What 'WHO Are You Currently Listening to?

[Rob McCow]

8-02 The Alchemists More companion chronicles. I must be nearly there. This one is set before An Unearthly Child, though it has a clumsy, pointless framing device of Susan writing it all down in a letter to Barbara. It's fairly decent though, the Doctor and Susan get in trouble in Germany in 1932 because of some Roman gold coins they exchange for money. They meet some historical scientists from the time, get kidnapped and effect a daring escape. Decent enough, except I'm not clear why they kept trying to drug Susan before interrogating her. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it. Oh well. Decent enough.

As for Doom Coalition - I'm years off getting around to that. When's the next sale on?

[Leah Betts]

BF doing a "New Who companion with a Classic Who Doctor" doesn't really work with Amy and Rory, but that's because the Doctor clearly doesn't know them when he meets them in The Eleventh Hour.

[Rob McCow]

Blimey, time for a bit of a round-up

7-11 The Apocalypse Mirror An intriguing premise of disappearances from a ruined city but doesn't come to a satisfying conclusion. It's unclear what the rules are affecting the world, but the metallic eagles that kidnap people are quite cool. The kidnappings are a bit repetitive too.

7-10 The Library of Alexandria First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan get involved with Hypatia and the Library. Half historical and half sci-fi, which doesn't quite fit with the style of the first Doctor stories and when aliens turn up it jars considerably. Not too bad.

7-06 The Child A Leela adventure. A really great set up this one, a young girl listens to a fairy story from Leela, her imaginary friend. The music and production are spectacular as the Doctor and Leela explore a surreal fantasy world. However there's no core to it and by episode 2 it gets boring. Seriously disappointing given the promise of the idea.

7-05 Return of The Rocket Men How do you know when it's time to go, Steven Taylor? This one was pretty good. The Rocket Men aren't actually very interesting villains but the character exploration for Steven was very good. You don't have to listen to the first Rocket Men adventure to enjoy this one either.

6-12 The Rings of Ikiria A fun little story for Captain Yates. Richard Franklin reads very well. It's quite true in spirit to the Pertwee era and was enjoyable.

6-11 The Jigsaw War This could have been a classic, but was too over-complicated. Jamie is being interrogated, then suddenly the roles are reversed and Jamie becomes the interrogator. Time is happening out of sequence and Jamie has to work out what is really going on. Not clear enough on a first listen and honestly, a first listen is all that most Companion Chronicles are going to get.

Me and Si listened to Nightshade at the weekend. Great production, wonderful nostalgia for the New Adventures and some great stuff for McCoy and Aldred. Unfortunately Nightshade was always a string of horror scenarios without a real plot. Also the ending has been changed a bit and I much prefer the new version on the audio!

[Rob McCow]

6-08 The Selachian Gambit Frazer Hines and Anneke Wills provide voices for this one, with Frazer doing a superb job of creating several characters with distinctive voices, including the Selachians! (But what of the Beaus Gambit, or the Sentreal Escapade??) So the Selachians are big shark-shaped space pirates, almost exactly like the Rocket Men but with better armour. They are trying to break into the Galactibank Vault on planet Obviousname.

There are loads of things that are thrown away in this story or don't particularly go anywhere. Another good set-up that seems to be carelessly plotted. It's fun on the way but there are lots of loose ends, such as the revelation about Galactibank's finances, the selfish posh lady who keeps threatening to have an impact on the story but doesn't and the question about the people responsible for the bomb getting away with nearly killing everyone. So good, but annoying.

[Nyder]

Very much enjoying The Maltese Penguin at the moment!


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[Dirk Gently]

I love the Maltese Penguin.

[Stuart Wallis]

Nigel Farage would like it known that we shouldn't have to import our favourite chocolate biscuits from Europe.

It's nice to spot people misunderstamnding the question big time...

[Rob McCow]

Not done so many over the last few weeks, mainly due to a bout of illness. But I'm so nearly there with the Companion Chronicles. I must dig out the ones that I think I've listened to but I'm not sure about!

4-07 The Suffering Vicki and Steven narrate a two disc tale of aliens trapped in skulls and possessing people at the time of the suffragette movement. Although the first half is somewhat rambling - they defeat the menace only to find that they haven't for some reason - the second half was pushing towards being very good. Shocking!

8-03 Upstairs Vicki and Steven again. Although Maureen O'Brien is very good, I don't understand why she does the Doctor's voice at all when Peter Purves is around. Her first Doctor is OK, but Peter's is wonderful. Anyway, the TARDIS lands in a mysterious endless attic that's a space-time trap. It picks up a bit when the menace is revealed and they find out where they are, but it all falls apart and gets rather confusing towards the end. Decent story but unsatisfying.

