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| What: | The Dark Flame (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: |   5 |
"The Dark Flame" is just a basic people secretly belonging to a cult and worshipping a dark primordial power story. It is not particularly bad in any way, just not different enough from others of its kind.
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 | What A Long Pointless Trip |
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| What: | Excelis Decays (Excelis audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
Anthony Head really comes into his strength in the last of the Excelis stories. Too bad that its wasted on such junk. We have come through three stories and three Doctors to find out what? The relic is still not properly explained, and the writer keeps throwing out that it is "alien" as if that alone will do the explaining. And then the whole thing is just blown up. Okay, why? What am I supposed to have gotten from this? That one alien artifact can really ruin a civilization?
| What: | Minuet in Hell (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
"Minuet In Hell" is, I suppose, someone's idea of what America, or certain corners of it, is like. Everyone talks like Colonel Claghorn (the inspiration for Foghorn Leghorn) and spouts "halleluia" every third line, an dall the supposedly christian leaders are really satanists. The Doctor is completely out of action for three episodes, doing nothing more than "who am I?" for fifty minutes. The Brigadier is solid and stolid as ever, and Nicholas Courtney maintains his grip on the role.
| What: | The Stones of Venice (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
I found "Stones Of Venice" to be a muddled mess. Paul Magrs tries to have things both ways: to make it "futuristic" with gondoliers evolved into a new human species, and to make it "Renaissance" with an obsessed Duke, masquerade ball, and mad monks that remind me very much of the Cult of Demnos from "Masque Of Mandragora." The Renaissance stuff just does not work. If this is 2300 or so, then it would not really be surprising that a man can live over 100 years or that paintings might come from other worlds. And why the heck doesn't everybody just take a helicopter or jetcar out Venice rather than rely on boats? Michael Sheard gives a performance that can best be described as weird. It is strangely over-the-top and one-note, so quite different from his quiet performances in the TV series. Everyone else is equally one-note (another knock against the writing), and Charley gets almost all the best lines. This one needed a serious rethink.
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| One Of The Better McGann Stories |
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| What: | Sword of Orion (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I agree with the reviewers rather than with the voters on the quality of this story. It is taught, sparse, and well-designed. I also agree that Charley too easily adapts to future tech. Maybe this was a little too much like other Cyberman stories, i.e. The Wheel In Space, for some listeners. I rather enjoyed it, though, becuase it does fit squarely in the Doctor Who style.
| What: | Storm Warning (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
It is nice that Paul McGann gets his chance to play his Doctor. The story he gets to start with is somewhat humdrum. Also, the Big Finish people have decided to build in a "problem" for the companion, something they really like to do with no good reason for doing so. This problem, that Charley should not be alive, feeds into another Big Finish, or should I say Gary Russell, obsession - story arcs. Just let Doctor Who be Doctor Who, I say, and stop sticking in these excuses for overly emotional dialogue and poor excuses to justify stories by making them "about" the Doctor and/or his companion, rather than having the Doctor stumble his way into a story as of old.
| What: | The Shadow of the Scourge (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Typical Paul Cornell drivel, with an alien menace so powerful it can control all of humanity just by talking, lots of gory death, and huge amounts of unwarranted sentimentality. Its one good feature is some smart dialogue scattered about.
| What: | The Sirens of Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
I agree with Siskoid's assessments, mostly. What we have here is three incomplete stories, each of which needed at least another episode to work properly, and a frame tale that does not tie in well enough with other parts. The three principles fall easily back into character, though, which redeems this story to some extent.
| What: | Death Comes to Time (Miscellaneous audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
"Death Comes To Time" is an attempt to make Doctor Who into a kind of dying gods myth. The results are decidedly mixed. The mythic mumbo jumbo, complete with "long ago" stories, and a pantheon (literally) of Time Lords just do not work. Doctor Who is best when it sticks to the science fictional. Once we move into myth territory, the whole thing just falls apart from implausibility. The parts that do work are guest stars Stephen Fry and John Sessions. Sessions is an exceptional villain, cold, ruthless, certain, and never over-the-top. Fry brings a great pathos to his role. Other guest stars, such Nicholas Courtney, Jacqueline Pearce, and Anthony Head, are wasted in cameos. The part about making Ace into a Time Lord just goes nowhere - by the end we never know - is she or isn't she? So, the main problem is that the writer tried too hard to make everything BIG rather than make everything hang together.
