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| What: | Doctor Who and the Pirates (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | PJ Johnson, Hoddesdon, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 7 August 2006 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
It has long been acknowledged by many fans that Doctor Who is at its finest when venturing into new territory. Experimental stories such as The Celestial Toymaker and The Mind Robber from the 1960s are fondly remembered by most fans, while others feel that they simply strayed too far from the 'traditional' Who approach. Similarly, Doctor Who and the Pirates not only strays from the tried and tested path, but in this imaginative and witty script, Jacqueline Raynor has launched Colin Baker and Maggie Stables' characters into a whole different world, provoking extreme praise and criticism in almost equal measures. Personally, I found the story immensely enjoyable and at times touching, and to those who dislike it, I say: lighten up!
First of all, it goes without saying that, as usual, the regular cast of Baker and Stables both give excellent performances, further concreting their spot as the best Doctor/companion team the Big Finish audios have yet established. The guest cast are also up to standard, and while it can be said that both Bill Oddie's pirate Jasper and Nicholas Pegg's Captain Swan are rather over the top, this is clearly intentional, reinforcing the idea that we are listening to the story as retold by the Doctor and Evelyn, who are exaggerating the characters' traits.
The sound is also excellent throughout. Everything - from swordfights to sinking ships to exotic carribean islands - sounds completely genuine, in fact one could be forgiven for thinking the entire story was recorded on location.
The first two episodes are dramatic enough to balance the heavily comedic presentation, with part two providing a highly amusing cliffhanger. Part three is where things get really interesting (and is also the point at which many of the story's critics give up completely), as we are treated to a series of classic Gilbert & Sullivan musical numbers, adapted to fit the story and featuring a number of amusing references to Who mythology. For me, this was the most enjoyable episode, as the cast throw themselves whole-heartedly into the songs, and while they may not be the greatest vocal performances ever heard, they are more than adequate and hugely entertaining. Jacqueline Raynor's adapted lyrics are incredibly witty and clever, and particularly rewarding if you have at least a basic knowledge of Who mythology and the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. In part four the songs make way for a touching and poignant final episode, providing a thought-provoking - if perhaps somewhat undramatic - ending to the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story from start to finish, and I think - providing it is approached with an open mind - the majority of listeners will enjoy it, too. It is, ultimately, a bit of fun, with poignant undertones, and as such works incredibly well.
| What: | Omega (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 7 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
The Big Finish series of rehabilitating and rethinking old villains just does not work. Omega demonstrates why. First, like all of them, it is just too talky, and goes over the same ground numerous times. Second, the warped space warps people's brains idea goes nowhere, makes little sense, and provides too many convenient plot twists. Third, yet another "it's the Doctor's fault" idea gets gratuitously thrown in. Fourth, what is supposed to pass for smart dialogue often comes off as just stupid. On the plus side, Ian Collier is excellent at bringing nuance to an ordinarily one-dimensional character. Peter Davison really has the knack of conveying conviction, no matter how stupid the line or illogical the situation. That the character of Omega needed some rethinking is true. I just wish they had rethought their rethink.
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 | Oh No, The Doctor's Fault Again? |
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| What: | Creatures of Beauty (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 7 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
I am tired, tired, tired of "it's the Doctor's fault." Why does Big Finish continue to revive this stinking corpse like it is some brilliant new idea that nobody has had before? Oh, yes, well, this time the Doctor does not know it is his fault. Big irony, wow, hooray, must be a new idea. Sorry, but that just undercuts any other quality that the production may have as far as I am concerned. To its credit, the unconventional flashback structure keeps a listener focused. Additionally, the evil aliens turn out not to be evil - now that works as it did for David Whitaker. It fits well with the whole theme of perspective in the story. What is ugly? What is beautiful? What is the difference between legal and ethical? These are worthy ideas worked through quite nicely. If it weren't for that ending...
