Rogue Encounters is probably the best of the recent sets, one of the strongest writer lineups ever
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I’m really looking forward to the next box sets, they could be interesting
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A Quiet Night In is one of my fave BFs ever; it’s so great! What The Master does to Jo id NOT okay and I love it
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Okay, finished Self Defence. Definitely ended on the strongets story, the dynamic between them was just phenomenal. Really though, the worst set so far unfortunately.
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Agreed on last story but personally disagree on set overall! I really find set 3 super duper weak personally
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This is my issue with Killing Time, i physically can’t listen to this audio (not a slight on anyone who likes it)
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Was about to make a thread until i remembered to search 
I really think War Master is great - listened to his first boxset and currently listening to his second
Easily top 3 masters for me. He’s so great, like an evil grandad
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Can’t believe nobody mentioned Escape To Reality. It’s a favourite of mine.
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Finished Rage of the Time Lords at the end of the week there. Was really surprised to see it wasn’t a lot of people’s cup of tea, as I really enjoyed it throughout. Even Coney Island Chamelion, although I will admit I was bummed that Sabbatini didn’t reappear in the latter half of the set like Alice did.
I want to say that I like it more than Anti-Genesis, but I felt like I wasn’t paying attention 100% the first time around so I’m going to give that a relisten over next week.
Obviously the highlight is the faceoff against Paul McGann, and geez it is sooo satisfying, as someone who loves to root for the villain, to see the Master in almost complete control. That ending of Darkness and Light gives me goosebumps every time. I’ve never been the biggest Eighth Doctor fan, but Paul McGann certainly won me over with that scream of despair as the nanobot is about to detonate in his head to make him forget all about the Master’s scheme. I’ve been replaying that one scene two or three a times a day since, it’s excellent! Maybe my favourite conclusion to a War Master set yet!
Very excited to move on to Hearts of Darkness soon to see what the rematch is like!
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Completed my relisten of Anti-Genesis just there, and it pains me to say it but it’s definitely a mixed bag. The latter half is definitely a lot better than the first however, considering the presence of the Kisgart/Gatiss Master (I wish they’d kept the pseudonym!)
I get that it’s supposed to set up the main plot, but the trip inside the Matrix by Narvin and Krasnus just feels confusing, which is probably the point, but I really did lose a lot of focus when I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to be listening to. I think it takes up around ten minutes of the first episode’s runtime but it feels like an eternity. It also indulges in total fanwankery, complete with Sean Carlsen having Tom Baker’s “I deny this reality” line, but then this spread out through the whole boxset, one of the worst offenders of Big Finishes ranges so far, with maybe the worst being the complete word-forword rehash of the Dalek’s betrayal of Davros in Genesis as the betray the Master here. I get that the point is that the Daleks are inevitable and that no amount of reprogramming will change them, but it just feels lazy to have the same dialogue that I know fans of Genesis are supposed to be drooling over, and don’t get me wrong, Jacobi has an amazing death scream, but it feels so inorganic, as if the pieces have been moved just so we can have this callback, rather than the betrayal happening organically.
Sorry for the tangent, but there is a lot to like here too, primarily the Master’s infiltration of the Kaled elite (the beginning of The Master’s Dalek Plan is a highlight!) and the subsequent horrors that occur inside the bunker. Lemarias’ trek through the wasteland with her newfriend Muto friend helps you really picture how much of a hellhole Skaro is which ends up being a little disappointing, seeing as it doesn’t go anywhere and they’re both promptly killed off before the second half begins. The war on Skaro is far more interesting than the nonsense on Gallifrey that it shares the runtime with. Of course, there’s also the Unbound Master, who is deliciously vain and pompous, and every scene he’s in certainly magnifies the quality of the scenes where Jacobi isn’t present. It makes the finale where two must pair up to save the universe from themselves a really tense and exciting listen. I really wish they had more scenes together!
I think the stuff that drags it down primarily is the tons of fanwank as mentioned above, which, while I’m a sad get who understands all of it, really takes you out of it as you know it’ll go right over the heads of anyone who isn’t initiated. I don’t get excited by lines that are just lifted from other stories. It feels like I’m having keys jangled in my face, especially when used for important scenes like the Master stealing thr anti-genesis codes, or the Daleks killing the Master.
