Yep. James Goss, who oversees the whole thing, has said so himself.
BBC & Big Finish team-up for 'Time Lord Victorious' project
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
It's still a weird commission because Big Finish has never done a vinyl-only story and certainly not for one that features two different Doctor (regardless of whether or not they actually meet, which my impression is they don't). If it was just a random, for say, Sixth Doctor adventure doing whatever and the vinyl part is the niche bit, that's fine, but not when it features two Doctors.
Makes sense to me. After all, vinyl records are the only recording medium I can think of that's two-sided by default. (Some cassette tapes, CDs, and DVDs are double-sided, but those are exceptions.) So it's an appropriate format for a "two-sided" story.
EDIT: Well, laser discs were normally two-sided, but they seem to be a defunct format.
Comparisons with what Big Finish has done in the past are kind of beside the point, because as StCoop said, this isn’t something Big Finish decided to do on their own. A vinyl-only record label hired them to produce the story and agreed to let them sell a download version through the BF website. Yes, the vinyl release is for a comparatively small audience. So are the escape room and immersive theatre components of Time Lord Victorious. It’s kind of inevitable in a multimedia project like this that some aspects will have a bigger audience than others.
I find it totally wild that the multimedia crossover includes an escape room component. I mean, I don't object to it, it's just not something I ever would've thought of as a franchise tie-in. Although I guess it's similar to having a theme park ride tie-in like Star Wars has, just on a smaller scale. Or maybe it's more like a board game tie-in on a larger scale?
I don't often go into the Big Finish forums at Outpost Gallifrey, and the whining and entitlement there because collectors can't get Echoes of Extinction on CD is pathetically amusing.
Just burn the download on CD. I get it, collectibles or whatever, yadayadayada, but come on, its not that big a deal.
Besides, a CD release could possibly come forth later on? Its a non-issue for me. Personally, I'm just happy we get McGann and Tennant in the same story.
There's more information about the immersive theatre experience here, from before it was confirmed to be part of Time Lord Victorious. I don't believe they've announced much about the escape room, except that both it and the immersive theatre are being worked on to make sure they can be done safely despite the pandemic. I would guess the escape room is going to be more about building its puzzles around the distinctive lore of Time Lord Victorious, rather than fitting into any overall story.
The BBC set up a Time Lord Victorious website, with details on all of the projects, where to find them, and a release calendar.
I didn't realize the Doctor Who 2021 Annual also tied into the event.
I didn't realize the Doctor Who 2021 Annual also tied into the event.
So forgive me if this information is already out there (my mind is in a cloud of **** these days) but is this everything? No other audios or tie in material to be announced? Was the vinyl the last big announcement they were sitting on? 10th won't be interacting with the 8th in the audios?
As far as I know, everything's been announced. The BBC produced a timeline with release dates for everything, and that's not something they'd do without all of the projects being announced.
Hmm, sounds like it could be fun, it's a shame they aren't doing any kind of touring version. I guess something like this might be to complex to pack up and move every now and then.
As it turns out, according to this Radio Times article, which goes into how the project was developed, there is more content to be announced.
I guess this unannounced free content would be things like YouTube videos (similar to some of the Lockdown content) and online fiction.
It all begins today with Titan Comics' "Defender of the Daleks" (ie., Time Lord Victorious #1).
The BBC sent out an email with an interactive guide to the six different story paths by character. It's interesting to see how some of the story paths unfold, where the multi-Doctor stories (All Flesh Is Grass and Echoes of Extinction) fit, and even where "Waters of Mars" goes in all of this. There's also a previously unannounced work, "The Dawn of the Koturrah," a free short story by James Goss in one of the story paths.
The BBC sent out an email with an interactive guide to the six different story paths by character. It's interesting to see how some of the story paths unfold, where the multi-Doctor stories (All Flesh Is Grass and Echoes of Extinction) fit, and even where "Waters of Mars" goes in all of this. There's also a previously unannounced work, "The Dawn of the Koturrah," a free short story by James Goss in one of the story paths.
