I've been catching up on a lot of Big Finish since September, along with some audiobooks. I go through hot and cold phases with my media consumption, and took a break from Who earlier this year. I guess it was sitting down to watch Series 9, Series 10 and Class with my boyfriend (my second viewing for all, his first) that put me in the mood for the audios again.
I'd been wanting more of Twelve, and saw I could download the audiobooks for The Glamour Chronicles trilogy from the library. So I went with those, having read the Eleventh Doctor's novel The Glamour Chase years ago. Royal Blood was pretty good, I had a lot of fun with Bang Bang Generation despite a somewhat flaky narrative, and the third book (the title of which escapes me now) was just alright, not bad, but not a great ending to the trilogy. Then I listened to the first two of the Class audiobooks, Joyride and The Stone House. Both would've made great episodes, but I really appreciate the extra time the novels had to develop things. Joyride was especially good. I'll listen to the third one sometime, and then Big Finish's Class release.
After that, I was still in an audiobook mood, and put on the reading of Corpse Marker. I've always loved The Robots of Death, and this was a fantastic sequel. Truly great world-building, and great use of the original characters while still having plenty for the Doctor and Leela to do (together, and on their own). Easily one of my favorite DW novels now, and I've got Kaldor City to listen to in a while.
Having finished Eight's adventures with Charley earlier this year, I finally started the EDAs. I really, really didn't like Blood of the Daleks at all, and that really didn't bode well for the rest. I'm honestly not a big fan of Lucie. I know that's sacrilege to a lot of people, but I just can't get into her character. It feels like they want her to be somewhere between Eccleston-era Rose without the sense of wonder and Series 4 Donna without the compassion. Overall, the first season of EDAs don't do anything for me, apart from Human Resources, which was brilliant all around (and yeah, I liked Lucie there, finally). The second season is better, though it also has what is probably one of the biggest clunkers of the lot - The Skull of Sobek. Third season, still better overall, but still not hitting home runs for me at all, and Hothouse is simply awful. All through the series, it's felt like a middling season of NuWho where you're watching out of habit more than anything, with a few great moments here and there, but few truly great episodes, and everything is kind of forgettable. It feels like the stories frequently end too abruptly, almost like they haven't figured out how to tell stories in an hour-long format, which I know isn't the case. Now, the fourth season... I'm only halfway through, but it's been a million times better. Still not overall a fan of Lucie - she feels like an attempt at Eccleston-era Rose that misses the mark - but I liked Tamsin better. At least up until Deimos and Resurrection of Mars, which is where I've paused for now.
Of the EDAs I've heard so far, here's my tops:
1 - Human Resources
2 - An Earthly Child (yes, I know, not technically in the series, but for all intents and purposes it's part of season 4)
3 - (tie) Grand Theft Cosmos and The Cannibalists
4 - The Book of Kells
5 - (tie) Brave New Town and The Beast of Orlock
There are some other ones I enjoyed, but nothing that really stands out. I know everyone loves Max Warp, and I get why, but I'm not into the Top Gear kind of thing at all, so it's just not for me. It does what it does very well, though. Sisters of the Flame would rate highly with me - loved Alexander Siddig's centipede cop - but Vengeance of Morbius was bloody awful, so the whole two-parter suffers greatly. Most of the stories are just mediocre at best, though I actively hate The Skull of Sobek and Hothouse - those two belong on the trash heap with Fear Her and Evolution of the Daleks.
So the the Eighth Doctor Adventures have been at best a very mixed bag for me. Very little there, to me, rates up there with the best of McGann's episodes from the main range, though HR and AEC are easily up there, and the rest I list above would rate well alongside the best of the Eight and Charley era, as well as modern TV Doctor Who. I'll pick it up again with Relative Dimensions in a while.
While working through the EDA's, I alternated them with contemporaneously-released entries from the Main Range, to try and keep things relatively caught up, and stretch out my Eighth Doctor experience so I don't run out of one of my favorite Doctors too soon. I had taken a break from listening with The Bride of Peladon, figuring that Erimem's last story, following Charley's last story with Eight, would be a good point to pause. So I picked up with The Condemned (the start of Six and Charley), and kept up a pretty good pace. Lots of good stuff and only a couple of clunkers. I'm normally willing to cut Fifth Doctor stories a lot of slack because I enjoy Davison so much, but while The Boy Who Time Forgot must have seemed like a good idea at the time, to someone, but good lord, there was no saving that awkward mess, and I hope someday to be able to scrub it from my memory. Six and Charley's stuff is all pretty good up 'til the end, I kind of wish it could've gone on longer. Moving into the "trilogy" era of monthly releases, they seemed to meet with mixed success at first. With the first few trilogies, the third part seemed to be a letdown each time, but that got better with the Six & Jamie and Seven & Klein stories.
