Like I said, it’s my favourite BF audio ever!!
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You can 100% tell, and I love it.
Anyway. Headphones charged. From that height to… uh… well. Wish me luck.
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Relistened to Sympathy for the Devil as a palette cleanser, and yeah that’s just damned good Doctor Who innit. Fantastically paced with amazing performances and a solid enough plot. I don’t particularly find it a favourite but I do find it just a really good, strong time. Love Warner a lot, obviously <3 Oh and this David Tennant guy should come back, he’s bloody good. Even if he does say “bloody” a little too much. 4.5*
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If there is one thing I hate on audio it’s burping and vomiting and eating noises 
I really need Exile to stop with these like right now please
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I’ve never planned on listening to it due to its reputation and everything I’ve heard about it sounding awful, but I can’t stand vomiting stuff at all so I’m 100% skipping now for sure lol
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It’s a shame that Exile is what it is, because Arabella Weir is such great casting for the Doctor.
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“But worst of all, you had a sex change regeneration” ahahaha so funny…
Exile: is too long, too crude, way too full of burps and vomit, full of annoying side characters, and worst of all isn’t that funny. The best part is the gay little Time Lords hunting the Doctor down. The worst part is everything else. Isn’t it just like SO hilarious that Dr Who gets a SEX CHANGE and goes to Earth to get DRUNK and work in the SUPERMARKET like a BORING WOMAN!
All that said, Arabella Weir did in fact make a fabulous Doctor and I would love to see her get some actual good stories. And Nick Briggs should never be allowed to do ‘comedy’ again
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It’s mad to me that in 2003 Nick Briggs wrote and directed one of my all-time favourite Who stories, Creatures of Beauty, and one of my all-time least favourites, this one. He’s a versatile writer…
(But it is genuinely so strange– Creatures is so nuanced and so delicate and then there’s this…)
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Yea I’d love for them to bring back Weir like they did with Warner. (Actually write for her tho and probably best to just ignore this story altogether)
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Hell let’s do Weir and Benny and they can still go and get drunk somewhere. I can imagine they might have a fun dynamic.
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Haven’t gotten to Doctor Of War yet (and even with everything I’ve heard about it, I’m staying cautiously optimistic) but I quite like the original Unbounds overall. Love the two with David Warner, the Marc Platt ones are interesting if not all that noteworthy for me, FFF and HJAS are good…
And then there’s what I would consider the ultimate example of the Androzani effect in action: Deadline and Exile. Right next to each other, the very best and the very worst of the audios. And oddly enough, both for the same reason: What they say about the show as a whole. With Deadline, it’s something so vital to both its creators and its fanbase that, in some form or another, it has to exist. With Exile, it’s something so disposable that it’s worth turning into a bog-standard pub comedy (with really gross sound design and even grosser mistreatment of Weir as the Doctor). I don’t think Nick Briggs deserves quite as much flak as he seems to get as a writer in general, but that one is a shocker.
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It’s a great guest cast too. Terry Molloy as Davros of course (wonder if RTD listened t this and remembered something of it when writing Wish World?), but there’s also Sarah Douglas and Amy Pemberton before she was Seventh Doctor companion Sally and long before she was the Waverider personality in the CW show Legends of Tomorrow.
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Totally agree - his scripts can be very samey but they’re by and large decent and enjoyable, if nothing special. Exile was special for how dreadful it was 
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Gary Russell really wears his fanwank hat for He Jests at Scars. The references include a novel he wrote for the New Adventures and a novel he wrote for the Past Doctor Adventures and weave in an original character created for the Sarah Jane Smith Big Finish range (who only exists because Liz Sladen didn’t want another former companion in the range, even if said companion came from the Eighth Doctor novels).
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The low brow humour really doesn’t appeal to me. The two comedy Time Lord characters are only barely tolerable because David Tennant plays one of them but they’re like the Thompson twins in how efficient they are (and for them the writing intentionally leans into this for comedy). Except they didn’t eat dog food.
There was potential for a decent story in here about the Doctor finding meaning and purpose in everyday life, but it’s squandered by a barrage of grossout humour, caricature characterisation and something even Nick has admitted to be very tone deaf looking back on it.
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Also agree re Nick I think it’s partly just the in thing right now to hate on him.
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The two stories that left the biggest impression on me were Full Fathom Five and He Jests at Scars. I’d always thought David Collings had the makings of a great Doctor ever since I saw him as Silver in Sapphire and Steel—and he absolutely delivered. Hearing Ed Bishop’s voice again was a real treat too; I’ve been a fan since 1968, when he played Captain Blue, Captain Scarlet’s ever-loyal best mate. The ‘what if?’ premise of Full Fathom Five is cleverly concealed, and when it finally hits, it’s genuinely shocking. I think my eyebrows hit the ceiling. And that ending—utterly chilling. It’s haunted me ever since.
He Jests at Scars was the story that made me realise Bonnie Langford could really act. Up until then, my mental image of her was an unholy fusion of Violet Elizabeth Bott and Mel Bush—two characters I couldn’t stand. I’d unfairly written her off, blaming the actor when it was the characters who were the problem (though fans of either might, with some justification, argue the fault lay with me). Either way, I had to eat a generous slice of humble pie. She’s a terrific performer.
Now, I’m not Gary Russell’s biggest fan—especially after what he did to my beloved Time Tunnel (grrr… deep breaths…)—but I have to admit, I really enjoyed this script. Despite the central ‘what if?’, it felt authentic to the tone of the TV series at the time. I could easily picture the events playing out on screen.
And then there’s Michael Jayston—an actor I can never praise too highly. It still irks me that he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves for playing the Doctor for an entire season. But I won’t go there… I can already feel my eye starting to twitch. I loved seeing how he operated as the Doctor, especially when paired with a companion whose morality was just as questionable.
Bishop, Collings, Jayston—three phenomenal actors. I miss them all dearly.
Just thinking about these stories makes me want to give them another listen. And you know what? I probably will.
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So this was the post that made me decide to buy Full Fathom Five and check it out. But even knowing it was bleak, I did NOT expect the spoiler you posted there. Nor the lack of guilt or remorse. Absolutely awful stuff, in all the best way!! And it goes to show good the writing and especially the acting are that he doesn’t seem like “The Doctor But Bad”, but instead as The Doctor driven far past the point of no return due to past experiences we’ve never seen or heard.
And holy shit, that ending. Marvelous stuff, especially after starting like a very standard story. 4.5*!
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I love a story where everyone loses, god bless you FFF.
There’s a Short Trip set in the FFF universe too
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Link me please !!!
Also I buffed it up to a 5*; that’s a story that’s gonna sit with me for a while I think
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