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I still like the vocal effects The Holy Terror. They did exactly what they were supposed to do, IMO, including, for once, Frobisher's terrible "what are even trying to do?" accent.
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May 10, 2015 20:30
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Are the Nick Briggs Sherlock Holmes audios any good?
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May 11, 2015 00:39
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Guys guys guys. From Lego: Please note, this is not the full set/sets that are coming, but a preview from Lego's upcoming 'Dimensions' game thing (think Skylanders/Disney Infinity).  More info here. The_Doctor fucked around with this message at 04:43 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 04:41
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Funny, I thought the end of a functioning and responsible adult society as we understood it would come with more fanfare than this.
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May 11, 2015 04:53
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Gaz-L posted:Are the Nick Briggs Sherlock Holmes audios any good? Yep.
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May 11, 2015 09:50
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Jerusalem posted:Funny, I thought the end of a functioning and responsible adult society as we understood it would come with more fanfare than this. I was JUST thinking about a Who/Portal 2 crossover as well...  (I may or may not be currently wearing this t-shirt under my blue work shirt and tie, Confirm/Deny)
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May 11, 2015 10:03
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CobiWann posted:I was JUST thinking about a Who/Portal 2 crossover as well... Are you also wearing Converse trainers?
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May 11, 2015 10:11
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Fil5000 posted:Are you also wearing Converse trainers? Not to work! (Anymore) (Semi casual Friday my rear end)
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May 11, 2015 10:28
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Jerusalem posted:Funny, I thought the end of a functioning and responsible adult society as we understood it would come with more fanfare than this. Yeah, we were all doomed so quietly and quickly. The Lego video games are collectathons, right? I am so screwed.
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May 11, 2015 14:30
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Also: I listened to The Mahogany Murders this weekend and I am extremely glad that Jago and Litefoot get their own spin-off, because goddamn if Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter didn't sound like they were enjoying the hell out of every single moment of the Companion Chronicle. It was really enjoyable to hear.
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May 11, 2015 17:20
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I keep meaning to try both Jago and Litefoot and Gallifrey. I hear they’re both smashing (Jago moreso, but I love a good round of politics). To move away from Big Finish (for once in this thread!), I need to stress just how much I LOVE this moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhklrve5xmw Eccleston just sells the pure joy of that moment. After all the horror of the Time War AND the London Blitz, just one time everything goes completely right. It’s one of my favorite moments in the new series thanks to the unstrained emotion of it all. Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? Terminus maybe? Edit – And, of course, it comes back to Big Finish as I just got this Facebook message from perhaps the most die-hard fan of the show I know… quote:I'm going to listen to part four of "Terror Firma" because I'm a completist, but good God what were they thinking!?!?! CobiWann fucked around with this message at 17:32 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 17:26
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CobiWann posted:I keep meaning to try both Jago and Litefoot and Gallifrey. I hear they’re both smashing (Jago moreso, but I love a good round of politics). Terror Firma is bad.
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May 11, 2015 17:55
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CobiWann posted:Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? Terminus maybe? CobiWann posted:Edit – And, of course, it comes back to Big Finish as I just got this Facebook message from perhaps the most die-hard fan of the show I know…
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May 11, 2015 18:01
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After The War posted:Tell them they'll never learn the secret of C'rizz if they don't finish it. That should keep them distracted long enough for you to assume a new identity. Too late. His response was "Well, at least Thicker Than Water is next!"
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May 11, 2015 18:32
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CobiWann posted:Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? Terminus maybe? I assume you mean outside the new series, because "everybody lives" in like 3 episodes per series.
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May 11, 2015 18:48
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CobiWann posted:Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? I don't think anyone died in Listen.
