Small McGanns

[Andrew Curnow]

I shall be listening to it in a minute, after doing the dishes...

[Andrew Curnow]

The Horror of Glam Rock was great fun. I like Paul Magrs's work, and this was one of his better ones. Lucie was better this week, having mellowed out a bit and starting to enjoy herself, which is good, and the rest of the cast, even Stepehn Gately were very good. Una Stubbs was marvellous as Flo- she should have been in Doctor Who years ago. Bernard Cribbins sounds ageless!

I agree with everything the wise Mr Hart wrote above EXCEPT that I don't like Paul Magrs's work (what little I've seen of it). This one was a lot more fun than the first two-parter, and Bernard Cribbins and Una Stubbs were both absolutely superb (I'm surprised JN-T never cast them during his time actually). It's a shame they couldn't get some actual period music in the soundtrack, but I suppose BBC7 & BF can't afford the clearances - it would have just helped to reinforce the period I think, since the only reason I could see for the 1974 setting was to justify the clever title! And you just know that a TV version of this would have featured lots of early-70s tracks.

One question - when Flo refers to "being number one on Sunday". Is it my memory cheating? I always thought that in the old days the reveal of Number One in the Hit Parade was the highlight of Top of the Pops on (usually) a Thursday? This 'charts on a Sunday' thing is only a recent(ish) innovation, surely?

[Jonno]

Up until October 1987, the new chart was revealed on a Tuesday lunchtime on Radio 1. (I don't know how long back that stretches, but certainly as long as I was aware of such things). TOTP would follow on either the Wednesday or Thursday, and that's why appearances on the show could shoot a single up the chart, because it had up till the following Tuesday to impact on the chart. Also, the Top 40 show aired on the subsequent Sunday (climbers and new entries from 40-21 plus all of the Top 20 in a two hour show).

From Oct 87, it changed so that the new chart was revealed first on the Sunday Top 40 chart on Radio 1, and I believe the show was accordingly extended to 3 hours so that they could play all 40 singles.

[Andrew Curnow]

Thanks Jonno!

[Andrew Curnow]

Anybody listened to tonight's third story? (I haven't yet.)

[Milky Tears]

First time I actually remembered to listen to it as it's broadcast.

[SiHart]

We're going to ctach it on the onlibne site this week, because we were out last night when it was on.


Si xx

[Wayne]

I was watching '24' all day, & totallt forgot about it.
To be honest, i can't say i'm all that arsed. My interest in the audio stuff is waning fast.....

[Jon Masters]

I thought this week's was pretty good - a nice easy to get hold of sci-fi concept which was explored in an interesting way. Lucie did much better for me this week - especially liked her plan for solving things, and all the guest artistes were on top form, esp Elspeth Gray.

Next week's sounds pretty good too

(now if ony they'd repeat them at a reasonable hour - 12am-1am is not me at my best !)

[WhiteCrow]

I've meant to ask, at the end of Blood of the Daleks, is it indicated that having fought the Daleks, the occupants of Red Rocket Rising were waiting on salvation from a fleet of ships from Telos?

[Captain Tancredi]

At a long shot it could be Terileptus.

[Andrew Curnow]

Lucie did much better for me this week

Scandalous! Did she distract you from listening to the radio, Jon?

[Stuart Wallis]

I've meant to ask, at the end of Blood of the Daleks, is it indicated that having fought the Daleks, the occupants of Red Rocket Rising were waiting on salvation from a fleet of ships from Telos?

It could be Teddington for all we know.

I wasn't too sure about this episode based on the trailers, but it wasn't too bad. The story was well-paced, not giving too much away too soon, without being too slow. Infact it seemed liked an audio version of one of the better EDAs. Jake McGann was very good. One thing that puzzled me was how Zeus and co. came from Earth, when they needed to borrow the TARDIS to move elsewhere.

[WhiteCrow]

It could be Teddington for all we know.

Maybe, but I think like Doctor Pepper we're left wondering "what's the worst that could happen".

I like the idea of "phew we survived the Daleks", and next thing you know you're "rescued" by the Cybermen.

