Blood of the Daleks was okay. I liked Part 2 better than Part 1 -- the idea of a human scientist recapitulating Davros's creation and the Doctor trying to talk them out of it, and the inevitability of the "pure" Daleks wanting to destroy the "impure" offshoot, was pretty effective. And Hayley Atwell was pretty good, though I didn't realize it was her until halfway through. (I like it that they finally have narrated credits. Is that just because this one was on radio, or will the rest have them as well?)
But I'm not sold on Lucie Miller or her relationship with the Doctor yet. I guess it recapitulates the very beginning of the series, with Ian and Barbara initially having an adversarial relationship with the Doctor, but that was balanced out by their closer bond with Susan and with each other, and by Susan's warmth toward her grandfather. This is just two people bickering and not wanting to be stuck together, and that's not as appealing. I imagine the relationship will grow over time, but so far I'm not enjoying it or her.
And I'm not sure I buy the conceit that the Time Lords would send someone to the Doctor for "witness protection" -- it seems rather convoluted. And as this story showed, it's kind of a bad idea to "protect" someone by pairing them off with the guy who's constantly stumbling into mortal peril every week.
I'm sure you've seen how this panned out, but basically the idea with the Lucie Miller arc is a sorta return for the Time Lords using the Doctor for their errands and deals and what not. But for my money, Sheridan Smith conveys effectively her fascination and admiration for the Doctor and I get why they're still together at the end of the story.
You might be right overall, but I still consider Wrath of the Iceni to be possibly the finest Doctor Who audio story I've heard, and I'm not sure it would've worked better if it were longer. Every rule has its exceptions.
Wow.
Obviously great that you feel this way, don't get me wrong. I just assumed some of the others like
Chimes of Midnight or
The Foe from the Future might be higher?
Also, is every story going to end with that person who's hunting for Lucie showing up at the end after she and the Doctor have already left? That's really hard to justify in a time travel series. Wouldn't she be just as likely to show up early as late?
Its not any different that the Tenth Doctor catching up with the Master's resurrection too late, when he could theoretically have cought up with him earlier on.
Immortal Beloved was excellent. I didn't think it would be at first, but it turned out to be a potent premise, an effectively dark, chilling scenario, and the execution was pretty good. It helped that I coincidentally listened to this one just after finishing Netflix's Altered Carbon, also dealing with entitled elites who live forever by downloading their minds into clones -- although Beloved went a lot darker with it because the clones had lives and personalities of their own.
Nice bit of symmetry that "Hera" was played with a former Who guest from three Doctors before McGann (Elspet Gray from "Arc of Infinity"), while "Zeus" was played by a future Who guest from three Doctors after McGann (Ian McNiece, recurring as Winston Churchill).
Agreed with all.
Phobos is a decent, middle-of-the-road story. The premise is somewhat interesting with the ambiguity of the main human antagonist, and it examines the Doctor's personality in a way reminiscent of the modern series. The idea of the Doctor as an adrenaline junkie addicted to saving people was an interesting twist. Still, the 50-minute format does leave less room for exploring things in depth.
Also agreed. Though I think they are handling the hour-long storytelling better than you do..
No More Lies was weird, confusingly starting in medias res and never quite filling in what we missed. It was also unique as far as I can recall, in that it's a time loop story where we never actually see time loop, where the whole thing takes place within a single iteration. Which is kind of a relief, since I dislike time loop stories for their repetitiveness, but on the other hand it feels like a case of telling rather than showing. It's all kind of unfocused. It also wastes way too much time on a musical number in Hungarian, of all things, rather than filling in more story.
I think its excellent, actually. A really emotional story that draws the protagonists and indeed redeems the antagonist greatly. I admit opening cold on the Doctor and Lucie chasing him is a bit odd, but again not odder than anything in the Smith era.
I'm not enjoying the "Headhunter" business at all. It's a really clumsy way to do a seasonal arc, just tacking on a bit at the end of each story and only having it become relevant just before the finale.
It ties the stories together though, and is reminiscent of NuWho's series 6 in that manner.
Human Resources was reasonably good. A satire on corporate culture as a mercenary-combat service was a clever idea, though it might've worked better for me if I had any real familiarity with office culture (though I'm just as glad I don't). The twist on the actual nature of the "Headhunter" was kind of clever. The explanation of the whole business behind Lucie seemed like it was going somewhere interestingly dark, but then they copped out.
I'm not sure including the Cybermen really added anything to the story. It seems they were just there to be a threat big enough to justify the Celestial Intervention Agency intervening (celestially). Although they gave Nicholas Briggs a chance to whip ouuuut his imitatioooonnn of a Monnnnndasian Cybermaaaaaan voice.
I largely agree, but I'm still satisfied with the end result. I've grown to really enjoy this, especially the satirical elements of it.
Dead London was mediocre, an overly convoluted and silly concept and somewhat lacking in interesting guest characters, as most of the guest characters were really the same alien. Also weird that it ended with the Doctor not actually saving the trapped people, just leaving them in their prison world without the jailer in charge anymore (even though they were literally inside his brain somehow). It didn't make a lot of sense.
Well, I'll disagree. I feel the story plays to the Eighth and Lucie's strengths remarkably well, and the story is markedly entertaining moves along nicely.
The new theme arrangement is awful, a very clumsy jumble of different bits of various Derbyshire arrangements.
Missing the Arnold version yet?
Yeah, I hate it too. And Briggs stubbornly persisted though, keeping it throughout the remainder of the Lucie Miller audios. A damn shame, but at least from Dark Eyes onwards the David Arnold take was back (with a very slight variation in its opening still) and has stayed for the
Doom Coalition, Ravenous and
Stranded sets.
Personally, I've edited my .mp3's of the remainder of the Lucie audios to replace it with the Arnold variation. I just can't get into the story with the Briggs version in.
Max Warp was even worse than the previous one. Maybe if I were familiar with Top Gear, I would've appreciated the parody more, but I doubt it. It just wasn't very good, one of BF's many misfires at humor. Lucie was written as if she were stupid, which she hasn't been before. And the scene with the show host hurling misogyny at Lucie went on way too long. The fact that we weren't supposed to approve of his bigotry didn't make it any less disgusting to listen to.
I've no idea what
Top Gear is and never seen it or watched it, but I still enjoyed this episode tremendously. Its one of those stories where the Eighth Doctor has to play Detective for a while, and he's brilliant at it. Lucie also shines as she gets to the story from her own perspective. Its also one of the better paced ones, too.
And I must point out, this one of the company's best sellers, outside of the usual "festive" ones, and one of the better received ones, too. It even got a vinyl release just last year.
Does this season get any better?
Man, I did not expect you to dislike this era this much. I love my Lucie Miller.
But since you asked, I really love
Grand Theft Cosmos and
The Zygon Who Fell to Earth.