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May 11, 2015 18:50
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CobiWann posted:I keep meaning to try both Jago and Litefoot and Gallifrey. I hear they’re both smashing (Jago moreso, but I love a good round of politics). They were thinking "I CAN TOTALLY MAKE THIS GRIM AND DARK AND ILL INTRODUCE NEW CHARACTERS JUST TO MAKE THEM MISERABLE"
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May 11, 2015 18:53
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"everybody lives" is a bit of a recurring thing for Moffat. The Angels in Blink killed you by making you live somewhere else, everyone in the Library episodes got backed up to the computer, The Big Bang restored everything including Rory who'd died in a whole other episode, etc
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May 11, 2015 22:28
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2house2fly posted:"everybody lives" is a bit of a recurring thing for Moffat. The Angels in Blink killed you by making you live somewhere else, everyone in the Library episodes got backed up to the computer, The Big Bang restored everything including Rory who'd died in a whole other episode, etc Yeah, but the Blink people suffered a horrible fate, as did the library computer people, whereas the people in the World War II two-parter actually did all just pull through and get healed.
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May 11, 2015 22:34
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Yeah, only in Empty Child does everyone just "live". Moffat usually prefers to put characters through non-fatal trauma through which they still have to move past, and heal. I'm at a loss for other instances of straight-up happy endings.
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May 11, 2015 22:45
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DoctorWhat posted:move past, and heal. You.
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May 11, 2015 22:52
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I will not apologize.
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May 11, 2015 23:03
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CobiWann posted:Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? Terminus maybe? Disregarding 'fantasy' stories (where no-one real dies) like The Celestial Toymaker, The Mind Robber and Castrovalva and stories with no guest cast like The Edge of Destruction, the most obvious one that comes to mind is Fury from the Deep, however I have a feeling there are more. There was a book full of lists like this that came out at some point after the TV Movie...
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May 12, 2015 00:28
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CobiWann posted:Has there ever been another story where, like The Doctor Dances, everyone lives? Terminus maybe? Fear Her?
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May 12, 2015 00:46
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Zaroff posted:There was a book full of lists like this that came out at some point after the TV Movie... This one? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0563405694/
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May 12, 2015 00:50
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Speaking of happy endings - 100 100 is, not surprisingly, the 100th of Big Finish's monthly range of Doctor Who audios. As a result, it is a trifle self-indulgent and meta-referential, but like other anniversary specials that's kinda forgivable and even a little expected, this is meant as a celebration and outside of one extraordinarily sour note, that's exactly what this story is - a celebration. Four distinct single-story episodes that as a whole explore the relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe, make some commentary on the Doctor Who franchise itself, as well as a reflection on the four Doctors who primarily feature in Big Finish (this predates Tom Baker's taking part), particularly Colin Baker and the "redemption" that Big Finish provided to his Doctor. 100 BC is the first story, and is played entirely for comedy despite some apparently large stakes. To put it bluntly, this is a story about the Sixth Doctor trying to help get Julius Caesar's dad laid, while Evelyn tries to cockblock the whole thing, and it's great. Written by Jacqueline Rayner, it's a story all about preserving the web of time, as the Doctor and Evelyn pop into Ancient Rome and appear to accidentally ruin a romantic evening between Julius Caesar III and Aurelia Cotta. The Doctor, alarmed at what havoc this may have caused, pops them forward 9 months and is shocked to discover Aurelia has given birth to a girl and not a boy. Declaring he must set things right, he runs headlong into Evelyn who is rather put out at the notion that a girl is worth less than a boy, and then begins to thrill at the possibility of arguably one of the most famous people in history being a woman instead, and how that may make future society a better place. The Doctor tries to put his foot down but Evelyn is having none of