Review Doctor Who: Big Finish

Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Even just trying to get a representative sample of what BIG FINISH has done so far - and it seems I could go on posting for ages.

I don't think that this is necessarily a good thing.

I think that it has now got to the point where they are just mixing and matching the old and the new in various combinations, like an endless kalaidescope of storytelling...

Oh, let's put Davison on Peladon; let's have Colin meet the Judoon; And seemingly sequels to every tv story ever broadcast... Return of the Krotons... etc.

It's endless - and can be done endlessly. Or, at least, until the actors pass away.

Oh no, wait. Even that will not stop BIG FINISH as they are now replacing actors who refuse to come back to the roles, such as Josette Simon, or who refuse to return from being dead, such as Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee and Michael Craze. Soundalikes will do.

It is, ultimately, consumerist madness - and is going to go on and on.

I dipped in and selectively purchased a few, such as BLAKE'S 7: WARSHIP. An all new adventure for our heroes... but written by professional fans... Always a black mark, in my opinion.

I wanted to be thrilled, but the cast sounded not like they used to... Unfair of me to expect otherwise... Poor Gareth Thomas sounded ancient... More like Blake's Grandad... Maybe you simply cannot recreate magic in all new adventures? Maybe not really...... Maybe better to let it go? The real canon will still be there on dvd or blu-ray.

I felt a little more justified with my other purchases - as I also got the lost season 23 stories that would have been broadcast, i.e. NIGHTMARE FAIR, MISSION TO MAGNUS and THE HOLLOWS OF TIME.

That was the completist in me.

I also got the stage plays from the 1960's, 70's and 80's.

I might also end up getting THE PRISON IN SPACE and the Terry Nation Sara Kingdom Dalek story that he failed to sell as a pilot to the USA.

All of the purchases I made were to fill what I saw as canonical gaps in the fossil record.

So I am pleased that they created versions of stuff that really were (almost) legitimate canon of the day and that we might otherwise never have experienced...

So, in that regard, I am grateful to BIG FINISH for having existed.

And I am grateful that they have provided a pension of sorts over the years to otherwise jobless acting heroes of mine that I loved as a child. But it has been sad to hear them not sounding really like they used to or delivering lines in a laid back way, when once they would have knocked it out of the park.

But as for the rest of it: all of the newly scripted and created stuff by Nicholas Briggs etc.... All of these new adventures by professional fans....

Well they can keep it as far as I am concerned... Before the mountain of unnecessary stories drives me both crazy with over-indulgence and badly out of pocket.

Blimey! I think I just had a rant!! :emoji_nerd:
 
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Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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I remember the powerful ending of the above book in the early days of the Virgin New Adventures - when collecting original WHO novels seemed a good idea.

I never thought that Sylvester and Sophie would ever get to actually enact the scene....



 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Jacqueline Pearce and the Daleks....

We catch up With Nicholas Briggs and Jacqueline Pearce to talk about The War Doctor. Jacqueline tells us about her thoughts on the chractaer 'Olistra' and also about working with John Hurt and what he brings to the role of the War Doctor. With Infernal devices coming soon Nick Briggs gives us a little insight into the Box Set and what is the focus of this new chapter in the time war.
Click to expand...


 
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