Over the past month and a half or so I’ve been listening to the Kaldor City series from Magic Bullet Productions. I understand that it’s a pretty niche series as far as the wider world of Doctor Who spin-offs go so it’s not surprising that I’ve been struggling to find people who talk about it online. I’m creating this thread mostly because I want to know what other people who have listened to it think of it. I want to know your opinion, what did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it? How do you feel about it on a critical level? And, if you’ve listened to both, how does it compare with the Big Finish spin-off The Robots? I just want to see if there’s a common consensus about it.
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I’ve not listened to it, unfortunately, but just wanted to add this link so people can see what this is about:
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It’s been years since I listened to the Kaldor City audios but my memory is of a solid, entertaining range which builds very well on the titbits of information we get from The Robots of Death.
With the series also crossing over with Blakes 7 (Is Kaston Iago, Avon undercover?) and also becoming a sequel to Image of the Fendahl, it’s a good piece of how a spin off in the Whoniverse can take disparate elements and weave it’s own unique tale.
It has an excellent cast - Paul Darrow, Scott Fredericks (reprising his role as Carnell from B7), Peter Miles, Trevor Cooper, Brian Croucher, Peter Tuddenham, Nicholas Courtney and, reprising their original Robots roles, Russell Hunter and David Collings. It’s even got Jasmine Breaks, the girl from Remembrance of the Daleks and Gregory de Polnay as a new Voc robot.
I haven’t got hold of Big Finish’s The Robots yet but I’m becoming a big Liv fan so it may well creep up the list.
Kaldor City is definitely a series I think I need to revisit.
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If this thread has piqued people’s interest, the CDs and now downloads are still available to purchase from Magic Bullet:
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Hiiii!
Thanks for the tag @shauny ! I’d seen the topic being bumped earlier this morning, just hadn’t properly woken up yet. Now that I have though, yes! Kaldor City is indeed one of my interests, and happily so! It’s been a few years since I listened to it, though, so a lot of the details are foggy to me. I loaded in the first episode while commuting to work earlier but alas, I only got about ten minutes in before I arrived. So, my relisten of the whole thing is going to be extremely slow. But, I’d love to talk about it some time @Briarheart02 , if you’d want to. You’re just about one of the first people I’m encountering in the wild who’s actually listened to it (but maybe there’s a world of listeners out there that I am unaware of.)
From what I do remember, and how it compares to The Robots is simply that I like The Robots more. But, that partially has to do with my bias toward anything Nicola Walker acts in. The other part has to do with that (from my foggy memory) it was easier for me to follow The Robots because I knew the original serial, knew the characters etc. Kaldor City partially crosses over with Blake’s 7 with which I was and am entirely unfamiliar. Maybe that’ll be better on my second listen of it. Who knows!
Also @deltaandthebannermen I had no idea the CDs were still available? When I contacted Magic Bullet about where to get them a few years back they straight up told me to get them second hand or to just… illegally torrent them. Which was weird to me at the time, especially coming from a business, but if I can get them from a legal source, that’s absolutely worth the investment, seeing as I still want to add them to the Kaldor corner on my shelf 
Maybe next month when my salary’s come in and the necessary bills have been paid hahaha
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I actually managed to finish listening to Ep1: Occam’s Razor this morning so I’m just going to jot down some thoughts.
It’s a good set-up that succeeds in carrying over the both serious and humourous tones of the original TV serial. We have familiar faces and names, as well as new ones, which makes for an interesting mix. The plot lives up to the title of the episode in a good way. Once you’re aware of it, the intentions of our main character become a little transparent but not too much so. All and all, this episode still holds up well to the good memories I have of it and was still enjoyable on the second time through!
One thing I have found is that compared to Big Finish’s productions, there’s not as much soundtrack/music playing in the back of the track. There are environment sounds and music [we love us some elevator music!] but other than that the backing tracks are very low-key, keeping the attention fully on the characters that are in the scene, rather than making you subconsciously divide your attention between the two. I don’t find the story becomes boring for a lack thereof. If anything, when a bit of scoring does get louder, you know to pay attention because something good is going to happen!
Compared to Big Finish’s The Robots this story has significantly less humour or comedic moments in it [we don’t have our snarky Liv Chenka with us this time around, after all] but it’s not bothersome. In my opinion it just further serves to strengthen the more serious tone of the story, in line with it being a who-done-it, like the orignal TV serial was.
Now, for the somewhat spoilery thoughts-
It’s always fun to get more insight into Kaldor’s workings, as someone who is a sucker for planet and society lore. Professions previously unheard of are mentioned and we learn that there is no off-world trade yet, which plants this series firmly after the original TV serial but well before Main Range 149: Robophobia and everything following after [by a whole 2 centuries!]. It interests me how against off-world trade some characters like Uvanov still are, here, when we know it becomes so significant to the planet’s wealth in the future [30th century ish, going by The Robots.
And well, the intro and outro themes are just very good! Usually themes need to grow on me but this one was a hit from the first go
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I keep thinking about giving this series a re-listen as it must have been over 15 years since I first listened to them - possibly even more than 20!
Well, if you’ve got the time for it, why not? Especially if it’s been so long. Might be good fun to give them another whirl! 
What’s time? Is that something young people have?
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Unfortunately not, but let me know if you find it
I won’t be telling anyone - I’ll be keeping it to myself and using it to catch up on all the books, audios and comics I haven’t read yet (I still have Doctor Who books I’ve owned for 20 odd years that are unread for goodness sake).
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Listened to the first two episodes this morning.
This is incredibly good! The quick dialogue and banter is absolutely taking the vibe and atmosphere of The Robots of Death and running with it.
Hadn’t heard of these audios until this topic, so thanks a bunch @Briarheart02 
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And I finally got around to re-listening to Episode 2 Death’s head this morning! Only to realise that there is a small bit of fiction that comes before this one. Skulduggery! I hadn’t actually read it before but it adds a nice bit of depth to the actual episode.
As it turns out it’s available for free on the KaldorCity website right here!
As for the actual episode, I do still think this was a very fun and largely unique way to try and carry out an assassination and figuring out everyone’s scheming in this is a surefire way for the story to keep your attention!
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