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Tag: Audio

Confession #137: I’m Beyond Excited for New Big Finish

A couple of days ago, news crossed my various social media timelines that I had begun to despair of ever seeing for real: Christopher Eccleston has signed on with Big Finish to bring us more Ninth Doctor adventures! Given Eccleston’s well known reluctance to talk much about his time on the show, and outright resistance to the idea of returning, this news feels kissed with a touch of the miraculous.

According to the news item published on the Big Finish website, talks began between Big Finish executives and Eccleston at this year’s Gallifrey One convention. Since the former Doctor even got unexpected pressure (such as it was) from Radio Free Skaro‘s Steven Schapansky, I think it’s safe to say he got the idea that it’s something fans might actually want.

I can understand why he might not want to reprise the role. Although I believe him when he says he loved playing the Doctor, a bad work environment is going to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth. Having the corporate entity in charge of the franchise release a statement on one’s behalf—without consultation or agreement—that results in abuse from supposed fans leveled at one’s ailing, aged parent? That’s gonna be even harder to forgive.

But I think he’s finally had the opportunity to learn how very dearly Ninth Doctor fans hold him in our hearts. After so many bad experiences with those just looking to turn a quick buck, his entry into the convention circuit has put him face-to-face with those of us who adore his Doctor, and by proxy adore him for his performance.

I get the sense that we con attendees got to be the Whos of Whoville (how apropos) to Eccleston’s Grinch, showing him the true meaning of our abiding love for this show. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway. I’d like to think that I am, in some small way, partly responsible for helping bring about this new collection of audio adventures.

So what can we expect? There will be four volumes in the new Ninth Doctor Adventures series, released May, August, and November 2021, and February 2022. Each volume is listed as four discs with a total length of 240 minutes. That likely means four hour-long adventures in each volume, but could mean three adventures and a special features disc.

As for supporting cast, that’s all still under wraps (or, more likely, not yet contracted). I’d be very surprised, though, if we don’t get Billie Piper back as Rose Tyler. During the Gallifrey One 2020 interview panel I alluded to above (in which Schapansky was the interviewer), Eccleston fielded a question about who his potential Companion(s) might be should he ever choose to return to the role in, say, audio format. He responded with, “Well, it could only ever be Rose.”

Given Eccleston’s own inclinations, then, and the fact that Piper has already reprised her role with Big Finish both alongside David Tennant (for three stories in The Tenth Doctor Adventures, Volume 2) and alongside Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler) and Shawn Dingwall (Pete Tyler), I think there’s a high probability that they’ll get her for at least one of the four volumes of The Ninth Doctor Adventures. But we’ll have to wait to see for sure.

However it pans out, I believe it will be Fantastic.

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Genesis of the Cybermen

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Review of Spare Parts (#34)
Big Finish Release Date: Jul 2002
Doctor/Companion: Five and Nyssa
Stars: Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: Neverland (Eight, Charley)
Succeeding Story: …Ish (Six, Peri)

Years ago when I first became aware of Big Finish and had conversations about which releases were “best,” Spare Parts came up again and again. It’s thus been on my “to listen” list for ages, though for one reason or another didn’t make it into the rotation until now.

Having now heard it, I completely understand why Spare Parts was recommended so highly. It has its pros and cons, as any of the audio adventures do, but what makes it so appealing is the way it adds to the larger tapestry of the Whoniverse—it’s the story of how the people of Mondas became the Cybermen, well before the Doctor first encountered those iconic antagonists in his First incarnation in The Tenth Planet.

Any good Cybermen story needs some body horror, and we get it here, though it’s not immediate; after all, we need to get to know characters besides the Doctor and Nyssa so that we can be properly appalled when horrible things happen to them. This slow burn adds to the tension as the TARDIS crew struggles with the implications of their actions on the future they know and what they believe, hope, or wish could be changed.

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Absurdly Entertaining

Review of The One Doctor (#27)
Big Finish Release Date: Dec 2001
Doctor/Companion: Six and Mel
Stars: Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford
Preceding Story: Primeval (Five, Nyssa)
Succeeding Story: Invaders from Mars (Eight, Charley)

Big Finish (BF) has been really good for characters much maligned for their televised appearances. While Ol’ Sixie was the last incarnation to which I warmed (even before BF), Mel is one I’ve never quite managed to appreciate. Until now.