| What: | Spare Parts (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 7 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
For sheer doom-laden atmosphere, this is probably the most consistent of the Big Finish productions. It starts gloomy and stays that way right up to its horrifying conclusion. Sally Knyvette is superb as the world-weary Doctorman Allen. All the other performances are first rate. There is excellent dialogue, and nobody is spared from horror. Given all that, I do have a few reservations about the story. First, Mondas is too parallel, down to regional accents. It would have been better to make it earth-like rather than earth equivalent. Second, it becoems obvious that this is Mondas quite quickly, and thus from the beginning any Doctor Who fan will know the outcome. Thus, the whole thing has a gloomy inevitability that it cannot escape. Third, the he's dead now he's alive ending is a cheap way out of a problem. Fourth, we again get a taste of "it's the Doctor's fault" logic that dominates Big Finish dramas. Old idea - get rid of it. Aside from these reservations, this is excellent drama.
| What: | Excelis Dawns (Excelis audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 7 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I am sure that lots of people love Katy Manning and Iris Wildthyme. Manning is very good at bringing this character to life and proves why she is a top-notch vocal actor. However, there are so many holes in the story one could hardly say it had a plot. First, there is Iris, and no matter how good Manning is in the role, after 10 minutes I had to agree with all the other characters that the best thing to do was put her out of our misery. Then, there is Anthony Head's Grayvorn. This ponderous oaf is equally as annoying as Iris. We get Sister Jolene. Who is she? What is she? What does she want? Never explained. There is the Zombie King doing his best Gollum imitation and topping even Iris for annoying. And what a bunch of worthless zombies he rules. They fall for the "toss it over here now run" trick? Oh, I am scared, I am. Then there is the Relic itself. Just what does it do? What exactly is it? Why does it turn men into zombies? Nothing is explained, ever, not even in the follow-up Excelis dramas. This story is a serious mess that no amount of re-writing could possibly fix.
For some reason it took me ages to get around to reading this book - it must have been sat on my shelf for about a year before I read it. Once I started reading it, however, I was really hooked! Although the page count is relatively small, there is much to enjoy here.
The book I read before this (the terrible 'The Monsters Inside') was also prison based, but this novel handles prison-life so much better; probably because it can get away with a much more graphic content than the new series novels. What impressed me was how the titular Glass Prison was realised, and how the psychological effects such an environment had on the inmates was depicted. Also welcome was the inclusion of Straklant, the Fifth Axis officer last encountered in 'The Doomsday Manuscript'. For much of the novel he is just merely present in the cell above Benny, but you can see how he brings out Benny's paranoia in a way that her main adversaries (the cultists) cannot.
The feelings Benny has at the prospect of giving birth gave welcome insights into her character. It certainly made me think about what women have to go through mentally when it comes to 'having a part of themselves' taken away. Reading the acknowledgements at the end, it is almost hard to believe the author isn't writing from personal experience!
Although the novel is quite 'dark', it wouldn't be a Benny adventure without the odd silly moment thrown in. The best of these has to be when Joseph turns up towards the end. The reunion between the porter and Benny definitely had me smirking!!
The only downsides here for me were firstly that Benny's suspicions about being betrayed by Claire were never adequately resolved. I was secretly hoping that she was right and was waiting for a showdown that never happened. Secondly, the way the cultists are removed at the end seemed a little bit too convenient. These points can definitely be overlooked, as this is certainly one of the better full length Benny novels from Big Finish.
| What: | The Shadow in the Glass (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Nathaniel Maxfield, London |
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| Date: | Sunday 6 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Justin Richards is a good writer. Stephen Cole is an even better writer. How together they come up with this trash is beyond me.Avoid at all costs.
| What: | Primeval (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 6 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Stephen Greif as the evil god Kwundaar steals the show. Wow, can this guy play evil. The air of menacing certainty takes me right back to Sutekh. The story itself is not quite up to that performance, though. It is not hard to figure out that Kwundaar had something to do with the creation of the Source. The Consuls of Traken are too caricatured, too pompous, too stupid, and so undermine the seriousness of the story. Nyssa's claim that in her day they do not study the history of Traken is just too convenient in plot terms. Finally, the big problem is that the god turns out really to be a god. This is handled in such a logically contradictory manner that it ruins the whole story. How can a god be betrayed by people and not know about it ahead of time? That is just for starters. I can think of a much better explanation and ending. Kwundaar could have been not a god, but merely a super engineer, a Rassilon or Omega of Traken, who was a chief designer of the Source and was distorted by the Source when it was switched on because he secretly harbored desires to use it to take control of Traken. In the process, he could have received his godlike powers as an accidental byproduct, the Source being new and untested. Now that makes sense.
