The Monthly Adventures #047 - “Omega” by Nev Fountain
The beginning of the Villain’s Trilogy is an engaging little mystery surrounding a living myth of Gallifrey: Omega. Weird choice of antagonist to begin the supposed “villain’s trilogy” but hey-ho. It’s an ultimately confused story but I find I really like Nev Fountain as a writer - 7/10
The Monthly Adventures #048 - “Davros” by Lance Parkin
The second entry to the villains trilogy is a tale of change, of true evil and of regret. Davros is probably my favourite outing for the titular tyrant, a grim and dramatic character piece complete with multiple pitch perfect monologues - 9/10
The Monthly Adventures #049 - “Master” by Joseph Lidster
The Villains Trilogy concludes with a tragic and twisted character study by the king of character studies himself - Joseph Lidster. The Beavers Master is quickly becoming a favourite of mine but the third act does somewhat lose the plot - 9/10
The Monthly Adventures #50 - “Zagreus” by Gary Russell and Alan Barnes
And here we are. Fifty audios in, the first (I guess you’d call it season) of the Main Range is complete, and what a story we have. Three nine out of tens in a row is pretty unprecedented for me, but Zagreus is just brilliant, a mad, bonkers, funny, weird and fascinating story that impresses me everytime I hear about or listen to it. The perfect way to end one of Doctor Who’s most experimental eras - 9/10
Having finished the first fifty, do any overall thoughts?
I think the first fifty entries into The Monthly Adventures are a real interesting insight into what can be done with Doctor Who, because god is it a mixed bag - in the sense that some stories are some of the best pieces of DW fiction ever conceived and other are Winter for the Adept.
I don’t think Big Finish - or even Doctor Who for that matter - got as experimental as this again, there was a period of time where every other story was something new and fresh.
Really, this early stage of Big Finish was as loud and as proud as possible, filled with new talent as well as established writers, with the lowest lows and the highest highs.
Nothing really matches the fame and esteem of these first fifty audios, and you can tell why. This was Doctor Who in a new era, and The Monthly Adventures had a bright, bright future ahead of them.
I adore the Main Range, because it does what Doctor Who does best, it varies. It has every idea under the sun, good or bad, and that’s just what Doctor Who is in a nutshell isn’t it? A clash of great and terrible ideas with a smidgen of loud opinions dropped in there too. And I think that’s just what these first fifty showcase. Vision.
The Monthly Adventures #051 - “The Wormery” by Paul Magrs and Steven Cole
I’m back, and with more reviews. The Wormery is an interesting way to start the second bracket of The Monthly Adventures, a weird, stop gap entry that also just so happens to be incomprehensible nonsense. Yeah, I didn’t like this one - 3/10
Just goes to show that everyone likes different things because The Wormery is a 10/10 I love it for me! I think I just really get on with Paul Magrs’ work, it really tickles me in all the right places
I’m with @Speechless - I found this hugely disappointing when I relistened to it for my marathon:
The Monthly Adventures #052 - “Scherzo” by Robert Shearman
Now, I’ve listened to Scherzo before. I’ve listened to Scherzo between relistens of The Chimes of Midnight, which before this relisten was firmly my favourite Doctor Who story, and yet I now suddenly can’t decide if Scherzo is better. A scary, melancholic and completely unique tale that never fails to utterly astound me. Robert Shearman is a mad man with a typewriter and we’re all very lucky to have his work with us on this Earth - 10/10
Also, it’s very fun that when I went to post my review of the scariest Doctor Who story, my thread had the scary number of views.
The Monthly Adventures #053 - “The Creed of the Kromon” by Phillip Martin
Following on from the wildly creative and innovative Scherzo, we get the incredibly derivative and dull The Creed of the Kromon. It’s not all bad, there are a great number of good ideas, but god does it drag - 5/10
I hate this one with a passion! I find it so tedious and dull, and then the final part is so so misogynistic
The Monthly Adventures #054 - “The Natural History of Fear” by Jim Mortimore
I’m sorry, but I just can’t follow this one. I thought on a relisten I’d understand it a bit more, but I think the script just isn’t terribly well written. That being said, basically everything else about this story excels, it just doesn’t make any sense, which is a pretty big “just” - 7/10
One of those ones that everyone raved about at the time and after I listened to it I just wondered why…
The review link isn’t working for this one.
I just checked and for some reason none of the review links for The Natural History of Fear work.
@shauny, any idea why this is?
It’s the Censor silencing your subversive views…
Ahhh it was a bug, all fixed now and the links work again – sorry!
I also didn’t much care for Natural History. To quote a wise man, ‘it insists upon itself.’
