Big Finish: Fifth Doctor news
- Thread starter Rosalind
- Start date
This is very good news. The last time Tegan was in the Big Finish series things didn't work out so well for her (the character, that is).
Having an original companion team is something we haven't seen a lot of lately, except for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. Nicola Bryant was doing Peri with both Davison and Colin Baker for awhile, but I haven't seen one of those for a bit, since they hooked Doctor 6 up with Charley Pollard.
Between this reunion and Tom Baker coming back for BBC Audio, not to mention word that David Tennant has recorded another direct-to-audio story as well, this is definitely turning out to be a great time for the audio dramas. I'm still amazed no one involved with Trek -- or Firefly, or Farscape or, heck, The Six Million Dollar Man for that matter -- has picked up on this idea.
Alex
Having an original companion team is something we haven't seen a lot of lately, except for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. Nicola Bryant was doing Peri with both Davison and Colin Baker for awhile, but I haven't seen one of those for a bit, since they hooked Doctor 6 up with Charley Pollard.
Between this reunion and Tom Baker coming back for BBC Audio, not to mention word that David Tennant has recorded another direct-to-audio story as well, this is definitely turning out to be a great time for the audio dramas. I'm still amazed no one involved with Trek -- or Firefly, or Farscape or, heck, The Six Million Dollar Man for that matter -- has picked up on this idea.
Alex
Sure, I would guess those franchises might grab Brits in audio form. But, most Americans left radio sixty-plus years ago. It's just not an entertainment medium here, other than the normal music stations and satellite radio.
Meanwhile, Big Finish is REALLY stepping up their game! Time to re-budget for 2010...
Meanwhile, Big Finish is REALLY stepping up their game! Time to re-budget for 2010...
Sure, I would guess those franchises might grab Brits in audio form. But, most Americans left radio sixty-plus years ago. It's just not an entertainment medium here, other than the normal music stations and satellite radio.
Meanwhile, Big Finish is REALLY stepping up their game! Time to re-budget for 2010...
Well I dunno, what if we got Colin to play his Doc like a shock Jock? I can see it now...
"Damn liberal lefties in charge of Gallifray, no wonder the Daleks nearly overrun them!"
Damnation! Yet another reason for me to start getting the audios.
Maybe I can get some while I'm down in Sydney...
Maybe I can get some while I'm down in Sydney...
Excellent.[/Mr. Burns]
This is cool news. Though I listen exclusively to the 8th Doctor audios (side-stepping briefly for that one-off Five/Tegan story), I may have to get these stories, as I enjoyed the Tegan/Nyssa/Turlough era on television.
So, you enjoyed Mawdryn Undead and Terminus...what about the rest of Season 20?
This Big Finish fluffing about with the past is so hit and miss for me... I think Jamie with the sixth Doctor is stupid and I won't be buying it... but this new fifth Doctor stuff (both the Stockbridge stories and bringing back Tegan) sounds so great!
Why's that? It's not so unusual. They have met already, in the Two Doctors, and as far as we know, Jamie still knows Six.
And what other still-living Doctor would he work with?
I don't think Jamie should work with any still-surviving Doctor. Doctor Who is about moving forward, not retreading the past. Invent a new companion, or continue to use one of the ones that actually go with this Doctor.
If that's the case, what is the point of Big Finish producing new audio dramas at all? If Doctor Who is about moving forward only, then ... well, isn't your avatar then completely wrong? It shows a previous Doctor. Well, two of them. It's the past.
But Doctor Who has always been about both moving forward and exploring the past.
Getting back to Jamie, Two and Six are the only Doctors he's met. He wasn't around in The Three Doctors, and in Five Doctors, he only had a cameo as a ghostly image trying to stop Two. In Two Doctors, he and Six got along famously. I don't see any reason for it to be anything short of brilliant.
Okay, true enough. But there's doing new things with the past (which Big Finish is usually quite successful with) and then there's just wallowing in the past.
Then Grant Morrison (yes, the Grant Morrison) wrote "The World Shapers," in which the sixth Doctor, Jamie, and Peri witness the birth of the Cybermen. Jamie had been returned to Scotland, his mind apparently wiped at the end of "The War Games," but the Time Lords' conditioning didn't take, and he was considered mad. Forty-odd years later, the Doctor takes Jamie, now old and grizzled, on one final adventure.
Setting aside that piece of fanwank...
Jamie, per "The War Games," shouldn't know the sixth Doctor. Even with "Season 6B" in place, Jamie's memories still get wiped, and he gets returned by the Time Lords to the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
I'm curious to see when these stories take place from Jamie's perspective, and I'm also curious how accessible they'll be. Are they post-Season 6B? Are they post-"The War Games"? What happened in "The War Games"? And will "The World Shapers" still come to pass?
Curiously, I've given this a great deal of thought...
I plotted out a PDA a few years ago for a Six/Peri/Jamie story. And, with some minor adjustments, it would have worked well as an NSA, though in thinking about it, probably better with Donna than with Martha. (And though she was the companion on the series at the time, it would have been merely okay with Rose.) Some deep moral and philosophical quandaries were at the heart of the story; it would have made for a challenging story.
It's really a question of what you do with a returning companion. Take Peter Darvill-Evans' Asylum, for instance. It takes a pre-"Keeper of Traken" fourth Doctor and a post-"Terminus" Nyssa, puts them together, and they have an adventure. Only, there's no reason for the two to have an adventure together, and nothing particularly interesting is done with the pairing.
All of that said, I'm looking forward to seeing what Big Finish has in mind for the sixth Doctor and Jamie. This is a case where my nostalgia and affection for Jamie override the not-unreasonable concerns that Steve has raised as regards Big Finish's strip-mining of the past.
^ The Glorious Revolution is framed by a Jamie from a time after The War Games who has grown old and gotten married and had some children, but doesn't remember his time with the Doctor.
How do we know that Jamie's mind is wiped again after Season 6b?
How do we know that Jamie's mind is wiped again after Season 6b?
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