that, leading to a rather incredible sequence where the Doctor tries to serenade the irritated Julius and Aurelia and ply them with wine and good foods.... while Evelyn stomps about making a godawful racket with instruments and cheerfully informing everybody about the disgusting facts about the food they're eating. At one point Evelyn fakes a medical breakdown in order to make a dash back to Julius' house, where she runs into the Doctor playing the Ghost of Christmas Future, forebodingly telling of the destruction of the timeline and future-Evelyn's dismay. That he can't resist hamming it up and insisting that future-Evelyn wails,"Oh if only I'd listened to the Doctor!" is great, but what is better is Evelyn noticing the plaster she put on his finger earlier that day and rumbling his game. The conclusion is even better, as they discover what they mistook for stony politeness on Aurelia's part early in the story was actually genuine icy recollection, and the whole thing hinges on the Doctor forgetting that the numbers in B.C dating count DOWN and not up. The whole thing is just ridiculous good fun, and though from a technical standpoint you could argue that Evelyn was being not just stubborn but reckless in her casual disregard for causality, the fact is that the entire atmosphere of this story is meant to be taken in good fun, and nobody should take it seriously - because the performers certainly weren't - just a great, fun story to get things going. My Own Private Wolfgang is somewhat more serious but still in good fun. Referenced in the previous story so technically taking place before it, it's the tale of the long-lived, prolific and utterly middle-of-the-road composer Mozart. A curiosity that the Doctor has for some reason never thought to investigate, Mozart has lived hundreds of years and produced huge amounts of work, most of it commercial drivel quickly relegated to elevator music or cheap stock library music. Written by Rob Shearman, it's not one of his best but does have a certain delightful madness to it as the full details behind Mozart's long life are explained and everything climaxes with a great deal of ridiculous exposition that makes it clear to all how ludicrous the situation they've found themselves in has become. It was perhaps a mistake to do two comedic episodes, especially back-to-back, because the comedy here doesn't work quite as well as it did in the previous story, but taken alone it's perfectly fine. The Doctor and Evelyn attend one of Mozart's annual performances of his new symphonies, the Doctor freely admitting to the butler that he picked up the invitation in the time-space vortex, and being rather snootily reprimanded for mistaking the butler's professionally blank face as some kind of anachronistic knowledge of future technology. Mozart steps on stage, welcomes his guests (who he complains he doesn't know) and then "performs", shooting himself three times in the head before wailing that nothing works and trudging off in a bad mood. It turns out that Mozart signed a deal with the devil on the point of the early death we all know he suffered, being granted eternal life on the condition that he never stop producing music. At such a young age, Mozart could think of nothing more exciting than an eternity of producing music, but even his genius eventually wore thin and snapped, his creativity has run dry and he has seen the one thing he once loved above all else - music - become a fruitless and empty endeavor. In trying to ascertain just who this "devil" is, the Doctor uncovers an unlikely conspiracy that essentially boils down to a worn out fad, and after Evelyn is kidnapped, everybody ends up finding themselves back at Mozart's original point of death, where they babble exposition at the confused, dying genius who finally sees the light when he eats a mediocre scone. The Doctor unfinishes Mozart's final finished symphony and he and Evelyn set off, having changed history.... but that history had itself already been changed, and the only off-note I can really find with this perfectly fine if unremarkable story is that the Doctor should have known something was off the moment Mozart initially didn't die, as opposed to just taking it as a given (along with all of humanity) that there was a guy who just so happened to be centuries old and continually producing music. Bedtime Story, unfortunately, has a whole hell of a lot more to complain about. A perfectly reasonable if, again, unremarkable story, it is written by Joseph Lidster which should tell you all that you need (or don't want) to know. For 95% of the story, it unfolds like a typical quasi-horror story set in the Doctor Who universe. The Doctor and Evelyn arrive, discover a creepy situation in an otherwise normal setting, investigate it, face danger, solve the problem and save the day then go on their way. It's perfectly fine if nothing special, and doesn't stand out in any way until the final 5% of the story which provides the "twist". Unfortunately, as is frequently the case in Lidster's material with Doctor Who, that twist is senselessly cruel, cynical and seemingly at complete odds with the