What 'WHO Are You Currently Listening to?

[Junkyard]

I got a lot of enjoyment from my rants about some of the stories (Eldrad Must Die! and Persuasion spring to mind) but I don't think there's much point in assaulting BF on Twitter.

The production and acting are often superb. In the end, all you can say is "Write stories that aren't awful!" and that's not going to help.

And whoever heard of constructive criticism? Your comments above were perfectly fine Si - you liked the first half but not the second because of the change in tone. I can imagine the writer saying "Do you think you could do better then?"

To which your correct response is "No, but as the writer, you could."

Absolutely agree. High production values and top-class acting can lift a mediocre story into something enjoyable or a good plot into a masterpiece. You have to keep a plot consistent; if the focus of the play changes halfway through then the writer risks losing his audience,which is what seems to have happened with 'An Ordinary Life'. If a writer wishes to address two issues in a play, they have to find a clear link between them or else write two plays.

[Junkyard]

Just finished 'A Death in the Family'. Absolutely superb! Particularly the late Maggie Stables.

[Si Hunt]

That's my favourite Big Finish play ever.

Si.

[Junkyard]

That's my favourite Big Finish play ever.

Si.

It's nearly mine as well. I got 'Project Destiny' as I like the Forge stories. Destiny left loose ends so I had to find out what happened next. And I wasn't disappointed. There are so many great ideas in 'A Death in the Family' and the performances are top notch.

[Antony Cox]

It looks as though William Hartnell's Desert Island Discs has been found:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y3yj

[Stuart Wallis]

Please forgive my ignorance, and my reply's based on ignorance rather than silliness - I wasn't aware it was lost. Something to listen back to on saturday afternoon then!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Except given the BBC have decided to remove it from iplayer within hours of posting it there it might as well still be lost.
At you might guess from my tone, I hadn't got round to listening to it yet either.

[Stuart Wallis]

In which case Saturday will be spent leading The Lads into Broadcasting House with pitchforks and torches...

[Junkyard]

Just finished 'Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories'. Another quartet of stand-alone half- hour stories starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. The first three stories are okay, nothing outstanding but fairly entertaining. The fourth, 'The Curious Incident of the Doctor' is an absolute gem and makes the whole thing worth buying.

I've also pre-ordered the new Short Trips collection from Big Finish, starting with 'The Flywheel Revolution'. I enjoyed this little 30 minute 1st Doctor story. Anyone else heard this?

[Stuart Wallis]

The Silver Turk - an interesting comparison of Victorian (period) values and Cybermen.

[Si Hunt]

"Equilibrium", the new Peter. Nice little tale. When it started I felt like I was back on the Big Finish hamster wheel, listening to those clapped out old actors re-treading yet another variation on a familiar Doctor Who story like some sad, post-career Groundhog Day. But this is actually a little gem of a story, with a great effortless performance from Annette Badland, something to say about eco-systems and the value of population control and a very early storyline twist that leaves plenty of room for the Doctor to be placed in a very unusual situation. It was interesting to hear the Doctor depressed when his interference made things worse, not better.

I don't suppose anyone will be talking about this in a years time, but if you fancy a half-decent story you could do worse than pick this up, audio listeners out there.

Si.

[Nyder]

Thanks for the recommendation Si - I will certainly give this a go. It's just not possible to listen to everything BF does (but would I want to?!) so it's good to have the benefit of other people's reviews.


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[Si Hunt]

I'm doing Matthew Waterhouse's reading of "Full Circle". I do struggle with these Target audio readings, they are so long and of course don't have the benefit of a story you don't know inside out already. But I'm blitzing it! Yes, I'm hurling myself at it full throttle! For two days I have listened in every minute of my 'not at home' time, from walking to the station, on the train, walking round Tesco (I may have yelled "TELL DEXETER WE'VE COME FULL CIRCLE!" in the middle of the Home Cooking isle), walking to work and all the way home again. Desperately trying to see the bugger through before I get bored.

For his part, Matthew is an engaging narrator although I have to say his Fourth Doctor really annoys me! I don't know the way to approach the part but he sounds like a very bad tempered Sean Connery.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

There is only the one type of Sean Connery - the bad-tempered one who wanders round his Caribbean tax haven pretending he's Tom Baker. For which he was knighted, but that's another story...

