I think Ravagers is actually decent.
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Ravagers is fine. Like all these things, it was probably cursed by expectation both being the first Eccleston audio series and being written by Nicholas Briggs who has an unfair vendetta from some of fandom against his work.
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I can certainly agree with you there. I especially love Colin Baker as Tepesh, and everything that happens around the 7/Uncle Winky section of the story.
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Iâm gonna be honest, didnât love A Death in the Family.
I liked the style, I thought it was very unique, obviously intelligent and with incredibly mature dialogue and subject matter, but then you get to the story.
Evelynâs inclusion is flimsy at best, I genuinely canât understand why sheâs there for any reason other than to serve the climax, thought Thicker than Water wouldâve been a fine note to leave her on.
Hexâs storyline is⌠inconsequential, to the point where I can not remember it.
And then you get to Nobody No-one. The Word Lord, despite only being half an hour long, is one of my favourite entries into the main range; I just couldnât stop smiling listening to it, compact, tight and genius with such a fun performance and such a good utilisation of a great idea. A Death in the Family on the other hand has maybe two new ideas and has Nobody No-One in about four scenes and in three of these four scenes, heâs being outsmarted by another character, making him a joke of a villain and the most disappointing misuse of a great concept I have ever seen in Doctor Who
Is it a good story? Yes, undoubtedly, Steven Hall is clearly a very talented writer who delivers us a unique and doubtlessly fun Doctor Who story. Is it the best of all time, rivalling the likes of Spare Parts and The Chimes of Midnight? No, not even close.
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I also agree with this. I have a lot of nostalgia for series 1 and still enjoy it and series 4 is mostly excellent, and theres a couple of good episodes in series 2 and 3, but as a whole I dont think itâs that great. Sheridan Smith is amazing and I adore Lucie, but theres so many episodes I have no desire to listen to again and would find hard to recommend to people. I get the love, but so much of the range is not good to me unfortunately.
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Jackie Tyler should show up in everything actually.
And Iâm not kidding. My Whovian bestie and I regularly fantasize about her becoming the next companion.
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My contrary audio opinion is that several of the stories could be done in half the time (e.g. Torchwood: Sigil). There seems to be quite a few stories based on really interesting concepts, but the concepts donât have enough to them to fill the necessary time.
Conversely, some others end too soon. I thought there were examples of both in the Eleventh Doctor/ Valerie Lockwood stories.
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Oh, I get another chance to say that Scherzo is an 8/10 story! While its horror and soundscape are totally unmatched, I think the characterisation of 8 is absolutely wretched and makes me unable to fully appreciate it as much as everyone else seems to. On first listen over a decade ago I straight up didnât even like it, whereas now I have I the context of Zagreus which makes me like it more, even if I still think the characterisation of 8 sucks and makes me not love the story.
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Itâs one of my common complaints of a lot of audio. They have a cool idea that is stretched to double its length. Iâd rather have a solid 30-40 minutes than a tiresome 1+ hours.
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Did you mean: The Main Range & All Classic Who stories over 4 parts /hj
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I agree about the audio lengths. I wish they werenât all bound to the two+ hour limit, which is why I love the short trips.
My thoughts:
- Creating a bunch of spinoff Original Characters (OCs) âno oneâ really cares about is a bit eyeroll-worthy (Lady Christina, Vienna, etc). I know every DW author wants to make an OC so they get the royalties and the bragging rights when said character breaks free from their debut story, but it needs to stop. They usually arenât that interesting and get unnecessarily shoehorned into everything
- The interludes theyâre tacking onto main audios now are more bad than they are good (ones like Technicolor Nightmare Coat, Dream Nexus, Poe)
- I wish Hebe was switched out for a companion with a different characterization, primarily in the case of her gender and education. Six has enough highly educated, sassy female companions; they should have gone with something different
- Doctor of War has trash plotlines and, at the very least, shouldâve been a Fifth Doctor range. I donât know how you can take such an interesting concept and bungle it that badly
- The hyped up Multi-Doctor/Multi-Range stories BF puts out are either boring or nothing special (The Worlds of Doctor Who, Once and Future, Light at the End). But I understand Iâm not the target audience as I donât care for multi-Doctor stories anyway. I like my stories to focus on one Doctor.
