How and when did everyone begin listening to Big Finish?
I began in April 2017. I’d lost a fair bit of interest in the show during the Capaldi era, but as series 10 was starting I began to dive into the books and audios and they really rekindled and deepened my love for Doctor Who. The first thing I listened to was the free episode 1 for We Are The Daleks which I loved, thought it took me a while to buy the full release, which is one of my favourite episodes though. From there I begam listening to the free stuff on spotify, Lucie Miller series 1, Unit Domion, The Holy Terror, Spare Parts, Storm Warning, then began buying stuff from Big Finish itself starting with The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 1 and Dark Eyes 1.
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Early 2000. I found The Sirens of Time in a local nerd shop. I was already working, and had spare money, so I started getting releases regularly from there and the site. In about 2008 I stopped buying them, and eventually got rid of my collection. About 2 years ago I discovered the collection on Spotify and started listening again. Currently, I’m working my way through everything from the beginning.
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2019 (I think), I’d just finished up watching through Torchwood, and wanted to hear more, I’d seen things about big finish around, watched some youtubers like DAVIS who talk about things from it a fair bit, and even listened to one or two of the monthly range on spotify
I jumped on listening to Aliens Among Us and was instantly hooked
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It was around Christmas in 2016 I think, had already heard (and read) a lot about the Eighth Doctor online and found that the first series of BF’s Eighth Doctor stuff was on Spotify - so I listened to it!
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Dove headfirst back into classic who (watched reruns as a kid but after that ended didn’t rly have a way to watch it again) a few months before the 50th anniversary and discovered the massive expanse that is the extended universe. I think I listened to a few of the free ones available on Soundcloud etc but never really got too into it (final year of high school absolutely melted my brain) until 2021 with the hype around Flux which finally gave me the momentum to start listening to 8’s main range stuff and even then I only finished that recently after a 2 year gap. I have a tendency to hyperfixate on particular media to the exclusion of everything else and jump headfirst from one to another etc but I’ve managed to keep my current dr who Moment going for the past 6 months or so which has allowed me to make my way through quite a few audios thankfully
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Technically, it started when an old friend of mine, who was in love with historical dramas, sent me some Confessions of Dorian Gray audios to listen to. I didn’t know it was BF at the time (or what BF even was) until years later when I got into Doctor Who and started snooping around BF’s other ranges.
I only seriously got into BF when I was interested in diving into more Six stories. Started with the free ones and went from there.
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I’ve not listened to too much really, but I started with skimming some of 8’s Main Range stories because I feel like for obvious reasons 8 more than any other Doctor can’t really be properly judged without listening to some of his Big Finish stuff. Planning to go through some of the more important and well-recommended ones before moving onto some of 8DA. I’ve also started going through 9DA mostly because my bestie really fell in love with 9 when she started watching the show recently and that inspired me to check those out.
After I finish those (or at least the ones that I have access to right now) I’ll probably move to 10DA or some 6 and Peri stories (my favorite classic team). Also hoping to check out a couple non-Doctor ranges, particularly Class, War Master, and Rani Takes on the World. And will definitely be trying to pick up the Fugitive Doctor and Spy Master sets when they come out.
I do really wish it were a bit more obvious which ranges and sets can be listened to out of order so getting into older ranges didn’t feel so daunting.
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Actually wait this is a lie because I totally forgot that I actually started with Once and Future because I thought it would be really good as a sort of sampler of what Big Finish had to offer, and I think it pretty well succeeded in that for me
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I can pinpoint when and how I started listening to Big Finish pretty specifically to October 2022 as it was in combination with the trip to a Doctor Who convention. The guy who drove us there put on Chimes of Midnight for the ride based on a discussion we had where the keyphrase of the audio had been repeated. After we finished Chimes of Midnight we then went over to Storm Warning, which we finished on the way back home from the con. Only after that did I ever really look into the whole thing.
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I started with the Torchwood Monthly Range - this was before I’d really dived into Classic Who, so I remember feeling that Torchwood was all I could listen to as I didn’t have the connection to the other Doctors. I remember reading about the Eighth Doctor and that his audios were amazing, and trying Dark Eyes but really disliking it so that put me off for a long time.
