Does the Big Finish Main Range ever take advantage of the 4-part format?

[ATimson]

Been on a bit of a Big Finish main range jag this weekend - finally continuing the Eighth Doctor entries after having only listened to the first four previously, as well as some of the other main range stories that I've picked up in sales over the years.

Something that struck me: it doesn't feel to me like the stories are structured into four distinct episodes. It feels more like "hey, it's been 25 minutes, time to play the main theme twice".

Are there stories that take better advantage of the structure, with four distinct episodes? Or is this the general rule for the main range?

Or alternately, am I just wrong?

(I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm listening to all four episodes in a row. Or that probably 90% of my BF listening to date has been ranges that are structured as one-disc one-act stories...)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Hard for me to say since I always listen to the whole story in one sitting if I can (sometimes I'll do half if I know I only have an hour immediately available with another another available in the same day). There are times where I think "Oh, hey, that's an appropriate time for a cliffhanger" when it's too early or too late for one or conversely, I sometimes think "That's a terrible cliffhanger," suggesting that it was only placed there because they needed one. I haven't really thought about how the stories are constructed as four-part acts to a larger story. Sometimes there are stories that do stand out that way because of the narrative beats or because of geographical and/or temporal locations, although I can't think of any specifics off the top of my head.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Try the Peter Davison story "Circular Time." Each part is a separate story representing a different season, spring, summer, fall, and winter. I especially like the summer part where they get interrogated by Isaac Newton and he interprets their future money as Catholic propaganda. And the fall part where nothing much happens besides the Doctor playing cricket and Nyssa falling in love with some guy.

 

[Mr Soak]

To be fair, the main range isn't entirely four-parters (or three-plus-one-parters)

The Game with Peter Davison and William Russell (not as Ian) is a six-parter and a number of Sixth Doctor/Peri stories are two-parters ("double-length", set during season 22, as well as some Lost Stories, though you weren't really asking about those).

Neverland and Zagreus with the Eighth Doctor are also one episode-per-disc.

Speaking of utilising the four episode format, I think Flip-Flop with the Seventh Doctor and Mel did well. It is essentially a two-parter that changes timelines halfway through, told twice, from different directions. Each version leads into each other, so the two versions can be listened in any order.