very nature of what Doctor Who is all about as a show. Evelyn reads in the paper that the father of one of her former students has died, and she and the Doctor go to pay their respects to the family. There they discover the rather unusual family "tradition" - every time a grandchild is born to the family, the grandparents die within a few weeks. Intrigued, the Doctor investigates the family tree and quickly figures out what is going on, but too late to prevent the grandmother suffering the same fate mid-tirade at her son's wife, who she despises and believes to be a tramp. But death would actually be a kindness compared to what has actually happened, the Doctor explains that rather than dying, the grandparents are placed in a kind of temporal lock, fully aware of everything going on around them, their minds trapped in a timeless space while their bodies atrophy and decay deep beneath the ground, till finally their minds snap from the horror of it all. It is a cruel torture, and the Doctor quickly figures out that one of those present in the room must be the culprit, disguised as somebody the family knows so they can gleefully drink in the despair and horror of the survivors, and he is quick to identify who it is. The "monster" reveals their story and the reasoning behind their actions, the Doctor using that exposition and his own carefully framed responses to give cues to the baby's mother on how to defeat the monster. Succeeding, he admits that he doesn't know how to break the "spell" the grandparents are under (the grandfather has been retrieved from his grave), but he can save their minds until the effect wears off. So, in what is an unusually bright and hopeful ending to a Lidster story, the Doctor takes the victims with him in his TARDIS and travels for 100 years showing them wonders and sights to stir the soul. They awaken and he returns them to their own time and space, letting them pick up where they left off, the curse broken, the family restored. And had it ended there, it would have been a perfectly reasonable if unremarkable story. But Lidster just can't help himself, and he ends the story with a despicable, cynical twist that completely wrecks the story, all in the name of some misguided, sad attempt to be "adult" that falls completely flat. The Doctor has saved the day, the Doctor has moved on, the family have been left behind to live their lives normally for the first time in centuries.... and then it all turns out to have been a ruse. The monster wasn't destroyed at all, but simply hid and waited till the coast was clear before taking over the mind/body of one of the family members and kicking the whole thing off all over again. The end, no moral. Badness wins, the evil monster gets to keep tormenting this family for rest of time or until it eventually dies (if it even can). How "mature", how "adult", oh isn't that "clever", the bad guy wins just like in real life, there is no hope or redemption or escape. What the gently caress was he thinking? How the hell does this fit in AT ALL with the Doctor Who ethos of there always being a better way, a way out, a hope? Even in the darkest days of Peter Davison's run where everybody was dying all over the place, there was still that core of,"The Doctor tries his best and never lets despair get him down." And yet here, in this story, like a sadistic child pulling wings of flies, Lidster seems to almost revel in writing the monster gloating over its victory, completely safe in the knowledge that the Doctor is gone, that it has tricked him and will continue to torture and torment unhindered. The end theme even plays with over a minute left on the audio track, perhaps to mislead the listener into thinking the Doctor is going to reappear with a,"Gotcha! Not so fast!" or something, which almost seems to be rubbing it in when that doesn't happen. There is nothing wrong with a bleak ending, it can be used to great effect and in fact has been many times in the past (Resurrection of the Daleks for instance, or Earthshock though that ending is more a celebration of all that is good and right in the universe) but Lidster always seems to miss the point, at least to my mind. Doctor Who is above all else a hopeful show, a show designed to place hope above cynicism, to speak against all reason that there is always the chance of something better. A story like this one rejects that, all in some misguided attempt to prove how "adult" it is, and what it comes across as is teen-angst masquerading as maturity. A gigantic disappointment of a story, and a sour note that badly affects the audio as a whole because whenever anybody talks about 100, this lovely ending will inevitably come up. The 100 Days of the Doctor comes as a palette cleanser following that, no great surprise since it was written by Paul Cornell, but also because it inherently rejects the darker take on the show seen in the previous story. It is a self-indulgent story, sometimes to extremes, but as noted earlier that can be forgivable when producing an anniversary style episode like this, especially if it remembers that at the heart of it all there needs to be a story beyond simple