevrr
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You say that, and I agree, but I’ve still seen some people confused by this 
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Big Finish: We confuse listeners
I suppose there’s no perfect system what with the sheer volume of their output 
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Tbh I think the boxset approach w the sames is v simple and easy to understand, but yeah depends if you’re new to BF maybe? not sure.
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I mean I’m deep enough in the system that I’m like ‘it’s not confusing, you just need to listen to these four stories from different ranges published over ten years to make this one throwaway line in 2004 make sense’ so I’m not one to talk at all, but yeah I agree and can’t quite see what the boxset confusion is about
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I think for me, the confusion with the boxsets [1] comes from the fact that there is still a continuity and a ‘correct’ order to listen to them. At least with the eighth doctor, I think it’s much less a thing with other ranges. [2] And while numbering or seasons with numbers tell me which episode comes after which, there’s absolutely nothing about the words Ravenous or Doom Coalition to tell me which comes first. That requires at least one search or question to a fan. However, I think one thing causing confusion might also be the tendency of fans who are deep into the material to give more prerequisites than necessary. I think, and I may be wrong, that most fans of eight for example would tell me boxsets with which I really shouldn’t start because they require this and that context first and really I should be listening first to this one, then that one, and after that I can listen to the one I thought was interesting. And I want to make clear that I absolutely do not mean any of this maliciously, I love that there are complete timelines and that I can get context for every little detail. However, I think it can be easy to forget that, oftentimes far, far less context is required to understand and enjoy a story. And that context, especially the sort of context you get from listening to hundreds of audios, enhances the experience but isn’t always necessary. So I think that, probably, actually most of the boxsets are in fact perfectly fine to listen to in any order where not numbered, but the idea that there must be a ‘correct’ order is what creates most of the confusion.
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What doesn’t help with 8 is his sets were always in an order, with a couple clearly set in the past (further adventures) but the post stranded stuff must be so confusing if you don’t know where it is and fits etc.
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Yeah I have literally no idea how any of that works. I’ve figured the easiest way for me to listen to Eight is just to go in release order, so I’m currently somewhere in the divergent universe with him
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As I’ve said to you before, that’s how I’d always recommend tackling Eight, and fortunately the more you listen the more naturally you can get a feel for where the oddball stuff goes
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A basic timeline for Eight is this:
Main Range 124, 153-155 (Mary Shelley)
Main Range 16-19 (Charley S1)
Audacity
In The Bleak Midwinter
Deadly Strangers
Further Adventuress
(The three Audacity sets and the Further Adventures set are somewhere between Minuet in Hell and Neverland)
Main Range 28-33, 50 (Charley S2)
Main Range 52-55 (Divergent S1)
Main Range 61-64 (Divergent S2)
Main Range 72, 75, 77, 80, 83, 88, 101, 103 (Charley/C’Rizz S3)
Lucie S1
Lucie Further Adventures
Lucie S2-4
Dark Eyes 1-4
Doom Coalition 1-4
Ravenous 1-4
Stranded 1-4
What Lies Inside
Connections
Echoes
Time War 1-4
Cass
Uncharted 1-2
There are of course other stories like Short Trips, Living Legend, Stuff of Legend and CC: Solitaire that fit into this, but this is the major stuff.
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Gosh, how cool it would be if Six had an author as a companion.
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I don’t know. I wasn’t overly impressed by Mary Shelley.
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I would choose someone with a little more spunk, honestly; who can play off of the Doctor in question.
Like Wilde or another eccentric/romantic.
I feel like Eight should’ve had a Byron, Percy Bysshe or something?
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I’d say Mary Shelley had spunk in spades! (Though probably more in real life than in Big Finish’s depiction of her.)
Six / Eight and Oscar Wilde would be heaven. It would also be wonderful to have a poet in the TARDIS. Christina Rosetti? Andrew Marvell?
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Me neither, in honesty. That trilogy was fine to decent at best
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It sounds like she’s has a strong “you like her or you don’t” reputation in BF. One day I’ll have to check her out.
There’s many poets I’d put in the lineup, too.
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I enjoyed the Mary Shelley trilogy well enough (2/3 of it; still haven’t heard the last story) but I did think Mary became a bit of a generic companion. I think they could have done more with her and made her a stronger character than they did.
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I liked Mary’s Story and The Silver Turk. The other two… I remember nothing.
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Do you count HG Wells
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