[Rob McCow]

I started listening to 6-09 Binary today, although I've definitely heard it before I didn't realise until it was too late. It's a good one where lovely Caroline John gets zapped into a computer and has to run around fixing it. Like a computer game or the Miniscope bits from Carnival of Monsters. Good story.

For my own benefit, here's a list of which ones I have left to do:
8-12 Second Chances
8-11 Elixir of Doom (actually started this one but couldn't manage it)
8-04 Ghost In The Machine
7-09 The Scorchies (Really got it in for Jo Grant haven't I?)
6-10 The Wanderer
6-07 The Anachronauts
5-04 The Invasion of E-Space

Ones I have no memory of, that I may have heard or not:
4-02 The Glorious Revolution
4-05 Ringpullworld
5-05 A Town Called Fortune (Lovely Maggie Stables! How can I have not heard this one?)
7-01 The Time Museum

So it's all a bit bewildering and I'm not as near to the end as I thought. At least 7 to go. At least I haven't got any more with Quadrigger Blooming Stoyn.

[Nyder]

I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Scorchies! Recently finished Jago & Litefoot Series 10. Lovely stuff with a guest appearance from Toby Hadoke as their unofficial biographer Carruthers Summerton. He managed to sound like Penfold (not sure if that was the intention though!)

[Stuart Wallis]

If he were ever told to shush...

[Rob McCow]

6-10 The Wanderer After a really evocative and charming opening speech from Ian, this story goes down and down and down like a rapidly spreading gangrene infection. The first half is tedious, the second half is painful. None of the rules of the alien machine they are looking for make sense or even stay the same from one minute to the next. The guest actor does a lot of shouting and screaming and wailing which is very off-putting. Oh and there is a terrible reveal that the Russian they have been hanging about with is actually Rasputin. Stinker!

[Stuart Wallis]

The guest actor does a lot of shouting and screaming and wailing which is very off-putting.

We had enough of that in the US election!

[Nyder]

Listening to Spare Parts. It's rather good!


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[Rob McCow]

Spare Parts is an actual classic, isn't it? A cut above, so to speak.

4-02 The Glorious Revolution Jamie is in trouble - he's changed history so the battle of Culloden never happened. Can he change it back? This was pretty decent, the central time conundrum was surprisingly involving and Jamie's motivation for changing history very understandable. Good stuff.


4-05 Ringpullworld A weird and experimental story for Turlough. He's accompanied by a Noveliser from Verbatim Six as the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and himself are pulled into a Universe in a can. The only way out is through the ringpull - hence the title Ringpullworld. It starts off comparatively straightforward, but in the second half the Noveliser offers Turlough a chance to see three possible futures. Strangely, it has a completely inconclusive ending as although one of the endings offers a chance for escape, we don't get to see it played out. By Doctor Who audio standards this is a pretty wild way to play it, though I found it a bit unsatisfying. That said, Mark Strickson is fabulous and it was lots of fun on the way.

[Rob McCow]

8-04 Ghost In The Machine Totally unexpectedly, this one is an absolute belter. I really enjoyed it! I was a bit put off at first as there's a lot of faffing about to get to the set up, but then it kicks into gear and is one of the most genuinely creepy Who stories I've heard in a long time. Brilliant stuff from Katy Manning and Johnny Morris.

[Rob McCow]

A brief round up of ones I listened to while I was ill:

8-11 Elixir of Doom
Pants. (Daft Jo Grant / Iris Wildthyme crossover that doesn't work)

5-05 A Town Called Fortune
Pants. (Stupid cowboy story that doesn't work)

7-09 The Scorchies
Pants. (The songs were the best thing about it)

5-04 The Invasion of E-Space
Pretty good. Much harder sci-fi than we're used to with BF but I like that kind of thing. Really builds on the ideas of Season 18 and a great showing for Romana.

[Rob McCow]

6-07 The Anachronauts Hum, not sure what to make of this one. I think it might have been quite good. Simon Guerrier seems to like giving Sara Kingdom and Steven surreal other-world type stories, I remember them chasing Mavic Chen round a big clock. Anyway, this one is a double disc with gubbins. The first half sees a timeship crashing into the TARDIS and they all land on a deserted island with no clue what is really going on. The second half is set in Berlin around Checkpoint Charlie and the Stasi. There's stuff about whether Steven and Sara are in love and what their relationship might have been if it had lasted longer.

The deeply annoying thing is that both stories are an absolute cheat. Spoilers: It was all a dream! Which is so desparately annoying. In the first one they're all trapped in a fantasy world where they can't get hurt, in the second they are mental prisoners of the Anachronauts special gun... (what?!) The Anachronauts themselves are scantily developed. "They're good people" pleads Sara at one point but we never get a feel for that. Very difficult to do as the only actors are the (magnificent) Jean Marsh and Peter Purves, so the other characters don't get a voice.

