Yeah, of the ones I’ve listened to, it’s the one I feel the most confident in recommending. I listened to the Fearmonger because it was 7/Ace, and it was pretty good.
Pretty sure I listened to Mission to Magnus because I’d heard the lost stories audios for the 6th Doctor were good, and it had Sil in it.
Live 34, OTOH, confused me a bit, partially because of having at least one companion I wasn’t familiar with and a very different format. It was good, but I suspect I should’ve listened to it later…
I tried listening to the top recommended Main Range audios, but I find that I really am very obsessive over listening to things in order
Having said that, the first Eighth Doctor audios I listened to were Stranded, when they were first released. I absolutely loved them so went back and listened to “Robophobia” which is Liv Chenka’s first story, then listened to the Lucie Miller sets, then Dark Eyes, and am now on Doom Coalition. I’m going to listen to all of Eight’s sets in order.
Yes, I skipped Eight’s stories in the Main Range, again because it felt wrong to listen to a subset of a range, and I knew there were crossovers. Now we are listening to the Main Range each week, I will get to those eventually
In between, I love listening to modern Who stories, as New Who is my favourite - I of course started with The Diary of River Song, and have also listened to all the Tenth Doctor stories I could get my hands on, the recent Ninth Doctor stories, Eleven, Missy, some of the War Doctor, other sets like Jenny, Lady Christina, Rani Takes on the World…
I just go with my gut really with those other sets, and decide based on the characters.
I tend to be the kind of person who likes to listen to things in order, but when I first started I knew I wanted to get into Paul McGann, so I started with Lucie Millerand worked through them from there. I guess I would suggest picking a character you really like and trying a couple of stories with them in it, then even if you don’t like the stories too much, at least you weren’t also listening to a character you hate
Lately I’ve just been picking a Doctor at simi-random and going through some of their newer stuff, plus any of the stuff that would supply context I’m missing
Yeah it can be incredibly overwhelming at first and honestly still is a bit even though i’m well into big finish hell. Seconding what many others have said and it’s best to choose a doctor and/or tardis team you like and start with those audios. I found this spreadsheet a massive help to keep track and have used it as a template to make my own where I try and place said audios in rough continuity order. It’s still a rough WIP at the moment but if anyone’s interested despite that I might share it.
For me it’s kinda random. If something new comes out that I pre-ordered, I’ll often jump on that. Sometimes it’s an old favorite that I haven’t heard for a while. Mostly it’s just kinda a random sampling of stuff I have that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Plus, I’ve got other books on my listen to list podcasts that I fit in and around the Big Finish stuff.
I narrow it down based on companion first. Usually when I’m in the mood to listen to an audio, I have a specific companion in mind, so I’ll focus on their appearances. Then I’ll go on the TARDIS Wiki and go down the list of audios I haven’t yet listened to and see which one strikes my fancy.
Granted, I only listen to the Sixth Doctor’s audios (as far as the Doctor Who ranges are concerned), so my decision is easier than most fans’.
Thanks for the welcome. It’s just personal preference. While I do like other Doctors, I don’t have any real hankering to jump into their non-TV stories. Six’s Era is my main love in the Doctor Who Universe, so my focus is primarily on him.
For me, I try to listen to everything so I’ve been going chronologically. That said I’m also trying (and significantly failing) to listen to everything released in 2024, so the chronological part is on the back burner.
I’ve always been a machete-order Doctor Who viewer, so I normally just pick a title that catches my eye either with the title itself or the cover art. If a story requires prior context it should be apparent by around the 15-20 minute mark. Usually, if I find myself in that scenario, I’ll go and find the stories I need to fill in the picture, but only if I’m really struggling with the story. For instance, I found ‘Daleks Among Us’ incomprehensible on my first attempt at listening. I got about fifteen minutes in and decided I was missing something so I went back and listened to ‘Persuasion’ and ‘Starlight Robbery’ first. An example of the opposite of this situation though is ‘Wirrn Isle.’ I believe ‘Wirrn Isle’ directly links up with ‘The Fourth Wall,’ which I haven’t listened to, but the info you absolutely need from the prior story is laid back out in ‘Wirrn Isle’ anyway, so it was easy to listen to isolated from the previous story.
I’ve been following several of the (hopefully) standalone ranges (The Lost Stories, 3DA’s, 9DA’s, and the newer 1DA’s. 2DA’s, 5DA’s & 6DA’s, each in release order (apart from The Ultimate Evil which was released out of series order so I listened to it after The Nightmare Fair) but constantly switching between them to get a good mix of Doctors. For Tom I started with the Nest Cottage sets and then (because of The Thing From the Sea & The Winged Coven) moved on to the BBC Past Doctor audios. I’m also finishing the BBC Torchwood ones before starting on BF, I’ve also listened to all the BBC SJA audios, the two BF Rani sets & Once & Future and Sontarans vs Rutans. I will switch to the Main Range soon to pick up with the Audio Club & once I’m caught up with that, go back to mixing some of the others in again.