Last year I got my first taste of BF Mel, and while she didn’t instantaneously win me over, I found her a heck of a lot less grating than I’d ever found her on television. This time around, I actually quite liked her. Not only was she clever without being shrill, the dialogue even had her poking a bit of fun at herself: “Believe me, when I’m scared, I’ll scream the paint off the walls.”

Similarly, Ol’ Sixie was always the cleverest person in the room without being pompous or abrasive (as he often was in his televised adventures). He, too, was the butt of a gentle joke from time to time (references to his expanding girth, exercise regimen, and consumption of carrot juice all cropped up), but none of it ever felt mean-spirited or overdone.

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Miracle in the Desert

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Review of The Eye of the Scorpion (#24)
Big Finish Release Date: Sep 2001
Doctor/Companion: Five and Peri
Stars: Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Project: Twilight (Six, Evelyn)
Succeeding Story: Colditz (Seven, Ace)

Big Finish has achieved something I didn’t think was possible: they made an entire story in which I didn’t cringe at/actively dislike Peri. In fact, I was into Part Three before I realized that’s what was happening. I guess y’all can officially add me to the list of folks who (at this moment) think she was better paired with the Fifth Doctor than the Sixth.

Aside from that amazing feat, The Eye of the Scorpion is in itself an enjoyable adventure. While in flight, the TARDIS inexplicably changes course. Upon review, it appears the Doctor is responsible, but he has no idea when or how he might have done so.

Soon they land in Egypt, circa 1400 BCE. In typical Doctor form, they accidentally ingratiate themselves with the yet-to-be-crowned Pharaoh, a young woman named Erimem (Caroline Morris). But the Doctor knows the names of all the Pharaohs—especially the female ones, who were few and far between—and hers is not a one he recognizes.

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Thrown for a Loup

Review of Loups-Garoux (#20)
Big Finish Release Date: May 2001
Doctor/Companion: Five and Turlough
Stars: Peter Davison and Mark Strickson
Preceding Story: Minuet in Hell (Eight, Charley, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: Dust Breeding (Seven, Ace)

It’s not often that Doctor Who tackles widely familiar fantastical creatures (e.g., vampires), but when it does, it doesn’t shy from calling out the popular mythos. That’s part of why Loups-Garoux works as well as it does.

For me, it was my tabletop RPG background that clued me in, but those who know French will also have a good idea what they’re in for the first time they look at the title of this adventure. In that sense, there was nothing surprising in the story. For the most part, it rolled out about as I expected: the Doctor and Turlough find themselves embroiled in a crisis among a group of werewolves in and around Rio de Janeiro in 2080.

While the Doctor identifies the werewolves’ condition with a quasi-scientific name, and not everything they do matches with legend, there’s no doubt that these are the traditional werewolves we expect from literature. They are pack animals whose behavior is strongly influenced by the lupine side of their nature, silver harms them, and they are long-lived. For fans of werewolf stories, then, this audio adventure is a win.

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Favorable Mutation

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Review of The Mutant Phase (#15)
Big Finish Release Date: December 2000
Doctor/Companion: Five and Nyssa
Stars: Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: The Holy Terror (Six, Frobisher)
Succeeding Story: Storm Warning (Eight, Charley)

You know that feeling you get when one of your friends is really excited about a story—be it a book or a show or a film—and you’ve got no problem with it, but it just doesn’t excite you? That sense that you’re either about to disappoint your friend or that an unpleasant conversation about your differing opinions is about to ensue? That’s how I felt coming into The Mutant Phase.

You see, although I’ve always liked Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor, I’ve also found him slightly bland—nothing to get excited about (I know I have several friends who are about ready to dump me upon reading that…). So when I got a nudge from one such friend to try one of Five’s Big Finish (BF) audios next, I agreed with a certain trepidation. My unease increased when I realized the first one on tap from the list of recommendations I have co-starred Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa—another of those dichotomous “friend’s favorite/just okay for me” characters.

