Listened to a lot of audio dramas, meself. Its been a while that I listened to some of these sets, but overall, I have to say I enjoyed most of them. Doom Coalition 3 - Pretty great. And River Song actually adds to the story, by providing the fake-face technology that allows the Doctor to go undercover on Gallifrey to find who's helping Eleven and such. The cliffhanger at the end was awesome. But, its worth buying just for Absent Friends, possibly the best Eighth Doctor audio drama since Chimes of Midnight. And I mean it complete seriously. Doom Coalition 4 - I liked this one, as well, and again, worth just for a single story, and that's Ship in a Bottle, a great bottle episode (no pun intended, though its irresistible to do so). Overall, a great ending to what has turned out to be a fantastic run of stories, over four box-sets. Ravenous 1 - Well, this is remarkably underwhelming after four box-sets of great stories. I liked the one with Helen and Eleven being prisoners and all, but none of the stories works as a whole lot, I'm afraid. Remarkably disappointing. Beyond the good ol' Doctor, I actually started my second spin-off after Torchwood, the Jago & Litefoot show, with the two remarkably guests from Talons of Weng-Chiang as its stars. And it didn't disappoint... so far. (the following I'd posted on Gallifrey Base, but I thought I'd post here too) Series 1-2, plus The Mahogany Murders: Brilliant start, basically what I'd wanted, expected and indeed got from a J&L show. Wonderful atmosphere and of course, beautiful to hear those two fellows again after Talons (and Jalxar and Stage Fright, for myself) to operate on their own. Series 3-4: Time travel comes to the show, and I liked the experiment as far as it went with Leela, and indeed appreciated the arc in 3, even if, in my opinion, time travel entering the show so soon, was a slight error in judgement. But the characters work so well, I was all-in. However, once Colin Baker appears, and I mean this through no fault of his, but I thought the fourth series was a step down. Not a shark-jump per se, but I felt there was a missed opportunity that I can't quite describe. Nevertheless, I loved hearing the Sixth Doctor being there with them, ALTHOUGH in my mind, its clear that it should've been Tom Baker, 100%. The Voyage mini-season: Simply put, I love those two stories. Nothing else to say, but I genuinely enjoyed them, and I laughed at the twist at the end. Series 5: Its very experimental, and the 1960's do threaten the verisimilitude of the show and its characters' environment, but in BF's defense, they handled it well enough. I'm just not sure did a Talons sequel have to be set a hundred years after Talons, but beyond that, I like the stories, so I appreciate the varied style for just this one season. Series 6, plus Mind Games: Now, that's more like it. Reminiscent of the first two series but also marching forward in a good way, with the Colonel being the quintessential untrustworthy government official who works for his own ends. And I know Mind Games is not actually part of the set, given it was released along with Worlds of Doctor Who, but chronologically it can nicely be set in the middle of it, and adds a little flavor as this standard story before the epic finale (while its villain gets to be featured in the other adventures of the Worlds of Doctor Who set). So, overall, pretty good. Looking forward to the rest of them!
The latest 4th Doctor Adventures with Sutekh. It was pretty good but the ending lost me a bit. I liked that it was a sequel to the 7th Doctor story. I always like it when they utilize the time travel element.
I'm assuming The Pyramid of Sutekh from the Benny boxset The Triumph of Sutekh. (The Doctor and Ace are guest charatcers in the story.)
I see. I had no idea of those. Anyway, finished the ninth series of J&L, and here's my verdict. Series 7: Jago and Litefoot on the run from the law! I like the premise, and I both liked how far it went and how it avoided some of the trappings. Above all, this series is a comedy of manners, and it never loses sight of that. Even amidst helping the famed Arthur Conan Doyle, that style is never betrayed. Anyway, I largely enjoyed this series, especially with its twist turn on the Jack the Ripper story. Series 8: This one is less memorable, although the one with the Scorchies was an unexpected delight. Still, the rest of the stories, despite featuring yet another Talons character (which I didn't object to, mind you), are not quite up to par, personally. They're not bad, but I just can't remember them if I have to wiki search for them. Might be the weakest series of the bunch. Series 9: Jago & Litefoot on a cruise! What could possibly go wrong? Again, an enjoyable affair, yet while its not as unmemorable as the previous set, it still wasn't quite the yarn the previous ones could and were. Still, its ALWAYS fun to listen to these two, wonderful characters written and especially portrayed so well. I am really looking forward to the rest of the releases, fewer now than before, but still plenty enough.
Listened to the second story in the David Tennant/Billie Piper boxset. Not bad, but Billie still doesn’t remember what Rose sounded like, and Tennant is playing his Doctor turned up to 11.