| What: | Loups-Garoux (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 6 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
OK, we've had the mummies, we've had the ghosts, and we've had the vampires. The werewolves had to come along at some point. My advice is watch the better-written "Tooth And Claw" with David Tennant. My problems with "Loups-Garoux" are these: 1. If the werewolves are so powerful that the can make nearly all humans see or do anything the wolves want, what are they doing skulking around in invisible cars and trains? Why not just take over? 2. I hate stories about beings so powerful they can just twist any old person around their fingers. It makes ludicrous any idea of a person, such as Turlough or Dr. Hiyashi, standing up to them. There is no logical way around the problem. The wolves would eat everyone and that would be it. 3. Why, if being a wolf is so much more powerful, and let's face it sexy, than being a human, would any werewolf in her right mind not want to be one? Application of just the tiniest bit of logic makes the whole rationale for the story crumble to dust. The only redeeming features are an expanded characterization of Turlough, and the guest stars Eleanor Bron and Burt Kwouk delivering professional-quality performances.
| What: | Winter for the Adept (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 6 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
This one is truly dreadful. We get one of the most poorly explained bunch of evil aliens, the Spillagers, just for starters. Furthermore, we are never told what prompted the Doctor to look for them. The worst part is a ghost who is really a ghost, but not just any kind of ghost. This milksop twit, a kind of Bertie Wooster the friendly ghost, is contrary to all normal descriptions of ghosts were such things to exist. He is chatty, self-willed, just an ordinary guy without a body. What sort of ghost is that? Besides that, the tendency in Doctor Who is to naturalize supernatural phenomena, even if the naturalization is just pseudo-scientific nonsense. Little in this story is thought out and much should have been thrown out.
| What: | Phantasmagoria (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 6 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"Phantasmagoria" gets the Big Finish series going. In this start, they have decided to play it safe. "Phantasmagoria" contains much that is typical of Doctor Who. We have a villain who is clearly a villain and not merely misunderstood. We have a historical setting. We have separation of the companion and the Doctor for a large part of the story. We have a seemingly supernatural phenomenon that turns out not to be. Indeed, so much of "Phantasmagoria" is so typically Doctor Who that in the end it is just a ho-hum story. The one real change, for the better, is added depth to Turlough's character. He is much more complex than the merely shifty figure of the TV series.
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| Run! [in a northern accent] |
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grades...
Rose C3
End of the world C2
Incompatible message format [Data] B3
Aliens in London C3
World war 3 B2
Dalek A3
The long game B3
Father's day C1
The empty child A2
The doctor dances A3
Boom town B2
Bad wolf A2
The parting of the ways A1
The parting of the hairs A1
The buying of the hats A*1
| What: | Fear of the Dark (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Hatman, From Russia with hats |
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| Date: | Saturday 5 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Suspiciously similar plot to Drift. Maybe open to philisophical mumble about repetition of events. Anyway, Why do I keep saying that? The book itself was good... I like triple dots...
| What: | Drift (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Hatman, A tree |
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| Date: | Thursday 3 August 2006 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I predict a storm... anyway, it is one of the better books. It might not be, but reading the adventuress of Henrietta street interfeared with my wiring... Forget that. Read it... if you want.
this book is like a challenge. An endurance challenge. How many pages can YOU read before you die from boredom. Swear words and curses aside, there aren't that many words to describe it. I won't use any because I'm not a foul mouthed ro... I mean, person. It is written in the style of a school textbook. This only amplifies the rubbishness. This ses new standards for rubbish. Don't read it! Whatever you do, DON'T!