Imagine my relief when I realized I was quite enjoying the adventure. With no need to come up with something nice to say simply to appease the Five and Nyssa fans, I could relax and take the story as it came.

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Might-Have-Beens and Never-Weres

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Review of Neverland (#33)
Big Finish Release Date: July 2002
Doctor/Companion: Eight, Charley, and Romana II
Stars: Paul McGann, India Fisher, and Lalla Ward
Preceding Story: The Time of the Daleks (Eight, Charley)
Succeeding Story: Spare Parts (Five, Nyssa)

It’s been diverting to broaden my Big Finish horizons and listen to some adventures with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, but I found I was missing the Eighth. Thus I’ve returned to the last of his adventures recommended to me from the first fifty releases in the Main Range.

Charley has visited a couple more interesting points in space and time with the Doctor since last I joined them. We do not, however, start with the two of them—instead, we are on Gallifrey with Lord President Romanadvoratrelundar—known to the Doctor (and us) simply as Romana. Someone is reading out historical facts revolving around Charley’s anomalous survival of the R101 crash and her subsequent travels, but the recitation soon becomes garbled. The paradox appears finally to be too much for the Web of Time to bear.

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A Future Set in Ash

Review of The Fires of Vulcan (#12)
Big Finish Release Date: September 2000
Doctor/Companion: Seven and Mel
Stars: Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford
Preceding Story: The Apocalypse Element (Six, Evelyn, Romana II)
Succeeding Story: The Shadow of the Scourge (Seven, Ace)

Although I’ve always had a soft spot for Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor (especially when he’s paired with Sophie Aldred’s Ace, my all-time favorite Companion), somehow in my explorations of audio adventures, I’d never sat down with one of his before. I’ve come close, in that I did once track down episodes of Death Comes to Time, a webcast from 2001-02, which had only limited visuals and relied heavily on the audio component to get the story across. As for Big Finish product, though, this was my first.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, especially given that The Fires of Vulcan co-stars Mel, of whom I’ve never been a fan. Although supposedly a bright woman—a computer programmer, no less—she seems to have been reduced on screen to an overly optimistic cheerleader to the Doctor and an epic screamer. I had been told she was much improved on audio, but I still winced a little at the prospect.

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Wholly Satisfactory

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Review of The Holy Terror (#14)
Big Finish Release Date: November 2000
Doctor/Companion: Six and Frobisher
Stars: Colin Baker and Robert Jezek
Preceding Story: The Shadow of the Scourge (Seven, Ace)
Succeeding Story: The Mutant Phase (Five, Nyssa)

When I realized the next audio on my list was the first one to include Frobisher the talking penguin (okay, he’s actually a Whifferdill; he just prefers the penguin shape), I was pretty psyched. I’d heard good things about the character and was looking forward to his introduction.

Alas, my limited experience with alternative media stories led me astray; as Frobisher was already an established character in comics (a fact which had somehow escaped me), Big Finish apparently felt he needed no introduction in the audio format. I had flashbacks to my first experience with Evelyn, which was frustrating; I’d been so pleased that I wouldn’t be jumping into the middle that way again. Unfortunately, the only way to get Frobisher’s whole story is to dig into yet another medium, which I am unlikely to do.

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Proven Formula

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Review of The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (#9)
Big Finish Release Date: June 2000
Doctor/Companion: Six and Evelyn Smythe
Stars: Colin Baker and Maggie Stables
Preceding Story: Red Dawn (Five, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Winter for the Adept (Five, Nyssa)

Storytelling in Doctor Who has several tried and true formulae (the most well known (at least by name) probably being “base under siege“), so it was almost comforting when I realized that The Spectre of Lanyon Moor was making use of one of them: the fantastical explanation for an Earth legend (see also The Dæmons, or the more recent (and extreme) example of Death in Heaven).

The exact details of how a 3-foot-high alien troll uses its psionic energy to further its own purposes, affecting the surrounding area in Cornwall of course take a full, convoluted four parts. But it only takes a few minutes to realize this creature is being presented as the basis of a great many stories and superstitions—most notably the existence of Cornish pixies. I found it reassuringly familiar.

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