BF 091: Circular Time

[SiHart]

Summer to winter, the seasons turn.
In the springtime of a distant future, the Doctor and Nyssa become embroiled in Time Lord politics on an alien world. During the stifling heat of a summer past they suffer the vengeful wrath of Isaac Newton. In the recent past, Nyssa spends a romantic golden autumn in an English village while the Doctor plays cricket. And finally, many years after their travels together have ended, the two friends meet again in the strangest of circumstances.

Four seasons. Four stories.

Now close the door behind you, you're letting the cold in...


Sounds different. I don't know if that's a good thing or not! I quite like the cover though.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

The cover is gorgeous! The best for quite some time.

The four stories idea might be good. Not sure I see the point, but short story collections are good arn't they? This could be the audio equivilent. Maybe I can listen to them a few weeks apart and not have to remember what happened.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

I'm quite tempted by this one. It has David Warner in it!

And four people playing Nyssa

[Hex]

I'm not sure about the cover to this one, but there again I'm not sure about the new style of covers being introduced later next year having seen the style on the new series of McGann stories for BBC7.

[Wayne]

This has just arrived, along with my subscription reminder. Fat chance! I'm going back to cherry picking from Amazon/Play.

[Si Hunt]

I need this to arrive soon - I got through my Christmas audio backlog too quickly so am threatened with David Tennant narrating some dull book from the Radio Times.

Si.

[Wayne]

I need this to arrive soon - I got through my Christmas audio backlog too quickly so am threatened with David Tennant narrating some dull book from the Radio Times.

Si.

At least you'll have 'The Dominators' CD to look forward to.

[Si Hunt]

"Feast of the Drowned" suddenly looks a more attractive proposition.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Where's our copy? I'm starting to worry we won't be inundated with far too many audio plays to listen to.

[Si Hunt]

I realised our second "Stone Rose" CD was missing the other day, and started ringing round relatives before realising it was attached to the Radio Times due out the next day.

Si.

[SiHart]

The trailer sounded rather intriguing, but then that's not necessarily anything to go by, is it?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

It should give us a taste of this weird idea they've got coming of packaging one and three part stories together.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

This is a very fun and great release! It's like four stories for the price of one, but without the padding! And there are some great lines in there too, including the Doctor quoting from Jon Pertwee! You'll know what I mean when you hear it!

I've done the alien world story and the Earth historical story so far, and both are great light relief. I now think the 3+1 idea is actually going to be rather fun.

Si.

[SiHart]

Oh my! You've given it a good review Si!

We'll be listening to it on the way to your house on Friday night.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I think it suits my particular listening style (usually one episode a day for four days) very well as it means I get a new story every day almost all week!

Also it appeals because this is exactly the story format our Doctor Who audios should take in the future! It's like they read my mind!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Guess what?

It was absolutely outstanding.

We've only listened to parts 1-3, Spring, Summer and Autumn respectively, but it's been a treat. The opening bird story was acceptable, the second Newton story was very good, but the third Cricket / Nyssa-character-development is the kind of thing you could put on to win Doctor Who fans over to Big Finish. They haven't produced anything that's pulled on my heartstrings this way in years.

It seems as if someone who cares is back in charge. Hurrah.

[Si Hunt]

Guess what - the last story is a goodie too!

Si.

[Wayne]

Blimey, positivity about BF! That's interesting as i'll be listening to this one on the bus to my mates later. I can't see it being so good that i'll renew my subscription though. I can't even be bothered with the BBC7 stuff.....
Although i still have 'I, Davros' to listen to yet, but i think that'll be it until 'Renaissance of the Daleks'.
Anyway, until later.......

[Dirk Gently]

I listened to parts 1, 2 & half of 3 on the way to HaRpi towers on Saturday & it got better & better. I finished it on the way home & it was superb! It really is an excellent idea that has been well realised. I re-listened to part one to finish my journey & it made more sense, so if anyone has problems first time around I strongly recommend you listen to it again sooner rather than later. The story premise is revealed at the end (or in the lounge if you're in front of Si ) & it works really well. I have nothing but praise for this one; it really is in my top ten audios...



