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| What: | Return of the Daleks (Big Finish subscriber bonuses) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 2 July 2008 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
The daleks are viciously better here. Nasty dialogue and nasty beatings by the ogrons on Susan Mendes, and Sylvester is at his most misleading best. He is such a great Doctor. Sad he hasnt done as many audios as the other doctors. And Spiridon being back is a good and for me long awaited idea. The infection is a good line too. Sadly this is too short. Could have been extended and still have been just as good.
| What: | I.D. (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 2 July 2008 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Colin on his own, like Sylvester, is a great idea. He works well with or without companions. And the Doctor in his sixth form is quite brilliant and underrated.
ID is more of a techno thriller, and a grand return to the long missed three part serial. More cut down, more story and therefore more pace overall.
ID is quite disgustingly realistic in places. The two monster smashing each other to pieces isnt very nice stuff, but entertaining and absorbing. And the thought of mind surgery is sickening but definitely not beyond scope. It seems Eddie Robson has things to say in his scripts. And good things too.
And then is the brilliant URGENT CALLS, such a fresh new way for an audio story, nearly all on the phone. And the tale is nicely paced and beautiful performed by all involved. A classy tale i like more and more and now give it a ten out of ten.
This book is alright, it has quite a good history of the Daleks (however it only goes up to Destiny of the Daleks), and a decent story.
I would give this 6 1/2, but I've rounded up.
| What: | Timelash (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 1 July 2008 |
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| Rating: |  6 |
This unfairly called rubbish, boring and silly, but people are wrong to a certain degree!
I like the story, although the idea of a time tunnel used for punishment instead of scientific research is silly, and the prosthetics on the Borad is the best seen in the series, classic and new, and the Coming Soon trailer is a brilliant new addition to the 2|entertain DVDs!
There are problems, though, mainly in the production values area of things; the Timelash is full of tinsel, and the Bandrils look like sock puppets!
This story is NOT poor, but it certainly falls short of the 'good' category.
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 | A UNIT version of Genesis of the Daleks |
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| What: | Robot (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 1 July 2008 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This story works in a way very much like Genesis of the Daleks; a mad scientist (Miss Winters/Davros) and their science group (The SRS/The Elite) try to take over the world (Earth/Skaro) with a robot (The Robot/Daleks). Yes, I know Daleks aren't robots, but it's a fair point.
The story itself is good, fast-paced and witty in places. The new Doctor performs well and the UNIT background helps to maintain continuity.
| What: | Max Warp (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Debbie , Illinois |
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| Date: | Saturday 28 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This title was my very first experience with Dr. Who audio dramas. To be honest, I initially downloaded Max Warp for one reason only, Graeme Garden. And he didn't disappoint.
It was nice to hear Paul McGann as the Doctor, and he as well as everyone else obviously enjoyed themselves a great deal with this story. From the Doctor taking time out to adjust an entry on the "funky board" to Jeff telling Lucie to stand there and "stick out your bits," the story was entertaining, the dialog fun to listen to and the actors were engaged; the whole play holds up well under repeated listening despite a few random plot holes.
My only problem now is, I can't watch Top Gear without seeing James May and thinking "Shut up, O'Reilly!" Maybe that's not such a problem after all.
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| Well written and gripping |
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Benny and the Glass Prison has to be one of the best Dr Who related novels.
The plot is gripping with excellent characterisation and a sense of humour.
It is recommended reading for anybody who follows the Benny audio plays (especially Seasons 8 & 9) to set the scene for what happens there.
A dark brooding stranger in a long coat moves around a West Coast US town hunting vampires, with sidekick in tow. The basic premise of this novel, has a certain familiarity about it. However, a good idea is a good idea, and Doctor Who has 'borrowed' sci fi themes throughout its history.
The material here is handled quite well, but if you read a lot of these novels this one stands out as being out of character.
That said there is plenty of action and things rattle along at a goodly pace.
I wonder how the pitch meeting for this novel went. Terrance, we want a book that covers the entire Doctor Who back-story. If you can tidy up a few loose ends from the TV Movie that would be fine. Oh and can you also introduce a brand new female companion, and keep it to a couple hundred pages.
Terrance has made a decent fist of a bad plan. The revisiting of pivotal moments from past doctor stories is a interesting plot device, and while a few of the encounters are poorly handled, generally they work as a short-hand way of covering the back-story.
The real weakness here is the decision to introduce the companion Sam Jones and then abandon her for the majority of the plot. She becomes little more than an afterthought and loses any impact she might have.
It's a decent read. But, if you are used to the more heavy weight New Adventures it is a bit frothy in comparison. Mind you, if you think the New Adventures are a bit too pretentious for there own good, this might comes as a pleasant surprise.