meta-references. The meta-references do abound though, there is all kinds of eye-winking (well, ear-winking?) about the franchise, about the show vs the audios, references to various Big Finish spin-offs like Gallifrey or Bernice Summerfield. The Doctor is infected by a virus sent by a technocratic society in revenge for his interference during an unseen adventure. He has 100 days to live, 100 days to consider his doom as his body is slowly taken over and broken down by the intelligent virus coursing through his system. Of course, being the Doctor, this means he has 100 days to try and find a cure, and though the intention is to give him hope to make his failure all the more devastating (hello Joseph Lidster), the Doctor isn't about to give in to despair. Over 100 days, he and Evelyn track back his journeys through areas of space/time within the reach of the Technocracy, all in an attempt to discover the moment of infection. During this time, the Doctor's body is gradually breaking down, and he begins to take on a remote and reflective air as he looks back over his life.... and perversely, his future. To his great surprise, the TARDIS databanks also include the locations/times of FUTURE journeys (the TARDIS is odd like that) and he not only follows the adventures of himself and the 5th Doctor, but those of the 7th and 8th as well (there is a line from Evelyn about why it's only ever those four and none of the others). He admits that despite having future incarnations, this does not guarantee his survival, and those lives could be wiped out if he is not successful, but it does afford him the opportunity to consider his own future. He is chuffed to see the 7th Doctor teaching Ace and Hex how to deal with the situations he puts them in (Evelyn comments they look like siblings, and I half expected Hex to cry out,"Oh COME ON!") and even more to see C'Rizz, pleased that he's actually traveling with a non-"human" for once. It's a multi-Doctor story that only features one Doctor, he merely references events and characters and we never hear from any of them, and that actually works in that it gives us a central point of view (plus some neat comments from Evelyn about the pretty young things the 5th Doctor travels with) instead of multiple central characters. In fact, the only voice provided by anybody other than Baker and Stables is from Nick Briggs, who features as the assassin who infects the Doctor. When the Doctor finally catches up to him with only hours left to live, there is a rather wonderful section where he cruelly infects the assassin to give him a taste of his own medicine, declaring that if he has to die he wants somebody to suffer for it. That is very un-Doctor like.... which is of course the point, the Doctor had figured out how to cure himself within minutes of being infected, but needed 100 days to track down the assassin first. Knowing they would have the cure in case they themselves were infected, he deliberately didn't prevent his initial infection to preserve the timeline, then set up a situation where the assassin would lead him straight to the cure. He didn't infect the Assassin, just pretended to, something that Evelyn immediately grasps because she knows the Doctor wouldn't fall to despair and cruelty like that, because she's not Joseph loving Lidster. The Doctor cures himself, snaps at the lament of the dying virus (which can talk through his vocal cords) that is a touch of sniffles with ideas above its station, then happily continues on to have more adventures with Evelyn, his lovely, loyal and hopeful companion. 100 is a celebration of Doctor Who, and most particularly a celebration of Big Finish Doctor Who. Four self-contained episodes that let Colin Baker and Maggie Stables shine as the Doctor/Evelyn duo, it is self-indulgent in parts but not in a way that feels particularly eye-rolling, and it ends on a high note that understands the nature of who the Doctor is, why he acts the way he does, and leaves the listener (or at least, me) feeling good and happy that they spent time listening to it. Unfortunately, it is seriously hobbled by the inclusion of Joseph "Misery Porn" Lidster and his seeming inability to write a story that doesn't have some kind of cynical, dark twist that is there purely for the sake of being grim'n'gritty. It is such a small portion of the story, but has such a non-proportionate impact, it's almost impossible to discuss this story without bringing it up. In that sense I guess it was a "success", and I'm sure some would argue that this proves it was an effective twist ending. For me though, it stands out because it was so bad and inappropriate for Doctor Who, and I think there is such a thing as bad PR. I recommend 100, and while I always say people should listen to something themselves to make up their own mind, I will say that if you were to just skip the third episode, you'd probably be far happier with the end result. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 08:05 on May 12, 2015 |
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May 12, 2015 01:08
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That's the one!