I’m also not a fan of how much takes place on Gallifrey. I’ve only been exposed to Narvin through this set and the Gallifrey story from Bernice Summerfield Volume 6, and while I got the gist of his character, I really did feel like I needed to homework to appreciate the scenes he was in (which might not have been the case but I felt like it nonetheless).
It’s sad because while I did really end up enjoying it towards the end, it’s hard to recommend this to most Doctor Who fans because of how impenetrable and confusing it can be at times. Which is a shame, because the concept is just mouthwatering.
(Edit: listening to the BTS segment, and it is very amusing (although slightly embarrassing) that even though Nick Briggs and Alan Barnes are bigging up their ideas and scripts, the actors being interviewed very obviously (or explicitly in Jacobi’s case!) don’t have a single clue what is going on and mention the script being confusing numerous times!)
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So I’ve got 4 sets left to do, wondered if I can do them in any order I assume so? I’m not heavily excited by the concept behind my next one which is why I ask.
I’ve got: S8 - Escape from Reality, S9 - Solitary Confinement, S10 - Rogue Encounters and S11 - Future Phantoms as my remaining series to hear.
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Yeah, you could listen to any of those in any order. Solitary Confinement was my favourite of that bunch I think
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Its one of my fave ranges that I just fell behind on like all the others did! I went to go do them all a month or two back but I listened to the first one I didn’t like which took be aback and I just moved onto something else 
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Anti-Genesis is funny to me because I think other than He Who Wins it feels more like a Gallifrey Time War set to me than a War Master set due to how little The Master is actually the primary focus
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It feels like a Time War Unbound, sort of. [1]
And the real Time War Unbound is, funnily enough, sort of in the main Time War universe, from my understanding of Doctor of War.
Not because of him, he made it feel less like one, oddly enough. ↩︎
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When you finish Escape from Reality, please say something. Too little has been said about it on this forum.
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Finished Hearts of Darkness today, and it was a much more enjoyable improvement over Anti-Genesis.
I’d say the only thing I didn’t really like is that episode 3 completely halts all the momentum built up and treats us to a flashback to before episode 1, which is fine, it’s good stuff, just it’s already quite a tightly packed four episode set and it means we spend one less episode with an already established cast we could be developing.
To motivate myself and be more productive, I reviewed each episode after listening, spoiler-free, which I uploaded to the main website. Feel free to take a look, it is my first time publishing any reviews to any constructive criticism is welcomed!
The ending reminded me a lot of Rage of the Time Lords. Just fantastic stuff, with Jacobi giving a lovely, sinister monologue that ends with him laughing hysterically (he honestly might have the best “Master laugh,” the only other one I can think of that comes close is Ainley!) So yeah, very memorable and I plan to revisit it soon.
On to Killing Time next, which I started but didn’t finish. I last listened to The Orphan around March or April, but got distracted by life things, so I’m coming back to finish the job with the whole box set, and I’ll be up to date with all of the War Master sets I currently own.
It’s quickly become possibly my favourite ongoing Big Finish series at this point, along with The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield.
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I think Rogue Encounters is a nearly perfect boxset, they brought out all the heavy hitters to write for it too Foley, Patel, Goss and Handcock himself. Pulled no punches with that writing team
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Please tell me you got chills too when
“8th Doctor” went “I am the Master… And you will obey me.” Absolutely stellar villain performance from McGann!
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Absolutely!
I’m not the biggest fan of the Eighth Doctor, not that I dislike him, I just haven’t gotten around to his stuff, but yeah that was definitely the best performance I think I’ve heard from McGann for as long as I can remember! I’m such a big fan of the ending where the Master boards Morski’s ship while Morski still thinks it’s the Doctor in the Master’s body and instead of correcting him, the Master hypnotises Morski into taking him where he wants to go, all the while admitting he’s going to kill Morski in the most brutal and imaginative way he can think of. THAT is what separates him from the rest of the pack. As much as he’s a chessmaster and a charmer, the War Master just LOVES to cause suffering.
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