Night of the Stormcrow: 6/10. A perfectly decent bookend to the first season. The No Things are a cool enough concept and the Stormcrow is a suitably threatening villain, and Leela really does get served well… but an actively dislikable sidecast and a thoroughly forgettable plot drag it down.
King of Sontar: 8/10. Now THIS is a Sontaran story. Strang being a juiced up giga Sontaran makes his presence all the more intimidating. And that ending… love it. No notes.
White Ghosts: 7.5/10. Spooky! The image of the carnivorous white plants on a planet covered entirely by darkness is a striking one. Generally very good up until the end, where it gets a bit too big for its britches.
Despite little to no experience with Benny and The Unbound Doctor, Have I Told You Lately? was incredible. Easy 5 stars! On the Scherzometer (trademark pending), I’d personally put it above Scherzo but below Broken Hearts
Great stuff that makes me wanna fall down this rabbit hole more… (but not any time soon cause jesus christ there’s SO much Benny)
These are so much fun! Missy S1 is always right on the exact edge of being too goofy, but to a large extent because of Michelle Gomez’ unbridled glee and her demented patchwork of accents and peculiar line deliveries, these are all working for me, there is an overall vibe to them that I very much dig! The Broken Clock is the most out-there one so far, presented as an episode of the Unsolved Mysteries-like Dick Zodiac’s Impossible Killers, but eventually meta-aware that it is a show, and then possibly not a show at all? Nev Fountain scripts are usually a good time, this one does unfortunately require An American Accent™️, which is rough stuff on my ears here, I need these actors to know that they all sound like they’re from Toronto, not New York City lolol. Regardless, fun setup, funny sequences and great sarcastic music, and when it gets towards the end it does an Eighth Doctor novels-y thing I wasn’t expecting. 3.75/5, this is a highly entertaining set!
Trying to savour Bambera, listening to Allisom right now I think is going to make me cry too much, on a whim put on Blood of the Daleks. Lucie Miller <333
Finished season 1 of the Cyberman series, finished the first 9th Doctor Adventures boxset and also gave a listen to The Fires of Vulcan.
9’s range is my priority for now, going to more of Evelyn Smythe right after AND, soon enough, I’ll finally start the rabbit hole that ot is Bernice Summerfield’s stories
Listened to the Unbound story “He Jests at Scars…” this morning. It’s a bit of an odd one, but I kind of like it.
Bonnie Langford and Michael Jayston definitely deliver the goods acting wise
Also two thirds through the audiobook for “Caged”, I think that’s the best of that particular set of NSAs released at the same time.
Listened to two audios that had been in my backlog for a while yesterday:
The Stuff of Legend (Studio Version): I was very much pre-disposed to loving this one, because it’s an Eight and Charley story, but fortunately this is a fantastic story in its own right as well! It really does have a bit of an anniversary feel (it has Daleks, the Reborn Master, it’s set on 23 November 1963, the time war is very softly alluded to), which is always fun, but it’s also just a rollicking good time as well. I particularly loved the supporting cast, who were all very memorable and well-acted, and the setting. I was actually on a train down to Cornwall while listening to this one, which was just a coincidence but added to my enjoyment hugely. 4 out of 5 stars for me.
Dream Team: Despite listening to The Merfolk Murders over a year ago, I haven’t gotten around to its younger sibling until now. This is another dream crabs/kantrofarri story, so there were lots of dreams within dreams-type shenanigans. This one was mostly pretty good, with an interesting plot, some nice character stuff, and great performances as ever. I was a bit confused by the ending though - there was a lot of teasing of the masterminds behind the plot, but it turns out to be some aliens we’ve never met before? I was confused whether I’d missed a story with them somewhere, or whether they were new to this story and the implication was that the characters might all still be dreaming at the end. The ending took me out of the whole thing a bit, which was unfortunate. 3 out of 5 stars for me.
The joy of listening to the Counter-Measures team just never lets up. Easily one of the best Doctor Who spin-offs of all time. There are so many things that work (of which I may wax lyrical on the Counter-Measures thread later). As for this story? Tightly scripted, beautiful characterisation, deftly plotted, atmospheric and utterly magnificent.
And “Exile” which was also weird.
I didn’t expect David Tennant to pop up here as a random Time Lord.
And all the burping is really gross…
And Cherry and Cheese are super annoying…
Still there was some funny bits in there, and I would have liked to have seen some actual adventures with this Doctor if she wasn’t tricked in the end so that the Doctor never existed…
Only one more Unbound for me to listen to
(As I’ve already listened to “Masters of War”)
The Porcians have appeared before in a couple of John Dorney stories—The Fourth Wall and You Are the Doctor. The joke in those stories is that they want to be a race of military death aliens but they’re really, really rubbish at it. The ending of Dream Team worked way better for me with that context because all the buildup and suspense basically ended in a big joke!
Ah yes, that Scottish actor who used to voice villains and weird supporting characters for BF? I wonder what happened to him; he seemed like a talented chap!
Thank you - I imagine the ending would have landed a lot more effectively for me had I known that. While I was listening, I was thinking it was going to be the Slitheen, because they were the only existing villains I could think of with pig servants (other than the Daleks, but I couldn’t really see them masterminding a plot with dream crabs).
The Undying Truth is perfectly decent and a fun time! If maybe not treading the same ground as the previous story in less interesting ways. 3.5*
I LOVED Inertia, though found it slightly too long. It could have and maybe even should have been boring based off premise alone, but the great performances and absolutely cracking script may it a delight!
It’s so funny how it’s necessary for the Narvin badge too, because he literally appears for a minute at most and has barely any dialogue Never change, Narvy Boy. Never change. 4.5*
The last story in Missy S1 I didn’t like as much, The Belly Of The Beast is interesting because it’s the one story in this box which is most like The War Master series (Missy is the villain but not exactly the protagonist), and while it really works for Derek Jacobi to vanish or be only a creepy background presence for an episode, with Missy you kind of do want her to be absolutely front and center in her own story, and the other three writers all tilted theirs that way. This is also the least comedic, and the most recognizably Doctor Who-y plot, and we figure out what’s going on about a half hour in but then have to wait another few cycles for the characters to realize it, so this is the only one I’d call a little bit boring. Again, Michelle Gomez’ accents are completely insane in a very entertaining way. I like the main protagonist up to a point, I like the revelation of what they’ve been digging for, and Missy playing games with herself out of boredom, it somewhat tenuously imposes a light arc across the previous stories, sound design is mostly good. It’s just not a favorite Jonathan Morris script, it’s a little predictable and familiar when the previous three were anything but. 3/5
Heads been a tad over the place and quite stressed out (opening a business is… something!) so I’ve not felt able to listen to anything, that said @sircarolyn’s hex on me has worked and I’ve bought UNIT Brave New World…
Ideally I’ll try start it this weekend! I need to finish Jenny S1 too.
Never change, Narvy Boy. Never change. 4.5*
