What are you currently listening to?

Currently listening to a few things (bouncing back and forth, not all at the same time): The Silmarillion, Worlds Beyond (the second story in FDA Series 13), and old episodes of the Flight Through Entirety podcast, plus new episodes of the Doctor’s Beard podcast as they drop.

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I may be the only person who doesn’t think Hollows was that bad LOL.

Oh, the Macros! I enjoyed that one too. My ranking would be:

Paradise 5
The Macros
The Song of Megaptera
The Hollows of Time
Point of Entry
The Nightmare Fair
Mission to Magnus
Leviathan

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Finished House of Blue Fire. I thought it was a bit unremarkable, though the genre switch at the halfway point did keep things interesting. Is it okay if I go straight to Project: Nirvana next? Or should I save that until after Black and White?

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I saved it until after Black and White and I think it works better with the context of that and Protect and Survive

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You’re not the only one! Hollows is fine - forgettable, not very exciting, but fine. Mission to Magnus is trash, Leviathan is a mixed bag and Paradise 5 is great. I also like the Nightmare Fair even though pretty little happens in it. And I’ve yet to listen to the rest.

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Isn’t that one of Deborah Watling’s few contributions to BF before she sadly passed?

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1st Doctor binge continues apace:

The Perpetual Bond was my last listen before bed yesterday, and coming off the back of quite a few underwhelming stories I was really happy to listen to this one. The 1960s setting is so well realized, all those details about the Commodities Market just made me want to go and dive into a wiki hole, Peter Purves is on fine form and Tom Allen is a surprise sleeper hit; his comedy is so-so for me, but he makes a fantastic companion and you can tell he’s hurling himself into the role with gusto like any self-respecting British actor with a chance to be in Doctor Who should be. The characterization of The Doctor is also quite interesting in this one - he pulls off some very Seven-esque fake double-crossing on Stephen at one point, and he’s a rather enigmatic, proactive figure in this one. It helps to add layers to the undercurrent in Series 3, of Stephen slowly losing trust in both The Doctor and also the systems that operate the world, the universe. Very excited for the other two parts. Also, I think Simon Guerrier just needs to have a slightly bigger cast to make his scripts sing. The dialog in this is far punchier than the narrated description of his Sara Kingdom offerings.

I put on Land of the Dead to go to sleep and found I enjoyed it a lot more than I had done in the past - maybe one of the strongest Fifth Doctor stories from The First Fifty?

And to top it off, I just finished Seven To One, from the Short Trips range. This one was fine. There’s really no story at the heart of it, it just sort of seems like an excuse for Nick Briggs to do some Doctor impressions and piss about with his ring modulator again. None of the impressions are even that good. William Russell also turns up for like, four lines at the end, presumably because Nick couldn’t do a good enough Hartnell.

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I also really liked Hollows! :raising_hand_woman:

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I can’t speak to the latter half of the sentence, but it is in fact Watling performing. I’m not sure why I said Wendy - brain cramp, I guess.

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Oh, and on the way home yesterday? You remember when the end credits rolled in The Neverending Story and you thought, “well, that title was a total lie”? Same thought struck me when listening to The Ultimate Adventure.

I was excited when the Stage Plays range was released. Stories I’d heard of but never had any way to experience. But this one, yuck. And I’m betting it was pretty cringe-worthy on stage with people flying about on wires and all. Kiddies probably lapped it up with Daleks, Cybermen, space babies, sorry space mercenaries, romance, songs, some cute little alien Zog thing, and all that. Even Colin couldn’t save this one.

Glad to have this one in the rear view.

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Trials of a Time Lord bay-bee! :tada:

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Finished 8th’s fifth Time War boxset Cass after dinner. A good listen, solid plots.

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I can’t understand the criticism Land of the Dead sometimes gets. I remember at the time it was considered a bit of a clunker, which always struck me as unfair. All the cast is good, it’s nice to hear The Fifth Doctor with solo Nyssa, there are some good monsters in this and it’s a really good location, well realised. I did feel that the character of Monica was a kind of substitute Tegan - in fact, I would have liked to her hop aboard the TARDIS for a few adventures.

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I don’t massively dislike it, but it’s just a bit … odd. The villain could be another, better-known antagonist, but this never really comes to anything. Strangest of all though, is featuring the Tractators (and showing them on the cover) but ensuring all their scenes are carried out ‘off camera’.

It’s as if the writer is deliberately going against his own story expectations. It’s one thing to tease the audience, but to have little or no pay-off at all … again, very odd.

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Currently on (and very much enjoying so far) Morbius the Mighty.

One episode down, two episodes to go.

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Finished To The Death.

Yeah.

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I’m in the middle of part five (out of six) and I have to say, I’m not really enjoying this as much as I’d hoped. I’m sure this will be an unpopular viewpoint, but it’s just not sustaining my interest.

An aggressively average audio.

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I have an interesting story about ‘Land of the Dead’ that was shared by the writer a couple of years back.

Jonathan Blum had been asked to write the debut audio adventure for the team of Seven and Ace, scheduled to be released as the fourth Montly Range outing. Unfortunately, pressure from deadlines got so bad he had something of a breakdown, and ‘The Fearmonger’ had to be pushed back a month.

Because Stephen Cole was known for hitting deadlines quickly, he was asked to knock-up a substitute fourth story… so ‘The Land of the Dead’ was written in just over a week.

I know many people hate it - I personally quit enjoy it, even if there are moments of occasional clunkyness - but considering the circumstances behind its creation… Christ, it’s impressive it exists at all!

Another fun fact: Monica was played by Stephen Cole’s then girlfriend.

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I’ve finished the audio and dashed off a quick review. It gets two stars from me; just a disappointing story all around. I don’t know if it’s me or Big Finish, but the recent Six audios haven’t been hitting the mark. I know a lot of people like them (and they will likely enjoy this one), but, on first impression, it’s a no from me.

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I’ve always thought Land of the Dead was just a normal, enjoyable Doctor Who adventure (and I was thrilled to be hearing new stories with Sarah Sutton).

It’s definitely better than Winter for the Adept.

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