Hmm, okay, that's interesting. So it's a puzzle-solving challenge, one that has life-or-death stakes but doesn't require physical action like fighting or chasing. A pretty clever way to work an escape room sort of thing into the narrative. Though it's not so much "escape this room" as "escape certain death."
I bought “Defender of the Daleks.” $5.99 plus tax for a digital comic offends my sensibilities, but I did it anyway.
It’s a lot of fun. Houser really captures the Tenth Doctor’s voice. There’s not much plot— certainly no more than a couple hints of any of the overarching narrative threads, though the Dark Times do come up— but the humor more than makes up for it. The art is just stylized enough that it doesn’t matter that the likeness of the Tenth Doctor isn’t great, and the heavy use of gold, blue, and gray works very well in a Dalek-heavy story.
It’s a lot of fun. Houser really captures the Tenth Doctor’s voice. There’s not much plot— certainly no more than a couple hints of any of the overarching narrative threads, though the Dark Times do come up— but the humor more than makes up for it. The art is just stylized enough that it doesn’t matter that the likeness of the Tenth Doctor isn’t great, and the heavy use of gold, blue, and gray works very well in a Dalek-heavy story.
I got the metallic ink Dalek cover for issue #1.
I'll echo Brendan's review -- Houser has a solid grasp on the tenth Doctor's voice, and Ingranata isn't a likeness artist by any means but her tenth Doctor makes sense as the tenth Doctor even if he doesn't look a lot like David Tennant. (This is also true in the thirteen Doctor comic, where the TARDIS quartet doesn't look like the actors, but they make sense as the characters.) The tenth Doctor bonding with the Dalek Strategic is surprising and quirky, and very much in keeping with the tenth Doctor. And I got a little charge out of seeing the TV21 Dalek Emperor. If Yarvelling, the creator of the Daleks, shows up in issue #2, I will seriously lose my mind. It's not the most original story in the world -- it's very reminiscent of "Asylum of the Daleks," without the Amy/Rory relationship drama -- but it works.
Some stuff behind a spoiler tag:
For being a Dalek story, the extermination quotient was far too low. I expect major blowing up things in part 2.
It's hard to say, without seeing the rest of the project, how essential this is, but my gut feeling is this is basically a prologue. This story will be complete with issue #2 but it will set in motion things, mainly for the Daleks, that we'll see down the road.
I'll echo Brendan's review -- Houser has a solid grasp on the tenth Doctor's voice, and Ingranata isn't a likeness artist by any means but her tenth Doctor makes sense as the tenth Doctor even if he doesn't look a lot like David Tennant. (This is also true in the thirteen Doctor comic, where the TARDIS quartet doesn't look like the actors, but they make sense as the characters.) The tenth Doctor bonding with the Dalek Strategic is surprising and quirky, and very much in keeping with the tenth Doctor. And I got a little charge out of seeing the TV21 Dalek Emperor. If Yarvelling, the creator of the Daleks, shows up in issue #2, I will seriously lose my mind. It's not the most original story in the world -- it's very reminiscent of "Asylum of the Daleks," without the Amy/Rory relationship drama -- but it works.
Some stuff behind a spoiler tag:
I didn't think they would do this, but based on the "Previously" box, Titan really does seem to be positioning this story as taking place in the middle of "Blink," specifically when the tenth Doctor and Martha are stuck in 60s London. Quick recap of the comics before this -- Ten, Thirteen, Martha, Graham, Ryan, and Yaz just defeated the Autons and the Weeping Angels, Thirteen and her crew left (because Ten and Martha have another way back to the future, cf. "Blink"), and time goes wonky for Thirteen. This is going to lead into a new Doctor Who #1, which actually should have been published months ago, were it not for COVID. But it now appears "Defender of the Daleks" goes in between those two stories.
Whatevs. I'm just rolling with it.
Whatevs. I'm just rolling with it.
For being a Dalek story, the extermination quotient was far too low. I expect major blowing up things in part 2.
It's hard to say, without seeing the rest of the project, how essential this is, but my gut feeling is this is basically a prologue. This story will be complete with issue #2 but it will set in motion things, mainly for the Daleks, that we'll see down the road.
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