It seems we have a few Big Finish fans among us so lets start finding out what people enjoy. The range is sprawling nowadays so let’s go back to the first 50 and focus on one Doctor at a time. First up, the Fifth Doctor:
Choose your top 3 stories and tell us why in the thread.
Spare Parts - an obvious choice but for good reason as it is a superb story which gives us, for my money, a far better ‘genesis’ story for the Cybermen than Genesis of the Daleks is for the Daleks.
The Eye of the Scorpion - putting aside the rights or wrongs of casting Caroline Morris as Erimem, this is a brilliant introduction to a new companion, has a very evocative setting and has a thrilling finale.
The Church and the Crown - a fun historical romp which just beats out some of my other favourites for the top three - close contenders include Phantasmagoria (BF hit the ground running with the second release which has one of their best cliffhangers); Omega - a rather audacious story for reasons I won’t spoil.
Yes, yes, yes. Those are my top three as well, also with Phantasmagoria coming in fourth. I like Omega when I’m listening to it and immediately afterwards I’ll be like “Yeah that was a good story”, but then it fades quickly in my memory.
For me:
Omega - I think it’s a highly entertaining story that’s also quite serious when it needs to be, the big twist is simply brilliant, and it was a fantastic first Fifth Doctor audio for me!
Creatures of Beauty - one of Nicholas Briggs’ best scripts, dark and tragic and very intriguing.
Loups-Garoux - Marc Platt stories tend to be hit or miss for me; this one was a hit! The atmosphere and the culture of the werewolf society are all so well done, and I really enjoyed all the characters and the plot in general as well. Some truly frightening villains in this one iirc.
The Mutant Phase and The Land of the Dead are probably my favorites beyond those. I didn’t think much of Spare Parts other than loving the return of the Mondasian Cyberman voices.
Burn the heretic!
Creatures of Beauty, for me, needs a relisten as I think the unusual structure distracted me from the story. I’m pretty sure I’ve only listened to it once.
I have a soft spot of The Land of the Dead but it does suffer a bit from characters describing what is happening in front of them.
I hate to admit I didn’t think much of it either!! It was so hyped. But maybe I was distracted. I find it hard to listen to audios unless I give it my full attention, so may have been one of those times. I’ll give it a re-listen… sometime…
It’s been about… wow three or four years since I’ve listened to any of these? So I apologize if these aren’t super in depth but for me:
1- Creatures of Beauty. I really enjoyed the nonlinear storytelling and even beyond that enjoyed the story a lot. I specifically remember the very end left me literally with my jaw hanging open, I don’t think any other story has ever done that.
2- Omega. There’s still a lot of specific moments that still stand out to me even though I’ve never relistened to it (i really should get around to doing that), I remember liking the twist and generally having a fun time with it!
3- The Eye of the Scorpion. Erimem’s introduction was really fun! I haven’t listened to very much with her as a companion (just this, Nekromanteia [
], and The Axis of Insanity) but companion intro stories are basically always a good time.
I remember liking Spare Parts but I honestly don’t remember very much of it! Probably should relisten at some point.
I clearly need to relisten to early big finish, as I’m not placing most of these from name alone, but I’m going to try to introduce my partner to the audios soon so that’ll be a good chance
Omega actually stuck with me for a while after I first heard it, and yeah I always really liked the twist
Erimem is an excellent companion. If you liked Eye of the Scorpion, definitely check out her next story “The Church and Crown”. It’s musketeer-era France and also features a Peri doppelganger plot. It’s a lot of fun.
P.S. - I agree that Nekromanteia is awful.
Oh I forgot Church on the Crown! I have listened to that actually! Man I really do need to get around to relistening to the early main range
‘Loups-Garoux’ was one of the stories I voted for. Honestly, I think it’s one of Marc Platt’s most underrated scripts… but it’s just dripping in atmosphere.
I haven’t heard enough of these to feel comfortable voting but I really love the story Omega, def going to be taking the popular choices here as a recommendations list.
Literally same re: creatures of beauty. Was driving home from work listening to part 4 and spent the whole time with my jaw dropped or going “nonono oh NO”