I just finished up Demons of Red Lodge on Wednesday (unintentionally on Halloween, but greatly appropriate nonetheless). That's over forty release in the main range I've gone through in about six weeks. Plus the EDAs, and a variety of other things. Lots of long car drives, listening on headphones while shopping, and waiting around in Doctors offices. Still, when I look at the sheer volume, it feels a little overwhelming. Standouts include the aforementioned trilogies with Klein and Jamie, A Death in the Family, of course, The Eternal Summer, and Castle of Fear, the last of which I seem to be in the minority in really loving.
I also started the Fourth Doctor Adventures at some point during this process, after an aborted attempt to listen to the Paul Magrs' Hornets Nest stuff (I may try that again later... much later). The first season of 4DAs was again a mixed bag. Louse Jamison is always fantastic, and Tom seemed to get back into his groove relatively quickly. The stories just didn't grab me all that much, apart from The Wrath of the Iceni, which was fantastic. I started the second season when I was driving my mum around, and figured she'd enjoy hearing some Tom Baker. Fortunately, The Auntie Matter was fantastic, and absolutely perfect for my Jeeves & Wooster-loving mother. Unfortunately, the two-parter with the Laan was just boring, and felt like a major waste of David Warner's talents. I haven't heard beyond that yet.
I went back and finished the old UNIT series, I'd only heard The Coup up til now. I liked it, but I can see why it didn't get the traction that a lot of BF's later spin-offs would. After I finish the EDAs, I'll be listening to Dominion sometime before I start Dark Eyes. Likewise, I finished Gallifrey series 2 and 3, having heard series 1 last year. Trying to sync up Gallifrey and the Eighth Doctor stuff before I get to the Time War. My only real complaint about Gallifrey has been Darkel. The character is so transparent that every one of her schemes is predictable not only to the audience, but to the characters. It makes her no real threat, and just leaves her to sputter things along the lines of "How dare you?!" or "You incompetant buffoons!" when she's caught out. The writing there has done a great disservice to a character who could've been an excellent villain, but ended up as an annoying gadfly by the end. She's supposed to be a brilliant political manipulator, but Brax, Romana, Narvin (and even Leela!) run circles around her all the time. I wanted her to be Kai Winn, instead she's a second-rate Snidely Whiplash. All that being said, I still like Gallifrey. Romana II may not be my favorite of companions, but I'll happily take all the Leela I can get.
Trying to listen to all of this more or less "in release order," led me to finally hear The Mahogany Murders and start Jago & Litefoot. Their Companion Chronicle pilot was brilliant, and the following first season of their series was just as good. Great fun, and I've got season two cued up and ready to go when the mood strikes. I can already see why people love J&L so much, and I know I'm going to miss it when it's gone. Hopefully whatever potential Paternoster Gang spin-off may be lurking in the aether will have half as much charm.
I also made a point to listen to some of The Lost Stories. I hadn't heard or read much First Doctor stuff in a while, so I started with Farewell, Great Macedon. It took me about a week to finish it, because I was listening one part at a time. After going through the entirety of The Daleks in one sitting, I long ago made the decision to break up any First Doctor story longer than four parts. Macedon is quite possibly the best First Doctor story of all time. Perfectly captures the era, and in some ways, improves on it. It is deliberately paced, but compared most of Hartnell's televised stories, it has no real padding or filler. Everything has a purpose, yet despite a certain cyclical nature of events, it doesn't feel repetitive. If this had actually been mounted in 1964, I don't think it would have come off nearly as well as it does here.William Russell and Carole Ann Ford are in top form, and John Dorney gives a pitch perfect Alexander. The writing is excellent, and again evocative of this epoch of the series, while refining out the frequently rough edges of the early serials. The entire production captures the atmosphere, and the sense of history, as well as it does the characters. The grand scope, philosophical underpinnings, and the intermingled hope and tragedy of Alexander's life give the story an emotional quality that is nearly-Shakespearean. If this had made it to television, and it had been treated as well as it has been on audio, this would easily be regarded as Doctor Who's best "pure historical" serial.
