This thread is for all discussion of the Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures (shortened to 8DAs to distinguish them from the EDA books)!
I’m halfway through Ravenous 3, but I’ve paused for a while, because I was feeling kinda disappointed with the 8DAs? I don’t think they were bad, but bar a few standout stories, they weren’t that interesting.
I’m generally not a fan of Doctor Who being high stakes (I don’t mind it every once in a while, and if it’s done well), so I was unsure going into doom coalition, and the best part of those boxsets for me was the characters. I wasn’t finding the plot compelling, but I thought Liv and Helen were really good characters, and they had a great dynamic with Eight. The ending of doom coalition intrigued me enough to start ravenous pretty soon after, but I was annoyed with where they took the characters and story. My biggest disappointment was with Helen, as I think letting her keep the sonomancer powers would have shaken things up, and they could have done some really cool stuff with her character.
I also much prefer it when doctor who keeps things on a smaller scale, and the 8DAs didn’t feel like the doctor going on fun adventures with his friends, which is what the TV is about in my opinion. I don’t mind an overarching story, but a lot of the time it felt that the characters came second to the plot. It didn’t seem that Liv and Helen (and the doctor) were changed by the end of the story. I also am aware that companions going through arcs is only something that really started to happen at the end of the classic series, but I feel like travelling in the TARDIS should change you, and I don’t get a lot of that from Helen and Liv (so far at least)
I do want to say that overall, the 8DAs have been enjoyable, mainly due to Liv and Helen, and I am going to continue at some point, but they aren’t really holding my interest now, which is sad
Honestly I think this is one of my big sticking points with the boxsets too - they’re too BIG. I adoreeeee Liv and Helen but I’ll be damned if I can understand the plot of them
See I’m the opposite, I LOVE the boxsets and they’re my favourite 8 era. I’m really fed up with 8 at the moment, as my first and fave BF Doctor his range is just so uninteresting at the moment, since we don’t have any 4 boxset arcs like we used to. We do have Time War, granted, but I’m less interested as I am the ongoing 8 adventures.
My issue with Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition etc is that some of the stories didn’t tie in well to the main plot. But doing a relisten I am treating them more like a season of Who with an arc like on telly (Bad Wolf, Crack In The Wall etc).
I do wish we had proper seasons of 8 Doc adventures, it seems all over the place tbh. Especially as 8 is basically the BF Doctor.
I do like the story arcs, and I think having a defined story over a number of boxsets is better than multiple unconnected boxsets with no theme or arc tying them together.
I agree with you about some of the stories feeling unconnected, and funnily enough two of my favourite stories had nothing to do with the main plot. Treating it like the TV show arcs seems like a good idea!
The reason Dark Eyes feels so disjointed is that it was never meant to be a series. Dark Eyes 1 sold better than BF expected so they decided to make it a whole thing
Dark Eyes was such a disappointment to me when I finally did it. The same goes for a lot of 8 eras actually. I feel like they’re extremely overhyped which just left me expecting something as good as or better than my fave 8 era (8/Helen/Liv)
I’m sad we disagree here but only slightly! I found the large multi boxset arcs unwieldy and eventually got bored of the format, which is why I really enjoy the more story of the week break away we have now. But I’d like them to go back to it… Kind of. More in the way of War Master almost where each boxset is an arc in and of itself but they aren’t interconnected
Oh honestly the worst thing I did was go into 8/Charley, 8/Lucie and Dark Eyes with the highest of high expectations. They’re so praised by the general fandom, that I expected them to be as good as my fave era of 8 but god, talk about hit and miss, or downright abysmal in some cases.
THIS!! Like I don’t get why they don’t just give us an arc across 1 set. It doesn’t need to be 4, I’d rather it was though, but just a 1 boxset arc. Its why CMM and Missy haven’t landed for me maybe, because I much prefer the other Master ranges where they both have arcs across just one boxset.
I think I’m just tired of Liv, we know she leaves so can we just get to her departure already and give 8 either some solo stuff with Helen or a run with Helen and Andy
I haven’t listened to the war master yet, but this sounds interesting. An arc over one boxset, and maybe an overall theme or character focussed arc that connects them could work.
Liv is in my top 3 companions of all time but I have to agree. It feels like they almost regret their decisions. I do hope, and expect, that we will get an 8 refresh soon because its really just not working right now. I can’t fathom how they went from ongoing 8 adventures consistently and consecutively from since he joined BF, then just dropped it… totally lost my interest in his era. The last few sets I didn’t even do as soon as they dropped
I’m still loving his era and thinking it works fine (especially because as I’ve said ad nauseum I have my theory about a multi-8 story coming eventually) but I do think Liv leaving but not leaving was having their cake and eating and it and it’s time for 8/Helen solo adventures for a while