Then… when you least expect it, but always when you need it the most, there is a Song
Yes, Big Finish released The Diary of River Song and I was instantly hooked. That led to me listening to more of their audios - mostly Tenth Doctor, Donna, Rose, Jenny, Lady Christina, the War Doctor, Rani takes on the World, Missy…
I’ve been obsessed ever since, and I tried Dark Eyes again (after the wonderful Lucie Miller range), didn’t love it but I do love 8 so I am currently listening to all his audios, then will branch out into spin-offs I’ve missed.
I love Big Finish!!
I’m hoping to eventually build a proper Prerequisites feature. It’s difficult though and will require lots of input from others!
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For me it was somewhere in 2013/14, whenever they were airing Lucie Miller episodes on the radio. I’m pretty sure I listened to most of the last series, then went and bought the rest of the 8DAs from that point and was hooked. After that, I listened to the first 50 MR stories on and off, and then my next spinoffs were DoRS and Gallfrey and, well. We all know how much Gallifrey irreparably damaged my brain 
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Not to play the ‘before you were born’ card but I was with Big Finish from their very beginnings with the Bernice Summerfield audios, the first of which was released in September 1998! That’s the same year I began teaching!!
I was there when The Sirens of Time was launched with a signing at Tenth Planet and I got it autographed by Peter Davison.
And the majority of those first 50 releases I got at signings. And quite a few after that too.
I have cupboards heaving with CDs.
It’s only since BF started releasing so much stuff and the on set of marriage and two kids has meant I just can’t afford to buy much or all of it any more except in sales or getting them as gifts.
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Ooh yes that’d be Such a great feature. I have a vague semblance of that in my own Who spreadsheet and would be happy to help when I have time
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2016 was one of the worst years of my life, and Doctor Who was one of the few things that brought me comfort. I needed more adventures to experience, and that was when I stumbled upon a little YouTube channel called Stubagful.
After watching his guide to every Eighth Doctor audio adventure, it got me obsessed with collecting the BigFinish audios.
Eight years later, and my room resembles a branch of HMV. I would also like to point out that this photo was taken Dec 5 2022 - the collection has grown so much since then, that I’ve literally had to drill three of those shelving units into the door of my walk-in wardrobe.
It’s a pain in the backside collecting the audio adventure physically, but it appeals to my autism and OCD massively!
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My first was probably Light at the End (my dad played it during a long drive), but I didn’t get into it until… I want to say 2017? I found out my dad has the first 100-ish main range stories, and some assorted extras. When I finished those, I went through Spotify’s collction of free stuff, then in late 2018 I started buying my own
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But yeah, that’ll be quite a challenge, especially with categorising ‘Essential’ vs ‘Non-essential’ pre-reqs, and also if they spoiler the plot or big twist etc in the story itself.
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Someone at a con told me about them after we were talking about K-9 and company
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I discovered Doctor Who on BBC America in 2010 with the premiere of Series 5. I discovered Big Finish kind of by accident. If I remember correctly, I’d watched all of the New Series and dabbled quite randomly in Classic. At the time, my library system allowed up to 20 Inter-library Loan requests a month (after Covid they dropped that limit to 10), and so I was just browsing Amazon for anything Doctor Who. I settled on Patient Zero and Legend of the Cybermen as two stories to request probably because I recognized Daleks and Cybermen on the covers. I had no idea that they were late entries in their respective arcs and thoroughly enjoyed them. Patient Zero is still one of my most favorite Big Finish stories ever.
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For me I started listening to audios in April 2021, I got some River+10 stories, some Timelord Victorious stuff and the main thing that got me into Big Finish was 9s return in Ravagers which I instantly got a vinyl of. Around that time I also got the popular ones being Chimes of Midnight, Jubilee, Spare Parts, and a bunch of 8, 6, and 10 audios
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What’s the actual quality of the vinyl like with those? I never purchased them simply because they were released through DemonMusic Group… who have something of a negative reputation.
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