Big Finish Audio Dramas

[Flyboy]

As someone who's had limited experience with Big Finish - doesn't he have the same writers as the ones working behind all the other Doctors? Or is it some sort of story arc-related issue?

Writers? I'll admit, I'm not sure. I listen to so many (it's my main vice) that I never really check who wrote what....

My personal opinion is the fact that there's quite limited scope for the 5th Doctor.

6, 7, 8, and War all have huge periods of time that can be fleshed out. Whilst some of the 6 and 7's audios are indeed set inbetween televised episodes, a HUGE portion of Six's audios take place in between his departure at the end of Trial of a Time Lord and his regeneration. This leaves massive scope for personal development and character growth, as well as other companions (because we know that the Mel he left with at the end of Trial was actually a *future* Mel, and not from his immediate timeline). Similarly, Seven has so much scope to play with in between Survival and The Movie. In fact, arguably, Seven has had the most development of all of the Doctors (bar Eight), with some really bloody strong story arcs. Due to Big Finish, he's become one of my favourite Doctors. At their height, the Seventh Doctor saga has been the core of my Who fandom.... Then of course there's Eight, where almost everything is new ground and has always been so. It's only since Night of the Doctor that we've had some idea of where the character is heading - he's truly exciting, especially as things progress closer and closer to the outbreak of the Time War. Which of course leads us onto why the War Doctor boxsets are so great.

Five just.... doesn't have that room for growth and development. There are no major arcs and almost everything soft resets at the end of the audio. There was a nice little Nyssa arc at one point in time, but maintaining it became quite a struggle. Truth be told, I find the Fourth Doctor audios similarly difficult at times. There's such little room for something *new*. Four and Five come across as new classic episodes, where as Six, Seven and Eight all come across as NEW adventures, just with classic Doctors (if you get my meaning)...

[rushy]

Writers? I'll admit, I'm not sure. I listen to so many (it's my main vice) that I never really check who wrote what....

My personal opinion is the fact that there's quite limited scope for the 5th Doctor.

6, 7, 8, and War all have huge periods of time that can be fleshed out. Whilst some of the 6 and 7's audios are indeed set inbetween televised episodes, a HUGE portion of Six's audios take place in between his departure at the end of Trial of a Time Lord and his regeneration. This leaves massive scope for personal development and character growth, as well as other companions (because we know that the Mel he left with at the end of Trial was actually a *future* Mel, and not from his immediate timeline). Similarly, Seven has so much scope to play with in between Survival and The Movie. In fact, arguably, Seven has had the most development of all of the Doctors (bar Eight), with some really bloody strong story arcs. Due to Big Finish, he's become one of my favourite Doctors. At their height, the Seventh Doctor saga has been the core of my Who fandom.... Then of course there's Eight, where almost everything is new ground and has always been so. It's only since Night of the Doctor that we've had some idea of where the character is heading - he's truly exciting, especially as things progress closer and closer to the outbreak of the Time War. Which of course leads us onto why the War Doctor boxsets are so great.

Five just.... doesn't have that room for growth and development. There are no major arcs and almost everything soft resets at the end of the audio. There was a nice little Nyssa arc at one point in time, but maintaining it became quite a struggle. Truth be told, I find the Fourth Doctor audios similarly difficult at times. There's such little room for something *new*. Four and Five come across as new classic episodes, where as Six, Seven and Eight all come across as NEW adventures, just with classic Doctors (if you get my meaning)...

It's descriptions like these that niggle at me and won't let me stay glued to the TV entirely... but whenever I look towards Big Finish, all I see is the planet-sized Library from Series 4, with no beginning or end. Where to start? Where to go? What's this arc? What's that arc? Spin-offs and audiobooks and God knows what else... and it all started 20 years ago, that's almost as long as Classic Who and twenty times as complicated... how you lot keep track of that and all those New Adventures and things, I will never know.