Listened to Time in Office which featured The Fifth Doctor and Tegan traveling to Gallifrey (during the gap in Frontios)...and meet up with Leela! Naturally, many hysterical hijinks occur. It's an atypical four individual episodes that tell an overall arcing story of The Fifth Doctor being forced to assume the office of Lord President. Plus, Tegan manages to become Earth ambassador to Gallifrey.
That one sounds like fun. Listened to the third Tenth/Rose story. Like the first two, it was entertaining enough but nothing special. Overall, I liked the David Tennant/Catherine Tate series more. Tate seemed to have an easier time slipping back into her character than Piper did.
I'll be getting to the Ten/Rose series quite soon. I just want to finish off the Jago & Litefoot stuff first.
Working through Torchwood: Aliens Among Us. It has its moments, but it’s not making me as happy as BF’s other Torchwood work generally does.
Finally started on Gallifrey: Time War and it's still such a joy listening to this series. Based on the first story alone, it looks to really amp things up. I'm loving the music, which has a certain Vangelis quality to it.
I just finished listening to Hour of the Cybermen, Big Finish have got David Banks and Mark Hardy back as the Cyber-Leader and Cyber-Lieutenant! The ‘80s Cybermen are my favourite so it was great to hear that booming Cyber-voice again. The story is a bit so-so but I enjoyed it and the subject of the Cybermen causing a drought is rather appropriate given the current weather!
Listened to a couple of the main range Torchwood audios, The Last Beacon and We Always Get Out Alive, while walking around the neighbourhood with my wife. (Played them through the iphone speaker. Worked well enough.) Two more stories that make me think this is one of BF's most consistently entertaining ranges.
I just finished this, the Leela/Master story was my favourite but it was a good series overall. I look forward to the next one.
I haven't heard any of the Gallifrey audios yet, so at my current rate I won't get around to the Time War ones for a few years. Another Torchwood this morning, Goodbye Piccadilly, the second story to pair Andy with 1950s Torchwood London's Norton Folgate. In other words, pure fun.
Was making my way through Sixie's run, with some of the Missing Stories ones being a lot better than others. Then gave up on Year Of The Pig halfway through, quite enjoyed Spectre Of Lanyon Moor, and most recently did the Frobisher ones, Maltese Penguin and Holy Terror...
Last Chance, the final story in The Tenth Doctor Chronicles boxed set, with Lady Christina. It was nice enough. It was clearly influenced by Douglas Adams, both in terms of narrative approach (which was very Hitchhiker's at times) and content (I'm thinking of Adams' Last Chance to See), but it wasn't particularly comic. I'm not sure that anything in the story really required Lady Christina; I'm glad she's there, because I liked the character (and Michelle Ryan), but Rose or Martha could have filled that role quite easily. Jake Dudman was fine as the narrator. In terms of placement, I'd put this closely, if not immediately, before "The End of Time."
looking at the Big Finish website, they're got an audio set out set around Lady Christina - wonder if the her appearance was a bit of a backdoor pilot (to use the tv parlance) or there was sufficient audience feedback for them to give her a stand alone series? They did the same with Vienna (played by Chase Masterson) when the character originally appeared in a 7th doctor audio then got 4 box sets of her own.
Good question. I don't know. It could be as simple as, "Michelle, are you busy? Do you want to do more?" And Michelle Ryan, who doesn't seem to be doing anything at the moment, says, "Sure, sign me up!" In an upcoming TARDIS Eruditorum essay on Big Finish's UNIT series (it was released to Patreon backers a few days ago), Elizabeth Sandifer notes that in 2017 BF released over 120 hours of Doctor Who-related material. (Which is not the point of the essay, by the way. Sandifer complains that the tie-in material today isn't half as interesting or as "strange" as it was in the Wilderness Years. But licensed tie-ins for an active franchise are going to be different, and have different rules about what's allowed, than tie-ins for a dead property [cf., Doctor Who and Star Wars in the 90s]. Sandifer's other complaint is about the writers; something like 40% is written by three writers, and 2/3rds by 12.) Big Finish takes an idea and runs it into the ground. They clearly have a loyal and dedicated audience that can keep up with the output (and, more importantly, afford it), but I don't see how 120-plus hours a year is sustainable over the long-term; customers will drop out when they lose interest, customers will stop buying when it becomes unaffordable.
They do want to cater to the NuWho audience, though. That's why they have series like Lady Christina or the Chronicles box-sets which feature NuWho Doctors but not with the actual actors playing them.