Reading the other reviews on here, I'm wondering if I've read the same book? I thought this was a terrible excuse for a novel. There is very little in here that can be considered original: Rose gets stuck in a bad episode of 'Bad Girls' and the Doctor gets taken to a jail replete with Rover-like guardians taken from 'The Prisoner'. The alien characters the Doctor is placed with in his prison are also awful; even Space Precinct would have considered these to be too embarassing to produce.
What really got on my nerves though was the appearance of the Slitheen / Blathereen / Raxacoricowhateverians. It was bad enough having to watch fart/burp jokes on TV, but having to read them throughout this book was excruciating. Who above the age of 4 finds this sort of thing amusing? Chances are there aren't too many 4 year olds reading this novel. The number of characters that conveniently turn out to be Blathereen is rediculous, and takes away any tension that could have been built up. The ending of the novel suggests that these aliens could make a comeback in the future. God, I really hope not.
This novel only gets its points from me due to the Blathereen’s plan. Even that wasn't particularly original in Doctor Who, but it made me wonder what they were up to.
This book is only fit for the compost heap; a shame, as Stephen Cole can do so much better than this.
| What: | Series 2 Volume 4: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Hatman, shizzle |
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| Date: | Monday 31 July 2006 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
No I do not want to examine.. I mean read endgame. anyway, Impossible planet: good, Soltan pit: Good, Love and monsters: rubbish. now you know. The Traveller, last of the Estate agents, still running from the cat. THE CAT! forget the Daleks, THE CAT is the best and most dangerous doctor who villan. you can't stop him, because he's already taken the universe!
‘Casualties of War’ is not only one of the best Doctor Who books I’ve read, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read full stop. It’s written in this wonderful, rich language that makes it a joy and an honour to turn every page, the storyline is wonderfully thought-out and keeps you guessing right the way through without being too complicated. It’s genuinely frightening and full of atmosphere and suspense, and I’d recommend it to absolutely anyone.
I can’t believe that this is Emmerson’s first novel, it sure as hell doesn’t read like one. There’s a kind of confidence in the way he writes: He doesn’t seem to fall into the trap of trying to explain everything too much or resolve every plotline, but at the same time leaves the reader with the strong feeling that they understand what’s going on and can read a lot more into the events than the characters themselves. The presence of Mary’s brother among the dead soldiers that is only ever implied and never really developed is pure genius.
Also, this is the first EDA novel which really gave me a good idea of the Eighth Doctor’s character. He’s superbly portrayed in this book and bursting with all that enthusiasm and love of life that’s hinted at in the other books and the ill-fated TV movie.
There are only a couple of reasons that I’m not giving this book a perfect 10/10, a couple of small points that are probably more just a result of Emmerson’s lack of experience rather than anything else. The first is that I felt there were either too many characters in this novel, or they just weren’t developed well enough. There are so many with so little characterisation that it’s very easy to get confused and I had to keep flicking back and forth to work out who was who. The second is that, towards the end, events seem to get a little repetitive. Something bad happens, there’s some small realisation, someone passes out, cut to the next scene. Really, the book could have done with being a few dozen pages shorter and clumping all the action together a little closer rather than interposing so many snapshots where people pass out/we’re supposed to presume them dead. I know the technique is supposed to build suspense, but it’s done so often towards the end of this book that it stops being suspenseful and starts being annoying, because we’re already pretty certain that, as this is the 18th time this character has blacked out, they’re not going to die this time either.
Other than that, however, this really was a masterpiece of modern fiction and I’m suitably impressed with it. It’s just such a terrible shame that Emmerson hasn’t written more. I shall be making sure I read his other Who novel ‘Dark Progeny’ very soon indeed.
The Impossible Planet - Very good, scary, poignant, thought-provoking. 5/5
The Satan Pit - Not as good, nice monster but no plot. 3/5
Love & Monsters - different, funny, good music, makes a change. 3/5
| What: | Endgame (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | the Traveller, still here/there |
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| Date: | Monday 31 July 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
timelash, Timelash, timelash. What an absolutely terrific place to go to. we have no crime here, and why? Not just because we hang, draw and quarter people for rambling on pointlessly...anyway, I'll stop.
What? Book? oh, the book. it was fantastic. Worth all the two reads I gave it. Go on, read it...you know you want to.