[Nyder]

The Queen of Time

So basically, I think this is turning into a female Celestial Toymaker - well it is a Brian Hayles story! I'm not sure I like the dual narration idea - I find it quite jarring.


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[Stuart Wallis]

Omega. Rather light and frothy til the rather clever conceit of the third cliffhanger. Interesting ideas about the origins of Omega himself, if slightly gruesome in parts.

[Junkyard]

About to start 'Dark Eyes 4'. I've no preconceptions about the story but Ruth Bradley is conspicuous by her absence from the cast list.

[Si Hunt]

Why does the prospect of another series of 4 McGann box sets feel so daunting?

I mean, they could take exactly the same set of four stories and sprinkle them throughout the main range schedule and it would seem really exciting! But somehow the prospect of a 16 story Arc with Liv Bloody Chenka back (though hints they are replacing her with new companion Helen early on) stretching into next year fills me with terror.

Perhaps it's the lack of variation in the writing credits? The first four stories (i.e. all of Doom Coalition: 1) are all by Matt Fitton. He was great to start with but I would love to see a new name writing. Everything these days seems to be written by Fitton, Dorney, Briggs or Andrew Smith.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Although in fact whilst Fitton and Dorney have written eps 1&2 of the first Doom Coalition set, eps 3&4 are written by Marc Platt and a writer I've not heard of, Edward Collier.
On the plus side Nick Briggs isn't in it.
Meanwhile having recently finished Dark Eyes 4, I'm halfway through The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield vol.1 which has so far featured an overly comical 7th Doctor and a cameo from Ace.

[Si Hunt]

I spent last week enjoying BBC Audio's 8 disc reading of "Corpse Marker" (unnecessarily grim and oddly distant but entertaining) and the Target audio of "The Deadly Assassin". This was brilliant, Terrance Dicks' slender book translating into a not over-long reading on audio but somehow packing in lots of new information as well. Beevers was great, camping up as the Master and providing lashings of icy menace.

Tomorrow I will stall with a day of Short Trips and Hadoke Podcasts before The Well Mannered War and Damaged Goods descends on Tuesday. That should keep me busy for the next seven or eight years.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Short Trips "Little Doctors" polished off this morning. It wasn't very good.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

This week I re-listened to "Master", one of the best Doctor Who stories ever, in any medium!

Next week there are new releases to tackle - "Last of the Cybermen" with the Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Zoe (but of course) and "Surburban Hell", the latest in the ever-patchy Fourth Doctor range.

Then I rather fancy re-doing "Davros" and "The Juggernauts".

Si.

[Nyder]

I've recently listened to "The Darkness of Glass" - not bad for a fourth doctor story. As you say, that series can be incredibly patchy. I see that Radio 4 Extra recently broadcast The Renaissance Man. I'm glad they didn't broadcast Destination Nerva!


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[Jon Masters]

I've recently listened to "The Darkness of Glass" - not bad for a fourth doctor story. As you say, that series can be incredibly patchy. I see that Radio 4 Extra recently broadcast The Renaissance Man. I'm glad they didn't broadcast Destination Nerva!


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I think they did the week before - I'm hoping they do the whole first season

[Si Hunt]

New release "Last of the Cybermen".

This one is pretty bad, and I'm disappointed in Alan Barnes. It's a total rip-off of "Tomb" for one, with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe discovering an ancient abandoned Cybermen monument and, despite the Cybermen being "dead", using "symbolic logic" to unlock the doors and progress further because, guess what, one of the Earth expedition they meet there secretly wants to revive the Cybermen for her own purposes.

Really, when you write a script and find it copying a TV story wholesale, you should stop. It makes for a tedious, irritating, self-referential listen, and all you can think is that the writer is starved of his own ideas. There's worse in the mix too - everyone seems obsessed with continuity, at one point the Doctor reeling off a list of Season 6 adventures to work out where in Jamie's timeline he is, and Jamie wittering on about the Space Pirates for five minutes! When the Doctor and Jamie are using Madeline Issigri as a secret codeword you know you are playing for the fans. But maybe the fans want something new?

Somehow, I still want to keep listening to find out how it ends - I've a feeling there is a twist on the way. But the Cybermen, who are hardly in it, sound wrong, and it's all terribly stale. Not half as good, actually, as Nick Briggs earlier "The Defectors" story.

Si.