...for the next two months at least.

[Si Hunt]

Oops! Sorry about spoiling the end Tim, I had a quick scan of the room and had mistakenly thought there were no Big Finish listeners there!

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

Don't worry, the story was so good you could have told me the ending in detail & I'd still listen to it again. It really is that good.

[Wayne]

Not sure if i'd give it some of plaudits mentioned here, but i'd agree it was a definite improvement on recent offerings which have been awfully dull, IMO.
During 'Spring' i was pretty bored to be honest, but 'Summer' was enlivened by a robust performance by David Warner. I thought Sarah Sutton was good during the last 2 parts, & i'd agree with Tim that it got better as it went along, but i still wouldn't rate it higher than 6 or 7 out of 10.

[Rob McCow]

SPOILERS **********

We polished off Circular Time last night on the way to the Barbican. I'm not sure if the title is appropriate, it implies that things will loop back to how they were at the beginning, but that doesn't happen here. Cyclic Time might be a better, if less snappy description.

The plays are clearly written by a Sutton enthusiast. The first two stories are about the Doctor, more or less, but the last two are absolutely Nyssa. She's given more character and more to do than ever before. BF have made a habit of rehabilitating the more unpopular companions, such as Mel and Peri, but Nyssa hasn't had much opportunity to shine. In fact she's been in such second-rate stories as Creatures of Beauty, Land of The Dead and Primeval, with only the uber-classic to Spare Parts blow an enormous hole in my argument. Circular Time is different. Parts 3 and 4 are undoubtedly written around her character, rather than just 'featuring' Nyssa.

Spring - A nice little story about birds and birdmen. I think having the lake as the errant Time Lord's TARDIS just confused things, but it was an intriguing little tale. It's always great to see a renegade Time Lord who isn't insanely evil! The poison that triggers a regeneration was a neat trick too.

Summer - David Warner. He's great and you should think so too! His Newton is brilliantly malevolent, deriving impossible amounts of information from the smallest detail. Warner convinces and enthralls.

Autumn - The highlight of the piece. The premise of Nyssa getting laid should be ballcock and bits, but it makes for some gentle, affecting moments as she enters into womanhood.

Winter - Fan onanism isn't always a bad thing! Any story that features a Watcher, Tegan, Adric, Kamelion and The Master, plus re-writes a major scene in Who lore (AND takes place entirely in a dream) has to make up one heck lot of ground to be worth engaging with. It works though, by keeping the focus on the relationship between the Doctor and Nyssa as well as coming up with some beautiful metaphors and speeches. I loved Nyssa's line about the Doctor existing in both the real and the mythological worlds, for example.

Not the best BF release ever, but a damn fine one none the less.

[Jim]

I took this abroad last week and loved it. Probably in my Top 5 and after Master being the last BF classic (imo) Circular Time feels a long time coming.

The regulars are perfectly in tune with the material, Davison a notch up somehow and its easily Sarah Suttons best performance in Dr Who.

Its such a well written audio, script and ideas rich enough that you want to play episodes again to get the full experience.

I liked the atmosphere of spring along the twist towards the end of the episode, the dynamic between the Doctor and timelord inspired. Summer is a treat evoking a historic spirit and an unusual take on how someone deals with the extraodinary. Autumn is well played and lovable, even if its a bit dubious Nyssa would fall for the type of character presented. Winter is edge of seat stuff I think, it mixes the frightening and eloquent leading to a bloody satisfying and sweet conclusion.

Its got everything -cultural, historic, sociological, political and a fab cover to boot, recommended!

[WhiteCrow]

The Isaac Newton story is absolutely brilliant, I can listen to that one over and over again - and have.

The others are good, but not so great on repeat listening.