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| One of the best New Series books |
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| What: | The Pirate Loop (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Jamie, England |
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| Date: | Saturday 21 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I read Pirate Loop last week and loved it. Simon Guerrier gets the Doctor and Martha perfectly and the other characters were brilliant. I think my favourite character is Archie because he is so adorable.
Interesting to say the least. As much as i love Doctor who, this book, i just couldnt put it down. Sure....its interesting, it gives out a lot of information and some nods/refrences to the past, but I found that unless you can really ingage in the book itself, you might just end up finishing it but after reading half of the book, it seemed to me that there was far to much in terms of know how and far to little actually going on. Some might love this book, i like it for some reasons, The Doctors represented well here and so is Martha however, the book itself dried up far to quickly in my point of view!
What a refreshing read, highly recommended, fun, enjoyable, I simply couldnt put it down, its a must read.
| What: | Series 3 Volume 4: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 20 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
UTOPIA - A well-balanced adventure, with the good back-story about the survivors' journey to Utopia, but I think this is overshadowed by the arrival of the Master!
THE SOUND OF DRUMS - A good Part Two for the "Master Trilogy", although personally the idea of John Simm as the Master doesn't work for me. The brilliant cliffhanger of the Earth being in danger and the Doctor and his companion being in genuine danger makes this the besty of the 3.
LAST OF THE TIME LORDS - The weakest, due to the fact to the Master being defeated by everyone saying 'Doctor'!? The Master dying at the end wasn't a very good ending either, but we had the spectacular red fingernails picking up the ring...
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| Time flight into the Ark of Infinity |
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My brothers introduced me to DR Who because when i was little, i had all or most of the videos on VHS so I knew who was who, and what those stories were however when I bought the Three Doctors, I thought that the character of Omega was great, the mask was exceptional, however, I like what the did in Ark of Infinity to him. I loved that story, because for many reasons, one being they filmed in Amsterdam and the other being that the Tardis team of just the Doctor and Nyssa have tjhe chance to meet thier old friend Tegan Javanka who after not that long returned faithful to the TARDIS and I knew when I sat down and wathed Timeflight that Tegan didnt leave as in for good because her official outing and when i did see her go n that episode, It did keep me guessing as to how long she was away because I had never seen either of these episodes and I only bought them the other day in this fantastic looking boxset.
Tegan always did appeal to me and I thought she was a great companion of her day and Im glad she still does audio adventures for Doctor Who because her character I felt seemed miss used. Even finding the Master amoung one of the episodes astonished me because I had also once before seen time flight on UK GOLD but had never seen the concluding two parter. This boxset is one of the very few that contain some of the best episodes in the whoniverse.
Trust me on this!
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| Another sixth doctor hit... |
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| What: | Assassin in the Limelight (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
as far as sequels go, this aint bad at all. But as a sequel to two previous stories by the same writer, its flipping excellent. Pier Pressure and Medicinal Purposes are already two of my favourite audios, and so here comes Rob Ross with another in that great line. A great trilogy. The aliens are actually named, which is a good thing. Leslie Phillips again steals the show, giving a fine performance as Dr Knox. Colin and Maggie get back together so well and easily too. A sort of simple story overall, but that is no bad thing. I like the talking TARDIS too. All in all, a very well produced and realised audio story. More please!
| What: | Ten Little Aliens (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 15 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
A tense, interesting tale. A long slow build up but a really exciting ending. I love the 1st Doctor story's the best & this is one of the best.
| What: | Nocturne (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 9 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"Nocturne" is a traditional kind of Doctor Who story handled in a very traditional sort of way. The Doctor takes his companions to a place he finds interesting and immediately they are all embroiled in a battle against destructive evil. There are a couple of nice touches, such as that even though the Doctor is known by many, he is welcomed as a friend, except by the representative of the police, the Oberst. As usual, the chief cop is thick-skulled and overly suspicious, though the fact of a decades-old war gives that cliche some verisimilitude. The idea of killer sound had been used way back in the early days of Big Finish, in "Whispers of Terror." Here the killer is a kind of modernist piece of music generated from bioharmonics (Dan Abnett perhaps not a fan of Stockhausen?). It all plays out in the usual Doctor Who way. For those who like the traditional Doctor Who formula strictly adhered to, this is a good tale.
After the super 'The Christmas Invasion', we were hoping for something that would live up to expectations, and maybe even better them. However, this is a total let-down compared to that first Christmas special.
However, it certainly is not as bad as 'Voyage of the Damned'...
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| Not the best beginning-of-season stories |
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| What: | Series 4 Volume 1: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 9 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
A good collection of stories, although I was unimpressed after thinking about the first 3 stories from the three previous series. I do, however, think that a good job has been done on the DVD cover.
| What: | Loups-Garoux (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Paul Williams, New Brighton, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 9 June 2008 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Very clever writing. Excellent interplay between Turlough and the Doctor. And Eleanor Bron and Sarah Gale have incredible vocal range.