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May 12, 2015 01:13
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Yeah, that weird Lidster story in the middle of nowhere really does drag down 100. It's a shame. 
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May 12, 2015 02:35
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I know everybody earlier was doing the "heh, 100 sure is a great three-part story, am i rite?" thing earlier, but I literally cannot remember a thing about Bedtime Story. I read Jerusalem's review and none of it sounds familiar whatsoever. It really must be just that bad that it self-deleted from my memory.
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May 12, 2015 02:35
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Like, to be honest, 100 Days of the Doctor isn't very good either, but its painfully self-referential and self-congratulatory nature can be forgiven by the fact that it's a celebration story and that it's a short one that they tag onto the end. Palette cleanser is a good way to put it the way that they're formatted, because the first two are great. 100 BC had me laughing out loud, and My Own Private Wolfgang, while more serious, doesn't feel jarring after hearing it. Basically, Lidster is a huge fun-ruiner.
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May 12, 2015 02:40
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Bicyclops posted:Basically, Lidster is a huge fun-ruiner. It's like Colin Baker and Maggie Stables were having a fun conversation at a party, Lidster walks in, gets onto the snacks table, drops trou and just takes a giant poo poo in the punch, declares,"SOMETIMES BAD THINGS HAPPEN!" then leaves.
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May 12, 2015 03:41
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Jerusalem posted:It's like Colin Baker and Maggie Stables were having a fun conversation at a party, Lidster walks in, gets onto the snacks table, drops trou and just takes a giant poo poo in the punch, declares,"SOMETIMES BAD THINGS HAPPEN!" then leaves. AND THAT poo poo WAS ONCE THE DOCTOR'S COMPANION
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May 12, 2015 18:47
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If there were such a thing as a Doctor Who board game, Lidster would be the guy who says "I play Life is Hard," then suddenly flips the board, spilling pieces everywhere, and stomps on the fragile ones. While everyone is trying to clean up the carnage, he grabs the score sheet and scratches everything out, writing in "Everybody loses!"
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May 12, 2015 18:57
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"Just this once, Rose, EVERYBODY LIV-" Joseph Lidster enters with a machine gun and Mickey's severed head.
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May 12, 2015 19:05
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docbeard posted:"Just this once, Rose, EVERYBODY LIV-" "NOT SO FAST, LIDSTER," cried the ghost of Philip Hinchcliffe.
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May 12, 2015 19:48
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Hinchcliffe's not dead.
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May 12, 2015 19:54
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DoctorWhat posted:Hinchcliffe's not dead. You think that would stop Hinchcliffe from having a ghost?
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May 12, 2015 19:56
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It's been well established by this thread that the reason Hinchcliffe hasn't worked on Who in forever is because it detracts from his day job of haunting the beds and closets of children everywhere.
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May 12, 2015 20:09
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Hit or miss Clitoris posted:It's been well established by this thread that the reason Hinchcliffe hasn't worked on Who in forever is because it detracts from his day job of haunting the beds and closets of children everywhere. A true idol unlike any seen before or since. Also on my ever closer to the end Third DoctorAthon, I have now gotten to the Time Warrior. Uh, question. Mind I've only seen the first episode, half of it so far. Why did Sontarans get so much shorter and, frankly, worse costumes? Like these are kinda 60s tacky, but you could reasonably update this and get something genuinely good from it. Or is this guy short and they just shoot it at the wrong angles
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May 12, 2015 20:17
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:38 |
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The first Sontaran is pretty short. If you want tall Sontarans, you'll have to wait until the Baker era. They tried the tall design for awhile, but it turns out that tall Sontarans have a lot of difficulties with pool chairs.
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May 12, 2015 20:19
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