- A lot of the Lost Stories are boring, but Iâm sure if they actually aired in S23, I would love them
- Six was NOT redeemed in the audios. He always had a fluffy, kind side in the show, but the audios literally buffed out every ounce of abrasion he had and leaned more into the clownish aspect. The audio version of him is a watered-down version of his 1980s character. (I say this with the utmost affection because I love both, but at times I wish there were more audios where he tapped into his more abrasive side when he speaks to people)
- I loved the Six audios with River Song, but she is not and would never be his type of woman
- The Charley era is capital B Boring and she does not have good rapport with Six. Heâs just going through the motions with her and she has nothing going for her character other than that ridiculous secret
- Big Finish shouldâve made a second Six/Peri boxset instead of making eleven new audios with a new companion (Hebe). Focus on the people you already have instead of making new ones!
- The watercolor cover art was u-g-l-y
- The anniversary audios for Six were a let down, and BF treated Colin dirty in real life. What did he get in celebration? A supermarket cake that they cut in the BF breakroom surrounded by four of his companions and a handful of no-name people (no offense) who probably didnât even know what the Sixth Doctor was before they were called in from their workstations to be a part of the cake-cutting video. But what did Paul McGann get on a whim? An entire live reading stage production where his fans could show him some love. And now Fiveâs getting the same âdouble-featureâ audio format that Quin/Trials had, so it just shows that nothing they did for Six was truly special
- I wouldnât mind if BF put Six on hold for a little and focused on Bayban, Maxil, Tepesh, or putting Colin in other non-DW ranges. I think theyâre losing steam with the Doctor
- Going back to the watered-down Six thing I said, BF kind of pimps Six out to the detriment of his reputation. If they need someone to be a guinea pig or canât find anyone else to fill in a role (Doctor of War), who do they call? Six. If they need someone to play babysitter for a bunch of unrelated characters (Once and Future), who do they call? Six. If they need someone to have their range shoehorned by other Doctorsâ companions (the Jamie/Zoe arc, Jago and Litefoot), who do they call? Six. Iâm glad Colin can boast that he went from being the Doctor with the least number of episodes, to the one with the most, but QUALITY OVER QUANTITY. (I know he needs the money but my point still stands)
- I donât miss Frobisher, but I did like him in the comics and Jubilee/Terror
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Lady Christina isnât an audio Original Character tbf
Is that contrary?
It seems to be the consensus from that Iâve heard
Do you mean these style ones?
If so, slight agree, I think they work incredibly for War Doctor Begins, but for just normal releases for XthDAs, they kinda suck
That was a Big Finish Anniversary to be fair, not an 8th Doctor anniversary
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Yeah, I know it wasnât an Eight anniversary, but thatâs what I mean. Paul got that on a whim when it, theoretically, should have gone to Colin since both their (Six, BF) anniversaries sort of coincided.
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I think it made sense as an 8th doctor story, it was kind of a celebration of the world that Big Finish had built out, staring Eight (The Big Finish Doctor), Charley (Big Finishâs longest running original companion), and The Reborn Master (Big Finishâs biggest original Master)
Also The Daleks, but like, theyâre an iconic part of Doctor Who, and Nick Briggs becoming their main voice after doing them on Big Finish is a thing, so it counts too.
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Charleyâs also a Six companion and Six is no stranger to the Daleks 
They couldâve put that Master in with him and gave Eight a cameo.
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Honestly I disagree about the Sixth Doctor anniversary specials since I much prefer to have brand new good stories celebrating his lives and his companions than whatever was going on in Once and Future or Last Day.
Iâm also saturated from these big anniversary stories so I was happy we just got two standalone releases where the anniversary aspect was just on the cast reunion (ok, on Trials it is obviously more than that, but nobody is perfect!)
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Thatâs the issue. I didnât think they were good (though Quin was better than Trials).
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Oh, and giving what I believe is not a popular opinion:
I like the second Klein triology. No, it doesnât hit the same highs that the first one do, and I am not sure how much I like the new background they give Klein 2.0 on Daleks Among Us, but I also thought that they were fairly astmospheric (except for Starlight Robbery, which is fine by me since itâs mainly a âcomedyâ/heist piece, itâs fun), the dynamic between Seven and Klein is really good and I like Will a lot, actually. He is a sweetheart, which I appreciate given who the other two regulars are.
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You guys do both know that for them to be an original character that Big Finish created, they had to be created by Big Finish right /hj
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