After Farewell, any of the other Lost Stories would certainly have been something of a letdown, but I went on to The Foe from the Future, which was still really solid. Not Macedon-level brilliant, but a really great Fourth Doctor story that would've made fantastic TV during the Baker and Leela years. And then, interspersed with all the rest of my listening, I put on the Seventh Doctor stories from the lost "Season 27." Thin Ice was a great start, but unfortunately Crime of the Century was a massive disappointment. I really wanted to like Raine, but she came off as such Mary Sue - not only am I a cat burglar/safe-cracker (fine), but a fencing champion and helicopter pilot, too - it just didn't work for me at all. Animal was a lot better of a story at least, and Raine was more toned down, though she didn't have all that much to contribute to the plot. Earth Aid wasn't as good as Animal, but wasn't as bad as Crime. Overall, after a great start with Thin Ice, "Season 27" fell flat on its face and just didn't recover. I really wanted to like Raine, but as it is, she's easily forgettable in these. Hopefully she's better in UNIT: Dominion.
As I've been wanting to hear Benny's series for a long time, but first wanted to experience more of her time with the Doctor f(having long ago read Love & War, and then the BF adaptation when It came out), I picked up the other Seven novel adaptations and the few audiobooks there are, listening to them in order of their original stories, not BF's release schedule. So Love & War, followed by The Highest Science (good), Theatre of War (excellent), All-Consuming Fire (not the best, but still tons of fun), and Original Sin (really great), followed by the audiobook of Shakedown (surprisingly awesome). Still got Cold Fusion and Damaged Goods to hear, before looping back to Nightshade. But having all of those Benny and the Doctor audios under my belt, I felt prepared enough to dive into Benny's series, and I really loved it. Gone through the whole first season in the last couple of weeks. I really liked Oh No It Isn't!, Just War, Walking to Babylon and the two stories in Buried Treasures best. The only misstep, for me, was Beyond the Sun, but even that wasn't bad, just shaky in places, especially towards the end. I'm going to read some of the VNA's like Sanctuary and The Dying Days and whatever of Benny's solo NAs I can track down before going on to Season Two, being sure to read BF's prose stories as appropriate (where I have them). I was tempted to just start with the Legion-era box sets, so I could get up to the New Adventures with Seven and Unbound, but I really love Benny, so I might as well try and listen to it all.
After watching The Web of Fear, I got the audiobook of The Abominable Snowmen from the library, so I could get the full Great Intelligence story before someday starting to read the Lethbridge-Stewart series. TAS was enjoyable, and David Troughton is always a great narrator, but the story itself wasn't anything all that special. Trying to picture it in my head as it would've been in the era, I think if the serial had survived, it'd be remembered as a decent enough entry, but not up there with Tomb and Web and the rest of the Second Doctor's best serials. Still fun, though.
Feeling nostalgic for the Third Doctor, I finally broke down and put on The Paradise of Death. I wanted to make sure I had Jon's voice on audio firmly in my mind before starting on the Third Doctor Adventures at some point. Paradise was quite odd, and utterly ridiculous in places, but it was still great to hear Jon, Lis and Nick all together like that again. It'll be years before I ever listen to The Ghosts of N-Space, because I like the idea of there always being some "new" Pertwee thing out there for me to experience.
After that, I decided to jump "ahead" a little bit, and put on The Light at the End. I don't know what I was really expecting. Just hoping it would be a better mutli-Doctor story than Sirens of Time. And that, it certainly was. It felt like nothing more than The Five Doctors 2.0, in both good and bad/awkward ways. Six and Five seemed to have the most to do, followed by Eight, while Seven and Four were sort of just...there. I did love the interaction between Paul and Tom, though. Overall, it was a fun romp, but I don't think it was anywhere near the epic story to end all stories that it seemed to want to be.
And now, I'm in the mood for Twelve again, and after the announcement of The Eighth of March, I also got into a Vastra mood, so I'm now about an hour into the audiobook of Silhouette, and really enjoying it. Dan Starkey's a solid narrator, too.
Later on, when I get home, I'll finish the last three episodes of The Invasion that I have to watch, and then probably start either the next title in the main range (The Crimes of Thomas Brewster), or maybe try to finish up season two of the 4DAs.
And wow. That's a lot of blather. Maybe I should've saved all this for my nonexistent blog instead of a forum post. Sorry.