Of all of the Doctor Who books I have read, about 20 so far, this one is my favorite. It was spooky, interesting and well paced. I enjoyed it from start to finish.
| What: | Revolution Man (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Roses, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 January 2007 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
This one is a very, very strange little book indeed, and I have to say that my feelings about it changed an awful lot as I read it. Having had a little time to think it over, I have to say that this book had an awful lot of potential, but that it let itself down at several points and in others it just plain lost me.
First, let’s cover the nice things I can find to say about ‘The Revolution Man’. Well, the writing is very smooth and very easy to read and it really conveys the beauty to be found in the smallest things in life, which is something I’m really enjoying about the EDA’s. Most of the action takes place over 1967-1969 and the book really does take you back there, or at least, it does as far as I can tell being essentially a child of the eighties. The companions are both well represented, although I must admit that Sam annoys the hell out of me, and in no place more than in the section at the very end, on the other hand Fitz’s confused feelings are very believable and really draw you in to the book. Finally, the book had a couple of really great moments in it, in my opinion the best of which being the closing pages where the Doctor has no choice but to put a gun to someone’s head and shoot them.
However, even this moment has it’s problems, for one, the book wraps up almost immediately afterwards and doesn’t take advantage of the vast swathe of interesting emotional turmoil that would follow. In fact, the ending is one of my biggest problems with this novel: there is virtually no time for the reader to ‘unwind’ after the climax of the book as all the final pieces slot together and the whole thing begins to make sense together, and there is absolutely no closure, no wrapping up of all the thoughts and feelings and conflicts that have arisen over the course of the book, and this last point meant that I put the book down feeling vaguely discontent and unsatisfied. What I really would have liked to see is a scene at the end where the Doctor and Fitz finally manage a conversation and to have something in common: Fitz has been feeling alienated for the progress of the entire book, and by the end nothing has changed there. What it really could have done with is some resolution to that, and an opportunity to explore what’s going on inside the Doctor’s head after he’s taken a life.
There are also a couple of other problems I have with ‘The Revolution Man’ that are worth mentioning. The first is that towards the end of the book, things are getting awfully convoluted with regard to who’s been where and for how long and who’s working for who. As a result most of the main character’s motivations are very confused (here read Sam, Fitz and Maggie) and as a result the whole progress of the book in the build up to the climax is very confused and, indeed, confusing. Finally, it seems to me that a lot of this book is supposed to be written with the hazy, fluid, snatchy feeling of a drug trip, which makes perfect sense considering its subject, however in places I found that Leonard was asking me to suspend my disbelief just a little too much: the ‘Battle of the Giants over the Himalayas’ in Chapter Fourteen being the best example of this. I have to say that in places, it seemed almost like the author didn’t know where to stop with something and as a result often wandered into territory that was painfully trite or cliché, or just plain asking too much of his readers.
That said, ‘The Revolution Man’ wasn’t a bad read, and it certainly did have its moments, it just could have been so much better with a little more thought and a little more work in the editing process.
Tries to be adult but fails miserably. Later episodes much better.
Spoilers ahead. Do not read if you would rather not know story details.
In the first installment of the Cyberman series, we are introduced to an Earth war involving humans of the future and a host of human-looking but physically superior androids they had created, now based on Orion. With the war going badly for Earth, desperate measures were required. A great victory leads to the installation of a new president, but the situation is still dire. The next strategy involves the use of Cyber technology recovered from the first Cyber invasion of Earth that occurred centuries ago (in 'The Invasion'). A secret operation is now underway to produce Cybermen for the purpose of winning the war against the androids.
In this second installment of the series, the androids become aware that there is a new player in their war with Earth - the Cybermen. On Earth, there are strange goings on in the government, and certain questions will not be allowed. War refugees are streaming in from the outer colonies, and their fate must not be revealed...
Believably-acted with a well-written script, this suspense-drama continues to unfold as the Cybermen slowly begin to make their presence felt...
| What: | Foreign Devils (Telos novellas) |
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| By: | Paula, Grand Rapids, MI, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This was an enjoyable tale, fun to read and kept my interest through the whole story. Highly recommended.
Moderate spoilers ahead.
Part 1 of this four-part Cyberman series sets up the scene that will presumably be built upon over the course of the series. So far, this is nothing spectacular, but it gives the listener enough to want to come back for more. The characters are strong enough to generate interest. The story starts out at a measured pace and gets far enough to provide just enough intrigue to start us off.