[Andrew Curnow]

Just listened to "Immortal Beloved" and really enjoyed it - the only thing I thought was a bit silly was right at the end where Lucie is hell-bent on wrecking the TARDIS, which didn't quite feel right, but all in all a very enjoyable, and different, story.

[Paul Monk]

I liked it too. It felt quite small and personal which was good and suited the audio medium very well.

[Jon Masters]

Wasn't so impressed with 'Phobos' - quite liked the setting but the plot seemed to meander far too much, and the 'surprise' switch at the end wasn't very effective as we weren't given any clues to suggest we were mistaken. Was it written before Impossible Planet/ Satan Pit I wonder ?

Despite this I thought it was one of Paul McGann's best perfomances with some lovely lines and speeches.

Next week's sounds intriguing in a Chimes of Midnight kind of way.

[Milky Tears]

I forgot about it again.

[Stuart Wallis]

Wasn't too bad, but as Jon says, the plot could have been tighter. The lovers seemed largely superfluous for example. I didn't recognise Timothy West or Nerys Hughes but they were both pretty good. The robot sound effects were good, as were Paul McGann and the "don't threaten me" speech.

[Andrew Curnow]

I listened to it last night, and quite enjoyed it. The end did seem an awful lot of explanations one after the other - it's from another dimension, feeds on fear, well not quite fear, adrenaline fear, real fear kills it - and I think as a 4-parter (for example) those might perhaps have been dripped in that bit sooner and not felt like quite such an infodump. Nice climax in action terms though, with the Doctor bunjee-jumping with the villain (although I'm not quite sure how he managed to get hold of 'it' since Nerys Hughes was left back on the surface). Like the general consensus, though, I thought McGann was excellent, and particularly enjoyed his grumpy scene when confronting Timothy West ("don't say 'What are you talking about?' or I shall have to break something").

[SiHart]

After a promising start, we've been busy every Sunday evening. I think we'll have to buy them sometime in the future.

Si xx

[Stuart Wallis]

After a promising start, we've been busy every Sunday evening. I think we'll have to buy them sometime in the future.

They're on the BBC 7 website til the following Saturday if you've got an evening free. I listen to them while I'm on here. This week's was worth the effort if you you can put up with the Hungarian folk music, and are willing to concentrate on a plot with lots of flashbacks, which starts halfway in. (No sarcasm intended.) It's worth the effort for Julia McKenzie alone, and you get Nigel Havers and Tom Chadbon on top of that. Matron. The one possible fault is that it gets a bit rushed at the end, but worth a listen anyway.

[Andrew Curnow]

I enjoyed "No More Lies" although I agree that the music was a bit much, both the violin-y incidentals and that song which seemed to go on forever. And why was it Hungarian, since Julia McKenzie and Nigel Havers sounded as English as it's possible to be!!

That aside, though, it was a clever story, and rather moving - I guessed what Zimmerman had done about five minutes before the reveal, but that doesn't detract from it being a very neat story device. And the unexpected cliffhanger ending delighted my fanboy heart (as did the cloister bell - man the battlestations)!

[Si Hunt]

[Andrew Curnow]

Just finished listening to "Human Resources" part one, and for me it's the most enjoyable episode so far (although, apart from the first story, I've enjoyed them all). A very simple but clever (and, I would say, very uniquely "Who-y") idea, which gives a great reveal-cum-twist about twenty minutes in, at the Planning Meeting. Some nice dialogue in there, and particularly for the Doctor who gets some great lines ("Stuff that, let's find out now" and "Lovely Jubbly" being just two of them). There's a real warmth and trust between Doctor and Lucie now, which is a delight, and all in all it was a very entertaining first episode. The cliffhanger was hardly unexpected, but was a good episode ending - I just hope the second episode can maintain the level of this first one.

Incidentally, I had to get the BF site up to find out who was playing Hulbert, and it is (of course) Roy Marsden - but, is it just me, or does he sound very much like George Cole?

"Get Swindon onto it - Telford too!"