On the plus side there's lots of atmosphere, the story structure feels like part of The Daleks Masterplan as they get zapped from one location to the next and the mystery more-or-less kept me going throughout. But the twist in both stories... argh. Makes you wonder why you bothered. Perhaps it's best to listen to two wonderful actors and let the annoyances slide for this one.

[Rob McCow]

So nearly there!

This morning I listened to the last story in the range, 8-12 Second Chances. And it was really good! The plot zips along, there's some really clever time-travel stuff and a few surprises along the way. Wendy Padbury really pulls out the goods at the conclusion to the Zoe series of stories. It's set on a doomed space station and features a really nasty space-virus. Although the tone might be a bit too grim, the story is strong enough and has a good reason for the horror. A brilliant end to the range.

Except I've still got to listen to The Time Museum...

[Nyder]

My next "oldies" BF listen is "....ish"

[Rob McCow]

7-01 The Time Museum And I'm DONE! I hadn't heard this one before and was very pleased that it was a proper treat. Ian Chesterton's adventures get thoroughly mangled and mis-remembered by a mysterious collector of memories, the curator of the Ian Chesterton Museum. Wondeful stuff and the ending is quite chilling!

[Rob McCow]

Based on my hopelessly vague recollections, here's marks out of 5 for the whole lot! 5 being excellent, 0 being so absolutely f***ing awful I wanted to throw up.

Season 1
Frostfire 3
Fear of the Daleks 2
The Blue Tooth 4
The Beautiful People 4

Season 2
Mother Russia 4
Helicon Prime 2
Old Soldiers 3
The Catalyst 2

Season 3
Here There Be Monsters 2
The Great Space Elevator 2
The Doll of Death 3
Empathy Games 2
Home Truths 4
The Darkening Eye 1
The Transit of Venus 4
The Prisoner's Dilemma 1
Resistance 3
The Magician's Oath 3
The Mahogany Murderers 3
Stealers from Saiph 2

Season 4
The Drowned World 4
The Glorious Revolution 4
The Prisoner of Peladon 4
The Pyralis Effect 1
Ringpullworld 3
Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code 3
The Suffering 4
The Emperor of Eternity 3
Shadow of the Past 4
The Time Vampire 1
Night's Black Agents 0
Solitaire 5

Season 5
The Guardian of the Solar System 3
Echoes of Grey 3
Find and Replace 3
The Invasion of E-Space 3
A Town Called Fortune 2
Quinnis 1
Peri and the Piscon Paradox 5
The Perpetual Bond 4
The Forbidden Time 2
The Sentinels of the New Dawn 3
Ferril's Folly 1
The Cold Equations 4

Special
The Three Companions 2
The Mists of Time 3
Freakshow 3

Season 6
Tales from the Vault 2
The Rocket Men 4
The Memory Cheats 3
The Many Deaths of Jo Grant 4
The First Wave 4
Beyond the Ultimate Adventure 4
The Anachronauts 3
The Selachian Gambit 3
Binary 5
The Wanderer 1
The Jigsaw War 4
The Rings of Ikiria 4

Special
The Revenants 4

Season 7
The Time Museum 5
The Uncertainty Principle 3
Project: Nirvana 0
The Last Post 4
Return of the Rocket Men 3
The Child 1
The Flames of Cadiz 3
House of Cards 3
The Scorchies 2
The Library of Alexandria 2
The Apocalypse Mirror 3
Council of War 4

Season 8
Mastermind 5
The Alchemists 3
Upstairs 4
Ghost in the Machine 5
The Beginning 0
The Dying Light 1
Luna Romana 0
The Sleeping City 4
Starborn 3
The War to End All Wars 3
The Elixir of Doom 1
Second Chances 4

[Nyder]

My Christmas audio listening this year will be .... The Abominable Snowmen. I'm referring to the "audio recording from the TV" version!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The Diary of River Song series 2

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[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The Diary of River Song series 2

Finished now and just doing the behind the scenes stuff... As well as some great chemistry between Alex Kingston and Sylv and Colin in particular(River brings out a whole different side to old Sixie!) I've just learned that Kingston's real life daughter Salome is in the second episode Five Twenty-Nine which accounts for the warmth in the scenes between River and Rachel.

At time of writing there's no news on whether there'll be a third Diary of RS boxed set (presumably dependent on Kingston's availability) but if there is it would be nice to see more of River having adventures without bumping into one of her husbands.
Given that River's presence in the Doom Coalition series has worked well, Big Finish should be brave enough to consider bringing new series elements into their other ranges so if they want River to meet other Doctors she should perhaps pop up in the Main Range or the Fourth Doctor (or maybe even Early!) Adventures.