Now, for a few details... This series is really a throwback. It bears a rather strong resemblance to the televised story, The Invasion, which featured Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. The voices of the Cybermen, a carefully crafted, devious cyber-plot, and even the pacing of the action are all, so far, very similar to what The Invasion offered. So, while the Cybermen appear to be more substantive here than the dum-dums we saw by the end of the original television series, unfortunately, they sound rather daft.
We'll see how this all plays out by the end.
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| Demands to be taken seriously |
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| What: | Master (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | James, London |
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| Date: | Friday 22 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Of all the attempts to make Dr Who more "mature", this is the first I've met that I could take seriously.
Joseph Lidster has been very canny in acknowledging that the Master of the TV series had no apparent motive but to inconvenience the Doctor. Thus, the play doesn't fall into the trap of imposing unconvincing meaning on the Master's pantomime-villain actions. He makes a real attempt to portray the Master as both monstrous and pathetic. One thing I liked is that at the end of the play, we still didn't know how to what extent the Master was responsible for his own ctions.
It helps that the play sounds professional, with good sound effects and appropriate music. The small cast are uniformly good - though I do think the scriptwriter gave McCoy too many "r's" to rrroll! Special mention goes to Beever, who manages to swtich between the "good" and "evil" Masters very convincingly.
The premise is intriguing and gets the time it needs to be fully explored, although the old house setting is a bit hackneyed. The play conveys a sense of claustrophobia (aided by a small cast), smartly counterpointed by occaisional break as the Doctor tells the story to an assassin.
The meat of the play is in the 2nd and 3rd episodes. There is some very clever Master character stuff in these parts too (e.g. unknowingly using hypnotism on his maid and unconsciously manipulating his friends).
The problem of this play taking itself seriously is that I felt compelled to listen critically, as I would to serious drama. I therefore couldn't help but notice that the final part seem both "stretched" and rushed. Both the Doctor and the Master are portrayed largely as helpless pawns of cosmic forces, which I'm not sure I like. Also, you might not get many of the references if you're not a hardcore fan - I certainly felt there was stuff I was missing. Much of the play is dialogue between too people, but I don't mind this.
| What: | Festival of Death (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Victoria Tiffany, Queensland, Australia |
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| Date: | Monday 18 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This book is very well written. It has everything: humour, surprises, and the occasional tragedy. A bit confussing at times, but overall, very good.
| What: | Other Lives (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Saturday 16 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
The first review here sums up Other Lives pretty well, except that I didn't find the sound design to be so terrific. Wasn't bad, just nothing outstanding either, though it did work well. The way the story goes, it reminded me of a nearly overlong Eighth Doctor novel. To put it briefly, without any real spoilers, the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz arrive at the Great Exhibition in 1851, get separated, and each quickly proceeds to get rather hopelessly lost there in one manner or another. What they get themselves into seems to simply meander aimlessly, further and further away from their former lives together. The setting and the characters in the story are all rather straight forward, familiar and quaint, and though there are a couple of mysteries, no real evil appears to be at work. This makes for a refreshing change from the rather serious stint the eighth Doctor has had in these Big Finish stories.
Mildly entertaining, unambitious, and reasonably well-written.
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| Great start, disappointing finish |
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| What: | Memory Lane (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Nick, Sydney |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
A great start... fantastically surreal episode one, but I am afraid it was a bit downhill from there. Once the camp villains were revealed behind the scenes it all got a bit silly... But worth it for the great first episode.
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| Just a Small Piece of the Puzzle |
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| What: | Gallifrey: Spirit (Gallifrey audio dramas) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Sunday 10 December 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
This second episode of the second Gallifrey series focuses on the relationship between Romana and Leela, and on their contrasting characteristics. Without revealing too much about the plot here, though there really is rather little of it to be revealed anyway, what basically happens is that, as the episode synopsis states, Romana takes Leela to a quiet retreat planet for some r and r. While there, in the midst of the planet's lush forests, they end up engaging in some argumentative discussions along the lines of spirituality versus logic, such as 'intelligent design' versus evolution. During the course of the visit, strange events transpire which lead them each to a much greater understanding of the other. What we end up with is an odd little episode, which, while it gives us some very interesting and satisfying interaction between Leela and Romana, does little to actually build on the previous episode. It does, however, contain one big, enigmatic hook that compels the listener to tune in to the next installment.