[Flyboy]

It's descriptions like these that niggle at me and won't let me stay glued to the TV entirely... but whenever I look towards Big Finish, all I see is the planet-sized Library from Series 4, with no beginning or end. Where to start? Where to go? What's this arc? What's that arc? Spin-offs and audiobooks and God knows what else... and it all started 20 years ago, that's almost as long as Classic Who and twenty times as complicated... how you lot keep track of that and all those New Adventures and things, I will never know.

Well I was lucky... I got into BF whilst on Afghanistan, so spend half my monthly salary on audios and I started at the very beginning and worked through them all in release order.

But if you're trying to break into it, easy.

Who's your favourite Doctor?

Do you want to follow a mainline Who story, or are there spin offs you like the look of? Eg daleks/UNIT

Let me know and I'll recommend a plan of attack

[Alan]

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2 Trailer

[Flyboy]

As excited as I have been for Doom Coalition... that's a pretty bad trailer.

[DigiFluid]

Part 1 was solid, if perhaps a little unremarkable. A couple of neat tie-ins, and a provocative ending.

Part 2 was brilliant. John Dorney is rapidly turning into one of my favourite Big Finish writers.


That's all I've had time for so far....

[DigiFluid]

"Throwing your toys out of the pram" is a British expression for having a tantrum. I'm basically suggesting that EM was being a touch ridiculous. It's a paycheck at the end of the day, she's only hurting herself.

Got it, thank you!

As for Aqitaine - my God! Bloody brilliant! I'm very surprised, usually Five's stuff is kinda tedious (as much as I like PD's Doctor, and the original episodes), and I tend to merely listen to them out of a sense of obligation (with one or two exceptions). But this offering was spectacular and really came across as all round great Doctor Who!

Yep! I'm not a giant fan of the Davison era in general...with a handful of exceptions, I've always found his Doctor to be very vanilla, and his companions? Good lord. Having to suffer through Tegan was very nearly enough to make me skip the rest of his era and go straight to Sixie.

So yeah...releases as good as Aquitaine are always such a nice surprise. Everyone had things to do, nobody made me want to flush them out the airlock, the 'timey-wimey' stuff was clever, and the derelict locale setting is right to my interests. Awesome release.

[DigiFluid]

Benny returns this summer, and travels to the 'Unbound universe' with David Warner's Doctor!

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doc...bound-universe

[Flyboy]

Benny returns this summer, and travels to the 'Unbound universe' with David Warner's Doctor!

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doc...bound-universe

Unsure how I feel about this....

I enjoyed Unbound... but part of me feels it should have stayed separate...

Also, why can't Benny stand on her own?

[DigiFluid]

I'm quite excited for it. Ever since someone in this thread (may even have been you) pointed me toward the Unbound story "Masters of War", I've been pining for a David Warner Doctor. Now to get that and Benny? Most excellent...

[Flyboy]

I'm quite excited for it. Ever since someone in this thread (may even have been you) pointed me toward the Unbound story "Masters of War", I've been pining for a David Warner Doctor. Now to get that and Benny? Most excellent...

I do love David Warner... though I find (given his distinctive voice) he's overused by Big Finish. Not only is he A Doctor, but he's Mycroft Holmes as well as lots of other characters....

[Flyboy]

So... Doom Coalition 2 will need re-listening to...

Fell asleep during ep 3 and 4...

[DigiFluid]

I've found that I'm physically incapable of listening to BF while in bed, for that exact reason. Doesn't matter how much I'm enjoying the story, I doze off every single time!

[Flyboy]

I've found that I'm physically incapable of listening to BF while in bed, for that exact reason. Doesn't matter how much I'm enjoying the story, I doze off every single time!

Same...

Waiting for the boxset to arrive so that I can listen to it when driving, so as to give it my full undivided attention.

... wait...

[DigiFluid]

It's funny you should put it quite like that; when I'm driving seems to be when I'm best able to focus on them!